A rant about Belle Tire, Royal Oak

boosted gt said:
regardless of who works where if somebody is unhappy with service they should be able to complain on the forum just like they should be able to praise the company if they are happy
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I think this forum is pretty laid back about letting people voice their opinions, but this is going beyond that. No one's job on here is worth someone bitching, IMO.

But I guess it has to hit home before people start to realize the damage a comment on the internet can do.
 
I don't get the correlation between someones job and complaining about the service at one store. When a corporation has a chain of stores, there will be good ones and bad ones. With the sponsorship based around those three members, I don't see the relationship. If this is the typical business practice at this one store, I think there needs to be a management change at that one store. You can take that however you want.

Someone warned the rest of the membership so that others would stay clear of that store. There are obviously other stores that do not operate in this fashion that members can be directed to. But the OP didn't have the opportunity to use the internet and didn't have an immediate contact number. I see no problem with his 'rant'.

I understand the problem on the other post about creating a problem with other members at their place of employment. What happened appears to have been chicken shit over a difference of opinion on this board that started that problem. BUT, if that had been me, I would have been up spmeone's ass at corporate over it, and I wouldn't care if they were a member or not. That was nothing less than attempted theft. I probably would have also gone to the Michigan Bureau of Automotive Regulation. People who pull that should be out of a job.

For the record, I have only dealt with the Sterling Heights store on Van Dyke and was happy with the service.
 
Swifster said:
I don't get the correlation between someones job and complaining about the service at one store. When a corporation has a chain of stores, there will be good ones and bad ones. With the sponsorship based around those three members, I don't see the relationship. If this is the typical business practice at this one store, I think there needs to be a management change at that one store. You can take that however you want.

Someone warned the rest of the membership so that others would stay clear of that store. There are obviously other stores that do not operate in this fashion that members can be directed to. But the OP didn't have the opportunity to use the internet and didn't have an immediate contact number. I see no problem with his 'rant'.

I understand the problem on the other post about creating a problem with other members at their place of employment. What happened appears to have been chicken shit over a difference of opinion on this board that started that problem. BUT, if that had been me, I would have been up spmeone's ass at corporate over it, and I wouldn't care if they were a member or not. That was nothing less than attempted theft. I probably would have also gone to the Michigan Bureau of Automotive Regulation. People who pull that should be out of a job.

For the record, I have only dealt with the Sterling Heights store on Van Dyke and was happy with the service.
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x2, the store at Rochester and 18 mile had me in and out in lest then 35 minds on a Saturday morning when everyone goes there. i simply cant recommend anyone to go to the woodward store, i wont touch a hot pot twice.
 
I appreciate everyone's point of view on the post that I put up. I was not trying to bash a sponsor at all, and even knew that Belle Tire was a sponsor, however not this particular store. It was just stewing in my noggin and had to get it out, for my own sake and possibly for others who went and dealt with this particular store. This is now the 2nd time i have had a bad experience with this store, and I will never return. The first time they scratched my $800 per wheel 3 piece simmons and had to replace one.

I only went to this store because it was close and they offered a free estimate that day. As I stated before, the other several mom and pop shops said it would be a couple of days before it even got looked at. I could not do that, as I was handicapped and in desperate need. I explained this to the worker there and he still took advantage. Sponsor or not, I should be able to post a thread like this without ridicule from anyone. I had a horrible experience.... that is what I was writing about.

I just don't understand the mind set of people like this. They are more apt to rob people than to help. That in my opinion entitles me to bitch a little bit on a forum which I belong to and share with like minded people who all love cars as much as me.

I realize I waited a little long to talk about it... but I was laid up for 3 weeks with the cut in my gut and thought about it several times and just decided to vent. If you don't like it.. hey, I respect your opinion, but please don't ridicule me for mine..
 
I guess my perspective on the situaton is this. With a company as big as ours with as many employee's as we have there's bound to be a few bad nut in the barrel. With that being said we have a no tolerence policy with our auto techs as far as recommending work that isn't needed. If you are caught writing up bad estimates wether or not your a tech or salesman you will be terminated on the spot. So if you feel you were really getting ripped off I invite you to call our corporate office and get these thieves fired.

