GIPSON'S AUTO TIRE

Tires Pros? Yeah right...

Posted by dolfan on 7/12/2009

Be careful when taking your vehicle to this business (both locations; Millbrook & Prattville). My first visit to the Millbrook store was by APPOINTMENT, unfortunately, after 65 minutes of waiting and some attitude from the staff, I left. I called and complained to the owner, State Rep. Mac Gipson, which was as useful as the appointment system. For my second visit, I decided to try the Prattville store. I was serviced in a reasonable time, but my balance problem was exacerbated. I returned for a re-balance. My vehicle was rebalanced, road tested, rebalanced again, then my wheels and hubs/rotors were ground down (without informing me first) to "reduce the amount of build-up" on the wheel and hub/rotor, then the vehicle was road-tested again with two people. The result was no better than the second re-balance, which was still worse than original balance problem. They claim its the tire. If I didn't get enough for my first two visits, I figured, maybe it was actually my tire on the second visit. So, I'll take my spouse's vehicle to get an alignment and balance & rotate. I received a call informing me my vehicle was ready for pickup; however, the balance and rotate was not completed. After the second call informing me the vehicle is ready for pickup, I went to retrieve my vehicle. Come to find out, Gipsons Tire "Pros" DO NOT remove the old weights from your wheels before balancing. The original weights are tested first. I called several other local tire stores to inquire about the balancing procedure. I found only one other store (Firestone in Montgomery) that uses this same practice; all of the other tire shops remove your old weights before placing the tire on the balancing machine--even Wal-Mart removes the old weights!. Needless to day, I will steer clear to these "Tire Pros" for any future tire service and recommend you do the same!