Costco Tires Reviews

I took it to a reputable repair shop and the bill came to $438. When I took this bill to Costco for reimbursement, they told me that it should have only been $40! They referred me to their claim center and I have gotten the runaround. I finally heard from their claims department and was offered only 50% reimbursement! They are not taking full responsibility for their actions and the damage to my vehicle.

One and a half hours later, to my surprise, my car was bypassed by car #35. I went to the counter to verify with Daniel ** why my car was not being serviced when I was supposed to be next on the waiting line. He was rude and told me he does not know. I talked to a white guy who said they don't have my car key. I told him that I gave my car key to Daniel ** an hour and a half ago. Finally, Daniel took my car in to replace the tire and it was done in 30 minutes.

Apparently, my car was left purposely hanging on the rack. Daniel took two cars in—#36 and #37—and started working on these two cars pretending that my car never exist. He made sure I am bullied and delayed to wait 40 minutes more to get my car. I did not beg them to get my car. I waited even though I am already late to pick-up my kid.

This is the horrible treatment I got for asking why my car was not being serviced when my number is next on the line. The Costco Tire technicians are bullies and hoodlums. We will never go back to Costco anymore. I am cancelling our membership.

Ultimately, Costco refused to rotate my tires. Nowhere do they state in the agreement that if you don't rotate at 7500 miles, they won't do it. Instead, they referred me to some obscure fine print about this 2/32" rule. They claim they follow tire industry guidelines, but it's hogwash. I'll surmise they figure if they refuse to rotate your tires, you'll need new ones faster - and maybe they have more grounds to weasel out of tire warranty claims (which generally aren't worth the paper they're printed on, anyway). Immediately, I called my mechanic who had seen the car the very same day for another routine maintenance item, and he called their refusal ridiculous. He's an outstanding, very busy mechanic with years of technical training under his belt. He works on complex problems every day, and knows way more about auto technology than the Costco tire guys. In fact, 3000 miles ago, I asked him about rotating, and he told me it was okay to wait til now. Also note, some time ago when I asked Costco to rotate my tires with less than 7500 miles between rotations, they refused me service at that time as well. In the past I've had tires rotated after 25,000 miles and not had any issues.

We have bought tires for several vehicles through Costco tires and, while the initial purchase price has usually been reasonable, the follow-up care is terrible. Every time we've returned for a rotation, they've told us they're marking down on the history uneven wear due to bad alignment or suspension or some other problem. I've taken my car for inspection after their "warnings", only to find out there was no problem at all. In my opinion, they invent problems so that they can opt later to deny tire warranty coverage. The Costco manager also warned me that the tires showed wear from over-inflation, which I told him was funny since they were filled with nitrogen and only his Costco had ever filled my tires. His response basically was, "well, if you can prove that..." Of course, there was no way to prove that at all. From here on in, I will never return to the Costco tire center for any work. I will pay our good mechanic to rotate our tires. And we'll buy our tires from a reputable tire shop.

At the end of my ordeal, after my wife was upset and we suffered through an embarrassing conflict in front of other customers, Jay tried to make amends by saying how sorry he was that I was frustrated by the experience, that he didn't want me to go away upset. I told him the damage was done, and that I would never return to the tire center. He went on, trying to explain their consumer-unfriendly policy with more tire jargon and finger-pointing. He gave me a gift card for my troubles, but it was too little, too late. I advise anyone out there to do your homework; do not buy tires from Costco as you too will be disappointed and frustrated in the long run.

Upon my arrival, I took a closer look at the receipt and discovered that only the right front and rear tires had been rotated and that Costco (at least Costco in S.E. Memphis) considered rotating only 2 of the 4 tires to be 1 rotation. I have never heard of such a thing. I have yet to figure out the vibration problem. I suspect some damage was done during the tire rotation that was performed and that the technician did not disclose what actually happened. I am not sure if it is safe to drive at this point. Fortunately I have 2 hours to waste tomorrow morning so I will be at Costco as they open the doors to attempt to find out what they did.