Now with that being said let's get something straight alot of customer are confused about. There's is a difference between recommending something and needing something. People on this board have to understand that not every customer is a car guru like you guys. Alot of customer have no idea where there oil is..Lol..They trust us to take care of thier car's problems now as well as future problems we may see. So if I see a lower ball joint that is loose on a mid 90"s vehicle I will write the estimate for that and then i will RECOMMEND them to replace the upper since I'll already have it apart and more than likely it's gonna go bad to. Since I already have it apart it will save you labor time doing it now instead of waiting till it brakes then paying me labor again. Now Believe it or not but there are a ton of customer's out there that appreciate that. Alot of customer's don't have the time to keep coming into our stores to fix things that could have been done on the last repair. Now when I reccomend you some thing I tell you exactly that. It's a recommendation not a nessity repair. Unfortunitly alot of people don't understand the difference and all they see is an estimate for $2000.00 or something.

If you guys think that Belle Tire is such a rippoff I challenge you to go shop our competition. See if the dealer is cheaper for the same repair. I know for a fact thier not. I used to work for them. Go shop little mom and pop shops. Thier labor rate is higher than ours and so is thier part prices. Make sure though that comparing apples to apples here, buying the part from Reiko and doing the labor in your backyard is not fair competition. alot of people don't have the knowledge or tolls to do the repairs themselves and rely on proffesionals to do it for them. When you go to a Steak house and order a meal that cost's you $30, don't you thing you can go get the steak yourself and cook it on your own grill for less than half the price you paid for the meal? Of course you can, it's the service and convience of not doing it yourself your paying for. Same thing with auto repairs. Were a business just like any other business that you oursource work to.

Belle Tire is a mutli-billion dollar company. We put new stores every year and keep growing every year. Do you really think we would be getting that big if all we did was ripp off customer's?? Don't think so..Also just so you guy's know most of our stores have a 80% customer return rate or higher. You don't get that many people returning by being a thief.....

Last thing I'm gonna talk about..For you people that say you waited 3 hours for tires or it took awhile for your vehicle to get in..I appologize. Please try and understand that being busy as most of our stores are there are people in front of you and we work on a first come first serve basis. Plus you never know when some of the tech's may have called in or were short staffed for whatever reason. It happens. Ask anyone who does customer service and they'll tell you sometimes the cards don't always come your way. We try our hardest to get everyvehicle in and out in a timely fashion. Unfortunitly sometimes it doesn't always happen that way. Sometimes thing's break on a car that your not expecting. Sometimes were waiting for parts so the hoist will be tied up untill they get there. I'm just saying it's easy for you to sit in the waiting room and say "You guys are slow and have idiot's working here" when you don't really know what's going on in the back....Trsut me were not gonna let you sit there for hours because we bored and don't want to work on your car. There's a reason why its taking that long and maybe you just don't know about it...



murph
 
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Swifster said:
I don't get the correlation between someones job and complaining about the service at one store. When a corporation has a chain of stores, there will be good ones and bad ones. With the sponsorship based around those three members, I don't see the relationship. If this is the typical business practice at this one store, I think there needs to be a management change at that one store. You can take that however you want.

Someone warned the rest of the membership so that others would stay clear of that store. There are obviously other stores that do not operate in this fashion that members can be directed to. But the OP didn't have the opportunity to use the internet and didn't have an immediate contact number. I see no problem with his 'rant'.

I understand the problem on the other post about creating a problem with other members at their place of employment. What happened appears to have been chicken shit over a difference of opinion on this board that started that problem. BUT, if that had been me, I would have been up spmeone's ass at corporate over it, and I wouldn't care if they were a member or not. That was nothing less than attempted theft. I probably would have also gone to the Michigan Bureau of Automotive Regulation. People who pull that should be out of a job.

For the record, I have only dealt with the Sterling Heights store on Van Dyke and was happy with the service.
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x3 I don't see why people are elevating this to a bigger thing then it is. You have a member that had a bad experience at a certain store and is telling members about it. I'm glad he did, I wouldn't want my elderly parents or grandparents going to said location to get ripped off by a writer trying to make a buck. But hey, maybe some people were brought up differently and like to watch there own get screwed. The poster wasn't outright bashing a sponsor and shouldn't be treated like he was. If he had a bad experience with a member at a members store then I could see the mods getting involved.
 
Murph, very few, if any, were targeting Belle Tire as a whole. I think this was limited to the Royal Oak store. I don't think this was a 'corporate' rant.
 
i stated i had great service at a belle tire at 18 and Rochester road in troy, the one in royal oak simply failed to live up to the fast, courteous service that makes me go to belle tire in the first place. i will not go back to that store on Woodward, nor will i refer anyone to them. belle tire is really good at matching prices and typically they do great fast work with a smile.
 
murph,
All valid points... and all very true. As other people have stated... I was not bashing you or belle tire as a whole company. I was bashing this one guy at this one store. He did not recommend to me that I have all that work done... he told me is was dire to my safety and to use his own words, "I can't let you drive away without you having this work done." I told him he was looney and I just wanted them to change the brake line for me, he said they wouldn't do it. That is where my rant comes from.

