Kal Tire : How They Can Screw You Over
Now I am going to confess I am not the best person when it comes to taking ultimate care of the vehicle but I do have my moments. What I am going to do is talk about how a local tire shop screwed me over and could have cost me eventually MORE money than what it should have.
This all started a couple weeks ago, my car was subjected to a flat tire (later learning that it was a puncture in the sidewall) and so I had to replace it since of course you can’t drive on a completely deflated tire. Struggling to remove the nuts from the tire, only to find out that one of them was cross-threaded and tearing a muscle in my shoulder while trying to undo the nut, I decide to take the car to have its flat replaced by a local tire shop; Kal Tire.
Now for those who don’t know who Kal Tire is, they are a locally owned and operated tire shop here in the Metro Vancouver area and I heard that they repair your flat tire for free if you are a first time customer. So I thought, hey that’s great. This repair might not cost me money!
After getting the spare tire on, I drove to the local Kal Tire shop and ask if they could repair it. I had to come back the following day so they could do the repair first thing. First off they were kind enough to break off two of the studs that hold the tire to the car. They cranked on it with the impact gun and told me that I must have over torque the nuts when I replaced the tire. Is it possible to over torque nuts by hand? So I had to pay to have them replace the studs they broke off. I was ok with that, perhaps I did over tighten the nuts by hand too much that the impact gun had troubles taking it off, or perhaps they broke them and wanted to cover their own ass. Who knows! But they charged me freight to have it shipped to them from a company only a few blocks away! They also found that the tire was flat due to a puncture in the sidewall so I had to purchase a new tire.
After I paid $230 for the labour, parts and freight charges I took it home a bit disgruntled. The following day when I was braking I noticed that my rear passenger drum was making a clicking noise. Kal Tire couldn’t see the vehicle for a few days so asked around at work for another place to take it. After I dropped the car off (at a Minute Tune) there they called later and told me it was ready and it would only cost me $50 in cash. I was glad to hear that price and not an outrageous price like $500.
When I got there the mechanic asked me how long I’ve had the car for. I’ve had it for 6 years. He asked me when the last time I had the tires rotated and I said that Kal Tire told me they rotated the tires the previous week. He laughed and said they weren’t rotated. The rear wheels had barely any wear compared to the front wheels. So Kal Tire lied about having my tires rotated!! The mechanic also mentioned that the click was due to Kal Tire using the wrong sized studs for my car, they also had cross-threaded the nuts when they put the tire back on and also used the wrong size nuts!!
WTF?? How can Kal Tire offer their ‘True Service’ when they not only put the wrong studs on (they were two different sizes) but managed to cross-thread the nuts after telling me they were originally cross threaded?? I am glad I did not take the car back to Kal Tire, I am sure they would of charged me more to fix their mistakes. I hate how car shops can screw you over if you’re knowledge of cars isn’t the greatest. I wouldn’t screw someone over because they didn’t know how to properly code HTML.
Has anyone else used Kal Tire? If so do you have any stories to share? What about other car shops and other car stories of being screwed over or the shop trying to cover up their mistakes and blaming you?
After telling friends about my Kal Tire incident, they too will never use Kal Tire because of the ‘Screw You Over ‘ business model they seem to have.
I think that we need a tire shop like this in Canada:
http://www.hiqonline.co.uk/
Hi, sorry to hear about your bad experience at Kal Tire. You must have gotten some ignorant fool that didn’t know what he was doing. My best friend works for Kal Tire here in Ottawa and I’ve gone there many times and have had no problems at all. Really nice people and they do fast precise work.
To answer your question, it is very easy to over tighten a stud by hand, you can snap them off with a little too much power. And yes, it does happen that when you overtighten a nut by hand that the impact can’t get it off. I’ve seen a person use a 3 foot breaker bar to get a nut off using all of weight and power to do it.
I think you just got a bad apple, it’s very unfortunate, I know how it feels, I’ve been through this many times, however I’m a firm believer that you should always return to the shop to tell them the problem. You paid 50$ to get it rectified when Kal Tire may have fixed it for free. They’ll usually fix it for free becasue they don’t want the bad publicity from a disgruntled customer.
