[mschact1]

My grandmother (a Village Resident) went to The Tire Choice to get her spare tire patched as there was a nail in her tire. She took her car to The Tire Choice at Colony and was told that she needed all new tires (her tires were less than 2 years old, and she drives less than 3,000 miles a year. She is not a snow bird and resides in The Villages full time). She was told that her tires were unsafe to drive on, and that her rear brakes were also bad and needed to be replaced. The Tire Choice took it upon themselves to change her oil (she had no idea they were doing that), and charged her $44.99 for an oil change. Her final bill was over $1300. My grandmother gets her car serviced every year at the same place, not The Tire Choice, and 3 months ago had her oil changed (they put a new sticker in her window), and her car checked as part of her tune-up. Her brakes were at 75% (her pads and rotors were practically brand new), her tires were rated for 50,000 miles and had less than 6,000 miles on them, and her car was in great shape. The Tire Choice at Colony took advantage of my grandmother, and I have filed a report with the BBB about this and plan on reporting them to the police as well. According to the BBB, The Tire Choice has several complaints similar to this, and each one states that the sales people tell the customer things like "the car isn't safe to drive on those tires," or "we can't guarantee you won't break down as soon as you leave here," and other scare tactics to up their sales and prey on the elderly and those who are not "car savvy." I spoke to them about all of this and they had numerous stories, none of which remained the same in my several conversations with them, and they went so far as to say that my grandmother personally requested all of the work because she was driving her grand kids around that weekend. I am the only grand kid within a 100 mile radius and I am 34 with my own car. The Tire Choice will not provide any refund, and is unwilling to make any of their wrongs right. To make matters worse, my grandmothers spare tire in the trunk, the one she went in to have patched, is still in the trunk, and the nail is still in it. She went in for a tire to be plugged, left with a bill of over $1300, and a flat spare tire!

Update: 11/12/13:
I was contacted yesterday by the Regional Manager asking if we could resolve this. I told him that was and is of course my intent. He asked me to send him receipts from our regular mechanic for when my grandmothers tires were purchased, when her brakes were last inspected, and any other receipts showing her regular tune-ups and maintenance. I told Alan Jenkins, the Regional Manager, that it would take me a couple of days to obtain all of this, as I work in Lake Mary and live in the Villages, but as soon as I had what he requested, I would fax it to him. At 11:11 am this morning, he called and asked if I had the receipts yet. I told him that I needed a few days, just like I told him the day before, and when I had them I would fax them to him. Mr. Jenkins then asked that I take this post down while this matter is being discussed between he and I. I told him no, and that my reasoning is due to the number of complaints on the BBB website regarding this type of matter, and because as of right now, nothing has been resolved. Mr. Jenkins then threatened me by telling me that if I do not remove this post, he will not work with me at all to resolve this matter.

Today is the first time I have revisited this post, and am glad that so many people have read it, and responded. Many of the responses are of similar situations regarding The Tire Choice Total Car Care and how they make their customer feel as if their car (or golf cart) is unsafe to drive unless they perform unnecessary work. After they use these scare tactics, they get the customer to sign, authorizing the work to be done (being scared into signing for work is just as bad as being blackmailed into doing it), thus covering themselves from possible litigation...so they think! When I get work done by my mechanic, he calls me, tells me what is wrong with my car, asks me if I want the work to be done, and if I do, he does it, if I don't, he doesn't do it, and tells me how long he believes it will take for whatever it is that I refused to have fixed to finally give way. At no point do I sign an "Agreement" to do the work. This is how mechanics should operate, and people should be made aware that if a company needs you to sign an "Agreement," you should be skeptical. Of course there are exceptions to this, but not by any mechanic I have ever dealt with.

[justjim]

Report this as elder abuse. As you noted, this is not the first time Tire Choice has used the "upsell method" to get $$$$$ out of unsuspecting older people.

There is at least one other Thread documenting this same unethical behavior. So sorry this has happen to your grandmother.

[blueash]

Please post again once you get through the complaint process. It will be interesting to see what pressure from the police, BBB, and seniors vs. crime (if you haven't spoken with them you should) can accomplish. Sadly I suspect that grandma signed a work order and it will be their "expert" opinion that the work was needed. I'll bet the tires are long gone, but if not worth recovering as evidence. Lastly, small comfort, the less than 2 year old tires likely had a replacement warranty and Tire Choice should be helping you with getting money back from the manufacturer of the tires.

[John_W]

Last week I took my 1 year old car to Walmart on CR466 to have a tire checked out that had a slow leak. They patched the tire for $10.

[laceylady]

In this state there is an organization called Seniors Vs. crime. I suggest you also report this to them.

[jojo]

Note that there have been similar threads regarding upselling by Tire Choice. I experienced their attempt but they were not successful with me.

[mulligan]

This will never happen at Wildwood Tire, a TOTV advertiser.

[Bonnevie]

as a single parent whenever I had work done that was a familiar scare tactic....the brakes, the tires...of course I wanted my child safe. I used to joke that they started planning their vacations when they saw me coming.

[jimbo2012]

I went there to have tires I bought elsewhere ie: online,

They said $15, then they said oh you didn't buy them here $25 ea.

I went to a place on 441 had them done for $10

I already had the old off they didn't need to re-mount it.

They suck!!!!!

[yabbadu]

Hope someone is prosecuted for this. This is pure and simple elder abuse.........Keep us posted as to what happens!

[kittygilchrist]

recommending Sumter Tire, 301, wildwood. they came out of the garage to meet me in the parking lot. who does that? took my car in, fixed my flat in a few minutes and checked me out for small change. awesome job.

[mmac321]

I went in a year ago for a simple oil change and they said I needed over $900 in work. Have been going happily to Wildwood Tire ever sense.

[Golfingnut]

WOW

HUMMMMMM

I don't believe it. Sorry

[rockyisle]

Just a thought, but if she put it on her credit card, she should call the credit card company and tell them what happened to her (or you could) and tell them that she is refusing to pay the charge and will they help her. It's my understanding that some companies will help the elderly in cases like this - and it's definitely worth the effort. That's horrible - We appreciate your alerting us to this company. Let's put them out of business.

[logdog]

I went to the Tire Choice on 466 near Walmart a couple of years ago for a $10 oil change and they tried to sell about $600 in other "essential" repairs. I said no thanks and left with just the oil change.

This summer I went to the Tire Choice in Colony for the $10 oil change and they tried to scare me into replacing all my tires. I left with just the oil change. By the way, the other essential repairs apparently fixed themselves because this Tire Choice said everything else was fine.

So I know this place will try to upcharge but hard to believe they would actually do the work without authorization.