We took the RV out of storage and brought it to Tire Kingdom for 8 new tires. The tires were old and chopped up. Jim had negotiated an excellent price on new Michelins. The worst thing for an RV is old tires. Can you imagine a blow out while driving a big ass motorhome with a vehicle in tow? Jim has dealt with poor handling, vibrations, and the like for a long time throughout our year of futzing around. It was time to get new tires and next weekend an alignment.
Allow me to interrupt for a minute. Ummm, it’s my blog. Watch this 20/20 report about old tires. Glenn shared this with me March 17th of last year.
Recently, Jim’s “RV advising friend” John, helped Jim out with choosing tires. John cautioned Jim about old tires. He said age is very important for the motorhome because they’ll be replaced due to age before wear in the future. For cars, tires don’t have to be brand new because they’ll get worn out faster than they’ll age.
I can tell you that most tire places don’t care about tire age. They don’t look. They don’t rotate their stock. I speak from experience. I sold tires at a dealership. Me, nor the techs, ever looked at the date. Oh, and in case you didn’t know, it’s Federal Law that tire dealers register or provide a way for you to register your tires in the event of a recall. This started after the whole Firestone tire recall years ago.
OK, now that I preached I want to again thank Glenn and recently John for their advice.
Above: John. We met through blogging and then met he and Derek in person while in Texas.
Above: Glenn from Fort Myers. He makes really yummy cakes!
OK, let me get to the Tire Kingdom story. We arrive with the motorhome. We got to the counter, explained we had a price quote with Andrew, the clerk went to get Andrew. He called for him. We stepped out of line awaiting him. Someone came from the shop and said Andrew was out and would be back in about 20 minutes. I got back in line and told Jim, “I’m not waiting. One of these guys can check us in.” We got the same guy who wanted us to wait for Andrew and made me feel as though we inconvenienced him. At every sentence, this guy found some reason why we possibly couldn’t get helped. Negative. Jim becomes furious and storms out stating “you guys just lost $2,000 worth of business. We’ll take our business elsewhere.” I stay behind and finally leaned across the counter and told him that he will write us up, and Andrew can call us. The guy comes out to the parking lot, Jim has already gotten the RV headed out of the lot. Andrew pulls up. Amen. We told Andrew what happened and he was apologetic. My main thing was customer service. It seemed like the guy didn’t want to be a team player. That’s the gist of the situation.
Jim told Andrew about the tire date issue. Jim and I personally checked 4 of the 4 tires. The other 4 were in a different area. We repeated our tire age issues to Andrew and left. Andrew called back. He doesn’t have enough newer tires and was working on getting some from another store. His oldest was from 2005! Yes, 2005! He was able to find more newer tires and even got another $400 (we negotiated down to $360) from us for brakes that were down to hardly anything. Oy.
To pass the time, we went to Ikea. Here’s a sign we saw:
Above: Is it 7 pieces or 4 pieces? Maybe it requires assembly and they count the handles?
We went to lunch at Friday’s. I had the 3 course meal. A salad wedge with bleu cheese, sizzling chicken and cheese with broccoli in lieu of mashed potatoes and I gave up my dessert to Jim. He selected my favorite – peanut butter pie. It didn’t bother me in the least and I didn’t even take a taste. Will the diet Gods, please take notice! … damn you…
 Today was our last day at the Calico Ghost town. On the way from Barstow to Death Valley we saw so many real ghost towns. Click here to see last year’s happenings! |
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