New tyres for the Audi

[jimbo01 0]

I recently fitted new tyres to the front of my Audi Allroad. I was after 225 / 55 / 17 all season / SUV tyres and visited 4 different places.

I ended up getting 2 Yokohama Geolander H/T-S tyres from Dave Hadley tyres in Lower Hutt / Alice Town. The service here was a complete contrast with the service I received elsewhere.

Beaurepaires Kaiwharawhara were pretty good but I didn't like the tyre options they had available.

Firestone in Thorndon had a moron. I told him my car was an Audi Allroad, 4WD and I was looking for All Season / SUV tyres. He then found some Firestone tyres that he said would be great on my Comadore wagon. I explained (again) that it was actually an Audi Allroad, and was a 4WD, semi SUV, and needed an all season / SUV typre tyre. Even after this he still tried to sell the same tyre for my Comadore (WTF!). Again someone who just doesn't derseve a job.

What is a shame is that places that usually have great service can be let done by staff having a really bad day. The 3rd place I visted twice. I explained what i was after and the guy behind the counter tried to sell me some Maxxis car tyres he had in stock - that were not all season - so I declined - but we agreed I'd do more reserach. I did some reasearch and went back the next day and asked about Toyo Proxies STII tyres. This was another guy and he asked where I had got that tyre designation from - there was no such Toyo tyre. I said there was as I checked it out the nite before. He then went on line, claimed he was looking at the Toyo site and still declared there was no such tyre. Really

http://toyotires.com/tire/pattern/proxes-st-ii

I went next to Dave Hadley he agreed it would be a great tyre, had a brouchure for it, and checked on the stock (it was out of stock). I resisted the temptation to take the brouchure back to educate the staff member on how to search the web, how to show repsect for customers, and how not to be a complete jerk.

Edited August 18, 2011 by jimbo

[Hartage 0]

I can relate to both sides of this, I have been dealing with Dave Hadley for probably 20 years, would not go anywhere else. Good guys and they do know tyres and listen to what you want, and give sound advice if asked.

As for the Beaurepaires and Firestone shops, have heard the same about them, generaly inexperienced staff that dont know what they are doing or selling. As for arguing with the customers, they are ignorant of the basic rules of business! The customer is always right, even if he is mistaken, dont argue with them.

BAD reputations always travel faster than good.

[zenetti 0]

Hi Jim

I am sorry to hear about the experience you had in one of our stores. Rest assured, we do take our business seriously and will do our utmost to get to the bottom of this problem. Customer service should be paramount in our business and the staff member(s) will be reminded of this. I have passed this issue onto the owner of the business and he will personally take the matter further to resolve it.

Once again I offer my apologies to you.

Regards

Johno

Edited August 18, 2011 by zenetti

[jimbo01 0]

Hi Jim

I am sorry to hear about the experience you had in one of our stores. Rest assured, we do take our business seriously and will do our utmost to get to the bottom of this problem. Customer service should be paramount in our business and the staff member(s) will be reminded of this. I have passed this issue onto the owner of the business and he will personally take the matter further to resolve it.

Once again I offer my apologies to you.

Regards

Johno

Hi Jono

I've had excellent service form the Petone / Lower Hutt branch in the past and earlier this year they fitted new rear tyres to my SLK which are working out well. This was one guy who mostly let himself down. Probably what he was looking at was the available stock.

Audi was on Goodyear Wrngler F1 tyres. The backs have 6mm tread, the fronts had 6mm in the middle but were completely munited in the inside and outside edges.

I considered:

Nexen / Roadstone N7000 all round but that size wasn't available in NZ (although Hyper in Auckland have it @ $209 fitted or delivered - they must improt direct) - this was the tyre I orginally inquired about. reasonable reviews, all season, and designed for light snow.

Next and more appropiate were the Toyo Proxies STII, and a direct equivalent (700mm OD) for the original Pirelli - I would have done all 4. Again, none in stock in NZ and none on order (again Hyper in Auckland have it @271.56 a tyre fitted or delivered)

Next were the Hankook Ventus ST RH06, aggain a direct equivalent for the original pirelli - I would have done all 4. (again Hyper in Auckland have it @324.50a tyre fitted or delivered, as do Tyre Guys direct at $255 delivered).

What is frustrating is that none of the offical channels or local shops could source these tyres but I could easily have gotten them online. As I wanted to deal locally I ended up just buying 2 Yokos for now with the same 680mm OD as the 2 good rear tyres. Ideally at some point I want to get it on the Toyo/s or Hankooks.

Edited August 18, 2011 by jimbo

[Braeden320 0]

I considered:

Nexen / Roadstone N7000 all round but that size wasn't available in NZ (although Hyper in Auckland have it @ $209 fi=tted or delivered - they must improt direct) - this was the tyre I orginally inquired about. reasonal reviews, all reason, and designed for light snow.

For what its worth I've had a set of these before in 225/40/18 and was very impressed with how they performed and wore.