Tyre shop has lost my tyre... sort of

B-Rex

Member
 Oxford
A few weeks ago I took my Z to my local tyre shop to have Falken FK452s fitted. I don't know how old/new the OEM tyres were but I had only had the car for 2-3 weeks and BMW had done an MOT the day before I collected, so they were at least road legal. As I was swapping all 4 tyres, I assumed they would put them aside for me and not just throw them out. I certainly wanted to keep them for sale on ebay or putting them in a safe place if I wanted to trade back in to BMW in the future.

Anyway, as I was leaving the place, I said to the manager that I would be coming back later in my Ford Focus to collect the tyres they had taken off the Z4. He said that was fine. I returned just before closing to be met with baffled looks and cries of "you should have said you wanted them". The manager took me round the back and we searched for the buggers. We found 3, but the 4th was nowhere to be found. He took my number and said he would keep looking for me during the week. I phoned every few days and he kept telling me "I haven't had time" or "I haven't found it yet". The next week I kept badgering him and he said "I promise I will find it". Then one day he said that they had a collection on Saturday (the one just gone) and that he would find it before then. I called on Saturday morning and he said the collection had been moved to Tuesday and he hadn't found it yet. I popped in again this morning on my way to work and was met by the manager again who just grinned and said he hadn't found it yet but again promised that he would.

I'm getting increasingly pissed off as the guy clearly isn't taking it seriously. I'm wondering at what point I need to start making suggestions about a replacement tyre or taking them to the small claims court. Do I even have a leg to stand on in this respect? I'd be pleased to hear your thoughts...
 
Seems to me to be pretty obvious that he was aware you wanted them and has now failed to find it. I'd suggest that a car coming from BMW woudl have all 4 tyres with similar amounts of tread. Take the price of a new one and divide by the percentage of total useful lieftime tread used and ask for that in compensation.

So a £200 tyre starting at 8mm with legal at 2mm (6mm usable) with say 5mm remaining (3 usable) would be valued at £100, etc. In reality it's arguably worth less on the market but more to you as it makes a set to put on if you sell or trade in.

Go down that route until he magics the tyre up.
 
You think the bloke would have stuck his hand in his pocket by now given you £50 to say sorry :thumbsdown: your right to be annoyed
 
Sounds like he's waiting for you to get fed up of asking.
DONT.
I'd now be asking for compensation, or ask him to buy the other 3 from you at a reasonable price as part worns.

Either way - don't let him wriggle off the hook.
 
Your tyre has gone mate, he's probably hoping for a car with the same tyres to come in with similar amount of tread and give you one when replacing with new.
 
If it had a decent amount of tread on it they will have sold it to somebody who trades part warns for probs a tenner and pocketed the cash. A lad a know who works for a local KwiK Fit says they all do it there.... when a car come in (normally a company car or something) and get tyres changed and the ones coming off still have a decent amount of tread they put them to one side then at the end of the week or whatever they sell them to a part warn trader for a five or tenner each and split the cash between the lads as a bonus! Its either gone that way or they have sold it themselves on ebay for £50 +!
 
Thanks chaps. When I went in yesterday I said I would come back on Saturday. If he still fobs me off I will start to talk about a replacement tyre and how they are going to help me pay for it...
 
I recently had a puncture on one of mine, took it in to the tyre shop and the guy said that was lucky,
he had just taken 4 part worn ones in, and he could let me have one cheap...... :poke: :D
 
Update on this...
My mrs popped in to the tyre shop yesterday as she was feeling in the mood to give someone a grilling :D and hey presto, "Slippery Joe" (as she calls him) wheeled my missing tyre around from the back. I went round to collect it and I now have a full set once again.

Anyone want to buy them? :lol:
 
Typical - I only just properly checked the tyre and it's a 255/40/R17 not 225/40/R18 like it should be... this one isn't over yet :x
 
B-Rex said:
Typical - I only just properly checked the tyre and it's a 255/40/R17 not 225/40/R18 like it should be... this one isn't over yet :x
for a moment there before I read it properly I thought you meant they had FITTED an R17 on an 18" rim... which would have been fun to see :o
 
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