Also 230$ for a tire, mounted and balanced, 2 studs, and installation is a very normal price, nothing absurd about this at all.
I think I am more upset that they charged me $50 to ship the studs from a location that was only like a 5 minute drive away, and that they put on 2 studs of different sizes and nuts that didn’t match.
I’m not saying that all Kal Tire’s are like this. It is just my first impression was not a good one and I won’t be going back.
They also lied to me saying my tires were rotated when they were not rotated The mechanic I took my car to (which was a good friend of a buddy of mine) said that the tires were rusted on (see note about me not being the best with maintence lol) and that the tread on the back tires were barely untouched compared to the ones on the front. *shrug*
I have had leaks in tires fixed twice by the winnipeg Kal Tire…always fast friendly and no pressure at all, even though I was at the wear bars when I had my last fix….It is too bad you got a moron…..I have never heard another complaint about Kal Tire
Did I mention that they forgot to give me back my spare tire? lol I checked the following day when I noticed my trunk was a bit.. different. Oh well I went in and they gave it back to me.
Hi - I had a similar problem with my rear tires on my car. My problem was that I wasn’t checking the pressure often enough which according to these guys - http://www.roadrunnersonline.ca - cause the tire to crack when you hit potholes. I was expecting to spend only a few bucks - but ended up shelling out $600 for four new tires + all the fees etc., that go with it. Mind you I am not complaining about it, I knew I had to change the tires anyways but just wasn’t looking to spend soooo much right at that moment.
The guy came to my home and changed the tires right there. I could go on and about family business - and the tires were getting changed for me.
If you live in BC & the lower mainland - check these guys out. I was happy with them (though I’m sure I overpaid for the tires).
I too had a bad experience with a Kal Tire store.
I was getting tires rotated and asked the Kal Tire store mgr. to look at the brakes. I knew they were getting close to needing replaced.
He reported I had 1mm of brake material on the pads. He held up a plastic strip to show me how little material 1mm was.
He said the brakes needed replacing before I left the shop. I asked if he would install OEM parts. He said no, only in house pads.
I wanted OEM so decided to take my truck back to Ford for the brake job. The Ford tech said I had way more than 1mm of brake material left…something like 3 & 5 mm front and rear, also stating that the truck did need brakes but it wasn’t an emergency.
The Kal Tire mgr. lied to me, plain and simple. He was very explicit in holding up the 1mm strip showing the brake pad amount.
I’d had previous problems with this outlet of a lesser nature but this one was too much.
I wrote to the Kal Tire Dist. mgr. and complained. He had the decency to call me to discuss this matter. I explained what went on and he said he would check with the outlet mgr. He did and called me back.
He didn’t have an explanation as to the outlet mgr.’s actions other than to agree it certainly looked like he lied.
The district mgr. sounded like a good and decent business man and until the bad experience with the one outlet mgr. have had good service from Kal Tire. But, to be lied to is such a manner sure leaves one sour on the whole company.
Thanks Wally for posting your experience. I have to look for the invoice so I can give the number to one of the Kal Tire employees that I have been emailing emailing back and forth with about my experience.
