We purchased new tires for our car last December (through the dealer, Heritage Toyota, which was our first mistake, but they had been pretty good on the service front). Over the course of the intervening year, we noticed that we were regularly having to put air in the tires, and when Sarahmac took the car in for regular service today, she pointed that out to the service tech. They made sympathetic noises, but didn't find any leaks in the tires, but that there was significant damage to the wall of the right front tire, and recommended replacing it immediately (and that we should pay for it). Sarahmac naturally didn't want them to install another crappy leaky tire, and brought the car home.
I called the dealer and explained in no uncertain terms that I was unhappy with having bought tires that needed to be replaced after a year; they said they could look over the tires and determine whether anything could be done (because, apparently when Sarahmac mentioned it this morning, they didn't take the uterus-haver seriously); I said I would bring it back immediately, and that I needed the work done in two hours so I could pick up the kids from school.
When I arrived, there was nothing in the system about my problem; I asked in no uncertain terms for the tech to hunt down the tech I had talked to on the phone because I didn't want to explain everything all over again; no, I didn't have her name, because I had assumed we were in the 21st century and that when I arrived they would route me to the correct person (also, when I'm furious and furiously trying to contain that fury, I forget to write down the name of the person I'm talking to), and now this apparently makes me the bad guy because the tech I'm now talking to gets an attitude.
He finally goes off in a huff to find the tech I talked to on the phone, and when she arrives, everything is okay, they're ready to work on the car. After an hour and a half, the car is ready, they determined that there was a leak between the tires and rims (translation: they installed the tires incorrectly a year ago) which was now fixed, and they replaced the bad tire for free.
Everyone (well, everyone except the snippy tech) was perfectly "nice", but they didn't do the right thing by the customer until I started playing bad cop. I expect that when dealing with out-of-state institutions, but didn't expect it when dealing with Vermonters. Oh, well.
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