Curiously, the 101 that Costco's third party software says, is the exact N.M (metric) setting that Toyota specs but Costco has SAE (American-English) torque wrenches set in Ft.Lbs. After screaming from the rooftops for all the years that Costco has been selling tires that "we follow manufacturer recommendations on tire size, tire rating, and torque specs, Costco now blindly follows what their third party software company says and completely ignores what the manufacturer says.

Check the torque specs for my Subaru and Costco is exceeding the Subaru specs on that car also but not by as much. Considering that this is only one model of Toyota and one model of Subaru, I wonder how many of the torque specs that Costco's third party software vendor is wrong on for other models and other brands of vehicle and how many lug nuts have been over torqued by 30% or more by Costco and, how many stripped lug nuts Costco's customers have been paying to repair or replace?

The moral of the story is that, Costco knows how to be a warehouse and does that really well but there is more to being a Tire Store than buying machinery and sending your tire jockeys to Michelin School. I call them tire jockeys because the Costco tire people don't rise to the level of mechanic or technician because they never questioned so dramatic a rise in torque spec for so common a vehicle as a Toyota pickup. Costco is not a Tire Store it is a tire warehouse and you let them touch your car at your own risk.

The rear tire has some of the lettering scuffed and a couple of white spots, while the front tire has most of the raised white lettering rubbed off with much of the whitewall portion of the tire exposed. The tread area of the tire has a significant amount of tread and the sidewall wear is limited to the raised lettering area. Does that limited wear render the tires unserviceable? If so, why does Michelin not warn purchases of that potential problem? I have pictures that clearly show the wear but was unable to attach them to this email format. Please let me know if you would like the pictures.

Costco offers free flats and rotations to maintain your tire's life. They sell you tires, and a free service to maintain them and you forget to rotate them 40k miles later? Wow! Tires should be rotated every 8k, and that's Costco's fault? Get real, people. Start growing up and take the blame for your poor tire maintainability. I maintained my tires at Costco when they are supposed to and went past my 60k miles they were granted. If you want long tire life like mine, then use the free service they offer.

I've gone to two different places to get tire alignments done and they both say that my alignment is fine and the slight uneven wear on the tires is simply normal variation. I am one of those weird people who actually pay to have my car aligned every 7500 miles, and rotate/balance them every 5,000. I do this so that my tire warranty will apply. When I've done everything totally by the books and have receipts, it's not fair for Costco to weasel out of their part saying that my uneven wear disqualifies me.

In fact, Costco's Road Hazard warranty says that alignment issues only invalidate it if the damage was caused by the alignment, which was clearly not my case. I understand that most tire shops play these games but Costco holds themselves to a higher standard of integrity and these games are not acceptable for a business that claims to care about customer satisfaction. This brings down the reputation that Costco pays so dearly to maintain with their return policy.

If you do not do your research, or ask questions, I'm sorry you deserve to be called an idiot. All of their tire center employees take tests, and attend classes, and yes they know more about tires than we do. This goes out to all these people who blame Costco for their tire "failing", because that curb jumped out at you, or maybe Costco put magnets in your tires to attract all of those mean nails, or maybe you were too cheap to pay $80 for an alignment, after buying new tires.

If you are not aware, there is this thing in the front of your car called an engine. It's heavy, in case you didn't know. Rotating your tires is for even weight distribution, and even wear. When you don't rotate them, guess what, your 65,000 mile tires won't last 65,000 on the front. People are too quick to blame other people for their stupidity. Because you didn't need to read the warranty information, it means nothing exists?

People who complain about these issues deserve to be called an idiot to their faces, because they are too self-centered to take blame for anything. Read things, maybe you will learn something like, how their warranty is pro-rated! You don't understand? Go read a dictionary. Maybe next time you will not be so surprised. Also, please when you walk in and see they are working on five or six vehicles, don't expect yours to be done in an hour.

