Town Fair is NOT Amazing

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[jonnyri]

Thought I'd share my experience if anybody thinks that Town Fair's "we beat the internet" seems like a good deal.

Here's where it started:
Monday June 8 I submitted the "we beat the internet" form on Town Fair's web site... surprisingly it tells me that they'll be in on Saturday the 13th... Nice! Then I get this:
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These tires had to be ordered from our alternate warehouse.They will be shipped Weds the 10th, but will not arrive in the Warwick, RI Town Fair Tire location until Monday the 15th at the earliest. Please check with the store before going in to pickup these tires.

Regards,
John Rose
Internet Sales Team

Your request:
Tire...
Size: 33-1350R15  Make: Interco  Model: Super Swamper LTB, LT 33.00 x 13.50-15, Bias Ply

About competition...
Name: Summit Racing-orderedffrom tires inter
Website: www.summitracing.com
Price: 165.95  Quantity: 4  Shipping: 38.95  Your Total Price: 702.75
Tires to be picked up by customer.

Location: 548 - WARWICK
Date & Time Requested: Jun 13,2009 @ 9:00 AM

Town Fair Price: 172.25  Quantity: 4
Your Total Town Fair Price: 689.00

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Forward to June 24!!! I finally get my tires.

On the 29th I finally get it out and have bad handling problems... after some poking one tire was down to 8lbs! Thought it was a suspect rim leak around a balancing weight.

1'st get it back again, only to find out on the 3rd that I've got a pinhole in the sidewall - inside of the rear tire 2" from the rim!!! Apparently it was damaged in shipping.

Take it back, to their credit they get me a replacement at no charge in 4 days. However....

When I took it back one of the tires had a "hop" - only at 35 psi which is what they sent them home with - so I figured for the price I'd get a matching 5th for a spare. Try to make my locker happy.

I was told the tire would be in on the 13th (yeah a month later). As of today 18th it's still not in. So I stopped by to pick up my spare... I noticed what I thought was a plastic "button" stuck to the sidewall... so I pulled it off... it was a plastic wooden chair foot with a nail in the top - yeah, straight through the sidewall of my spare! Which, btw, was on the carrier when I dropped it off. There is NO WAY I would have missed something like that in the sidewall when I took it off the carrier.

So now 5 weeks later I have all 4 new tires, but am down a spare thanks to Town Fair Tire - it's the Warwick location that I'm dealing with, don't know if the rest go through these kinds of fiasco's or not, but it's been hands down the worst customer experience I've been through. The guy I dealt with was nice enough, kept blaming their distributor, but enough's enough.

Looks like I'm going to try to make it to Elias if I can get up there when their open. This is ridiculous.

[Mitch]

sorry you had such a hard time, I am sure our vendors will be able to take care of you. Support local shops

[BiGdAdDeE]

never heard bad issues with our vendors like that.  Shop inner club and save in the long run

[jonnyri]

Yeah, well fortunately it didn't cost me much other than aggravation. It's a good lesson about shopping local and supporting the community instead of big chains.

[Ian]

i've just been buying used tires lately.  i let someone else get all that excitement and i get broken in tires

[UnsanePyro]

I hate to say it but it doesn't surprise me.

I went into the Seekonk store looking for a couple tires for my girlfriends car, and the first tires they showed me were complete junk, and way over priced ($80+ a piece, 185/70/14) but offered 5% off if I made an appointment or 10% if I did it that day.  I basically felt like they were trying to scam me from the time I walked in the door.

I have a lot of customers come in with problems of studs breaking, stripped lugs, chipped up wheels and the like after having work done there.  TFT calls me pretty often for studs/nuts too, enough that I won't go there.