I'm Boycotting Sears Automotive...

I went on an adventure this past weekend, 28 Feb, 2009 after finding that one of the rims on the GTI was bent.

I remember hitting a pothole going about 60-ish a couple weeks back and didn't think anything about it. Big mistake. I should've had it checked out immediately. I would fill-up my tire with air to about 35 psi and by the next day it would be sitting at 16 psi.


To rectify this problem I quickly retreated to ncdubs.org to hunt down a second-hand set of rims for not a lot of money. A fellow Volkswagen enthusiast screen named: JeffyDahmer who happened have a set of rims for the right price. I made the arrangements to purchase these wheels and headed down to Wilmington.

The night prior I called Sears Automotive in Wilmington and made an appointment to have the tires on the old rims taken off, put on the new rims and put them on my car. I didn't expect this to be difficult for the technicians at Sears Automotive.

The wife and I walked around the mall for about 2 hours and found our way back to Sears to be greeted by the tech who was working on my car.

"There's a problem with the wheels," he informs me.

There certainly was a problem. The offset of the rim wasn't allowing for any sort of free motion and the rim was getting hung up on the brake caliper. I was disappointed and kicked myself for not thinking about this.

"No problem," I said, "Take two of the rims that aren't bent, put the tires back on them and put them back on the car."

After I was told it was done I went to pay and was promptly overcharged. When I brought it to the gentleman's attention he first tried to tell me I was wrong, until I showed him where I was previously charged the correct amount. He reluctantly changed it to the correct amount and I paid him.

The following days I noticed my front passenger tire wasn't holding air. I called the Jacksonville Sears Automotive and told them I went to Wilmington and I think they might have messed up my tire. They agreed to check it out for me.

I arrived at Sears in Jacksonville at 6 p.m. and by 8 p.m. only to find the retard in Wilmington put the ONE bent rim back on my car and that was the express reason my tire wouldn't stay inflated. Fortunately for Sears a fantastic individual in Jacksonville told me to bring in an unbent rim and he would get it fixed for free.

So, over the course of four days I spent $4 to fill up with air everyday, spent a combined total of 4 hours in Sears and $118 to get the work done initially and wasted a trip to Wilmington.

After I call back down to Wilmington I'll let you all know if I'm successful in either getting a refund for the work to compensate me for my wasted time or get that mouth-breather fired.

Thanks for reading,

WP