America's Tire

[mrblaine]

I just heard from my favorite tire guy at America's Tire that they will be picking and choosing which tires they will accept under their certificate program.

Personally, I'd prefer not to have them do this and in discussing this issue with Tom, he was not aware of just how many of us participate in the program nor what if any impact this would have on their sales were the program to be denied to us.

He was also not aware of the various jeep forums where the Stores and program are recommended. I'd like to educate them if possible by getting the word out to as many places as possible where folks can give their input to A/T.

Basically they are not going to issue certs on any "mud tread" or "offroad" looking tire. That includes MT/R's, BFG Mud Terrains, and any other Agressive looking offroad inspired tire.

Now, Tom is still trying to get a clarification from A/T as to the exact specifics of all of this. I would like to suggest that any and everyone who would like for the program to continue, contact A/T and make the following suggestions.

1- No longer warranty tires that are not purchased through A/T.

2-Slightly increase the cert cost for perceived "offroad" tires.

I know that this will not benefit all of us, but A/T needs to understand through our efforts that the only edge they have in tire sales over the myriad of other tire vendors is their certificate program.

I know I have used it a bunch and because of it have purchased my Tow Rig tires, my trailer tires, and several sets of Jeep tires.

I know full well that I don't need the certs on my trailer or truck tires as badly as I do on my rig, but I figure if they take care of me in one area, I can at least return the favor by further business in another.

[Robert J. Yates]

What about current certs Blaine - will they be honored? This development sucks

[Dukes69]

Originally posted by mrblaine
I know full well that I don't need the certs on my trailer or truck tires as badly as I do on my rig, but I figure if they take care of me in one area, I can at least return the favor by further business in another.

Thats the key for us. We havent bought the certs on our Daily drivers, but because they take care of us with the Jeeps, we keep coming back.

Unfortunatly I dont think they will be losing much business if they discontinue the "offroad" tire certs.

Are they going to keep the current certs, or will those get refunded?

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by Dukes69
Thats the key for us. We havent bought the certs on our Daily drivers, but because they take care of us with the Jeeps, we keep coming back.

Unfortunatly I dont think they will be losing much business if they discontinue the "offroad" tire certs.

Are they going to keep the current certs, or will those get refunded?

Basically it sounds as if they will replace the current tire under the certificate program and then not renew it.

Judging by the miniscule response so far, I'd have to agree that few care enough to have it impact their business. Oh well, it was a good deal while it lasted.

[NAILER341]

i called the AT in my area and they have heard nothing of not issuing the warranties on the mt/r's.
is it just your store?

[Iceman]

no A/T in the middle of nowhere in TX anyways, but I feel the pain for y'all that are living close by those stores and get yours replaced under the 'road hazard' deal

[Wind_Danzer]

Blaine,

Is America's Tire the same as Discount Tire? If so, I'd like to e-mail the guy we get our tires from in Phoenix to see if he's heard anything about this. I'm sure if they are the same company, just under a different name, they would probably follow one anothers actions.

[Robert J. Yates]

Same company - they honored my cert. last December if you might recall.

[Matt Pascoe]

IMO the only way that the road hazard is a good deal for someone is if they are using the tires on a trail only rig that tears tires up regularly. These are the type of customers that A/T does not want to provide the road hazard insurance to as they will and do lose money on them.

For a daily driver, A/T makes good money on the insurance and the typical consumer loses. The insurance is priced so that when you buy 5 tires with road hazard you have allready paid for the 6th tire.

Example based on 35-12.50-15 MTR $204 retail

Road Hazard - $30.75 ea
X 5 tires - $153.75
re-mount and disposal fee - $11.75
New cert for replaced tire - $30.75

Total price paid for "free" replacement tire - $196.25

I allways buy my tires at Discount Tire (same as Americas Tire) because of their great service. I never buy road hazard and consider myself bucks up on the deal. And, cant blame A/T for not wanting to offer the insurance for "off road" use, If I tear up a tire in the rocks, its my fault. Same thing if I trash my Jeep off road, using insurance for that will just make it harder to insure Jeeps at all.

If you can't tell I hate insurance of all types, they wouldnt offer it if they didnt know that they will make more $$ then they ever pay out.

