Big O Tires — Local services in Winnemucca

We have had two experiences while living here in Winnemucca.

The first experience. I called in on the phone and inquired about getting our brakes checked. I asked if I could set up a time/appointment to come in. The lady informed me that they do not do appointments and to come in anytime the next day. I came in the next day at 10 am. They told me they were backed up until 2, and to come back at 2. I came back at two and they said they didn’t have time at the moment, but call in an hour. I called an hour later and they said they didn’t have any time that day. Few thoughts on this, I spent a good portion of my day off trying to get something basic finished and got the run around. On the last call in I asked the lady if I could share some feedback, and she said she would love to hear it. I told her about the run around I got and mentioned that they might either want to work people in who said they would have time or to do appointments. She got defensive and said again, “we don’t do appointments.” In other towns I have lived in, they want your business and will give you a call back when they are ready, instead of making customers wait on them.

Second Experience My wife then took it in the next week since I had to work. She got worked in within 2 hours. They gave us a quote and actually worked hard to get a stuck bolt out of the caliper so we wouldn’t have to replace. They also ground our rotors down to save us a little cost(hence the 2 stars, would be 1 star if not.) They charged us for 1 hour labor more than the time it took to fix(and from the looks of it, they didn’t really hurry on that either). My wife then asked why they charged for one more hour than it took. They replied it is a standard charge no matter how long it takes. My thoughts on this experience are, they take their time and are dishonest or misrepresent their labor charges. Mind you my wife and I share one vehicle and she had our baby with her. She was stuck there the whole time it took as well, which is fine, other than the condition of the establishment(which is shared below).

The establishment When you walk in, the place is not well kept, dirty rugs, disorganized papers(which is pretty normal). What is not normal is there were two dogs sitting right by the front entrance. While we were there a guy tripped over the German Sheppard and the dog lunged at him trying to snap at him. This is a huge liability for the company. We also noticed they have food and water, litter box for the cat, etc. It appears as though the animals live there. The bathrooms were also not clean.

I am grateful they helped us out, but in th end could not recommend this place to anybody. It is a sad commentary that small towns like this, businesses survive and scalp people because there are not other...

11/16/2017 - Showed up 10:00AM hoping to get my tires rotated and parking brake adjusted. Talk to the owner, Blake Lambert, about what I need done and pointing out that I have a truck camper (higher clearance). They are busy, but he makes it seem like he will be able to get me in for at least the rotation in 2 hours. Gives me his card and says call in 2 hours.

Called 2 hours later. Karen answers and I ask to talk to Blake. He remembers who I am and says it will be about another hour.

Called 1 hour later. Karen answers and I recap who I am and ask her to check if they are ready for me yet. Karen checks and says they aren't ready yet and they can get me in in an hour. I ask if I should call in an hour, or just show up, she confirms "just show up."

So I show up an hour later. Blake is manning the front desk dealing with another customer. Once he gets to me he says hi, have a seat, I'll get you in the next bay. I give him a puzzled look and point out my truck camper again and ask if it will fit in his bays. It won't. This was the point it clicked for him that we have a problem. He says no, and he won't be able to get me in today.

I began to recap for him the above about waiting half the day to get this done and pointed out that I pointed out my rig to him from the very beginning and he should have realized he wouldn't be able to get me in that day. There were no customers or workers around. Just us. I never raised my voice, or said anything insulting. Just recapped the above.

While doing so, Blake interrupted me multiple times, made no attempt to find a solution, offered no apologies for wasting half my day, and in the end told me I should find someone else to do the job. I agreed, and he walked me out, offering to get the door for me, further confirming he didn't want any of my business.

Avoid this shop. Winnemucca is a big enough town that I'm sure there are much...

!! CAUTION !! We took our company vehicle to this shop for new tires and an oil change. Immediately after the work was performed (2 days) our diesel truck began to lose pressure. We called Big O and made them aware of the concern but they were convinced they had not done anything wrong. After an oil level check we continued to drive the truck as it did not show any signs of concern other than intermittent pressure loss but had no effect on the trucks performance. During a material haul we experienced failure at the turbo due to lack of oil and had a mechanic review the truck within two week of Big O completing the oil change. When he removed the Oil filter housing he found that the oil valve that was supposed to be located at the bottom of the housing was placed on top. This created a siphon of oil out of the oil filter housing and cause the turbo to receive no lubricant and failed. We contacted Big O and they at first denied that the truck could even run in the condition that the other mechanic found it. We sent them a video of the truck running in that condition and they dismissed the entire issue stating that it couldn't be guaranteed because we drove 1000 miles. All of the mechanics in the Sparks Reno area agreed that Big O Winnemucca was wrong about their diagnosis and the fault is theirs. We offered to cover the part costs if they would cover tow and labor but they rejected that. At this point we will have another mechanic complete the work and issue a demand letter to Big O for the damages and time lost on our company vehicle. Unfortunately they have no video of the work being done and cannot confirm if their technicians failed to reassemble the filter correctly. We do have accounts from our mechanic in Reno and confirmation from other mechanics in Reno that Big O is wrong. What an unfortunate...