Belle Tire review: Columbus, IN location put my family in danger - do not use this business

I went into the Columbus, IN location for a new set of tires in the middle of a business trip out of my home state of TN. When I received the car back, they informed me that I needed Front Brakes (which I agreed with). I brought the car back the next day for new front rotors and front brakes. The cost of the brake pads themselves (not considering the additional cost of labor) were much higher than if I had purchased them from the auto parts store, but as I was in the middle of a business trip, I agreed to the pricing. All seemed to go well and I was happy at the time of leaving.

The issue was noticed 1 week later. My wife, who had one of my children in the car with her, called me while out to say she was hearing a 'thumping' sound from the right front of the car. I had her immediately come home to swap out cars. Upon inspection of the right front tire, I discovered that one of the lug nuts was now completely missing and the one next to it, I was able to remove with just my fingers.

I decided to torque them myself for safety reasons. The next day, after using our other car to go buy a new lug nut, I went about replacing the missing lug. As I wanted to ensure safety, I went to break all the lugs loose around the entire vehicle. ALL the lugs on the front of the vehicle (the ones removed during the brake replacements) were not torqued properly, requiring extremely minimal force to break them loose. The lugs on the rear of the vehicle were seemingly torqued properly as they required additional, and expected, force to break them loose.

I was able to then torque all the lugs to the correct value (76 ft-lb) myself.

Torquing lug nuts is one of the Most Basic and Important items that a mechanic must check before releasing a vehicle from service where removing a tire is necessary. This is a safety issue. Beyond the fact that they put my family, myself and my vehicle at extreme risk, the point that I can't seem to let go of is that this business is supposed to be a TIRE Service Specialist. If they do not take the time or care to ensure lugs are properly torqued, then what else could have possibly been done incorrectly during the service?

It is possible that this is a one-time 'mistake' from a single employee, but now having seemingly narrowly escaped a potentially life changing event due to this negligence, I will not be risking having that person ever work on any of my vehicles ever again.

If you value the safety of your family, do not allow these people anywhere near your vehicle or you are opening yourself up to having that same person (admittedly, a low overall chance) work on your vehicle. Odds are you will have a competent mechanic and good service, that is not however what I experienced, nor will I roll those dice again. Just ask yourself if you are a gambler and willing to take that risk with the lives of your family.

Belle Tire's Response:
I called to report the issue the day I replaced the Lug myself.
The employee said he would have the manager call me on Monday.
No call back!
I was traveling that week, so I follow up myself on Friday. The person answering the phone recognized me immediately and said 'you're the guy calling about the lug torque, right?'. When I confirmed this, they put the store manager on the phone where he proceeded to tell me 'this is the first I have heard of this'.
He promised to call me back.
NO CALL BACK - AGAIN!
I called 8 days later! And after getting the Store Manager on the line again, I get the answer of, 'someone' was on vacation and 'I was going to call you tonight'.
He then started to describe how the wheels were cleaned and the properly torqued per what they were able to see in the video footage. So, he clearly was not even competent enough to understand the issue was not with the original service, but rather the brake job that was done on the second visit. The fact that they reviewed the service footage from the first day to claim that they had serviced the vehicle properly just again shows the lack of attention to detail at this location.
When I started to respond to how irresponsible this was, he said that he was not going to listen to me getting upset at how this was being handled and when I responded with; 'yes you are because this is ……'
HE HUNG UP THE PHONE. If a Manager can't handle customer complaints when they are clearly at fault, then it shows me that the issues run deeper than simply the mechanical incompetence, but rather it is engrained in the organization up to and including the 'leadership'.

I gave them an opportunity to own up to their issues and assure me they would be corrected. I only found more issues the longer I spoke with them and no interest in actually correcting their issues, so I decided that instead of getting further frustrated, I would simply try to warn others and post this review everywhere I legally can do so.

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