Sounds like a live and learn moment. It's not Tire Rack's fault you made an incorrect assumption. Best to get the facts from the horse's mouth, so to speak, before taking action.

Sorry it worked out poorly for you, but honestly, it's not Tire Rack's fault.

 

Assuming it doesn't specifically say that the tyre has to be unmounted for the picture, you could cut the head off a nail, glue it to the side of a tyre, take a crap picture, and send them that?

I'm not for scamming, but if you paid the insurance and you got a nail in your tyre, then its not a scam its just coping with bureaucracy. The alternatives would be for you to lose out on money you may notice, just for a company to save an inconsequential (to them) amount. Or for you to fight them for it until they give in, which just wastes everyone's time.

 

I'm sure plenty of shops would be willing to send a invoice for a free tire without proof. Just a photo alone has a level of trust you can already see people contemplating easy ways to get around. Sounds like you got a lot of life out of the tire, and hopefully learned something.

 

If you bought an alternator at Autozone (or FCP Euro, or BMW) and a shop told you it was bad, would you tell them to replace it and throw out the old one, then expect a refund from the seller?

BTW, you know Tire Rack reads this forum, right?

 

This tire shop is all over the Northwest. A picture can be modified, photoshoped and cropped. And the other three tires are like new. So I didn't get ant usuable life out of this set. I put maybe 4,000 miles on them


I know tire rack reads this. That's why I posted. And posted for the benefit of anyone else making a mistake by letting them weasel their way out of a warranty by making a million legal channels to deny you.

 

weasel their way out of a warranty by making a million legal channels to deny you.

Dude. Unlike every other place in the world, you don't have to actually send back that bad part! All you have to do is take a picture! And yet you have your panties in a wad.

And unless there's more to the story than you posted, Tire Rack sounds like they're trying to work with you, asking for nothing but a picture, as you and the tire shop apparently didn't follow the claim procedure that took me 10 seconds to find on their web site.

TireRack.com says:

What You Must do to Make a Claim When an Eligible Tire is Damaged:

If you have a tire that has been damaged due to a road hazard as defined here, go to a tire service facility to have your tire examined. If you are unable to locate a tire service facility, contact the Administrator at 855-623-0468 (toll free) for assistance.
If the tire service facility determines that your tire is repairable, the tire service facility does not need to contact the Administrator for approval to repair the tire before replacing the tire. Have the tire repaired, and submit the required paperwork to the Administrator to receive reimbursement.
If the tire service facility determines that the tire is not repairable, the tire service facility must contact the Administrator at 855-623-0468 (toll free) for prior authorization before replacing the tire. The Administrator will give you a claim reference number. You must obtain prior authorization and a claim reference number to replace the unserviceable tire or your claim may not be eligible for reimbursement.
The Administrator will initiate your claim and verify Protection eligibility, review the damage to your tire with the tire service facility, pre-authorize your tire replacement, provide the eligible reimbursement amount, and will then connect you to a Tire Rack representative so that you can make arrangements to purchase a replacement tire.
You must purchase the replacement tire or pay for the repair. You will be reimbursed for the repair and/or replacement as determined by the Administrator pursuant to the Flat Tire Repair and/or Tire Replacement Terms, once all required documentation has been submitted and approved.
If you purchase the replacement tire from Tire Rack, once the replacement tire is shipped contact the Administrator at 855-623-0468 (toll free) and provide the order number for your new tire. The Administrator will verify your purchase electronically and complete the processing of your claim.
If you do not purchase the replacement tire from Tire Rack, please see the Tire Rack Road Hazard Protection Certificate for further directions.
The damaged tire must be made available for inspection if requested by the Administrator.
All claim documentation, including the tire(s) if requested, must be submitted within 60 days of service in order for your claim to be considered for reimbursement.

:read:

Whatevs.

 

Sorry to hear your frustrating experience, OP.

I heard about that it was a chore to get a replacement through road hazard warranty from tirerack.
So I have been getting tires from discounttiredirect.com.
It's listed prices are a little more expensive than tirerack, but it has free shipping and a discount if you talk to a sales person nicely.
So I end up paying about even or a little cheaper than tirerack.
The best part is that it honors its road hazard warranty with no questions asked, and I can vouch for that.

 

I agree it's bulls*** that they're not just honoring the invoice stating the issue. But, at the same time, I understand their position, which is that they have a system for this and you had the shop throw away the tire. Ideally, if they were going to be intelligent about this, they would accept the invoice.

I'm having my own issue with Tire Rack right now, and am waiting to see how it turns out before I pass judgement. Even though I understand their system and policy surrounding their road hazard warranty, and think you should have looked at it before taking the car in or having them throw the wheel out, I understand why you're angry and agree with you that their system is a bit ridiculous.

Did you contact the shop to see if they still have the tire?

Overall, I think they would benefit by reducing their beuracratic layers. There's probably a supervisor somewhere who can look at the company the invoice came from and see that they're legitimate. And you're right. It's much easier to create a fake picture than it is to con them with an invoice from a tire shop that has an address and a phone number and a name on it. Photoshop a picture of a tire with a nail in it vs forging an invoice and all the details that go along with it. They can always just call the shop and verify it's all legitimate.

Sorry you're dealing with all of this.

 

sorry but I do not see Tire Rack as being unreasonable or at all BS'ing about their warranty as your thread title states.

Tire Rack asking you to follow a legitimate process for a warranty claim should not be bashed by this public post. :nono:

 

so if you bought an iPhone and a week later the screen stopped working, and you threw away the phone because obviously the phone is useless, you'd expect apple to give you a new phone...?

i know you're mad but come on dude. this is ridiculous.

 

OP You're being an idiot.

Tirerack has to verify the serial numbers on the tire to make sure that you're not claiming a different tire from the warrantied item. What's to stop anyone from buying four tires and then claiming they were punctured and getting another set for free?

 

didn't read, i never get warranties on anything, and tire rack is over priced

 

Another forum member just posted how happy they were and easy the claim process was with tire rack.

Perhaps they randomly select this claim for photograph, but still, it's reasonable. Only hard for you to accept because you feel scammed out of the deal.

Every tire shop I go to keeps tires for weeks before disposal. Even if they "threw it out" that just means it's sitting in a massively stacked pile in the back. Maybe the shop didn't feel like looking for it.

 

For what its worth, Tire Rack called my shop last year when i had a non-repairable tire and they confirmed over the phone, no pic needed. Had my refund check mailed to me within days.

Sucks for the OP, but maybe if you try to have them call the shop to verify... might be worth one last shot. Also BKMrSteel makes a good point, they might still have it.

 

About to order a set of BFGoodrich Comp-2 tires from tire rack. This in no way deters me. Since I carry a smart phone with a camera and huge microSD capacity I take pictures of things like this even if I don't have to send it to anyone. Cost no money to do so.

 

It does suck that you got screwed, i personally believe that the tire shop invoice should have done the trick, maybe forward this thread to TR to see if the bad press changes their mind.

 

He didn't get screwed. I could walk into half the tire shops in town, hand the dude $10 and he'd write up an invoice for a bad tire to send to tire rack.

 

I got a tire warrantied before and never sent a pic. Weird

 

Hey OP please give me a call at 1-800-428-8355 EXT 4664 and I will see what we can do. We should at least be able to get you a discount on a new tire. Please give me an opportunity to help with the situation. Sorry for the late response. I didn't notice this earlier.

Rudy