If they were wet painted rather than a powder coat refurb this would make them far more 'chippy' . When they balance the wheels a good shop will use a plastic cone to centre them on the machine but others will use steel cones and they could chip around the holes if the finish was painted. They may have also used metal levers and a metal head on the tyre machine rather than plastic sheathed heads which will increase chances of damage.

 

The fitters we used did the same damage to ours, I was pretty miffed and didn't bother challenging them as they had a notice saying damage may occur so they take no responsibility. Had I of seen that before they were changing the tyres whilst I was waiting, I wouldn't of used them. When I get my summers back on I'm going to get them refurbished, and just won't use that particular fitter again.

 

Probably find that a refurb place will want to ensure their work comes out pristine, so wouldn't worry about them being damaged again by them.

 

Yes, a refurbish place you'd expect will do them fine.

Regarding fitting though, I never go back in any aspect of life and give money to a place which gave pathetic service, let alone actually damaged something. Even if they do/did 'handle' the issue well. imo such places are incompetent in the skills required, have a total lack of interest in your pride and joy, have no pride in their work, or a mixture off those things. Just because 95% of folk/average joe don't care, isn't any reason why they can't make an effort to, uh, not damage your property. If everyone else didn't go back and give money to a place which gave poor service, you'd be surprised how quickly a place would change, or better still, go out of business.
I remember someone wisely said on some other forum, that it's a sad 'fact' that in order to get someone to listen to what you want and expect, you've either got to come across as a pain in the a**s, or as a awkward obsessive.

 

Get them powercoated at a place of your choice at your expense. Sometimes being right is more hassle than it’s worth.
There’s no excuse for or reason to believe tyre fitting should damage a wheel.

 

I recently had fronts changed by Halfords mobile fitter, I didn't notice at the time but the guy managed to put radial scratches around one of the alloys (I think either from the bead breaker or the balancer adapter) AND he lost my Huf valve's dust cap and snuck on a black rubber cap. And he didn't bother to clean the inside rims before sticking weights on, so one of the wheels promptly lost its weight. Very unimpressed, and Halfords local centre still hasn't got back to me despite contacting them at the end of December.

Luck of the draw wherever you go these days it seems... Only ever found one place which did a great job multiple times (Protyre franchise shop across town), and they only do HGVs and commercial vehicles now.

As K3FUS says, no excuse for a competent fitter to damage a wheel, difficult to find a good fitter sometimes. My experience reminded me of the use of always taking before and after photos.

 

Yeah the wheel balancer must have caused some damage. The paint seems really thin where it chipped off so probably wet painted.

While looking at local wheel refurbers I found some places that say they will also change tyres so maybe one of those is a better bet in the future

Out of interest does anyone know of any good tyre fitters in the essex area (or even kent/suffolk)?

 

Yes, what an incompetent job. Nightmare. I feel your pain. Tyre changes are the worst thing I dread about cars. I'm heavily into detailing and I KNOW my wheels are essentially still in factory condition. Not a mark. PH neutral washed weekly, sealed 3X a year. No joke. And I can notice the tiniest, tiniest thing which many people probably couldn't (trained detailing eye).
I've had enough stories to fill a forum with this idiotic stuff. I've even, at the last place, paid an extra £40 for labour so they can solely concentrate on me and take their time. I said if you need to take 4 hours not to mark them in the slightest, I'll give you as much £ as you need. Car was in showroom condition entering. Did a full detail. Even said to them if I seem too hard work, no hard feelings if you don't want to do it. Result? Mark on diamond cuts, plus slight radial scratches which a poster mentioned above. AND about a week or so later my TMPS light would flash, then go solid, stay that way for X amount of time (5 mins to an hour), then go off. Accompanied with a scraping sound which you could clearly hear when pulling off. Anyway, when I had the car serviced I mentioned it and the tech (who is great) asked if I had had a tyre change recently, as he thinks the sensor is off in the rim. He took the tyre off (and didn't mark it at all, and he said he'd do my next tyre change(s) ). I put two and two together and remember the guilty look on the tyre fitter's face, when I asked if all was okay, when I saw him with the sensor in his hand when he was changing them a few weeks prior. He'd probably sheered it/hit it off, and put it back on, which lasted next to nothing.

I've also got an MX-5 ND and believe it or not, I've been deliberately been using it far, far less to not put many miles on it and hence to put off a tyre change. What world is it that you've got to feel like that.

 

I haven't had any contact from the garage since, and as said before I'd rather not leave the car with them again. When the weather gets a bit nicer I'll probably have all four wheels off for a deep clean and will touch them up I think

Still can't get my head around why it's so difficult to do it without damage, the people that own one off expensive supercars etc must have somewhere reliable they take their cars!