I actually work for kal tire and I am dissapointed that some people are upset with our service…yes it does happen in any company…but I assure you, it is drilled into our heads from the moment we start working there, that we are all about serving the customer..and thats what we are there for.. I have a comment for Wally though..yes a manager should know all thats going on in the shop..we cannot blame it entirly all on him..he has alot of duties in a day..but he is trusting enough with staff to believe what they say..so he sees your paperwork that says “customer has 1mm brake pad left” he cant just run around and ask every tech if thats true..he trusts his team…so thats what he relays to you..But I am sorry if you had a bad experience…we truly do want the best for our customer…as one of our aimes states (not word for word) but we want to acheieve a FAIR profit..meaning yeah sure you come in for a flat repair..and its free (no matter how many times you come in) and we check your front end, battery, tires ect … we want to look after YOU and exceed your expectations but hey if you are a buisness person you will know..its a win for the customer and a win for us…where else will you find a WHOLE mechanical inpection..brakes, tie rods, tires, wiper blades, batteries, ball joints…a whole vehicle sweep for FREE!!! Everywhere I have seen charges 50 bucks just to look at your brakes…thats CRAZY! it takes 10 mins.. and on top of that they charge you shop supplies…yes shop supplies…look at your bills…how are there shop supplies in a brake inpection…we take your tires off and use our eyes..we dont use anything just to look…anyways…am I dedicated kal tire employee…and the majority of us DO care what our customer thinks…and we want to serve you..Im sorry if some of you have had a bad experience…but just try another location…we are all about you guys
the customer is what keeps us going
Thanks Daisey for posting your comments! Unfortunately the next closes Kal Tire to me is a bit inconvenient for me to drive to. I understand that Kal Tire’s business plan isn’t to screw you over it just my experience on top of others is what prompted me to write this experience of mine. After all first impressions are the most important right?
I’ve had issues with other sort of car shops and it’s sad to see that people will try and bleed you from as much money as they can take you for. I understand that in the world of business you’re main goal is to make a profit but to what extent? I won’t ever go back to a Mr.Lube because of the service I received there a few times as well as a couple of stories I’ve heard from friends that have worked there. Just because they are independently owned and operated they have left me with an overall bad impression and I won’t look at the other locations even if they have had nothing but great comments/success.
yeah I understand…I got food poisoning once at red lobster…and I could never force myself to go back.. even though they are a very popular franchise… I just feel bad that you got the service you did..considering that is not the majority… I just wished you would have had a different location… lol…I just take alot of pride for what I do and the company I work for…. all the best to you Tyler
kal-tire blows … after getting a quote over the phone for mounting some atv tires i loaded up my quad and went to the shop only to find out out i was mis-quoted the price by a substantial amount … needless to say i was pissed that i went through the trouble of loading and bringing my quad to them for nothing … i found another tireshop near by who did it right away from half the $$
my other beef with kal-tire is the free rotation service when you buy new tires from them … well good luck with that cuz they either want you to leave your vehicle with them or you will be waiting a loooong time to get you rotation(which is like a 5 min job) .. hell i’ve heard of a friend who dropped off vehicle and they still didn’t get around to it at the end of the day BAH .. i won’t deal with Kal ever again myself
40 YEARS dealing with kal tire backhoes trucks trailers an personal cars. West coast Canada they stand behind their work go out of their way to help us out. I’ve never dealt with a more honest and trust worthy out fit.
You got the one dip shit in the country and by the way you should have let them have a go repairing their screw up which they would have done cheerfully. Now that moron stays working there and screwing others that won’t go back to complain.Bitching on the net is easy why not talk to the kal manager.
By the way which Province and which shop in what town did all this happen?????????
As I’ve used 30 or more of Their shops all across Canada and never found yours.
Hey Mace thanks for commenting. The store in question is the Maple Ridge store in BC. Because of my ‘bitching’ on the net I have had two of the Kal Tire’s finest employees from their head office contact me in order to find out my story and see what they could do to correct it.
They admit that they ‘accidentally’ charged me for the freight of my tire studs (the employee used the wrong code) though they did not really give me a reason as to why 2 different sized tire studs were installed for which I went to another shop replace. The other shop I went to treated me with more courtesy then that I received in the Maple Ridge location.
I am one of those customers where if I get shitty service I will not return. Why should I return and deal with the hassle of ‘oh we’ll get to it when we can’ or feel as if I am an inconvenience for their mistake? Let alone when I had 4 employees stand around to tell me that I over tightened the nuts on the studs in the first place and that is why their impact gun broke 2 of them off made me feel a bit uncomfortable. Sure they might have not thought ‘Oh this dumb ass over-tightened the nuts’ with all of them standing there to inform me of this, but it sure made me feel like they all just wanted to come out and see who was the idiot who did it nonetheless.
