The other day I took my car in for a routine oil change and tire rotation. No big deal. Then the service guy calls me over and points out that the tires I replaced a year and a half ago—the ones with only 22,000 miles on them—are nearly worn out and need to be replaced.
Isn’t that just the way it goes?
The service guy blamed it on not rotating the tires frequently enough, which just isn’t true. He gave me an estimate for new tires that I’ll have to swallow at some point in the near future—but not right now.
When I got home I went online and started doing a little research. Something seemed fishy—tires should easily last 40,000 miles. And a little research was all I had to do. One Google search later and I’d stumbled across a common problem of uneven tire wear for this particular make and model. Across the automotive blogs and forums people were complaining about the same issue. At least I’m not alone.
Armed with that knowledge, I contacted the service department at my dealership to see if anything can be done. A growing mob of disgruntled customers isn’t something to dismiss lightly. I’m not expecting miracles at this point (especially with my car past the warranty), but it’s always worth asking.
That’s the power of the web. There’s no hiding. If your product or service has a defect or a major failing, annoyed customers will share that information, find each other and demand you fix the problem. Their ability to organize is incredible. If you think you can hide or ignore the problem, you’ve got another thing coming.
Address problems head on. Don’t try to bury your mistakes and pretend they never happened. Be honest and up front with your customer service and you won’t get burned.
