jakermc

Exactly! I'm a little biased as I own an independent shop, but why would you give kudos to Costco for paying you out instead of shaming them for poorly trained employees? Mounting and balancing performance tires on expensive wheels is not a trivial exercise. Costco's "automotive department" is not equipped to handle it reliably. Besides damage, we have countless Costco customers come to us to rebalance tires and fix their work. Also, you really shouldn't get tires at a place that can't do an alignment. In Costco's case, they literally can't do one - they don't have the equipment much less the training. I'd recommend you support your local automotive shops. It really won't cost you any more money and you will get significantly better service. And you might even fell good about supporting the little guy.

straka

I'd like to repeat what was in my original post. The facilities and the service I had previously experienced at the Costco Tire Center was exemplary. Four complete sets of new tires installed over the last five years with no issues. All techs are Michelin trained and certified (more than can be said for service at many other tire outlets where I live.) All equipment is modern and the garage is immaculate. What I think happened was an inexperienced new employee was assigned to my Porsche! This could happen anywhere, considering the tire services provided where I live. It could happen at a Porsche dealership. This is a management error as well as the employee's. I have the impression that the person scheduling the work didn't know the difference between a Porsche and a Camry and had no hands on experience, just serving at the customer desk. Once past this misgiving, there are some very experienced people doing the tire mounting. To make it right the new replacement rims had the tires mounted by the tire center manager. I was given an appointment before the tire center opened in the morning and was the only car there. From now on I won't assume anything and let them know what my expectations are. I will always take pictures of the rims and my car before its serviced. This can happen anywhere. I was lucky that Costco made it right by replacing the rims.

NCheok

Great outcome and thank you for coming through to update everyone, very happy for you that they replaced with brand new OEM Porsche rims at their cost.

Let's leave it to individual owners on where they would like to take their cars to be worked on.