Mr. Tire Under Fire for Treading on Customers

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    Upsells are common with most businesses. But with auto repairs at “Mr. Tire,” a DC tire repair and auto service center, you might want to tread carefully.

    Kimberly Suiters is an investigator and reporter for ABC 7’s “7 On Your Side.” When on a quest for new tires, Suiters accidentally fell into a case worth investigating.

    After a series of tire blowouts, Suiters set out looking for sturdy, reliable, yet affordable tires. That’s how she found herself at Mr. Tire on Lee Highway in Arlington, Virginia.

    The manager at Mr. Tire was able to order wheels Suiter found on tirerack.com, beating the website’s price. She thought she had struck up a good deal.

    However, Suiters grew suspicious after arriving to pick up her vehicle. Upon arrival, her car wasn’t ready, and the manager met her with bad news. According to the manager, her tire’s caliper was locked, and her brake was “wasted.”

    He then urged repairs that would cost a shocking $800.

    Suiters quickly grew suspicious, and against the recommendation of Mr. Tire, got a second opinion. As it turns out, her tires were absolutely fine.

    Upon further investigation, Suiters found that she was not alone. In fact, she found upwards of 20 Yelp reviews, in which previous customers of Mr. Tire complained of the same thing.

    Unfortunately, such auto scams occur on a relatively frequent basis. Patrons will bring their automobiles in for an initial repair, and upon return, the mechanic will tell them that their car’s current prognosis is grim.

    A recent survey by the Car Care Council showed that 89% of all vehicles needed at least one repair. Unfortunately, it seems that auto repair services such as Mr. Tire are capitalizing on such a statistic.

    Justin Sevier, a former client of Mr. Tire, shared a similar experience.

    “They tried to scare me into have work done,” said Sevier. “They said, ‘Your car is horribly unsafe,’ basically trying to belittle me to make me scared enough to pay $2,500 to get the work done.”

    When contacted by ABC 7, the regional vice president for Monro (the parent company of Mr. Tire) said, “If we find someone trying to oversell customers or sell unnecessary repairs, we don’t retrain that employee, we terminate them.”

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