resharp001

The only thing that really stunk about getting a brand new tire.....was then I had a brand new tire in the mix while the others had 35% or so wear......which does have the potential to push you to buy ANOTHER brand new tire to mate with that replacement...LOL. It's never easy. Will be curious to see your outcome. subscribed for a follow-up.

lowendrider

Wasn't really planning on getting the replacement certificates when I got my tires but I did. Low and behold, hit something on the interstate and took out two tires. DTD hooked me up with two new tires delivered to my door, no questions asked! No hassle whatsoever. Great customer service...I'll buy more from them because of it no doubt.

Rednroll

Just an update, I've been distracted on other things and this fell by the way side. So just a follow up, today I called DTD and described the problem. They asked me to take it to a local DT shop, where they will do an inspection and decide if it can be repaired or will replace based upon their inspection decision. They didn't ask for photos to be sent of the damage while I was on the phone.

As mentioned, I'ld be pretty disappointed if I paid for the additional coverage to get a plug.

scooby snacks

Hey Red, Even if they replace it for you, I'm wondering if they will prorate the value of the tire life and make you pay the difference? Do you know? Just curious...

resharp001

The one I had completely replaced was no questions asked, no hassles. They were really good about it. If they deem it safe to plug though, I see them doing that. If a plug would not be safe, I would see them replacing it with no hassle. They have such good customer service, and I've always found it to be fair.

Rednroll

Yeah, there's supposed to be no prorate funny business. Below is the wording posted on their website, which I wish I had read ahead of time so I knew more about what I was buying. I'm typically not an impulse buyer and do my homework, so I felt very uncomfortable making the decision to purchase this additional coverage. When I ordered my tires from DTD, someone unexpectedly called me up, supposedly to "confirm my shipping address." Then went into the sales pitch and asked me if I wanted to purchase their certificate warranty. When I asked them what it covered, it was explained to me "if any damage ever happens for the life of the tires, we will replace the damaged tire, we will just ship you a new tire free of charge, even if you go off road and cut them to shreads on rocks." I then said ok....sounds like it may be a good idea for these expensive tires I purchased to have that type of insurance.

But here's the actual policy, with the parts that weren't at all mentioned to me over the phone in bold and is the reason I'm starting to feel a little bitter about this purchase and the way it seems to be going at this point. I'm getting this strange feeling that if the decision is made to plug the tire, then there may be some sharp screw drivers laying in my drive way one day, and if by chance they happen to puncture all four of my tires and I back over them a few times accidentally so the tires can't be repaired, then I may be making another claim in the future.

https://www.discounttiredirect.com/c...e/certificates

Rednroll

Hi Everyone,
I finally have a follow up on this since I took the day off of work, to get some time to bring this into a Discount Tire location.

Personally, I feel purchasing this additional coverage is a mistake for the majority, where overall I feel pretty disappointed. I'm certain some have benefited for purchasing this additional coverage, but the chances of that are very minimal unless you're off-roading on sharp rocks or by some freak of nature someone throws road spikes up in front of you, which in my case just isn't my use case and is very unlikely.

I got a plug repair job for my situation, which as I mentioned previously I get Free as part of my Sam's Club membership anyways.

I took it in, the Discount Tire shop which didn't seem overly busy since it was 10am on a Friday prior to Memorial Day weekend, where in my area most people are either working or busy traveling for going to Northern Michigan. Still there was a 1 1/2 hour wait for them to get to me.

While I was waiting I found out even more about this certificate policy I never knew prior to reading this sign posted in their lobby.




The major reasons I'm disappointed is because none of these disclaimers were pointed out to me prior by the rep from DTD doing the hard sell. What I was told was that "IF there are any defects or any damage happens to your tires such as nails, screws, glass, we will ship you out a replacement for the lifetime of ownership. Even if you drive them off road on sharp rocks and damage them, we will send you replacement or a refund if the tire is no longer available."

What I wasn't told during the phone call.
- I would have to bring the tires into a Discount Tire location for them to evaluate the damage.
- Depending on their evaluation, they would have the option to repair the damage instead of replacement.
- I was told "Lifetime" of owning the tires, but as you can see from the sign in their lobby which isn't anywhere that I've seen on their policy posted on their website, Lifetime seems to mean "3 years from date of purchase, or tread depth less than 3/32", which ever comes 1st." The tread depth is understandable but 3 years from date of purchase regardless of tread depth doesn't sound like the "lifetime" that I was described to me.
- It wasn't described to me their standard repairable and non repairable areas as shown in the posted lobby sign, where if you look at that image, you soon realize anything not near the side wall can be determined to be repairable. I don't know about anyone else but the majority of my driving doesn't involve driving on the side walls, and one of the major reasons I purchased the BFG KO2 tires were because of the extra protection on the side walls of these tires for any off road use anyways.

I'm 100% certain the reasons these things weren't brought to my attention on the phone call was because I was already on the fence about purchasing this additional coverage and in typical sales person fashion, he decided not to point out any of these additional parts of the policy which would have pushed me any further towards a decision to not purchase the additional warranty certificates.

In fact, even on the receipt that was sent to me, it mentions nothing about "repair" so that I would even start to question it, since I had 30 days to opt out from date of purchase. It ONLY mentions "Refund" and "Replacement" in the description. Coincidence? I doubt it.