About 20 months later my son hit a curb and blew out the sidewall. We brought the vehicle and paperwork back to our Costco for repair. After a short wait (time spent shopping again) we returned to find that not only had the tire been replaced with a new one but the others had been rotated as well! The best part was that the entire cost was $28.00 prorated. My son was expecting the damage to be much more. No hassles, no questions asked. So not all Costco stores are a nightmare. Maybe you all need to come to Waterbury, Connecticut.

Well, when I went to get the 2 flats fixed, I found out from Lex Brodie's Tire Center that the 'new' tires I had purchased in '07' were actually 6 years old when I purchased them! They are now 9 years old and both tires will have to be replaced because they are well beyond the safe age for tires. I have found out that tires over 5 years old start to deteriorate and even if they look okay, it’s unsafe to drive with them. Therefore, Costco actually sold me unsafe tires that were too old and they sold them as new! Because I have moved to the big island of Hawaii and there is only one Costco on the island and it’s 100 miles from where I live, I have no intention of going back to Costco, even if they would prorate the age/tread and give me a credit.

Do not deal with Costco. You are putting your life and the lives of others on the line when you buy tires at their shop. Also, here is how to tell how old your tires are. Look on the sidewall for 'DOT' and the last numbers in that sequence, i.e. DOT ... 2901, the last 2 numbers are the year the tire was made. My junk tires have 01 proving that they were made in 2001. If you do not see this information on the outside sidewall, get on your back and look at the inside sidewall. The information is on all tires.

Then, one of the 3 tires that Costco installed got warped. In December 2009, I went back to get it replaced, and they accused me of lying about the fact that they installed it. I finally convinced them to replace it, and they made me wait over 3 hours more so that they could fix their mistake. Now, in January 2010, my second of 4 Costco-installed tires has exploded. This time I was driving on a crowded highway and easily could have been killed.

I asked for the supervisor and he said he is the one. After arguing for a few minutes, it took him less than 3 minutes to check and the tires were actually in. I can understand they are very busy, but it doesn't justify the way they managed the customer expectation. Especially how the manager responded in a way to give an impression that we're bugging them for something unreasonable and it's OK for customers to wait all day if they are busy. After all, we are customers, not beggars, and they are not the only tire center.

I will not stand for discourteous treatment of the ladies especially when it is my wife whom is being abused. Please excuse my typing. I approached Rick asking him why was my wife insulted so, when all she did was ask a simple question. At this point, I received a ration of the same discourteous treatment. I left the area and asked for a store manager and explained what had just transpired. Chrisy, the manager, said she would speak to Rick about the incident. In conclusion, I think I should be able to enter a Costco store to spend four hundred dollars on tires without being insulted and treated in such a rude fashion.

I had bought Costco tires about a year ago, just before our trip to northern California and down to San Diego. They advertise "free" tire rotation, balance, road hazard, etc., for the "life" of the tires. Well, I took the Sienna into Costco to get them rotated, etc. I missed a rotation, so the tires had about 12,000 miles on them. Apparently there's too much wear on the front tires compared to the rear tires, so they refused to rotate them because it would be "unsafe." Also, the front tires have uneven wear - only about a millimeter(!)- between the inside and outside of each tire. That means they would refuse to honor any wear guarantees or any other warranties. These are 70,000 mile tires but they will probably be worn out under 30,000 miles. My original tires lasted nine years! I'll be fortunate to get three years out of tires I bought at Costco.

Discount Tire never hassled me about tread wear or anything else. They always honored wear guarantees despite not having rotated a set of tires for over five years on one of my vehicles. I would rather pay a little extra at Discount Tire and know they are going to stand behind their product and service. They will get my tire purchases from now on.

My mechanic is going to rotate my tires for me and do some other maintenance. I won't use the entire word he used to describe Costco's way of getting out of a warranty, but it starts with **. He thinks the tires will be okay if we can get the tires with the better tread on the front where the drive is.