I think it’s cool that you’ve had 40 years of great experience with them. I unfortunately have not and it seems a few of my friends and acquaintances I have told this to have had similar experiences as well. Tthey keep making comments to me such as ‘I can’t believe you took your car in to kal tire’, ‘Oh you had an issue with kal tire, figures’. I originally took my car into kal tire because they seemed to be a prominent tire shop (tv ads, local marketing etc) unfortunately my experience was poor and I didn’t want to have to deal with it any more.
The two reps for Kal Tire did offer me a gift certificate for which I could use at any Kal Tire location, but it doesn’t really give me back the $50 i was charged for freight. I dislike when companies give you ’store credit’ when they make a mistake for something. I mean if I am incorrectly charged for an item, I want the difference back in cash, not in credit. The gift certificate would be decent on top of getting back my $50. I don’t make crazy amounts of cash so $50 isn’t something I can ill-spend so not being able to get my money back for a mis-charge hurt. If I were to use Kal Tire again I wouldn’t go back to the shop I had my first experience at, but their other locations which unfortunately are not as convenient as that one.
I would like to thank the two Kal Tire reps for asking me for my experience and trying to provide a solution.
Kaltire is the worst company ever… KAL TIRE.. do not ever take your cars there for mechanical work. ever. i took my jeep in for brakes font right caliper was seized i wanted new calipers rotors pads and a system flush… made sense to me new car just get it all new i did not mind paying a little more then my old mechanic because they are closer and are a big name company that claims to take care of the customter… there was a “wow” factor. as in WOW it took you 10. yes TEN hours to do brakes on a jeep… thts horrible. i kept calling and asking if they are workin on my jeep they said yes yes itll be done after lunch… that was at 11:30… half hour lunch ok soo i expected it by 1 at the latest… nope still not done now when i dropped the jeep off at 8am i told them i need it by 3 because of plans i had before… they said no problem its on ly brakes should not take long. exactly what i thought… well after calling them 3 more times and telling them im coming down to get it you better have it done its just stupid wow they finally had it put together at 5:00 PM! ok so i get there and look at the work order and it says the calipers have been resurfaced:S is that what i looked directly at the idiot behind the counter and asked for? … no. not at all now my rotors are warped because the resurfaced a fucked rotor and i have to pay more to fix it and they are going to do nothing for me… nothing at all for all the time i had to wait for there shitty ass customer service and their shitty ass work.. i will NEVER go back to kal tire for even so much as a flat tire if i was a block away. they are horrible… guys dont ever go to Kaltire 75-coquitlam. ever.
This Kal Tire story doesn’t suprise me. I paid close to $1200.00 for Nokian all season tires on my Volvo. I kept trying to arrange a visit for my first rotation, but it was busy, and I had to leave the car all day for a chance they could get to it. We need both cars as my Wife and I both work, and go in opposite directions. After one rotation, the road noise is so bad, you have to scream in the car to talk, and it drowns out the radio. I complained, took it in, and they said they balanced it and took if for a road test and no noise. I drove it home, and the noise is still there. I keep complaining, and they take it in, and say the tie rod is out of spec. I take it to Mr. Volvo, and he checks and says it is not - with in new part specs. I take it down there, and when they think they can sell me new tires, they have all the time. I ask if I can have a person for 5 minutes to ride in the car and tell me to my face it is not load, - guess what - they are too busy all of a sudden. He walks to the front of my car, and by eye sight alone says my tires are out of alignment, and have un even wear. I take it to Mr. Volvo, he comes out and infront of me with a tire gauge checks all tires all areas - all of them are even.
Now Kal Tire says, it is all because I took took long for my first rotation. I asked him if he thought I looked like I was so young, that this is the first set of tires I bought. This is typical of their crap, and I am spreading the word like crazy. Have talked to many others that have had additional nightmares with Nokian Tires and Kal Tire. At least if you buy cheap Chineese tires, you can replace them 3- 4 times for the cost of Nokians. We are now pushing the word out. One more thing, a Kal Tire rep. took my car in the back, and said the tech. took measurements, and the tires are almost ready to replace, and started to talk to me about cost for new tires. I thought well great. When I showed him, I had them not even one year, and very low mileage, and would be interested in how the warranty would kick in, and asked what the pro rated price would be, well after some red faced mumbling, he then informed me the techs are not to precise, and he could see that my tires were fine, - looking through the display window at my car about 50 or so feet away. Amazing eye sight.
