Brand New Rims Damaged By Ultratune

[BA_Turbs]

I have these rims on my car:

The car went into a particular SE Melbourne Ford dealership to have the tyres replaced. This was also the dealer where I had bought the wheels from and they had sold me GT Radial tyres with a rating of 91 on the rims. BA Falcons require 92. If I'd had a prang and a savvy insurance man looked... Well, bye bye insurance.

Anyway, the tyres were got replaced. I got home that afternoon and my girlfriend says straight away "What's wrong with your wheels?".

Three of the wheels has the coating chipped of and large gouges out of the edge of the rim, plus flat tyre lever imprints, on them. The coating was also lifting away and falling off in 20c sized chunks from the centre of the wheels. One was perfect though ?

Anyway, took it back and the service manager's response:

"It was the worst thing I ever did selling you these bloody tyres!"

He was angry at me!! This bloke knew what I did for a job, and at the local police station whose cars his company services. Surely he must have known then that I wasn't just going to be intimidated by him yelling at me and trying to stand over me He triend anyway though.

Anyway, three tyres sent back to ROH to be "re-coated" or whatever it is they do to them. I found out later on that these rims are reverse fit rims, the tyres are fitted and removed with the rim upside down. Obviously by the last wheel someone told the apprentice what was going on. There no way in hell thay could have missed the damage that was done to the rims either, they just chose not to tell me.

I now have a new dealer.

[Guest mercurysteve]

Woo-Saaaaa breath in, now let it out Wooooo-Saaaaaa:laughing:

Let it all go guys, group thereapy, that's the ticket.

Any more horror stories?

[Turbo6man]

My T3 went in to have the diff replaced. Went to the same workshop where it always goes and they ALL know NEVER to use a rattle gun on my wheel nuts. Walking in to pick the car up in the afternoon and before I even get to it I can see the paint has been taken off the wheel nut recesses. The service manager denied that anyone would have used the rattle gun and even after I showed him that it was ONLY on the two rear wheels that they had removed he still wouldn't admit it. Refused outright to even enquire of the mechanics if someone had inadvertently used the gun and done the damage.

I went straight to the dealer principal who happens to be a family friend, and the SM was simply told "fix it right now or find another job".

Took the car to the paint shop and before I even said a word the guy looked at the wheels and said "oh oo, a rattle gun eh?".

What p!ssed me off even more than the denial was the fact that I provided the special "thin" adaptor/extension socket to fit over the nuts so that no damage to the rims would occur.

[Guest mercurysteve]

side note, gotta get one of those socket sets too, suggestions on whose best?

[Turbo6man]

Want another? About a month or so ago my daughter loans her XR6 ute to a family friend who was moving flats. She warned him about how low the car was and told him it would not go up his driveway. She also warned him how easy it was to damage the rims (AU style) and told him to stay way wide of any gutters etc. Her rims are unmarked, look like new.

He brings the car back after dark, was supposed to be back in time for my daughter to go to work but she had to walk. She comes home to find the car parked with the left side hard against the shrubs along the edge of the driveway so she couldn't walk past that side of it.

Next morning after moving it she finds both left rims badly damaged and one tyre was even marked. Two days it took him to ring and thank her for the loan of the car - no mention of the damage but a flippant comment that "you were right about it not going up my driveway". The d!ck had hung it up on the driveway and thought it was funny! So after no mention of the rims and he's saying "goodbye" my daughter finally mentions it - and he denies hitting any gutters!!

Anyhow, as his father is my daughter's godfather, it has of course all been worked out and the kid is going to pay for repairing the wheels.

PS The car was full of fuel when he picked it up and he did nearly 200km. He mentioned during conversation that "the guage was still showing almost full when I returned it so I didn't bother trying to fit any more fuel in! Yeah right, the car can do 200km and not use any fuel. What a fukkin' IDIOT!!!

[ENVY-T]

When I had my Nissan SSS, I took to the dealer for the complimentry service and returned to find a massive dent on the top of the drivers side qtr panel. My thoughts were a spanner had been dropped on it. SM tells me that it couldn't be the case cos it would have marked the paint. I then marched him out to the workshop and showed him the panel protector thingys that the mechanics were all leaning on to save the panels from scratching. It was then that he said that someone did mention damage to a car but he couldn't remember which car it was! Great service huh!