[Wind_Danzer]

Originally posted by Robert J. Yates
Same company - they honored my cert. last December if you might recall.

That's right. Thanks for reminding me. I'll fire off a message to our tire guy now.

[JeepGal]

Like Chris said, we've purchased all our tires from Americas Tire, not just our Jeeps Tires. The service has always been great. It would indeed be very disappointing if they discontinued the warranty program.

Can your guy at Americas Tire get us a corporate contact that we can send our emails to?

Tam

[Scott Hill]

Well I hope that is not true I was going to go to them and have for all my tire purches but with this new policy I will go where it is the cheapest.

I hope they honor the 6 warrenty cards I have now.


Scott

[Stu Olson]

I drive a significant distance to get to one Discount Tire store where a Jeep friend works.....Robert has been there and knows it is not just down the road from my house.

That store has, for more than a year, not issued certs on any Swamper tire.

The cert program is just an insurance policy, no more, no less. If a bean counter perceives they are losing money on it, they should up the price of the cert. It is no different when a life insurance company realizes they are not making enough profit from the 30-42 year old white male office worker that lives in Iowa.....when that happens, up goes the rates.

I will admit that I get other benefits from going to this tire shop. He will rotate the tires on my wife's car (although I often times do it myself) for free even though they did not come from there.....why? He knows I'll buy the replacement tires from there when the time comes. And he knows I tell my friends and coworkers about the great service they give their customers.

I do hope this idea of not certing off-road tires will die a quick death.

[RickBeer]

Hello I am the resident tire expert here in Phoenix that everyone seems talks about

As for the certs rember if you abuse them you will loose them meaning EVERYONE will loose them

Discount / America's tire will sell certs on ALMOST every tire with exceptions Super Swampers certain trailer tires, Industrial tires
Until Corprate says no more I will continue on selling the certs on offroad tires with exception running beadlocks

Keep in mind this is a ROAD HAZZARD warranty & what we do is not consider road hazzard in any way

[mrblaine]

Originally posted by RickBeer
Hello I am the resident tire expert here in Phoenix that everyone seems talks about

As for the certs rember if you abuse them you will loose them meaning EVERYONE will loose them

Discount / America's tire will sell certs on ALMOST every tire with exceptions Super Swampers certain trailer tires, Industrial tires
Until Corprate says no more I will continue on selling the certs on offroad tires with exception running beadlocks

Keep in mind this is a ROAD HAZZARD warranty & what we do is not consider road hazzard in any way

When I was first offered the certs on my tires I was in the process of purchasing at A/T, I originally laughed in their faces. At the questioning look I received from the store manager, I just told him to look at my rig. "You know where I go and what I do with it, there's no way your going to warranty a tire I slice up in the rocks", I explained.

He said, "look, this is simple, you bring the tire back to me and if the tread height is recognizeable and I can tell what kind of tire it was, I'll cover it". I still didn't believe him and until I took my first shredded MT/R in and got it replaced did that change.

[DsrtJeeper]

Rick is the man and Discount is the spot! He just set my dad and my son up with wheels and tires this week. Unbelieveable deal and the best of service. When nobody had MTR's this past spring; I sliced and ruined two 37" MTR's. Rick located two and took care of me. I can't ask anymore than that.

The few that abuse the cert policy ruin it for the rest of us. People have been known to stick an ice pick in their sidewalls to get free replacements.

[DanB98TJ]

Originally posted by DsrtJeeper
The few that abuse the cert policy ruin it for the rest of us. People have been known to stick an ice pick in their sidewalls to get free replacements.

Yeah, but that happens with tires other than "off road" styles, too...and probably more frequently. I have never seen nor heard of Discount refusing to replace a tire, even when the damage was clearly caused by off road hazards, or even a vehicle severly out of alignment (steel belts showing on the inside edge ).

I've been buying tires from Discount - and only Discount - for at least 20 years, not just because of the road hazard but their prices and service, too. During that entire time I've had three, maybe four tires replaced (only one was off road damage, the rest were on road). They even pounded my bent wheel out when I hit somone's $@#!$ starter that was laying in the road. I didn't bother having my ripped 31-incher replaced since I wanted 35's.

