I'd like to let people know about a fraudulent automobile tire scam
going
on at Wal-Mart Tire and Lube Express stores.

Wal-Mart has agreements with tire manufacturers such as Goodyear and
Michelin/Uniroyal/Goodrich (same company) to exclusively sell certain
tires
from these manufacturers. These include the Goodyear Viva/Viva II/Viva

Touring, Uniroyal Radial A/S and others. However, the manufacturers DO

NOT provide their normal warranties for these tires. If you search on
these
tire names on the manufacturer's websites, you will find that they
specifically
disclaim warranty coverage for these tires, and say that warranty
coverage is
only available through Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart provides no such disclaimer
in their
advertising, so there is no way to know this without going to the
manufacturer's websites. Customers are led to believe that they are
buying
national-brand tires with a national warranty, when they are not. It
appears
that these manufacturers are simply allowing their names to be used so
they
can sell a high volume of lower-quality tires through Wal-Mart.

However, the problem is much more serious. Wal-Mart still advertises
mileage
and defect warranties for these tires, but in fact, they WILL NOT
provide
copies of warranties to customers, nor are they available in the stores
or by
mail. These warranties apparently DO NOT EXIST. This is a violation
of
Federal Trade Commission regulations under the Magnuson-Moss Warranty
Act,
which requires advertised warranties to be provided to customers or be
available in stores. (See "A Businessperson's Guide To Federal
Warranty Law"
at www.ftc.gov). It is also a violation of federal and state laws for
deceptive sales practices.

I have tried for nearly a year to get a copy of the warranty for some
tires
that I purchased at Wal-Mart, and they will not send it to me. The
Wal-Mart
managers and customer service people seem oblivious to the requirements

of the federal regulations. Even worse, an automotive consumer radio
show on
KKZN radio (760 AM) in Denver has reported that Wal-Mart is not
honoring
these advertised tire mileage warranties. Obviously, if they won't
give you a copy of the warranty, it makes it impossible to enforce it's
terms.

This same sort of scam is going on with various manufacturers of other
products
such as car batteries. For example, Exide batteries will not honor
warranties
for their auto batteries sold through the now-defunct Country General
farm
supply stores.

Michelin/Uniroyal/Goodrich and Goodyear are well aware of this
situation and
disclaim any responsibility. I will not buy any
Michelin/Uniroyal/Goodrich tires or
Goodyear tires so long as this nonsense is going on.

I would suggest that, whenever you buy tires, ask for a copy of a
MANUFACTURER'S warranty in advance, before you buy the tires. Don't
settle for a store warranty or verbal promises. If the warranty has a
list of
tire models that are covered, make sure your model is listed. If you
don't
have something in writing, you've got no warranty.