Tyres changed on refurbished wheels, reasonable expectations?
 

My Rota GRA's have recently been refurbished/ powder coated and owning the blemish free silly gold rims has been making me feel unreasonably and extremely content! :D Can't beat the feeling of cleaning an unkirbed wheel!! Now the tyres weren't too bad, but had been on for nearly four years and as I am driving the family through France and Spain for a couple of weeks I felt it wise to have a new set of Goodyear asymmetrics before we set off. My local fitters have done various bits for me and serviced my wife's car, always good blokes.

They gave me a good price on the tyres. I went to have them fitted and asked them to be careful etc. Tyres fitted looked fine, I had to go off to work out of town for a few days and didn't get chance to wash and degrease til the weekend day before we set off. Long story short, a small chip/chunk missing from nearside rear and a crease mark along rim. Other small marks/ rim indentations on others.

I have emailed them from Spain as they were closed on the day we set off so I'll take car in when I'm back. I realise I should have had the manager inspect each wheel before tyres were fitted rather than just trusting them to do a perfect job. If the refurb company were able to refit my old tyres to me newly refurbished wheels without a mark, I didn't expect this company, who I otherwise trusted, to have any problems doing the same.

They might be reasonable and have asked me to bring car in for them to see so I may possibly get a free refurb on the worst wheel. In fact they recommended the refurb company in the first place who did a cracking job! Think I will see if refurb company will fit tyres from now on. I can understand a lot of pressure is exerted on the wheel to get tyre on/off. They are giving me the spiel the paint may not have hardened on wheels but it has been a few months and a chip is a chip. New cars don't have marks on wheels, my newly refurbished wheels didn't have marks with tyres put back on. It is clearly doable to get tyres on wheels without damaging them??

Very annoying, but like anything, if not noted on collection it's going to be impossible to prove.

I recently had a similar issue, newly refurbed wheels and took the car in for a geo alignment. The alignment place said that when they took off the alignment rig, a bit chipped off one of the rims. They touched it in with paint and offered to pay for the wheel to be refurbished, which I had done and the invoice was sent straight to the alignment place. So no real harm done.

Unfortunate and very annoying. I had a similar incident with the guys I use all the time. I took brand new wheels still in the boxes to them, when I went to collect them I noticed one of the rims had a big bend in it.
When I asked what happened all I got was "low profile tyres are hard to get on, it sometimes happens".
I'm 2 year down the line and still no resolve.

I feel your pain.

How they respond will reveal all...regardless of whether or not they are legally obliged to make good as this wasn't declared upon collection, do they or do they not want your custom? Cost to them of getting this fixed vs cost of losing your business in the future. And possibly others' business, if you eventually choose to name names.

I have used them a lot so we'll see. Unless most of any new tyre business is to fit on steelies or on to already badly curbed alloys there must be problems all the time.

Got back from hols went to see tyre place and manager agreed straight away to fund refurb for worst affected wheel, which I think is very good service three weeks after event. Getting the tyre off and breaking the bead requires more force and is where worst damage can be caused apparently, which is why newly refurbished wheels with tyres put back on are in such good nick. Refurb takes care of damage caused getting tyres off etc. At least I've gained some knowledge for when it comes to future tyre changes and refurbs. Best solution is, if possible, to time a refurb with new tyres.