Tire repair fraud at NTB Danvers, MA

Rleog

New member
Two 50ish women walked into the National Tire and Battery center at 151 Andover St, Danvers, Massachusetts around 5 PM on Friday, July 3rd. (District Mgr - who was the supervisor at the counter that day?)

Car - 2010 Highlander. Right rear tire has had a slow leak for the past couple of weeks and the owner had been putting air in when the pressure sensor activated. They explain the problem. NTB counter person says it'll take a little while but they'll look at it.

After a little while he tells the two women (sisters) that there is a "bubble" on the inside wall of the tire and the tire cannot be fixed, and should not be driven upon. He offers to sell them four new tires for $650. The non-Highlander owner calls me and relates the story. I tell her to have them put the spare on the right rear and I'll look at the suspect tire, but do not buy new tires.

Mr. Counter Supervisor tells her that they can't mount the spare because it isn't the same size as the others, so he re-mounts the "bubble" tire and sends them on their way. No charge.....no paperwork. Just two witnesses to his one.

They drive the car to to my place. I remove the tire and place the spare onto the right rear. The spare is also a Dunlop of the same size as the others.

Inspecting the "bubble" tire, I see no asymmetry on the inside tire wall, no "bubble." I do find a small nail embedded in a central groove of the tire. I verified an air leak there by dripping water onto the nail.

This is blatant fraud by this counter person at NTB. Had one of the two women not called me they may have been sold four tires for $650, tires that they did not need.

Stay away from NTB in Danvers.
 
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Posting this here is not likely to do jack. Put this on Yelp or Google if you want to expose them.
 
I was just about to say that the spare is a full-size and shouldn't be an issue to install... Bubble on the inside sidewall huh? Man don't tell my service writers; they may run with that! That's horrible man, hope they get theirs.
 
Sounds like what happened to my mom's Denali that had a bad valve stem.

Since it's a heavy AWD pig that runs on some rather expensive 20" tires, the tire guy had her convinced that her tire is irreperable (he said sidewall puncture), then the AWD GM needed a full set of replacement tires as not to damage the drivetrain.

I drove over to the shop and asked to see the sidewall puncture, which he couldn't reproduce with his dishwater... but oddly the bubbles kept coming out of the badly seated valve stem.

...and this is why I think we all should patch our own damn tires.

Also the full time 4x4/AWD BS that all four tires need to be changed at once gets me. I've run full sized spares on my FJ Cruiser and 80 Series that had different tread patterns and more tread than the other 3 tires indefinitely without drivetrain issues (the FJC shit the bed with its T/O bearings, but that's an unrelated flaw).
 
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NTB episode

I'm not on Facebook, but I Emailed a copy of this post to the SUV owner and asked her to post it on the NTB Facebook page.

Thanks for your responses.
 
I dealt with NTB some years ago and was unimpressed with their selection. Noticed shoddy work going on while I was there. Have not been back since.
 
I used NTB once about 12 years ago. They scratched the car while mounting tires. When asked about guarantee on work on my new car few years later, NTB said that they can't do that because damage happens sometimes. Can you imagine repair shop telling you they might damage something while working on your car and there is no guarantee? I go to small shops where I can go inside to talk to techs and see work for myself.
 

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