Pays to be patient and courteous

Last month, we had a tire saga with Sears and Mercedes dealer.  What started out as a simple nail patch in the tire took an unexpected turn.  Fortunately, after few weeks, we finally got reimbursed for the full expense.

Here's the picture of the original nail in the tire.  I took the car to Sears Auto so they could repair the tire.  But was called back after an hour and they showed me the 2nd picture below.  Notice how the nail is no longer an issue now.

 

 

According to the Sears technician, when he unmounted the tire, the shovel went right through the tire and (whatever that means...) the only way this could happen is if the tire is defective in the first place.  Not knowing anything about tire or how this works, we took the car to the dealer and asked for their opinion.  BTW, note to other SLK owners, the tire does not fit in the trunk :-)  Of course, as expected, the dealer concluded that this is not a Michelin defect and it was Sears' responsiblity.  To avoid more hassles, we just paid Mercedes to put on the new tire for $400 (ouch!)

Few days later, I returned to Sears to speak with the store manager.  He is was friendly, courteous, but insisted that this is a defective Michelin tire.  Without any progress, I finally wrote to both Michelin corporate and Sears corporate to explain the situation.  Michelin informed me that "... inform Sears that you have been instructed by Michelin to have them contact us at the number below to discuss their findings...".  On the other hand, Sears corporate forwarded my email to Sears Regional office and within days, the same store manager contacted me.

I brought in the tire and the letter from Michelin.  To my surprise, after about 5 minutes, he said: "You know what I'm going to do for you... you've been so patient, friendly and just a nice customer, I've asked my regional manager and he agreed that we can just refund you back the full amount" Victory for us! :-)

Lessons we learned from this?

• Patience.  Right after the event, frustrated and upset, we didn't react immediately.  It was helpful that we were both so busy with work and we could only handle this when we finally got time.  By then, the calmer temperament helped.
• Even in such situation, I think staying friendly and reasonable helped in our case.  The store manager told me repeatedly that he thought I was nice and resonable.  I explained to him that I'm just a customer stuck in the middle.
• Maybe it is just safer to take a new car to the dealer for service next time.