That being said... I think this thread has run it's course. No more reason to discuss this at all. I just wanted to get it off my chest, and I think I did.

P.S. I love the tags for this thread!! LOL!
 
My Opinion

Everyone that works on comission tries to get the most money out of people that they can. . . thats just the way it works. Having had to work on comission before, I can honestly say that. It sucks but its a need for more money that motivates people to sell. Worst case senario . . . the bleeder screw breaks off in the caliper, Oh no your going to need a caliper, being a mechanic I know sometimes they break. I wouldn't even drill out bleeder screws on my own car, a lot easier and safer to get a new caliper. So now you looking at about another couple of dollars on your bill. For you to get a quote for 2 calipers, hard line, labor and bleeding fees, that is just rediculious. But remember the counter people have to make sales for the company too, don't forget that. Figure if that guy gets half of his customers too agree with an outrageous bill, he makes money and so does the company . . . screw the other guy that denied it. The only thing that attitude does for a company is give it a bad name.

I've never met any of the MM members that work at Belle Tire but i've heard that they are good guys, and believe that they wrould give me a good de. But this is not the first time I have heard or seen an outrageous from Belle Tire. Personally I don't buy my own tires from them, but one of the locations by me has a kid that can do really good alignmnets. And I would let him align my car if I wasn't able too.

The problem at hand is finding an honest, good, not going to try and screw you for every penny you have, mechanic. Which is getting more difficult as time goes on. But their are some of us still left. And if in a pinch i would go to Belle Tire store a MM member works at. And with your surgery it sucks that your brake line broke on the road and not in your driveway(close to your computer). But hell thats life and it happens all the time. And hopefully next time something breaks on your car . . . you or your buddies will be able to do it, cause that way, ALWAYS saves the most money.

Anyways thanks for looking out for that locations, I will be sure to not deal with that service writer. And it sounds kind of fishy that the one mechanic to you all it needed was hard line. And when you were called with an estimate, that same mechanic wasn't doing the work, but someone else. I would be pissed if I was the first mechanic. Maybe that writer has another scam going with one of the technicians.
 
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TOPNOTCH said:
murph,
All valid points... and all very true. As other people have stated... I was not bashing you or belle tire as a whole company. I was bashing this one guy at this one store. He did not recommend to me that I have all that work done... he told me is was dire to my safety and to use his own words, "I can't let you drive away without you having this work done." I told him he was looney and I just wanted them to change the brake line for me, he said they wouldn't do it. That is where my rant comes from.

That being said... I think this thread has run it's course. No more reason to discuss this at all. I just wanted to get it off my chest, and I think I did.

P.S. I love the tags for this thread!! LOL!
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I understand completely Notch.....Unfortunitly there are some bad people out there that ruin a good name....But like I said you should report that shit. He doesn't deserve to be at the counter if he's ripping poeple off. Everyone's having a hard enough time with the economy at hand and the last we need to ripp people off who like the most of us are just trying to get by anyway.....



murph
 
CamaroKid91Z said:
Everyone that works on comission tries to get the most money out of people that they can. . . thats just the way it works. Having had to work on comission before, I can honestly say that. It sucks but its a need for more money that motivates people to sell..
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Well I can tell you that belle tire sales rep only get a little comission from selling certain tires. They get $2 from the alignment. No comission from selling brakes or suspension parts. So they arent getting rich trying to get you to buy something you dont need. I used to work for them last year in lansing. I no longer work for the company.
 
I didn't read everything but I'm glad you came up my way the other day. Thanks for making the trip. Sorry you had to run in to your old friend, haha.

Truth be told Tom (the other guy who actually works at my store) and I told him not to come back the rest of the week and we would be okay without him. Needless to say he didn't listen and he'll be there Friday and Saturday too.

I am sorry you had to go through that. If you ever find yourself at another Belle Tire and something doesn't seem right please feel free to call Jenga or myself.
 
RyeLou said:
I didn't read everything but I'm glad you came up my way the other day. Thanks for making the trip. Sorry you had to run in to your old friend, haha.

Truth be told Tom (the other guy who actually works at my store) and I told him not to come back the rest of the week and we would be okay without him. Needless to say he didn't listen and he'll be there Friday and Saturday too.

I am sorry you had to go through that. If you ever find yourself at another Belle Tire and something doesn't seem right please feel free to call Jenga or myself.
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LOL! Thankx again! Tires work great! Made it all the way home 2 Ohio that day perfectly! :) +1 for you
 
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