An Honest Business In the Portland Metro Area -- Les Schwab
Les Schwab is a Portland Metro staple. Starting out in 1952, Les Schwab sold tires. That's all he did.
In 1952 Les Schwab bought OK Rubber Welders in Prineville, OR and the rest is history.
Today, there are close to 500 Les Schwab Tire Centers in nine western state, employing 7,000 people.
Here's my Les Schwab story:
On Friday a man at the stop light next to me motioned for me to roll down my window. I did. He asked me, "Did you know you have a nail in your back tire?"
Sure didn't.
And with that I went to Les Schwab a few hours later.
A Les Schwab mechanic looked at the tire and said "Sorry, but I can't patch it." Apparently, the position of the nail on the side was something that wasn't able to patch.
But he never pulled the tire off to check.
Then he told me, "You'll need a set of new tires . . . since your vehicle is all wheel drive, you can't replace one tire."
I just about spit. WHAT?!?!?
And then he quoted me: $920
I went home and pulled up my receipt from March 2013 -- when I just bought new tires! I wasn't about to buy another 4 wheels.
Making a long story short, I took the car back to Les Schwab and said "Look, I'll buy two new tires so they'll wear evenly on the rear axle, but I'm not going to buy four."
The Les Schwab mechanic understood, and I asked him to cut me some slack, and he said he'd put on two for under $300.
As I was waiting, the Les Schwab mechanic came out and said "I found two nails in the tire, and even though the one you can see on the side looks as if it's not able to patch . . . I can patch both. You won't need to buy tires."
The total cost: $17.00
Now that's an honest business! And I hope that the $920 quote given last Friday would have yielded the same result when he pulled the tire off and inspected.
They sure did redeem themselves!
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