Case closed....Renato from Tire Traders claims he will be sending me a replacement tire. Almost 3 months....I'm tired......
Replacement showed up! A week short of 3 months.....customer "service". New tire is 2 yrs old based on date code.....oh well at least I got a tire....hopefully a ROUND one!
Most manufactures won't warranty a product that was bought from many online vendors like eBay. Too many counterfeits. Several years ago, a guy at work purchased an Aeromotive fuel pump from an eBay storefor 2/3 of the cost at Summit. It failed and when he sent it back to Aeromotive for warranty, they said it was counterfeit. I very rarely shop at Walmart, but I took my uncle there for his prescription and I purchased some shampoo that I have used for years. It was a different shade of green , very watery, and wouldn't lather. I figured that they just changed the product, but when I buy it from other stores, it's the old formula. My girlfriend works in quality control for a company and she told me that their products that are sold at Walmart are different than the products sold at other stores. A few years ago, a Stanley hammer that was sold only at Walmart was recalled due to the rubber grip coming off of the handle. Walmart tells companies what they will pay for a product so the company either makes the product cheaper or makes less money on the product if it is to be sold at Walmart.
This is true. The engineering company that I used to work for was doing a job for a bakery in Pennsylvania. On a site visit, we noticed one of their baking lines was separate from the others and labeled “Walmart”. We asked one of the employees about it and he said that line was only used for products sold by Walmart. He said that Walmart beat them down so badly on prices that the only way they could make a profit on items sold to Walmart was by having a separate line where they used the cheapest ingredients available to make the products. Their regular lines used the highest quality ingredients.
Counterfeiters are real tricky. A number of years ago I bought an electronic keypad lock for our door. My parents had one, Weiser brand I think, and they had no issues so I bought the same exact model on eBay. 6 months later it quit working. Called the 800 number and the first question the customer service representative asked was “is the first button a 0 and 1 or a 1 and a 2”. I answered 0 and 1. She said it is counterfeit and could not help me. Went and looked at my parent’s lock and sure enough, looked exactly the same as my new lock except for the number order.
Good luck Mike.....make sure they are round. Would recommend balancing on a force variation machine that simulates the road. Mine were done on regular machine and we had to visually condemn it. The force machine will fail it....if bad.
Well, the wheels are brand new also, so if there's a balance issue, at least i know what to blame Thanks !
Don't be so sure. I purchased two Centerline wheels from Summit. They forgot? to balance them. When I took them to a tire shop to balance, the manager said that there was too much runout to balance. I took them back to Summit and they confirmed the the wheels were bad and gave me full credit for the wheels even though Centerline had gone out of business.
I give up...now the other tire is shaking up a storm. This is the second tire from the original order. The replacement seems ok so far but now I have to deal with this one. Barely driveable. Jacked truck up and ran it and it has a wobble and a hop. Must have been a bad batch. I wish I had gone with Coopers....these 'stones are GARBAGE! I put some 30yr old dry rotted Michelins back on and it rides smooth with them......
Just spent over an hour with Firestone....disconnected 2 times. Finally got someone in warranty and he claims his database does not show any 295/50-15 made in 2021 as mine are stamped. Last made in 2018. WTF? So I sent him a pic of DOT code. He was baffled. Counterfeit? He said call Priority Tire. Been on hold 30 min so far with them.....so sick of this.....
I'm thinking belt separation. They were OK for about 100 miles.....maybe a bonding issue? Not even hot weather.... I can deal with a tire slightly out of round but this thing wobbles and hops....
Thanks for your review. My BFGs are ancient now and I was contemplating 'stones versus Cooper. Message received!
Ordered some Coopers....messaged them before ordering as to where they were made. They said Findlay, OH. Got them yesterday and made in MEXICO. Mounted them up and they took a ton of weight to balance but at least aren't hopping.....
Very strange. All of my tires have a 4-digital date code as described by these manufacturers or vendors below. Your picture shows a 3-digit code. Is there a 4-digit code somewhere else on the tire? From Goodyear website: "The last four numbers represent the manufacturer's date. The first two numbers indicate the week, while the last two indicate the year. (For example, a tire with the number 2910 was manufactured in the 29th week of 2010.) From TireRack.com: "Since 2000, the week and year the tire was produced has been provided by the last four digits of the Tire Identification Number with the 2 digits being used to identify the week immediately preceding the 2 digits used to identify the year." From Priority Tire: How to read a tire date code: The tire date code consists of four numbers. The first two digits indicate the week, while the second two identify the year when a specific tire was manufactured. So, if the number is 1221, that means it was produced in the 21st week of 2021. I bought a set of Michelins for my wife's car last Summer and they said "Made in USA" 0n the sidewall. They were not cheap but they balanced easily and ride as smooth as pond water.
That really stinks since you specially asked before hand and were told Ohio. Here is some more tire trickery for you. While sitting in the drop-off line at the elementary school I look over at the 4x4 beside me and the tire says "MADE FOR AMERICA" rather than made in America.
I always bought my zip ties from Lowes because they were made in USA and were very good quality. Now the same brand is made in China. I'm walking out of Ace Hardware and see a rack of zip ties and the packages have an American flag on them. I bought two packages and when I got home, I looked at the packages and they said made in China! It should be illegal to put an American flag on something imported.
