Sorry for the long story, but this is one of those customer service nightmares, and it's not easy to tell shorthand.
Got what I thought was a smoking deal on a set of four new Michelin LTX M+S tires on Walmart.com. Ordered the tires online, went in at opening, 7am, a couple of weeks ago, to have them installed at the local Walmart Super Center.
Not the best managed department, short handed, people not working efficiently, folks behaving a bit confused. Despite the fact that i was the first customer, it took until 8am until they were ready to service my vehicle. Service tech told me it would be about 45 minutes for the install. Went to do my grocery shopping in the meantime. That was my first mistake (or second, if you think getting auto service at Walmart is an issue).
Came back with my groceries at 8:45. Vehicle still on the lift. Wandered around with my paid for groceries for 15 minutes, worrying about the milk and steaks in the cart. Came back to auto service, vehicle still on the lift. Rinse, repeat, for another hour. Then, finally, car down off lift and out of service bay, another fifteen minutes to check out due to more confusions and inefficiency. Non-functioning register, all they could give me was the service sheet as a receipt.
Load up the groceries, get in the car, start to drive out of the parking lot. "Tire pressure sensor fault" pops up on the message center of the vehicle, and the low tire pressure symbol lights up. Decision time: Go back and waste who knows how much more time, and sacrifice the milk and the meat, or go home and come back another day? I chose the latter. Probably my second mistake.
I went back the following week, again, 7am, this time second in line. More staff confusion. The only person in the department at opening is a trainee who isn't certified to work on vehicles yet. Three assistant managers hover around, calling in employees late for work, apologizing, blah blah blah. They gave three of us who had been waiting since 7am $20 gift cards as an apology. Finally, by 9am I get a service tech, explain the issue, and they get my vehicle on the lift. I wander around some more (no grocery mistake this time). I come back to the department numerous times, and by 10am the vehicle is off the lift. Tech comes in and says, "You're missing a tire pressure band and sensor." I say: "Is it possible for my warning lights to not be illuminated with that missing?" He says, "No way to turn it off." I say, "Then, your tech lost it when they put the tires on." He says, it says right here on your ticket "Tire pressure sensor missing PR" (passenger right). Sure enough, the tech who worked on my car put that on the ticket. I didn't see the text in the lower corner of the sheet. But, nobody ever said anything to me during checkout (again, lots of staff confusion amidst customers who had been waiting way too long), and I drove off with the fault message appearing for the first time.
The circumstances suggest the tech broke or lost the sensor, didn't bother to tell me, and hoped I'd drive off without noticing (or perhaps be too worried about spoiled milk to complain).
Walmart took my word for it, but said I had to go to a local shop for the replacement/repair. They'd cover the repair. OK, that's gonna be another waste of time. I'm already at 5 hours for this tire install. I make an appointment to bring the car to the recommended repair shop the following week.
Dropped the car off yesterday. Get a call from the shop saying not only am I missing one sensor, but a second one isn't working, and can I leave it for a day so they can go get another sensor.
I know I'm gonna have a fight on my hands at Walmart over the total expense of this repair.
Picked up the vehicle. They billed Walmart $131 for one sensor, and ask me to pay $131 for the second one. It's not the shop's fight, so I pay the bill and head directly over to Walmart to have a conversation about how I brought four working tire pressure sensors into their shop, left with three, of which only two worked.
Got an assistant manager who was very nice, said all the right things, and said the department manager wasn't in until next week. He also said that they have complete camera coverage of the service techs and they'd review the footage, since there was an integrity issue involved. And that above a certain amount, they need approval from higher management to cover a repair bill.
And that's where it stands. And if you've read this far, thanks for your patience.
If you know anything about tire pressure sensors, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts on how something like this could happen.
If there was indeed a second failed sensor, in addition to the missing sensor, and it had nothing to do with the Walmart service, of course it's on me. But how does this sequence happen?
Got what I thought was a smoking deal on a set of four new Michelin LTX M+S tires on Walmart.com. Ordered the tires online, went in at opening, 7am, a couple of weeks ago, to have them installed at the local Walmart Super Center.
Not the best managed department, short handed, people not working efficiently, folks behaving a bit confused. Despite the fact that i was the first customer, it took until 8am until they were ready to service my vehicle. Service tech told me it would be about 45 minutes for the install. Went to do my grocery shopping in the meantime. That was my first mistake (or second, if you think getting auto service at Walmart is an issue).
Came back with my groceries at 8:45. Vehicle still on the lift. Wandered around with my paid for groceries for 15 minutes, worrying about the milk and steaks in the cart. Came back to auto service, vehicle still on the lift. Rinse, repeat, for another hour. Then, finally, car down off lift and out of service bay, another fifteen minutes to check out due to more confusions and inefficiency. Non-functioning register, all they could give me was the service sheet as a receipt.
Load up the groceries, get in the car, start to drive out of the parking lot. "Tire pressure sensor fault" pops up on the message center of the vehicle, and the low tire pressure symbol lights up. Decision time: Go back and waste who knows how much more time, and sacrifice the milk and the meat, or go home and come back another day? I chose the latter. Probably my second mistake.
I went back the following week, again, 7am, this time second in line. More staff confusion. The only person in the department at opening is a trainee who isn't certified to work on vehicles yet. Three assistant managers hover around, calling in employees late for work, apologizing, blah blah blah. They gave three of us who had been waiting since 7am $20 gift cards as an apology. Finally, by 9am I get a service tech, explain the issue, and they get my vehicle on the lift. I wander around some more (no grocery mistake this time). I come back to the department numerous times, and by 10am the vehicle is off the lift. Tech comes in and says, "You're missing a tire pressure band and sensor." I say: "Is it possible for my warning lights to not be illuminated with that missing?" He says, "No way to turn it off." I say, "Then, your tech lost it when they put the tires on." He says, it says right here on your ticket "Tire pressure sensor missing PR" (passenger right). Sure enough, the tech who worked on my car put that on the ticket. I didn't see the text in the lower corner of the sheet. But, nobody ever said anything to me during checkout (again, lots of staff confusion amidst customers who had been waiting way too long), and I drove off with the fault message appearing for the first time.
The circumstances suggest the tech broke or lost the sensor, didn't bother to tell me, and hoped I'd drive off without noticing (or perhaps be too worried about spoiled milk to complain).
Walmart took my word for it, but said I had to go to a local shop for the replacement/repair. They'd cover the repair. OK, that's gonna be another waste of time. I'm already at 5 hours for this tire install. I make an appointment to bring the car to the recommended repair shop the following week.
Dropped the car off yesterday. Get a call from the shop saying not only am I missing one sensor, but a second one isn't working, and can I leave it for a day so they can go get another sensor.
I know I'm gonna have a fight on my hands at Walmart over the total expense of this repair.
Picked up the vehicle. They billed Walmart $131 for one sensor, and ask me to pay $131 for the second one. It's not the shop's fight, so I pay the bill and head directly over to Walmart to have a conversation about how I brought four working tire pressure sensors into their shop, left with three, of which only two worked.
Got an assistant manager who was very nice, said all the right things, and said the department manager wasn't in until next week. He also said that they have complete camera coverage of the service techs and they'd review the footage, since there was an integrity issue involved. And that above a certain amount, they need approval from higher management to cover a repair bill.
And that's where it stands. And if you've read this far, thanks for your patience.
If you know anything about tire pressure sensors, I'd appreciate hearing your thoughts on how something like this could happen.
If there was indeed a second failed sensor, in addition to the missing sensor, and it had nothing to do with the Walmart service, of course it's on me. But how does this sequence happen?
