pneu-moania
Posted on October 6th, 2008 by whinger. Filed under Whinges.
I need a new tyre (I think mine has a slow puncture) and I found these guys – tyre fit direct – who seemed to be offering the best deal for an on-site fitting (actually the best price at all – even cheaper than the remarkable black circles) for the Conti I wanted.
So I go through the order process, which seems all well and good: I get an email back telling me that most orders will, if placed before 10:30 (mine was around 9:33), be fulfilled the same working day.
I sit back and wait but, when lunchtime arrives and I’ve heard nothing I figure I should check to make sure that the order hasn’t just disappeared into the internet ether. One phone call to tyrefitdirect and “they’re trying to find a fitter nearby as their normal fitter’s van is broken”. Hmm.
At 13:57 I get a short phone message telling me that they’re cancelling the order; they’re not sure what’s wrong with the van and they don’t know when it will be fixed. I get the distinct impression that the van doesn’t actually exist.
There are two things wrong with this. First, their tagline is “Mobile Tyres Fitted Nationally”, not “Mobile Tyres Fitted Nationally (as long as you’re in one of our three delivery areas)”. Second, can it really take four and a half hours to figure out they won’t be able to fulfill the order?
For future reference, Mr TyreFitDirect, if you’re serious about “fitted nationally” the right thing to do is to send a non-local van to fit my tyre. It may cost you a bit more but it will pay in the long run because you won’t get bad publicity like, erm, this blog post.
Failing that, tell the customer up-front and don’t wait for him to call you.
You see, the problem is that the impression I now have is that tyrefitdirect.co.uk are just a bunch of cowboys who probably have a couple of fitters signed up and (if you’re lucky enough to live in the right area) will turn up with the wrong tyre and expect you to accept it because you’ve waited all day and you need the tyre to get home. So next time I shan’t even bother and I recommend that others don’t either.
So I’ve gone with the excellent e-tyres instead, who are a little more expensive (actually 10% more) but who have delivered on their promises and done an excellent job the last three times I’ve used them. I suppose “you get what you pay for” applies here as anywhere else.
Edit on 7th October: I spoke too soon – etyres have just called to say their systems were down overnight so now I have to wait another day. They are at least apologetic enough to send me a £10 voucher though, which is more than our friends at “Mobile Tyres Fitted Nationally” ever did, and at least they’re coming tomorrow (touch wood…).
September 16th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Interesting…. I’ve had a rather poor experience with these guys too.
I used tyrefitdirect to get four new tyres for our family car. Since then (about 4 months ago) I had to pump them up every 2 or 3 weeks. All four tyres keep going down. Clearly a problem with the way they were fitted as previous lot never needed pumping up.
Eventually I got around to finding their number (the one in the email from them no longer works) and giving them a call.
The response – “it must be a problem with your rims”, then when pushed “you took too long to report the problem, can’t help you”, then when pushed a bit more “we will have to charge for a call out”….
Needless to say I will not consider using them again. They do a rubbish job, and have no customer service.
December 15th, 2009 at 7:12 pm
Don’t deal with this company , it’s full of rubbish and they lie and cheat.
I rather go from now on to e-tyres at least i know thati get a proper service from them.
This company like tyrefitdirect should be checked by police.
February 15th, 2010 at 4:08 pm
Not having a huge amount of joy with tyrefitdirect either. Ordered a pair tyres, they ‘phoned me to tell me that their stock system was wrong so the ones I’d ordered were shown as in stock when in fact they weren’t. Caller was pleasant & helpful & suggested alternatives, I went online and chose my own alternative. Man with van showed up & fitted tyres on the day promised (early Dec 2009). Since the beginning of Jan I’ve ‘phoned them every week asking for a VAT invoice, every time I’m told there’s a backlog and it’ll be sent out next week. Can’t claim the money back from my employer (it’s a company vehicle) until I get a receipt, so I’m £146 out of pocket and don’t believe they are ever going to send me a receipt.