I've been lurking on here for a while and probably shouldn't have this as my first post, but I want to try to help others avoid the nightmare I've dealt with for the last 8 months with Weaver Tire in Northern Cabria, PA. Here goes.


Just the facts - I purchased a set of 2 Gorilla X lite ATV tires from Weaver via Amazon in Jan. of 2016. One of the 2 arrived with the belts showing through the rubber and didn't hold air for more than 15 minutes, so I contacted Amazon who simply redirected me to Weaver. At Weaver, I was told the only person who could help me was "Paul, Sr". So I spent the next 7 months calling Paul and almost every week getting the "oh, Paul is out for the day" or "Paul will call you Monday", etc.


When I was able to get ahold of him he said my tire was discontinued and said he would talk with his distributor and see what cold be done. After another month or two of calling him, I finally got ahold of Paul again and he suggested I try putting a tube in the tire. So I spent $25 and had my local tire dealer install a tube in the tire. It held for a few weeks, but then went flat.(the tire was letting debris right through the tread in several spots, which quickly wore through the innertube) Then, he said he would need to talk to his distributor and get back to me.


After a few months of leaving messages for Paul Sr and rarely receiving a call back, I finally started calling almost daily to get this resolved. When I got ahold of him, he said the distributor recommended he give me a discount on some MORE tires by a different company. He offered me a set of 4 at a $40 discount under other retailers online. wow (I paid $160 for my first 2 in the beginning) So in the end, I would have been out $160 for the defective tires, $25 for a tube, and another $290 for another set. $475 for a $330 set of tires in the end!! Plus, I'd have to pay to get them installed again! All this after only being able to use my ATV in 15 minute stints over 8 months!!!! Yes, I am the world's most patient customer.


I decided rather than risking it again with a new set from Weaver, just to get the one bad tire replaced with something, anything, else. Rather than make it right and send me a tire, Paul asked me to send the tire back(at my expense!!) and then something might be done! Wow, just wow.


At this point, I got on the interwebz like I should have done 7 months earlier and it turns out that Weaver Equipment has a well-established reputation for terrible customer service and some tire distributors actually try to keep Weaver from getting ahold of their tires!!


Frustrated after 7 months of getting nowhere with Paul at Weaver Equip., I took all of this directly to the manufacturer(STI tire and wheel), who took one look at the pictures and called me THE VERY NEXT MORNING and sent me a brand new set of 2 tires to replace the ones that Weaver had dumped on me. STI has a customer for life. Weaver gets this review. Caveat emptor. You've been warned.

 

STI is well known for standing behind their work and what they sell. I hope Weaver goes down the tubes if this is how they treat customers.

 

Yeah, I'm very impressed with STI. I literally left them a web warranty request at 5pm central and by 9am Central(even though STI is in California) the next day, they had looked at it, decided what to do, and called me to tell me how they planned to make it right. I was hoping for one replacement tire and they said, "no, you should have a matched set". So even though one of the tires that some Podunk dealer sent me was ok, STI replaced BOTH. I'm still shocked. I understand STI is a relatively new company, but they are getting it right. As a small-business owner myself, I know just how important it is to treat people right today for the business they will bring in next year and STI is definitely doing that.

 

Amazon should have taken them back with no questions...It's their job to police their suppliers...

 

don't mean to be a dick, I just have a hard time believing all this.

(posted this month) (brings us back to December 2015)

(okay, back to January 2016- 7 months)

(confirmed above)

(so... the first 7 months above + another month or two = up to 9 months now... september 2016 )

(another "few weeks" = now we're into october 2016- and there must've been some pretty big holes in those 6-ply gorilla treads to allow large enough debris in there to puncture an atv tube...)

(again- a 6-ply tire letting debris through the tread??? it's 100% normal to see the belt striations between the tread lugs- there's 6 layers of nylon and rubber- nearly 3/4 to 1" thick tire tread + 1" of tire lug on the tread.)

