Sam's Club Clepper Lane Complaint

Sam's Club Clepper Lane Complaint

December 2, 2005

Saturday October 15th, we visited the Sam's Club in Eastgate to buy some tires. When we arrived, they told us (contrary to the big sign saying "59 min. guarantee") that it would be an hour and a half. We were OK with that, and I looked at my phone to see when 90 minutes would be over(it was 1:39), so we could walk around the store until they were ready. At 3pm we return to the tire department to see my car just then being pulled INTO the bay. Our overall wait was just shy of 3 hours for the 59 minute guarantee. Since we were waiting by the window into the tire shop, I watched them work. I watched as the man put the wheels on the balancer and watch them wobble wildly because he didn't snug them down enough. Then I watched as he stuck each lug nut on the stud without starting it by hand as your store's own guidelines state. I was also watching as he hit each one of these with the impact wrench and completely routed out one of my lugnuts. I turned to my wife as he stripped it, and said, "He just stripped that lug." At the same time the other perturbed couple in the waiting area said "That didn't sound right". He shortly comes waddling out and says, "Somehow your lugnut got crossthreaded." I said, "I know, I watched you do it." He said (and this is verbatim) "I didn't say I didn't do it" To which I replied, "You didn't admit to it either." My wife found the manager (Mitchel Cohen) who told me that I would have to buy another lug and bring the bill back for reimbursement, and went on to say that you could safely drive with as many as two lug nuts off the same wheel with no ill effects. I know that is the case if I want to take a chance of warping my brakes and throwing the wheel off balance, not to mention the chance of the wheel falling off on our way home. I told him I was sure Sam's insurer would appreciate him telling people to drive around missing two lugnuts off of the wheels. At this point he sent someone to an autoparts store to get some replacements and refunded my installation fee. I mentioned to Mitchel that their rules state that they are to start the lugnuts by hand, use the impact wrench with a torque stick, then with a torque wrench, then a second person double checks with a torque wrench. I pointed out that they were not following their own procedures which is part of the reason they screwed up my car. He stated that the impact wrench is a torque wrench and therefore didn't need to be double checked. I said that I knew the difference between a torque wrench and a torque stick and when he said that I was mistaken about the rules, I read him the rules outloud and told him I would appreciate him not lying to my face when we are standing right in front of the big poster with the rules stating the opposite (much to the amusement of the other couple also waiting for avoer two hours). I checked the wheel covers in the mean time and one of them are loose, which I had to tighten myself or risk losing on the way home. About this time they return with the replacement lugnut, but of course the stud is so stripped it won't thread on. Mitchel and one of the workers just look at me sheepishly and told me to take it somewhere and send them the bill. So, needless to say after 3 hours or negligence only to be told I still need to fix my car myself, I was not very happy. So I spent and hour and a half the next day checking all the lugs, and found two others that were messed up. I was able to straighten them out with a thread file (a set is $27 from Snap-On, each store should invest in them). While putting the wheels back on, I noticed the colored dots are perpendicular to the valvestems (the next day I confirmed with BF Goodrich that the colored dots are for aligning with the valve stems for proper balancing). Finishing up reinstalling and fixing Sam's mistake, I decided to check the air pressure which was 27 psi all the way around, five pounds lower than it should be. Thinking that gauge may be off, I grabbed a second gauge which also read 27 psi. Needless to say, at this point I am furious and worried for any other customer that unknowingly drives with all of these mistakes, one compounding on the other and possibly getting seriously injured (or worse). The next day, Monday the 17th, I foolishly assumed Sam's corporate office would want to know about these numerous safety hazards their store is committing. They pretended to be very concerned, so concerned a district manager (Scott I believe) would call me back the very next day. Well, a month and a half later, and not a word from anyone except Mitchel, asking had any other problems. I told him about the low air pressure, but if they are not going to do anything about it, why bother. I am very disappointed in your total disregard for your members safety. I am also disappointed in Michelin for certifying the people working that day. I hope in the future, you listen to your members when they try to point out serious safety concerns and not just give lip service.

Sincerely,

Tom Bethel, Ohio Click this link to e-mail the message author: Email User

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You need to file a complant with the Federal Trade Commission about this. Also you have legal grounds to sue and most likely will win since they guaranteed this service. You need to go back there and take a photo of the sign as evidence. I would suggest that you file a class action lawsuit since you are not the only customer being hoo-dood here.

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