Evan China tires from Crappy Tire at least stand by them, and replace them, and you’ll only pay 1/3 the price
Thanks Vince for sharing your experience with Kal Tire.
All Sounds familiar. I have been recently shafted by Kal Tire on Marine Drive in North Vancouver. Last year I had a great experience with Kal Tire Squamish, when they bailed me out late at night after our run flat tire ripped open on our Sienna Van. We ended up buying a new set of snow tires for the van as a result.
In March, when we brought it into Kal Tire in North Van. to switch back to all seasons, they told my wife her front brakes were gone. I was surprised that as the van only had 35,000/km on it.
I rarely drive the van and had trusted the other Kal tire so I told my wife to go ahead. As my wife figured that Kal Tire knew what they were doing she just signed the work order and paid. It was only a week later when I read the invoice that I realized they had charged her for new pads and NEW ROTORS. Why would the rotors need replacing at that low mileage and why could they not be turned.
My wife felt bad, so I did not push the issue. A couple of weeks later I drove the van and noticed vibration when braking, my wife said it was like that since the repair. I told her to take it back to Kal Tire. The manager told her that the rotors needed machining and he would have to charge her becaus she had put on 1,800km since the last work.
I lost it. I called out the manager at Kal Tire and let him have it. He back peddled admitting that there should be no charge and would fix it for free. I took it to toyota, only to find out they never changed the rotors in the first place and the vibration was likely caused when they changed the pads.
They tried to take advantage of my wife simply because she does not understand cars. Nice service.
I hear that more and more about car shops and women and how they can sometimes take advantage of them. Which sucks, I’m still looking for a creditable mechanic and I might have found one. We’ll see when my car needs work lol.
Thanks Mike for sharing your experience, I thought I might get to read a positive experience but it looks like yours ended up negative.
I hear ya on the Kal tire issue, but you should try Red head Equipment in Saskatoon if you really want to expeirence a real screwing over. They are all about costomer service but as soon as they get your money for the purchase of a piece of equiopment that is where it ends and I mean Ends completely. I purchased a 1995 cat 436B backhoe for the sum of 25000.00 not a bad deal except it needed some work i requested a quote and schedule for repairs. Thats was 2 weeks ago. mean while i have lost the work for the machine. They don’t want to comunicate so i have to use other peoples cell phones cause they now know all mine on call display. I sent an email this moring stating that they should refund the money on the purchase of the backhoe and i will eat the 10,000 i spent on an extra bucket and tamper. I can always sell the bucket and tamper. But alas no response again. I have now forwarded everything to the lawyer to deal with.
The point i am trying to make is that it doesn’t matter where you live in canada the crooks are a plenty and thriving on the supply and demand problems.
Kal tire gives me great service here where i am at but thats only because the manager is screwing my wife and they think i don’t know. HA! ha!. A picture is worth a thousand words. Lets see that would be more words then I can count LOL.
Taz
I’v read your complaints and none of them seem even a little valid iv worked in several different independent shops and chain locations and I only stumbled across your web site because im thinking about becoming employed by kal tire and I wanted to find some bad press about them to keep me from making my decission im going to keep looking but be happy these are the worst things that have happend to you and if any of you took even slightly better care of there tires (let alone the rest of your car) you would not be griping about such trivial things be happy dont worrie thanks for you time
John I appreciate your comments. Sure these are some of the worst experiences. But you’ll always hear the bad before you hear the good. It was my first experience with Kal Tire and unfortunately it turned out to be a not so great one. But do you not think it would be odd that when they replaced the studs for my wheel that they used different lengths? Or that they did not rotate my tires like they stated on my invoice? Sure I may not take great care of my car but that doesn’t give them reason not to repair my problem properly right? If they put on the correct length studs I wouldn’t have had to take my car else where. I phoned them asking when they would deal with fixing my car and they told me they could not get to my car in like 5 days. I wanted it fixed so I took it else where. If my car is making odd noises I want it looked at sooner or later.
