20 Feb, 2020 → by ClaimboUser242796
Good tires, terrible customer service.

1

It makes me legitimately sad that I must resort to leaving a negative review, that means that negotiations have failed. I've tried multiple times to resolve this issue through the proper channels, yet Bridgestone seems unable or unwilling to care. As a former employee of the company, I witnessed many customers complain to corporate with ridiculous, outrageous claims, and we would be forced to fix their vehicles for free every time. However, when I encountered an actual problem, I couldn't even get a callback. Throughout 2018 and 2019, while traveling the country for work, I noticed that my front tires were wearing unevenly. I had bought a lifetime alignment for my 2014 Chevy 3500 dually, so I attempted to utilize it. Through multiple states and shops I was turned away or given subpar attempts to align my front end. I worked as a General Service technician and an Installer for over two years. I fully understand what it takes to properly align a heavy-duty truck, and how time/labor intensive it is. It's a hard job that pays nothing and eats your time when a customer has a lifetime alignment. No one wants it, but it still needs to be done when a customer has paid for the service. And it needs to be done correctly. I was shocked at how many techs would simply perform a "toe and go" when my camber was clearly the issue. I even offered to perform the work myself with my own tools in multiple shops, of course they declined. Every time I would be shown an alignment printout with all the numbers "in the green." But the camber would always be right on the edge. I would bring this to the managers attention, but would be brushed aside and told it was fine. However, the inside edge of my tires wearing bald TENS OF THOUSAND OF MILES EARLY would indicate otherwise. I still had about 6-7mm of tread depth. This wasn't an issue with parts gone bad, the techs would shake down the front end and confirm that nothing was loose. I promise you it was solid, because they would have happily recommended any installation job necessary in order to make something off a free job. I was forced to buy new front tires about two years early solely due to negligence or laziness, I don't know which. I feel I should be compensated for this, as well as for the money spent on the, obviously useless, lifetime alignment. But that's not even the end of the story. Ridiculous, I know, but stick with me. Anyway, in mid 2018, I had to get new rear tires, that's four on a dually. Speaking of it being a dually, you may not know that the inside of the wheel faces out. Well, they must have put the new kid on the job because someone just threw them on the tire machine and let the teeth dig nice big gouges in the chrome. If you didn't know, the tire mounting machines can grab on the edge of the wheel instead of the inside, specifically for situations like this. I was willing to just let that go until the alignment problem became, well, a problem. On 4/15/2019 at 3:10 pm I called Bridgestone customer service for the first time and spoke with a man named Cody. He agreed that this was a mess, that I should be compensated, and said that he'd pass on my file (file #235****) to the right people. I was told to sit back and wait for a call to resolve this, a call that never came. Over the next few months I called back multiple times, only to be informed that they were the highest echelon a customer could speak with, unless someone at corporate deemed me to be worthy of a callback. They even gave me a different super special secret corporate number for me to leave a message at. Clearly, I was never worth someone's time. As a homeless, disabled, combat veteran, this money means quite a lot to me. I can't just write off a few hundred dollars, because that's often the difference between us eating or not, every month. I hope this ends in a positive way, but after their extreme apathy, I highly doubt it. If you chose to give your business to Bridgestone through a Firestone/Tires Plus store, or by purchasing any of their products, I hope that you'll consider my story first.
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