I had told them that I had plans for the tires. When my wife asked them about the tires, they were rude and short with her. I know that they saw a woman standing there and just wanted to brush her off. I am telling you now that when I get back in town, I am going to go to the store and talk with them myself. If this is the kind of treatment I can expect to receive with this corp. I will move my business to Sam's Club. I do not think that customers need to get this type of attitude or treatment no matter what gender they are. As you can tell, I am not very happy with what has happened and I am going to keep my composure when I speak with the manager when I get back to Boise store.

Every time I go in to Costco tires, they try and sell me tires when I do not need tires. A year ago after purchasing the set of 4 tires, I ran over metal, and ended up - after ONE WEEK OF USE - buying another new tire (for $140!)!!!!!

On September 26, 2008, we experienced a flat tire on the front driver's side. We put the "donut" tire on and went to the Union Gap, WA center to get the tire repaired. We were told that the tire was not fixable (Mileage on car 56,400). We asked how much allowance we could get toward a new tire. They came back in and told us that all of our tires needed to be replaced because they only had 4/32 left on the tread. After much discussion and having the store managers come in, they agreed to give us $50.00 off for the tire we had to purchase in Montana. They also mounted and balanced the tires at no charge. Then they said that they would give us $20 off each tire (Michelin Primacy MXV4 60,000 mile warranty 195/60HR15).

We were tired of arguing with them so we agreed to pay $368.25 for the new tires. After they were mounted, they informed us that our car was out of alignment and to avoid damage to the new tires, we needed to get an alignment done as soon as possible. We went to Frank's Tire Factory and paid $75.62 to get the work done. When we returned home on September 28, 2008, I sent an email to BF Goodrich explaining the problems. Michelin Tires sent me an email in return asking to talk to us directly concerning the problems. Again we were told that there was nothing they could do without seeing the tires. We explained that Costco kept the tires. I contacted Costco and asked to have the tires sent to Michelin. The person that I talked to told me that they do not keep tires that they replace. He became belligerent with me and told me that the tires only had 4/32 inch tread and they needed to be replaced and they felt that they had been more than fair.

While I was talking to the Michelin representative, he stated that we should have been able to get thousands more miles on the tread. Also, the $20 for each tire that Costco said they were giving us for the problems actually was a national promotion that applied to all of their tires in September. I feel that both Costco Tire Centers and Michelin have not honored the original 60,000 mile warranty on the tires we purchased in 2007 in TN. Everyone (with the exception of the original purchase and the person in Colorado Springs) that we dealt with concerning this situation have treated us unprofessionally and have been rude. Thank you for any assistance you can give us.

My Dealer finally said, the tires are balanced, you have bad tires - shown on the repair form. Costco, however, claims it's the type of tire (it's listed on their website and by the manufacturer as being perfect for my car) and gave me the only option of upgrading to a more expensive tire and paying for the install. Only 3 months with these tires and 6 balancings..what ever happened to the warranty and customer service?? Not here.

Lost work time, car rental expense, simply the aggravation of trying to fix such a simply problem and now jacking me with another $300 fee to fix a warranty issue.

#1 - Alot of people have to understand that not every costco is like this in the complains. Some customers expect too much.

#2 - Customers dont want to wait 1-4 hrs. I understand completely as i dont want to wait that long. But people have to understand tire installation isnt something you want to rush, your life is in these 4 tires.

To Mark of Corona CA, Its stupid how they wouldnt fix your tire, My costco cleans out that fix a flat.

Steve of Rockaway NJ

Yours tires wore out cause you over inflated them. you messed up.

Briah of Wilmington NC

Briah i can feel how disappointed you are, i would like to be informed about certain changes,

#1 - At costco they cant give you the price of a new tire under road hazard cause they dont know them selves witout seeing the tire first.

#2 - your tire wasnt a factor defect, you drove 9k miles witout a problem. Your tire was not repairable. Dont compare this situation to something that happend at walmart to a tire that was fixable.

#3 - they probably put that $10 more tire on cause your original tire was not in stock. and gave you something from what they had in stock.

