Ms PatriYacht
Charter Member
It's been a while since I vented, so forgive me. Ian hit a pot hole and bent the wheel on my car so it has to be replaced (LOL that's not the rant). We bought the car used from a MI dealership & they got it from NY. Since the wheels were aftermarket Ian suggested I go to Belle Tire (local MI chain) On Friday the asst. mgr looks at the wheel very closely and says "that's a Pulse wheel but I don't think that style is still available". I ask how he could tell they are Pulse brand, he says Oh I can tell since that's our own brand, plus you can tell when you look at the sides. Then he goes to the computer and looks through wheel photos. He says I am out of luck since it not in the computer it has been discontinued. He says "I can get you something close but it will not be exact, but since it's discontinued there is nothing else I can do". He tells me he can order the one that is the closest from another store and I can come in today to take a look. He said he will order 4 in case I want a matching set and that if I buy all 4 he will give me discount, geeze what a nice guy. I leave thinking I could check a zillion hubcap places, but since it is the Belle brand it will be like looking for a needle in a hay stack to find the exact used wheel especially since I don't even know the number or name of the style.
I kept wondering:huh: since Belle tire does not have any stores in NY how could their brand wind up on a car from there. I think maybe it was done at the MI dealership, however when I called they said the car came in with those wheels and if they had needed to be changed they would used the original wheel from GM. So now I get to thinking that even though Belle is a good size chain I doubt they are big enough to have a wheel company fabricate wheels just for them. So this morning I call some national tire brands, first I check Firestone, no wheels on their web site, so I look at Discount Tire and call their Waterford store. The guy says yes Pulse is a Belle only brand, I then ask what their store brand = to Pulse is and he tells me MB Wheel, I look at their site and see one that looks pretty close to my wheel. Now for the first time I put my reading glasses on and take a close look at my wheel and what do I see, smack in the center of the wheel a bigger that life frigging MB logo. I email a photo of my wheel to Discount Tire, low and behold it is their wheel, they have it in stock and at 5:00 they will put it on for me:hurray:
The Belle Tire counter guy, who by the way gets commission flat out lied
, "oh it's a Pulse wheel, oh you can tell by looking at the side, (yeah have me look on the side so I don't ask what the large MB in the center stands for). After looking a the enlarged photo (logo in center) you will see why I sort of feel foolish, but I never heard of MB before today, and when someone tells you what you have is their store brand you tend to believe them. I can understand the sales guy wanting to make a sale and not point me to a competitor, but he might have done it another way. He could have said something like I have no clue where the wheel came from, but I will try to get you a good match at a good price, or let me make a few calls to see if I can find one, then called Discount tire and try to get it wholesale from them. I have a hard time believing that he did not recogonize the MB logo. Well Ian's dually needs new tires soon and he most likely would have taken it to Belle, I told the General Manager just that when I called to tell him why we will be taking our business elsewhere.:sifone:
I kept wondering:huh: since Belle tire does not have any stores in NY how could their brand wind up on a car from there. I think maybe it was done at the MI dealership, however when I called they said the car came in with those wheels and if they had needed to be changed they would used the original wheel from GM. So now I get to thinking that even though Belle is a good size chain I doubt they are big enough to have a wheel company fabricate wheels just for them. So this morning I call some national tire brands, first I check Firestone, no wheels on their web site, so I look at Discount Tire and call their Waterford store. The guy says yes Pulse is a Belle only brand, I then ask what their store brand = to Pulse is and he tells me MB Wheel, I look at their site and see one that looks pretty close to my wheel. Now for the first time I put my reading glasses on and take a close look at my wheel and what do I see, smack in the center of the wheel a bigger that life frigging MB logo. I email a photo of my wheel to Discount Tire, low and behold it is their wheel, they have it in stock and at 5:00 they will put it on for me:hurray:
The Belle Tire counter guy, who by the way gets commission flat out lied
, "oh it's a Pulse wheel, oh you can tell by looking at the side, (yeah have me look on the side so I don't ask what the large MB in the center stands for). After looking a the enlarged photo (logo in center) you will see why I sort of feel foolish, but I never heard of MB before today, and when someone tells you what you have is their store brand you tend to believe them. I can understand the sales guy wanting to make a sale and not point me to a competitor, but he might have done it another way. He could have said something like I have no clue where the wheel came from, but I will try to get you a good match at a good price, or let me make a few calls to see if I can find one, then called Discount tire and try to get it wholesale from them. I have a hard time believing that he did not recogonize the MB logo. Well Ian's dually needs new tires soon and he most likely would have taken it to Belle, I told the General Manager just that when I called to tell him why we will be taking our business elsewhere.:sifone:Attachments
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