Second one involving the same car, I was having an exhaust put on it and I told the shop that front bar (aftermarket ) was very low and to be carefull when driving it onto the hoist. I sat in the reception waiting for what should have been a 20 minute job. I hour later it my car finally appears. The dude driving was looking very white in the face when he gave me the keys. I looked over the car and it all looked fine. I leave, and on the way home I noticed a funny noise coming from the front. When I checked it, I found that the bar had been snapped in 3 places and green duct tape holding it together. After a very heated phonecall with the owner he tells me to take it to a panel shop and he would look after the bill. And the nufty kent that did it later admitted to me that he had caught the big rubber stop on the front and it had actually almost pulled the front off!

[Slymeat]

Took my Mazda RX7 in for a full service some years ago, got it back all appeared fine, drove for a day and the motor decided to let go. I pulled out the service sheet and at that time noticed that they had ticked that the car did not have an oil; cooler fitted. I had a look and there was the oil cooler which was later removed and found to be blocked causing the car to starve of oil, not good in a rotary or any car for that matter, the car ran oil injection just under the carb which drained any remaining oil from the motor quickly, after it was blocked ( Not sure how this happened but had my suspicions ).

Then the payback, they admitted liability and had to pay to have the motor repaired, not replaced thanks to the Dept of Fair Trading. I then sent the motor to the best engine builder I could find and shipped the motor of with a few extra additions which I would pay for seperatly. Back came my motor, and I sent the $3,500 dollar bill to Ultratune. Bearing in mind this was in the mid 80's, came back a sceamer.

[-carty]

dam... some of you have had some bad ordeals...

when I was working in spare parts at a ford dealership, the apprentice mechano forgot to put the radiator cap back onto the car, and the bloke who owned it then preceded to drive to canberra (2hr trip) cooked it...

also, while working for Toll, a forth year apprentice at another workshop, drained the engine oil, replaced filters and then forgot to put the sump plug back in...

filled the engine oil up to 35L (shows on the pump handle) and then put the cap back on, turned the engine on (detroit 60 series) runs for a little bit then killswitch clicks in... he thinks whats goin on there... so he then starts it up again, does the same thing - turns off, so he does it again and it switches off again...

having no idea whats goin on, one of the workshop guys went into the pit to see no sump plug... - end result, 4th year apprentice with no job, and a new engine for the truck worth around $60,000

[Space Ace]

My T had a few scratches on the 18's and paint work when I first picked it up brand new. It was noted by the sales person and that they would be repaired when I took it in for its 5,000k service. Car goes in and 3 days later get the call that all is OK. I go to pick up the car late in the day just before closing time and all seems OK. Next morning, in full sunlight, it was clearly obvious that nothing was done about the scratches. I noticed that the 2 rims that were previously OK were now scratched and the other 2 were OK. The idiots rotated the rims around and when it came time to fixing them, apparently they could find the scratches...doh. Then the paintwork scratches - arrrgghhh. I don't even want to get into that because there are enough stone chips on the car now that it all seems for nothing.

BTW, after it took them 3 goes and brand spanking new 18's hand fitted, I was waiting for the car to come off the hoist and one of mechanics was trying to turn the service van into the workshop. There was a reasonably new red T sitting near the entry and I was watching this guy take a tighter turn than he had to. Well, you don't have to guess what happened next - whole front guard gets ripped off and all the other mechanics are pissing themselves laughing. At that moment, the Sales GM comes out to apologise to me for the inconvenience and I point out to him that he is going to have call a very unhappy red T owner in the next few minutes....the look on his face was priceless.

Just as a matter of interest for you blokes, whenever I take my car in, I always take photos of the rims and general exterior on that morning, and a photo of the kilometers clocked up. This is to avoid what most of you and I have experienced and getting into a sh*t fight.

[Turbofalke]

Two experiences come to mind:

1: I had a old ride services by Ultra Tune and when I picked it up, some farker had has droped what appeared to be a hammer on the rear passenger door.

Aboslutly no doubt that they did it yet claimed it was not them. Clearly they did not want to see my money again.

2: Had my last car a VW golf dropped by 35mm with Eibach springs all round. Went to pick it up, and the "manager" that runns the joint tells me there has been a problem. With what I say, I had an accident in your car he said.........This fool test drove the car (why???) and run into another car requiring replacement of the front bumper. Lots on inconvenience. Lets just say CarShine did see any more of my cash either.

Cheers