Are There Warranties On Tires?

[steelepulse]

I bought some tires from a shop 5 months ago and have put maybe 3K kms on them. Yesterday one went flat and it happened to be by the shop I bought them from. I took the car over, they looked at the tire and it showed that inside the tire they were some tears. This is a low profile tire. They happened to find an old tire the same size and put it on while they order a new tire from Bangkok. Next thing I know I see them writing out a bill and mrs sp was handing over money. I was saying " isn't there a warranty?" and the tire shop says that my rim was not perfectly balanced and that's what caused the tears.

Am I wrong to think this should be covered under some sort of warranty?

The brand is a crappy brand "pouyang" but they cost 6000 baht a piece( 20 inch 225/35) and I'm not happy having to pay for a new tire that went bad after 5 months!

Edited November 29, 2012 by steelepulse

[hansnl]

Warranty Thai style is till you leave the premises of the supplier.

[anon210]

Bad balancing is the responsibility of the shop that fitted the tires... There is no warranty applicable if you do not use the tires as they should be (namely, proper balancing). I guess you fitted them yourself, instead of having them fitted and balanced by a shop?

[steelepulse]

Bad balancing is the responsibility of the shop that fitted the tires... There is no warranty applicable if you do not use the tires as they should be (namely, proper balancing). I guess you fitted them yourself, instead of having them fitted and balanced by a shop?

No said shop mounted the tires. They said the rim caused the tears.

[jbrain]

Warranty Thai style is till you leave the premises of the supplier.

Regular warranty in Thailand 6 M (eter)

[jbrain]

Bad balancing is the responsibility of the shop that fitted the tires... There is no warranty applicable if you do not use the tires as they should be (namely, proper balancing). I guess you fitted them yourself, instead of having them fitted and balanced by a shop?

No said shop mounted the tires. They said the rim caused the tears.

Next they will say it's the color of your car that caused the problem.

[transam]

No way balancing had anything to do with problem . How can a tyre tear on the inside?

OK, if you drive on a flat tyre stuff will happen, balancing noooooooooooo.

If a top brand name you can do something but Pingpong Pooh tyres l feel is not one of them.

[Lickey]

More likley the shop that fitted them caused the tears, specially if "dry" fitting them with a machine,

Reckon the other tyres could be the same,

[jbrain]

Maybe it was old stock when they fitted them. Rubber doesn't thrive very well in this climate when it isn't used.

[WarpSpeed]

The Thai's sure are champions at excuses and BS aren't they? Before you jump to any conclusions though something may be lost in translation but as mentioned there's no way balancing would be the cause. What could be part of the problem however is if you had a shock or strut fail and it is causing a scalloping on the tire and this will cause certain areas of the tire to wear unevenly and therefore abusing them in the same area constantly.

I can't see this ruining the inside of a decent tire though if it hasn't already been dry rotted but try arguing that one with the shop.

The tire on the right is an example of one fully worn out but the same happens to a new one and takes more time to show this dramatically. The flat spots are a consistent point where the tire hits the road from bouncing and actually rubs the road from lost contact when it returns to the road like slamming on the brakes without ABS and skidding for a brief moment with tire lock up until it develops flat spots which magnify the problem & damage to the tire over time. A cheap tire will deteriorate faster and a dry rotted tire will deteriorate even quicker..

In summary all the smaller negatives add up to a larger one, lower quality tires, maybe already dry rotting, and shock failure and it is possible for a tire to fail prematurely in that case.

Edited November 29, 2012 by WarpSpeed

[steelepulse]

Very well could of been old stock as this tire size isn't common. Back to the original question, I guess no local Somchai Maxxus shop wants to warranty any of their tires.

[stevenl]

I think your best recourse would be to go around the dealer directly to the manufacturer. Michelin e.g. do give a warranty here in Thailand, but don't know about Pouyang.

[Payboy]

Poyoung tyres are made in China. Not the best quality you can buy and don't think the resellers here will offer any warranty on those.

[hakku]

Most manufacturers will give warranty to the retailers to pass on to the customers. Cheaper brands will sometimes not do that and roll an additional percentage into the price to serve as warranty discount so that the retailer can handle the warranty direct with the customer. Ageing of a tire doesn't void regular warranty.

reputable businesses will give you a written warranty or warranty booklet when you purchase from them, but they might of course be a few hundred baht more expensive.

[BSJ]

Poyoung....the name is enough to jump out as being the sort you don't want on your car.

That withstanding, my brother has semi-trailer rigs in Oz that run Double Coins (Chinese) on the drives and retreads maybe twice for trailer use. But he religiously sticks to Bridgestones on the steer.

[NanLaew]

The wife's new (in 2008) CR-V had a separate Michelin warranty card included in the manual and other bits of paperwork. No worries there since she is still on the originals.

I haven't seen anything tire specific in my new Ranger paperwork but I think there's a mention in the Owners Manual... need to read that some time. I already trashed one rear tire within the first 1000km when I had a slow puncture on a piece of 2-way, single-lane traffic due to resurfacing work on the Mitraparp south of Kohn Kaen. The chap behind me was flashing his lights and since there was no way to pass, I cranked my wing mirrors down and saw the nearside rear was running flat. There was absolutely no place to pull over,stop and change it for about 3000m, so I trashed it. Bugger! Upside is I quickly learned that the jack works great and where all the tools are!

Back to the OP; if a shop fits a tire, they should also do the balancing but not sure where their liability for doing a sh!t job lies. Unlike in the US where there's a single page of small print on the back of the receipt. I know that the Firestone shop I bought the replacement from balanced the new one but there was absolutely no additional paperwork stating any warranty, just the receipt from my credit card charge. Ouch!

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