Oh my goodness I am so ticked with Kal-Tire at this moment. I’ve used them in the past without issue, but will not be using them again. My Ford Contour had a coolant leak and so I took it in to get fixed on Tuesday. Having used Kal-Tire for oil changes and the like before I didn’t hesitate to use them again. They said the leak would be fixed on Wednesday, but it wasn’t ready until today (Friday). Today when they were test driving it, the driver rolled down the windows. My husband and I NEVER roll down our windows — they are stiff and get stuck (I’d told Kal-Tire this at my last oil change, but they have no record of the conversation and at the time had told me it wasn’t an important piece of information). The passenger side window wouldn’t roll back up. They charged us an extra $67 (which is a lot of money to me. . . I’m a grad student) to roll up the window (not fix it, just roll it up the way it was before they messed it up). And when I complained the guy said we got a deal on the labour overall because it took extra days and so it should’ve been three times the price (it cost roughly $1000). I snapped back that I would’ve just looked for another vehicle then. Oh and on top of being charged to “roll up the window” it can’t even go up all of the way — it stays open 3/4 of an inch! Needless to say, I will not be going back. Their customer service policy is seriously a load of crap.
It really sucks when you do get bad sevice for sure. I have never had a problem with kal tire. It seems like most of you just dont like how long it takes to get things done and the cost of tires. remeber your tires are the only thing that keeps your car on the road why would you want somthing cheap on there. AS far as time why its first come first serve as i understand it so they do there best. stuff happens nothing alway run smothly. You take your car to most places you book it in and when its done its done. so why not take it when you can spare some time. i got a question how many of you got you tires at different shop but with go for free flat repairs.
My last set of tires came from the Toyota Dealership, I first went to Kal Tire because I’ve seen their ads, I used to drive by their shop daily and yes, I did hear about the free tire repair. If they don’t offer free first time tire repair then why do I keep hearing about it?
I don’t mind buying new tires, I believe I did mention in the above I was alright with buying a new tire because the sidewall of mine was punctured.
Sorry to hear about your experience. I stumbled across your blog while searching for the phone number to “my” Kal Tire. I dismissed it… but it bothered me. I can’t not respond. My Kal Tire in Winnipeg, (Route 90 location), is excellent. It upsets me to see the name Kal Tire smeared when it was one shop that troubled you. While I can’t speak for them or on their behalf I must again praise my outlet. I have used several different other shops over the years and each time left angry and bitter. Overcharged and mis-quoted time and time again. Buying into the, “What? Those guys told you how much? Bring it here.”, then getting screwed worse. BUT, the first time I went to this Kal was not by choice. I was stuck and needed to be on the road the next day for a freight run. Kal said they were booked full… but when they saw how frustrated I was, (I had called EVERY shop in the Yellow Pages), they told me to leave it and they would see what they could do. It was almost 45 minutes after closing when they finished my truck. Best part was the bill, LESS than I expected. I would have gladly paid double for their work that day. I’ve been back every since. Each time the bill is fair, usually less than I expect based on other shops. Yes I do end up waiting longer than expected at times, but same as other places… and Kal doesn’t over-charge me. I have had the odd problem but I took it back and the shop foreman corrected the issue at no cost to me. Given the chance most places would rather make you happy then send you away mad to post on the net!!! (JUST NEVER EVER GO TO NEULS… GRRRR! COULD HAVE SNAPPED THAT LITTLE SH*T IN TWO! STILL CAN’T TALK ABOUT IT WITHOUT SEEING RED!!)
Chris that’s good you had a positive outcome with Kal Tire. I’m sure not all Kal Tire’s are horrible and people have had their goods and bads. It is nice to see the good though! Thanks for sharing!