Fundamentally Dishonest
I'd been looking everywhere for a particular set of tires, and Vulcan Tire was the only retailer that had them in stock (or so they claimed). Despite poor reviews and against my better judgment I decided to place an order anyway, figuring the reviews couldn't possibly be representative. A day later I received an email saying my order couldn't be processed because my billing information wasn't correct. This was the first red flag, since I've never had this issue with any other merchant. Per the instructions I replied to the email and went about my business. A week later the order tracker showed no change in status. After some digging on Vulcan's website I located a customer service number and gave them a call. The service rep, who in fairness was courteous and helpful, finally processed the order for me. Great. Another week passed with no updates. I contacted customer service again. The rep told me they'd been experienced weather-related delays, that the tires were en route, and that I should receive them the following week. Great. The tires never arrived (of course). I called again and the rep fed me the same story. She wasn't able to explain why the previous rep had told me the tires had shipped when there was no indication they had. She wasn't even able to get an update from one of their warehouses, claiming that contacting them would require some time (huh?). I ended up cancelling the order, and thankfully the refund was issued pretty quickly. I don't think they ever had the tires in stock. They probably drop ship their tires and figure they can string customers along with stories about imaginary weather- or COVID-related delays. Don't order from Vulcan Tire.
By Viktor