Customer Service from yesteryear...

This is a shameless endorsement. It's also a bit long. If you don't want to read the whole thing, skip down to the summary.

Last Sunday I went outside to find my truck tire completely flattened. I've been battling a slow leak ever since a good friend and I replaced his roof shingles, using my truck as the garbage catcher and hauler (there are a LOT of nails in roof debris.) This is what trucks are for.


I took it to down to the Wal-Marts, which was the only tire-center open. I returned a few hours later to have them tell me that there was no leak. I assured then that there was, and that it was indeed flat this morning. They had no ideas, so I let them out by half-jokingly asking if the flat could have been caused by my moving the truck from Maryland to Utah. "Maybe the change in altitude caused the slow leak, and flat?" (Yeah, right) Being close to closing time, the two technicians readily agreed, and sent me on my way. Of course, the tire still leaked, aggravating slowly.

The next week I noticed that within walking distance from my work, there is a Les Schwab tire center. I pulled in Friday morning and immediately noticed the Discount Tire shop across the street. I turned around, and started to head over there. After all, it say "Discount" in the name. I then noticed that Discount Tire had completely full bays, and a parking lot with no empty spaces. Les Schwab on the other hand had nearly empty bays, and a half-full (or half empty?) parking lot. Wanting my tire done that day, I chose to stay at Schwab.

This is when the awesomeness began.

Eldon, a friendly technician came to my truck to greet me, and asked about my problem. I explained the tires history, and what I'd tried so far. I also offhandedly mentioned the spare tire in the back of my truck, which I recently purchased from a salvage shop, and which I thought was too large. Eldon assured me that my leaking tire was in good hands.

An hour later, he called me and told me to come over. Enter: Super Awesomeness. When I arrived, he explained that he was able to find the leak, no problem. He said that he replaced one repair, and that the tire was sound again. He also said he tried out my spare, and told me reasons why it was indeed too large, and printed me a list of tire/wheel sizes that would work better. For all of this he charged me nothing. He even spurned my Fiver tip. You just don't find customer service like this anymore.

He spent a few more minutes talking to me about possibly replacing my wheels (one of which is bent) with some better fitting, and cooler looking wheels. I was expecting the sales pitch, but it was different. It was clear that he was telling me about the wheels out of a love of wheels. He really didn't want me to spend money, but wanted my truck to look better. It was refreshing. No pressure.

Everyone should check out Eldon at Les Schwab in Lindon, UT. I can't say enough good about him. He's my new tire guy.

One a funny note, thinking of putting new tires on my dented up truck (see Home Depot entry from several weeks ago), I was reminded of This Video. "These are all me, son"

Summary: Tire punctured in the line of duty. Sunday Flat. Wal-Mart incompetence. Les-Schwab half-full. Eldon finds the hole, charges me $0. "It's Deluxe, Son"

Moral: Eldon Rocks.