Less Tired Customer Service

My 2008 Prius needed new tires. At least that’s what somebody with a little knowledge and a penny told me.

SoCal weather doesn’t really give you too many clues into slips, skids or tire wear and tear, it kind of keeps throwing sunshine and dry roads at you in the hope you buckle and eventually cave in to the Sears ads in the Sunday newspaper.

Not knowing too much about tires I did what I do best and fired up Google and did a few searches for either “Prius tires” or my favorite “best tires for Prius.”

There were some consistently ranking sites, like Tire Rack and Discount Tire, but I was looking for a local installer and Discount Tire wasn’t close, and Tire Rack appears to have no local presence (or at least no one I would want to leave my kids with.)

I did find one unbiased site TiresInformation.com, that didn’t have any affiliations or any way of purchasing, but it did have some solid information on my little hybrid and a recommendation to use “low rolling resistance” tires. The good news is that my Prius has no problems with rolling, in fact it often rolls silently in car parks under electric power. The silent predator of parking spaces (and shoppers too slow to get out of the way!)

So armed with this knowledge I used the Google Places listing to find a local installer, Woodley Tires in Santa Monica… a place that was more appealing due to it’s “60 years in business” than any pricing (I couldn’t find too much information on their tire pricing) – plus the nice folks on Yelp said how wonderful, quick and friendly these guys were. 10 people can’t be wrong!!

Fast forward to a less busy morning where I ended up visiting Woodley Tire, a small rough and tumble installer that spends more on  toilet paper than the decor, outside paint job, or customer waiting area. (Not knocking soft TP – in fact I’m starting a website to address that very – soft – spot).

End result?

4 new tires, installed quickly and, although I did have to wait unceremoniously outside on a bench that felt like it came from the original olympic stadium, a competitive price – done right!

The guy behind the desk was as nice of a mechanic as I’ve met (which is a low bar he easily vaulted).

So thank you to my new found tire resources, and thanks to the nice folks at Woodleywho really do provide a less tired customer service experience!

 

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