Fette INFINITI

On Thursday February 7th 2013 at 7:30AM I had dropped my Infiniti FX35 at Fette Infiniti for a 120K mile service which included a tire rotation. I had also had on the service request replacement of the brakes and the rotors. I picked up a loaner car and went to work. At 3:30PM I received a voice mail from the service agent that I dropped the car off with, Todd R. In the voice mail he mentioned that they noticed a gash in the sidewall of one of the tires that when shown he could hear air leaking from the gash. When I went to pick up the vehicle I was shown the gash and was very surprised that I could hear air leaking from it pretty significantly as well. Todd was not there when I went back to pick up the vehicle so I was delivered the car from Ryan. Ryan put air into the tire to 45psi, well above the recommended fill because the tire was leaking so bad. I got home, 4 miles away, and the dashboard display now read that the tire was down to 29psi. My suspicion at this point is that the gash in the tire could not have been on the tire when the vehicle was dropped off. So, I waited to see how long it would take to go noticeably flat. An hour and a half later the only thing between the rim and the pavement was the deflated rubber of the tire. So, I came to the conclusion that there was a very high probability that the gash in the tire was not there when I dropped of the vehicle. If it was there when the vehicle was dropped off it would have become flat well before it was noticed, after 8 hours of being at Fette Infiniti. This morning, Friday February 8, 2013, at 7AM I changed the flat tire out and put on the spare and drove down to Fette Infiniti to ask some questions about the feasibility of the gash having occurred while the vehicle was there for service. Ryan came out to speak with me, because I asked to speak with the service manager and was told that Ryan is it (he did not mention this yesterday when I picked up the vehicle). So, I showed him the wheel in my trunk that was completely flat and pointed out that I was concerned that the gash in the tire was not there prior to my dropping of the vehicle for service. The first words out of his mouth were “we didn’t do it”. I let him know that it was completely flat within an hour and a half of me picking up the vehicle and that it was at Fette for 8 hours before it was noticed that the wheel was leaking air. Which, is impossible if the gash was there when it was dropped off for service. His tone became very hostile in which he said they didn’t do it maybe three more times and threw in there that people are always coming in the trying to blame them for similar things. To that I asked if those people dropped their car off at 7:30AM and 8 hours later a gash was noticed that causes the tire to be flat within an hour and a half. We both raised our voices and he finally said “I was going to try to help you but now I am not, come inside”. The “come inside” was said very aggressively and I responded with “do not command me to do anything”. At this point an older man who introduced himself as Pat the general manager stepped in. He had been mulling around as Ryan and I spoke. He said “Hi, I am Pat the general manager” to which I responded with “Hi I am John XXX”. And then he said “We are not going to be helping you so get out of here”. I was extremely surprised by this and I said “I will not be giving you any more of my business and I will be reporting this”. As soon as I left I took the wheel to National Tire and Battery in Clifton to see about getting a new tire put on. I pointed out the gash and asked the person at the desk, in his expert opinion, how long something like that would bleed out and he said “about an hour”. He then showed it to two other service men who said the exact same thing. I asked him about filling it to run a test and see and he said he highly doubted that it would even hold air at this point. I can not believe that a gash in a wheel that is out of air in an hour and half by my watch, was present when I dropped my vehicle off at 7:30AM and yet was not noticed and still leaking air at 3:30PM. This is impossible. The gash in the wheel had to have occurred while my vehicle was on-site at Fette Infiniti and rather than admit to it and replace the tire the two managers that I spoke with denied and then became offensive. I have taken my vehicle there for oil changes and all services for the past few years and I have been treated very badly, their service is horrible.