Tire shop scratched my wheels

[Sreten]

Just had a delightful evening at the tire shop.

My tires where due for a replacement and since I didn't know any reputable tire shop in Frankfurt, I picked the one closest to me.

Knowing my luck, 10 minutes before I dropped the car at the shop, I took pictures of all 4 rims so that I can compare condition before/after.

Dropped the car off before work, told them that the tires were in the car and made myself very clear that they pay special attention with the rims and don't scratch them. They weren't perfect and they had few nicks, but nothing major or very noticeable.

Showed up after work to pick up the car and immediately noticed two big marks on the rear rims.
I pointed out my observations and they, of course, denied everything and told me that it was there from before.

I showed them pictures from this morning and that's when a lot of Nien, Nien started flying around and they started accusing me that I made everything up and that the pictures are old.

I had a long day at work and after much discussion in Anglo-German, I drove off home very frustrated.

I know I can be a freak and obsess with small details, but things like this just piss me off.
Next time, I'll be an even bigger freak when I call the manager to look at all 4 rims before taking it in for a tire change.

Here are the pictures. I made remarks in correlation with the tire valve.

Am I crazy for getting worked up about this?

Rear right. (pictures can be clicked on and zoomed in)

https://s18.postimg.org/bxxqnf3c9/1.1.jpg (https://postimg.org/image/f4sa71ns5/)

https://s18.postimg.org/gjtuvprfd/2.2.jpg (https://postimg.org/image/xx45akmqd/)

Rear left.

https://s18.postimg.org/w6l48wpq1/image.jpg (https://postimg.org/image/egjfnvc51/)

https://s18.postimg.org/udi7kuk1l/image.jpg (https://postimg.org/image/7c1mf3kdx/)


P.S. sorry for the long rant, fellas.

[Newjack]

dude wtf

I would be so pissed if a shop did that to me. With photo evidence (photos have timestamps saved in the file) they absolutely need to pay to have them refinished, or buy new rims and keep the damaged ones.

I would absolutely raise hell about this. Please let us know which shop you took your car to so we can all avoid it.

Good luck man, I'm sure someone here will chime in on best practices for getting this dealt with. I know Dane took his car to a shop and they badly gouged one of his brand new BBS rims.

[BMWCurves]

I'd be very pissed about it. I'd definitely make a point.

[Sreten]

Thanks, guys.

Newjack, I doubt you'll ever come across them since they are in Frankfurt, Germany. ;)

I wanted to raise hell about this and if this happened back in the States I would know how to act, at the least I would be able to communicate with the manager.

Here it's difficult to make your point when you don't speak the local language.
Only the lady at the front desk was speaking English and I didn't want to argue with her since she didn't mount the tires.
The manager was extremely rude and just kept saying Nein Nein.

I did find out that their shop is a part of big tire shop chain called Euromaster so I will file a direct complaint with them and see what happens.
I'm getting the car ready for inspection and don't have time to do it this week, but I'll get around it eventually.

I'm just not sure how to protect myself from this in future. Should I really be a crazy person and have the manager check the rims with me before mounting the new tires? In US I had a trusted shop for this and never had any problems with them, but here it will always be a lottery.

[John in VA]

Should I really be a crazy person and have the manager check the rims with me before mounting the new tires? In US I had a trusted shop for this and never had any problems with them, but here it will always be a lottery.
To avoid a problem like this = yes! Many owners will take pix of wheels & bodywork before dropping off for service, even at the dealer.

[Newjack]

Thanks, guys.

Newjack, I doubt you'll ever come across them since they are in Frankfurt, Germany. ;)

I wanted to raise hell about this and if this happened back in the States I would know how to act, at the least I would be able to communicate with the manager.

Here it's difficult to make your point when you don't speak the local language.
Only the lady at the front desk was speaking English and I didn't want to argue with her since she didn't mount the tires.
The manager was extremely rude and just kept saying Nein Nein.

I did find out that their shop is a part of big tire shop chain called Euromaster so I will file a direct complaint with them and see what happens.
I'm getting the car ready for inspection and don't have time to do it this week, but I'll get around it eventually.

I'm just not sure how to protect myself from this in future. Should I really be a crazy person and have the manager check the rims with me before mounting the new tires? In US I had a trusted shop for this and never had any problems with them, but here it will always be a lottery.

Trust is a big part of it. I have a mechanic I can take my car to that I trust.

Hopefully you get everything worked out buddy

[theothersawyer]

I had this happen to me recently. They scratched my BBS’s and tried refinishing it but it looked bad. Wrong color and dirt in the paint. So they are buying me a new wheel, but they are backordered for forever! This was back in July and I’m still waiting!

[Sockethead]

I had this happen too but luckily, I was having the tires removed to get the wheels refinished anyway.

As Rob said, The time stamp on the pictures will prove what you need to prove...

[danewilson77]

I noted some light scratches and blemishes on my BBS's after my last tire purchase last month.

Sent from my S8+

[theothersawyer]

Luckily a good friend of mine works at my tire shop. This was the one time he didn’t do the work and they got scratched...

[Sreten]

Thanks for the support, fellas!

I got in touch with their claims department and going to send them a nice email.
It just sucks when this happens and now I see it's not unusual to leave the tire shop with damaged wheels.

The car passed inspection this morning which was the most important thing to me now because I can finally register it.