Stephen of Newark CA
I can assure you that the newest tires ALWAYS GO IN REAR as 7 tire manufactures

recommend this. Costco should have told you before selling you the tires.

Costco said the tire wasn't repairable but wouldn't tell me how much it was gonna cost until the work was finished which took 1 1/2 hours to change a tire and then they wouldn't rotate or balance them even though I had my receipt with me. The guy said it would be $68 because the tire was worn, so they could only credit $60 toward the new tire. This happened at Wal-mart a few years ago and it was repaired with no charge, no problems. A normal, intelligent person would think a warranty would cover factory defects and a tire that only has 9,000 miles on it, but not only did I get charged they acted with no cares and even told me I could fill out a comment card when I said I wasn't happy and would never buy tires from them again.

I questioned his math and asked him how he figured that amount. They put a tire on my car that was $10 more than the original without even asking me. What does a consumer do when a company is this deceptive and sly/sneaky with their business? It seems as if someone has informed them every way to get around doing honest business. Well, the word will get out, and sneaky business that doesn't take care of its customers will bite them in the rear in the future! Oh not to mention them charging my Am. Express card to renew my membership without even billing me first. Shady business, Beware!

Existing tires will wear out faster now that they are installed in the front of the vehicle. More weight, engine is in front, tires wear out faster. I would also think that having the newer tires would be safer. This could be more of a safety hazard.

They brought up our work history on the database to show us. We had the tires rotated at Wal-mart. They wanted to see the receipts. Which we didn't have on us. After they saw that wasn't going to hold up, they switch to another reason...we didn't have our tires inflated properly. Which might account for the edge wear. However, my wife had stopped by several times after work to complain about the tire being low and was told they were fine. No tire gauge was used...they just eye-balled it.

Needless to say, we ended up asking for the manager. We talked about what was going on and she held her ground and stated that because we did not follow the manufactures guidlines we had voided any Cosco service work. That was the last dime I was going to spend at Cosco's. Their terrible service and poor attitude towards its customers, I can't see how they stay in busines?

Costco happily took my money, nearly $600 minus some credits, for new Michelin tires. I've had 2 sets of new tires put on my 95 BMW over the years plus I've had the tires rotated and spin balanced periodically at Costco. All this over a period of 6-8 years.

Recently however, when you go to get your tires serviced, for safety and for the life of your tires, Costco seems to have every excuse in the book for why they can't do the work--and boy they suck.

First time they threw my keys back in my face and said they couldn't do the work was--are ya ready for it--I didn't have the right tool in my car for them to do the job!!! I fought back, calling in a manager, and telling them, I've never had that tool and since you managed to install and charge me for the tires in the first place--I think you can do the job. I won the point and they did the job--oh surprise they were able to!!!

Next I went in just a few days ago and was told, your BMW is missing rubber pads on the underside, therefore they wouldn't be able to lift the vehicle, therefore they couldn't do the warranty work. I came home, called a BMW dealership, they couldn't find where this car ever had lift pads, and the dealership even called BMW of North America-they confirmed, this year and model never had these pads. Only newer models.

So we called Costco again, they said to come in and meet with a manager. Oh really??? What's he gonna do, make me get something my car was never required to have? Can't we depend on mechanics, open to the public, accepting work on all makes and models, to have the proper tools to do the job? Seems like more bull from Costco.

Only compounding the problem more, this also happened to my sister up in Prescott, AZ when she went to have her tires serviced before a long car trip. They turned her away with another crap reason.

Seems....Costco doesn't care about our safety at all! We're there in the first place trying to keep our tires safe, and Costco resorts to every flimsy reason to not do the work!!

I deeply resent this kind of treatment to me as a woman--they're banking on the fact I don't know auto mechanics and have never seen under my vehicle.

I know myself and other moms like me, are driving ourselves and our children around daily, and our very lives are dependent on the safety of our tires. The other day, I found my tires to be dangerously underinflated, this is why I badly needed the work done by Costco where I spent my money.