(now we're into january 2017)

(august 2017? )


Really- I'm not trying to be argumentative (in the words of the famous Coltey) but nothing you're saying above makes sense to me; the timeline alone is all over the place. before slamming Paul at weaver (who sells mainly tools and equipment, not tires, btw) did you think to take photos of these tires with holes going through a 6-ply tread? why not go directly to Gorilla Axle, the manufacturer of those tires and speak to them directly? Maybe you had a bad lot of tires under a specific lot # that the manufacturer was aware of- which Weaver would most likely have no idea of. Any mod on here would've gracefully posted photo's of your tires that you provided to support your claim. I've had many gorilla tires, and had many tubes in my tires- tubes are pretty robust...

Sorry bro- I'd need more evidence of your claim before heeding advice from you, who's slamming a business AND personally attacking a person's integrity (Paul Sr.) in an open forum.

Before you think about "flaming-on"... please consider how it looks from an outside point of view

 

Sounds like bs to me too. It doesn't take months to get something like this resolved. Its just 2 tires and less than $200. Its not like a new atv that cost thousands and the dealer refused to fix it. Any tire dealer in my area would have refunded my money or replaced the tires as soon as I told them about it.

 

Old saying: Don't believe any thing you read and half of what you see.. Beginning to believe that more and more as the years roll by..

 

Read? Heck, I want pictures. Seriously, if someone screwed me, I'd jump in the old Dodge Magnum, drive the 500-1,000 miles and confront em personally, might bring some large back up, just in case. Jail food don't scare me, I was in the Army.

 

Sorry guys - I just took 40 minutes to write up a response but then the webpage timed out and I lost it all. I'll sum it up as best I can.


Timeline:
Jan 2 - tires purchased
Late Jan. - Started return/exchange process with Amazon
Early Feb - found out Amazon can't help and was redirected to seller, Weaver.
Feb - August - played phone tag with Paul, Sr(the "only person who can help" -according to every other employee). Was told to try a tube(so I did). Was told they would find me an identical replacement(never happened).
August - was offered a $40 discount of 4 new tires. -not a good resolution, so I offered to accept one of anther brand to replace my defect and hope that this wouldn't wreck the differential like it would on a truck. He said no. He said I would need to send(at my expense) the bad tire to him before he decided what to do.
August 25 - I find out that STI(not Gorilla-Axle) made the XLite and they offered a replacement set of Diamondbacks. done.


Total time: Jan-August.(8 months)
Weaver had 7 months to make it right(it took me a few weeks to get the tire mounted and discover the leaks before contacting them.)


I'm a small business owner myself, which is part of the reason I gave them so long to try to make this right and why I have been so patient before writing this review. I understand that these things can take time and don't always get resolved overnight. However, it shouldn't have taken a month, let alone 7+ from the time Weaver was first notified.


You are right to be in disbelief at this problem. It was unlike anything I've ever seen and I used to race motorcycles, so I've seen a lot of thrashed tires. The local dealer who found the problem had all of his employees stop what they were working on and come take a look at it like was some crazy thing. They covered it in soapy water and bubbles were coming from everywhere that the belts were showing through. Bubble everywhere. I'm not techy enough to get an image on here, but I can email them to you if you are truly interested.

 

You're absolutely right that it shouldn't take months to get this resolved. In fact, once STI heard about it, they called within half a day to resolve it.


I also agree that any dealer in my area(or any reputable dealer nationwide) would have refunded the money or replaced the tires immediately.


STI suggested that I only purchase future tires through either my local dealer or through Rocky Mountain ATV or K&J.


STI said this isn't the first time they've had problems with Weaver and they would love to try to keep their tires out of Weaver's inventory because of issues like this. They also admitted that my tire never should have left the factory. It should have been caught at the factory or at the distributor or at the dealer, so they said it was a failure at several points along the supply chain. I don't expect perfection, but good for STI for admitting to a mistake and taking measures to fix it. That's all I expect.