873/1960

I bought a set of 4 winter tires from TireRack about 10 days ago. Given that for most Porsche owners, winter tires get too old to mount long before the tread wears out, and that less reputable tire shops often sell old tires, I was curious to know exactly when my "new" tires were made. While two of the tires were made earlier this year, I was shocked to discover that two of them were mid-2012. This means that in effect they sold me tires that only have 2/3 the life of a new tire.

Longevity aside, this also means that my front and rear tires have substantially different traction characteristics, which both Porsche and TireRack warn strongly against. In fact I had three different TireRack sales reps warn me against buying tires which had, what was most likely, a smaller difference in traction performance than the "matched set" they sold me.

Over the years I've bought other things from them and have always had a good experience, and I've appreciated how active they are in car forums. However, I was really disappointed with this experience and I won't buy tires from them again. Selling me such a mismatched set is at best negligent, if not down right shady. I would suggest avoiding them for your tire needs.

Frank 993 C4S

So when you contacted them about your issue, what did they say? They are usually very good to deal with.

873/1960

I'm waiting for a response, but that's a little beside the point. MAYBE this was some freak mistake that never happens, their employee forgot to check the date of the tires before packing them, and they will be terribly sorry and make it up to me somehow. Or, more likely, they take a policy of "buyer beware" and leave it up to the customer to check and complain, which maximizes their sales at the customer's expense. Assuming the later, I'm urging others to "beware."

Either way, they wasted at least a half-day of my time, my mechanics time, their own time, and a fair amount of money shipping things back and forth.

If I hear otherwise from them, I'll correct my post.

873/1960

They've now replied and offered a $25 credit per tire, which isn't even half of the pro-rated "use" the tires have lost, even accepting TireRack's very dubious 10yr "shelf life" figure. A claim that Porsche categorically rejects.

ckarlos

One reason why I usually buy from local tire shops and not from online store is to avoid such problem. If there's any issue, I can easily contact them.

michaelo

I have returned tires to them in the past - why couldn't you?

leftlane

I've always found Damon at Tirerack to be super helpful - maybe you can reach out to him in this instance as well.

brad@tirerack.com

Were the tires driven on before you called us? PM me your order number and I will look into it. Please see this post. This isn't the first time this issue has been visited. I'm sorry what you got is older than what you would have liked. Feel free to call me in the future, I'm happy to help.

873/1960

Damon,

Thanks for being active on here. The tires WERE driven on, and I was very clear on your return policy. I have no gripes with it, nor did I even try to return the tires. It makes total sense to me that you not accept returns on mounted tires.

My issue is more with a sort of betrayal of trust. I don't want to have to have a "buyer beware" attitude when I buy from you. I realize mistakes happen, or something may get damaged in shipping, but this was at best careless, or more likely deliberate corner-cutting at the customers expense.

In my case, returning the tires would have meant that I didn't get home for Thanksgiving, and probably would have meant another week without a car, which meant another $150-200 in taxi fares. Not to mention all the other hassle involved.

I don't really believe that your "volume is too great" to have a simple step somewhere in your shipping process where whoever is packaging the tires can take a look at the dates, and in the "rare cases" where a tire is 2 years old, put the order on hold. Volume has no effect on your ability to check that. Thousands of other stores and industries, both larger and smaller manage to do this just fine.

I grew up in a country where you had to check the date on the milk carton because it wasn't uncommon for supermarkets to put out milk that was well past its expiration date. While with milk, it's a relatively minor inconvenience if you happen to return home with rancid milk, I still much prefer the way things are generally done here, where most stores think it's a bad idea to sell old stock (or at least don't do so without putting it in the sale bin).

I wasn't posting to try and get TireRack to recompense me in some way. You put yourselves and me in a situation without any good possible outcomes. I'm posting because if this is the way you do business, people need to factor that into their buying calculus. That buying from you means a very real chance that the tires need to be returned. A good return policy doesn't help with the inconvenience of having to ship huge bulky items back and forth. Also, if you can't check the date of tires you ship, then it seems like one might have to return tires multiple times until you get some that aren't ancient?

-Dave

873/1960

In the interest of full disclosure, I'll say that before Damon posted on here TR refunded me $70 instead of the $50 they'd offered. That doesn't really change how I feel given that it is does nothing to address the potential safety issues and ignoring that, it's still less than half of what the prorated amount of "lost use" should have been. (Not that I think anyone should care about that, but I thought it important to accurately represent what TR has done).

mjsporsche

I think if you try to lower the volume of your complaints (which I fully appreciate) and work with Damon, they might send you a better matched pair of tires to replace the 2012 dated ones and then you simply return the old ones.

This has happened before with TR and other internet based tire companies. It is how they deal with the issue that really counts in my book. Sure...it would be nice if there was another step in the shipping process that matched date codes but process reengineering will not fix your issue.

Good luck with getting a reasonable resolution.

AA717driver

Something about Honey v. Vinegar....

TC