I agree with Stu's thoughts about it being an insurance policy, and that the cert price should be bumped up if DT/AT isn't at least breaking even. I wouldn't mind spending a few bucks more for the peace of mind of knowing I'll be covered if I do rip one. I'm gonna be real disappointed if they stop offering the warranty on MTRs.

[DsrtJeeper]

My statement above is what Rick had told me. He said people were continually abusing the warranty and this was causing the higher ups to reconsider policy. Not good......

[DanB98TJ]

Then it seems all warranties would be in jeopardy, not just the ones for off road tires.

[Dukes69]

I've been on both sides of it. I was told that they will not warrenty my tires becuase I take my jeep offroad. In the same week, another store said no problem to the one with a plug and also took care of me with the one that had a cut to the cords. As we walk away, they guy asks me if I go rock crawling, I reluctently say yes. I guess its all in the dude doing the work.

I would gladly pay more for the cert, if that is what need to happen.

[Joe Dillard]

I've been buying tires from DT for several years too! Zero problems so far. EXCELLENT place to do business with IMO!

There happens to be one walking distance from my home and they gladly honored the warranty I got from them on a sidewall slice from Moab. During this timeframe - there was all this talk about a shortage of 35" MT/R's. I had to wait one day for a replacement. I contribute this mostly due to me showing up at ~4:00PM asking for service.

[TObject]

Originally posted by DsrtJeeper
The few that abuse the cert policy ruin it for the rest of us.

You are one of the people who are abusing the policy. Read it carefully, off-the-highway damage is not covered.

[Jeeper]

I've always purchased my off-road tires at Discount Tire. I did have an issue with one particular store not honoring the cert. I split the sidewall on an M/T and was told by the store manager that "By the condition of your Jeep and the modifications, I can tell that this was done off-road. I will not honor any of the 5 cert.s now or in the future for your Jeep." I had just bought them 2 weeks prior from the same store.

I replied "fine, you will no longer have any future business from me and I will make it known that you do not honor your cert's."

I took the tire to another Discount Tire 3 miles away and had no problems whatsoever. So, I learned to find an off-road friendly Discount Tire.

Jeeper

[JeepGal]

When I purchased my MTRs at Discount Tire, when I was purchasing the warranty, I asked point blank if the warranty would be honored for off road use, and His answer was: "Those tires were intended for off road use, yes" And to date, they havent given me any problems with it.

Tam

[Joe Dillard]

Originally posted by TObject
You are one of the people who are abusing the policy. Read it carefully, off-the-highway damage is not covered.

I guess you can add me to the list too since my damage was on Moab Rim.

Heck - they covered it without a glitch, and my MT/R's are hand grooved......well.....at least three of them still are.

[TObject]

You are a known policy abuser, Joe!

Although, if you were sold the policy under false pretence that the off-road damage would be covered, I think the responsibility lies on whoever sold you the policy: and that would be America's Tire/Discount Tire.

I am not a lawyer, however, I watched Matlock in a bar last night, the sound wasn't on, but I think I got the gist of it.

[Joe Dillard]

Originally posted by TObject
I am not a lawyer, however, I watched Matlock in a bar last night, the sound wasn't on, but I think I got the gist of it.

ROFLMAO!

[Stu Olson]

For what it is worth, I've lost two MT/Rs on the road. One was about 3 miles from my house....ran over a 1/4" socket extension....stuck straight into the tread....big end first. Took all of about 2 minutes for the air to leak out.

I forget the cause of the other one.

[TObject]

How about this scenario:

What if you abuse the living hell out of a tire off-road, and then it finally gives out the ghost while driving on pavement. Another words: a lot of off-the-highway damage, and a little bit of the on-the-highway damage. Should it still be covered?

[speaceman]

From the America Tire Co's website (bolded for emphasis):

If a tire covered by the Certificate for Free Replacement fails due to a defect or an unrepairable road hazard, and still has legal tread (3/32") remaining across the tire, and is less than 3 years from date of purchase, Discount Tire/America's Tire Co. will replace it absolutely FREE. There is no prorating, no disqualification for any reason such as run-on damage and no mileage adjustment. It is the very best tire warranty we know of.

If they are taking a beating on off-road tires, they should have the bean counters figure out how much they need to charge for the warranty to cover the difference.

Most of us would still pay for it, even at an increased price.