I've always read singing reviews for sales service at Tire Rack. As I've done wheel research on various forums, I've heard people say things like "Just call tire rack. If anybody knows, they'll know." But, sorry to say, if it isn't currently in their very limited database, they don't know **** and they don't care.
I talked to several reps (each one sounding younger than the last) in my search for hub centric rings for a set of Mille Miglia wheels, which are no longer made, but were sold for years (in this decade) by Tire Rack. No one there even seemed to remember that brand even though they were still selling these wheels just a couple of years ago. Nor did they remember that Tire Rack bought most of the molds from Mille Miglia and continued selling the same wheels under a different name. Eventually they told me to measure the wheel bore diameter and call back. No problem.
Called back and it went like this.
me: "Hi, I need some hubcentric rings for aftermarket wheels."
16 year old TR rep: "OK, what type of vehicle is it"
me: "Well, I actually know the specific measurements, so we can skip that I think."
"Sorry, I have to know the vehicle."
me: "Alright, it's a 95 BMW 525i. And I'm putting on Mille Miglia rims."
16 year old TR rep: "I haven't heard of those. What size are the rims."
me: "79.5 hub bore"
16 year old TR rep: "I mean, are they 15 or 16 inches."
me: "Oh, uh 15 inches, but I don't see how..."
16 year old TR rep:"I see one option for that vehicle. A 74 to 72.5."
me: "Right, that's to put a newer BMW wheel on an older BMW, but that's not really wheel specific, and not really what I'm looking for. Other vehicles had similar dimensions, I'm sure. Can't you just search by ring size?"
16 year old TR rep: "No, I can only look by vehicle....."
me: "Look, you gotta help me out here. I've been calling and e-mailing people for weeks trying to find these stupid rings and you guys are the experts.... Is there any other search you can do, someone you can talk to?"
16 year old TR rep: "Sorry, that's all the computer will do."
Does anyone else see a limitation here? I mean, they're sort of the go-to wheel people, and yet they have such a rigid system (and apparently a high 2 year turnover for employees), and they forget their own products so quickly, it's amazing that they've earned such a high reputation. Based on what I read over the years, I expected these guys to live eat and breathe wheels and tires, but I guess my problem is just too obscure for the a large structured corporate system like theirs.
I'm not even that old, but I have nostalgia for the days when I could go to a shop with a query and they'd be able to tell me the name and life story of the engineer who invented whatever random widget I was looking for, and they could rattle off all the other widgets that were built with this widget, and another kind of widget that might also work, etc. And it was because they were truly interested in the products, in sharing their knowledge, and in helping people.
Rant over.