Earlier in the discussion I had speculated and wondered, if they used "their determination" of repair or replacement as a way to push people into purchasing a replacement if they didn't have this coverage, and push those who did have the coverage into doing a repair. Well, just by chance I happened to get a closer answer to that speculation question. Since I was there for well over an hour, I was sitting next to an older friendly gentlemen who was very chatty. He had brought in his new Cadillac SUV because he had a screw in his tire and since he had brand new tires from his new vehicle purchase he hadn't purchased the certificates from Discount Tire. He told me, "Wow, I can't believe it, this was unexpected, this visit just cost me $340 for a replacement tire, where I had picked up a screw in my tire, and they determined it was not repairable." Now, I didn't have the opportunity to inspect his tire, but it seemed really strange to me and too coincidental of how 2 separate people with a screw/nail in one of their tires where one had the certificate and the other didn't, that the determinations both seemed to favor Discount Tire in regards to repair/replacement costs.

This is what I got for the additional certificate purchase. A nice $200 plug, where I had to wait for over 1 1/2 hours to get the repair done. Something, I would have gotten for FREE at Sam's Club, been able to do other things besides sit in a lobby, and would have likely been done in 1/2 the time.


Based on what I know now, I would advise anyone considering purchasing this coverage to not purchase it. If you want road hazard coverage, and additional tire damage repair/replacement coverage, then call your insurance company and have them give you a quote and add it on to your insurance policy. Afterall, that's what this is "Insurance", except the major difference is that your insurance company will likely give you a better rate, provide more services such as towing service if needed, and you won't have the same company who is responsible for the decision of repair/replacement being the same company with the most to lose/gain in making that decision. Thus, you remove the majority of the bias in the decision making by going through your insurance instead.

Due to what I feel was dishonesty by the DTD sales rep, (and yes, I consider not providing all the details as being dishonest), I will never purchase anything from Discount Tire again and will go to my usual Tire and Auto repair shop instead, which is Belle Tire where I have never felt any deceitfulness. As they say, "Fool me once, shame on you.....Fool me twice, shame on me." Discount Tire won't be given another opportunity to fool me twice.

karls10jk

I had a different experience with DTD and their tire warranty program....a couple times. My mom hit a pothole and a bubble appeared in the sidewall- new tire, no questions asked. I caught a nail in the shoulder of my 265/70-17 BFG (not so) Rugged Terrain- new tire and no inspection required. I had a friend hit a piece of rebar on the highway with 300 miles on his brand new MTR/K's- brand new tire...in 48 hours.

I also had a plug put in my current set of tires. It was far enough off the shoulder that it's acceptable. The store had me in and out in less than 30 mins. Other stores in the area wanted 4 hours. DTD was free and the other stores wanted $15-25 for the repair (since it's a "large tire), and an additional price for balancing. DTD did the Road Force balance for free with the repair.


That's my experience so I'll probably stick to buying the certificates, but I can see where you'd be disappointed.

Rednroll

I'm mostly disappointed, due to what I was told or more so not told when I asked the DTD sales rep about what was covered and not covered. Nothing was mentioned about repair, as well as nothing about replacement would likely only involve damage near the side walls and as I mentioned due to the fact that the KO2 is advertised as having additional side wall protection, that played a factor in my tire purchase decision already. The way I look at it, especially for our Jeeps, is that we are paying for coverage on 5 tires. One of those tires will not be on the road with the other 4, so we're really paying a higher price per tire for the coverage, the odds of the spare getting damaged is very unlikely.

Another way I look at it, even with the experiences you had, is that the coverage cost me $200. A 315/70/R17 BFG KO2 can now be purchased new for $200. So essentially, I see it as I'm paying for a replacement ahead of time but one where I lose my choice in deciding if I'ld like to use that replacement or repair my current tire. I'm handing that choice over to DTD by giving them $200 to make that choice for me. I feel I'm essentially saying, "I'm unable to make my own decisions for myself, here you go DTD, take my $200, please make my decisions for me since I'm incapable of making them for myself." I rather keep my choice in being able to make the decision if I would like a replacement or a repair. So even with the situations you described of where a replacement was received, they just got the new tire that they paid for ahead of time. What you're really banking on by purchasing this coverage is if you run into a situation where you damaged 2 or more tires that couldn't be repaired as determined by DT. Then and only then are you seeing a benefit to this coverage, and the odds of that happening are not in your favor. Therefore, I will definitely pass on it in the future, I prefer maintaining control over making my own decisions for myself.

resharp001

Seeing the picture of where the damage was, a plug is exactly what I would have expected. I do understand WHY you’re disappointed though if the warranty was sold to you as you described. I’ve never experienced that and the guys have always been upfront about the warranty to me….although I’ve seen those signs and such all over, so maybe it was more just me being more aware of what the warranty really was. I will say though, I was NOT aware of the 3-year rule in regards to “lifetime”, and that does indeed sound redonk.

In general, I am not a fan of the certificates at all. I only bought them one time, on my first set of new 35s back in 2013. I mainly did that out of concern of offroading issues. That time it did end up paying for itself after I pulled a rookie mistake and stabbed a tire with a quick disconnect peg on my front sway bar….resulting in a nice golf ball size bubble on the sidewall. It was replaced with no questions asked. I’ve also seen a few instances with friends that had off road damage that got free replacements with no questions asked. I do agree in general though….you are so unlikely to see that kind of damage on the road that the warranty for a “replacement” would rarely come in to play.

With my 37” Nittos, I wasn’t willing to swallow the 2/3 cost of a new tire to get the certs. It was a gamble. I do have a could big gashes on the sidewalls from rocks that I am 95% certain would have led to a new tire, but oh well. I’d rather take my chances of having to buy a new tire myself. Wife recently had to get a couple tires on my commuter car. I told her NOT to pay for certificates. Got an emailed receipt that showed she DID pay for them, and immediately called her while still there to get the refund. She was like “it’s only another $22”…..to which I instructed her to reach in to her pocket, take out a $20 bill, walk to the coffee station, and throw it in the trash can……cuz that would be the same thing…and “it’s only $20 after all”.

Anyhow, I think in general, DT has pretty good service, but I see your frustration in this instance. Sorry it was so aggravating.