None of these BS reasons were presented to me prior to making my purchase, nor did I agree to them, and if I'd been told I wouldn't get follow up service, like other tire centers offer, I'd never have spent my money at Costco. It wasn't disclosed to me until I needed service, and then oh too late! I'd already purchased--sounds like buyer beware to me....

I know we have consumer protection laws in this country, I'd like to know my recourse. I'd also like to know how many others have been screwed by Costco!

I, to date, haven't got service. I'm tired of fighting with them and shouldn't have to for something I've paid for.

I took the damaged tire - which had blown out through the sidewall without having hit anything - and brought it back to the Wharton NJ Costco tire department where it was purchased. The staff there was surly and distracted, as though a heated disagreement was in progress, and although this was a regular weekday morning, the line for service went all the way out the door.

When my turn finally came up, I calmly explained to Kerrie, the supervisor on duty, what had happened. She turned without a word and went to look at the tire, which I'd left in the service area. She returned, again without saying a word to me, and barked to a subordinate, Lock that back door - I don't want any more customers coming in that way! Finally, I asked her if she was going to replace the tire, and she said yes. I asked her if she could have it put it on the wheel and balanced, and my wife would come that evening between 6 and 7 to have it mounted on the car; she said that was OK. Because the communication seemed so strained, I repeated again, She'll be here between 6 and 7 to have it mounted on the car, are you sure that's OK? - she answered Yes again, and I left.

When my wife arrived at 6:30 to have the tire mounted, she was told, You missed your 6:00 appointment - you'll have to wait until we close at 9:00. My wife called me at around 6:40 to tell me what had happened, and I called the tire department back and explained to the counter person that there was a misunderstanding - the agreement was that the tire would be mounted when my wife arrived between 6 and 7, and that she other appointments and couldn't wait until 9.

He replied that the note Kerrie left said that the appointment was at 6, she'd missed it, and there was nothing that could be done. My wife put the replacement tire in the trunk and drove the 20 minutes home. Meanwhile, I called the store again and this time spoke to Mike, the assistant store manager on duty, who told me to bring the car back, and offered, We'll see if we can fit you in. I replied that a) we'd had an agreement, b) it would have taken only 5 minutes to mount the wheel at the agreed upon time, and c) after all the time we'd wasted, I'd only make the 40 minute r/t again if he assured me that the tire would be mounted promptly. But I got the same We'll see if we can fit you in.

Frankly, buying tires at Costco isn't such a steal; most of the same tires are available at similar prices at many local dealers. My wife and I have tight schedules and little free time, and had hoped to at least get civilized, professional service at Costco. But I ended up jacking up the car and remounting the replacement tire myself, in the dark, in my driveway.

I don't know what kind of service can be expected at other Costco tire departments, but I would certainly advise Costco members to avoid the tire department at the Wharton NJ store.

I went back to the Costco that I purchased the tires from and tried to explain what happened. The person helping me looked at the tire and then he went and got another person and they looked at the tire and told me that there was no coverage that I hit a curb. I again tried to explain, but they did not want to listen. The initial person I was trying to work with flatly asked me do you want to change the tire or not. This was a Saturday and I could not take a chance since my drive to work is over 100 miles each way.

Since I did not have a choice, I changed the tire and paid full price for the tire. It's very frustrating when all you see is signs stating customer satisfaction when all I got was attitude.

I know this is a gray area, but still it did not seem right how I was treated.

rest of the tires for $24.

In December, I had my daughter take the car for rotation, as I was working. They refused to touch the tires. They were worn excessively again. They said if they touched the tires, they would be responsible. My daughter was made to feel she was responsible and this was an emotional upset for her. I went to the tire store after work and was told the same, they would not replace or rotate.

In January 2007, I went to San Marcos Costco and was truly treated with good service. Mike and Greg (I believe, managers) replaced the bald tires and indicated that it could have been a bad batch of tires. They rotated the tires for me in February 2007 when I went back. Truly, these gentlemen should be commended for the service. They treated customers fairly and courteously.