RoadGripTires in Markham Scratched New Rims

Unsafe rims were originally provided by RoadGripTires, then the replacement rims we purchased were badly scratched by his tire install.

My wife shopped around on Facebook marketplace for new winter tires. Abdul was well-priced and quick to respond. I think he’s a nice guy, but after our experience, I wish we had gone elsewhere.

We needed rims and snow tires. The vehicle, bolt pattern and offset (same as Mazda uses for winters) were provided and he came as scheduled to install the rims. He quickly changed up the snows on rims that we already had for our other vehicle, and seemed to do a good job there.

When he installed the wheels he provided on the other vehicle, they seemed too tight to the calipers. You could barely get a piece of paper between them, and online most said you need 2mm+. He said it was ok and that he searched our car specs and these were the rims his supplier recommended for our vehicle. He was understanding of my concern though and called around a few garages and got mixed opinions, some saying it’s ok, some saying no they won’t work.

I’m no expert so I called the rim company myself and they said the rims he chose weren’t rated for our SUVs weight and it was dangerous to drive on them. In fact they said

“do not drive on them, I don’t want to be sued”

and kept asking for the name of the person who provided them. I didn’t give Abdul’s name or RoadGripTires because he didn’t mean to endanger us and I figured mistakes are rare…

Somehow even after learning this, Abdul argued saying “anyone you ask they will give you the exact same rims”, “I got those rimws after searching your car specs anyways so there would be no other options in 18″ and that’s simply not true since Mazda uses 18″ rims at their dealership. I was also able to find 18” rims online which did meet the requirements (a surprise cost for us, which I didn’t complain about) so we decided to buy them.

Abdul said he could try to sell the improper rims he had provided if I personally stored them and we split the sale price. I told him we weren’t paying anything for the rims or storing them. It was his mistake so it’s on him and he eventually agreed to cover the cost.

He came and changed the unusable winters back to our summers so that we could use the car again.

We bought rims ourselves and Abdul mounted the same tires on them instead, so that we could minimize his costs. I even drove 30 minutes each way to him in Markham and waited for an hour and a half at his house to save him additional drive time.

They were brand new gloss black alloy rims still in boxes, in perfect condition with protective film on them and foam bags. After the tires were installed, I showed some scratches to Abdul near the middle of the rim, he saw them, rubbed them with is finger etc. But, they were fairly small so I didn’t make a big deal of it. There was white lube around the outside edges of the wheels to get the tires on, so he wiped it off of one rim to show it cleans off. I wasn’t inspecting it closely since I had been waiting an hour and a half in the cold for him to finish what he had told me would be a 45 minute job. It was late at night and I was ready to get home and be done.

When I got home, I wiped off the white lube from the rims and saw there were large white scratches around the outside edges, not seen when I was at his place because there were smears of lube, they’re right by the edges, and it was night in his home garage so light reflecting on gloss black looks like white lines. There wasn’t even room to see one side of the car (I had to climb over to the passenger seat to get out).

I sent him pictures of the scratches 30 minutes after leaving his house and his response, along with saying he wiped off some lube and again complaining about taking a hit on the cost from his first mistake, was:

“I do not take responsibility of this because when you left from here you already looked at everything and saw everything was ok”

These rims were given to him in brand new condition, in their original boxes with the film still on. He knows I didn’t get down and inspect them carefully. Now 30 minutes after he mounted tires, which he said were difficult, they’re covered in scratches and he wants to pretend it wasn’t him?

After I called him out and asked if he thought they scratched themselves, he said “No that is not what i meant” and he could come by and fix it for us on the driveway. That’s what he should have offered immediately. But, the damage was done and these scratches NEVER would have happened at a professional tire shop.

You can’t fix this many scratches, that are this large, on a driveway. The finish will never be the same and after all the bs I would much rather never see him again.

This is not how a business should operate and if you provide rims, you should know about safety basics like weight capacity. He’ll change your tires for cheap and is nice, but in his words, “the tires are the only part of the car that touches the road” and I wouldn’t trust my safety to someone who conducts themselves this way.