[selfdrive]

Last Sunday, I noticed a puncture on my car so took it to the nearest puncture removal fellow. Mistake number 1.

So this guy removes the tyre and starts inspecting the punctures. Somehow, he found 11 punctures, including 2 in the sidewall and a punctured valve. total cost 1400 bucks! Mistake number 2. But have no choice but to accept what he says. tyres are bridgestone and done only about 5k kms. No other tyre on this car has punctures. Parking is in secure area (concrete surface) with no debris.

Of the 11 punctures, 7 had nails in them and the other 4 had glass shreds. While this is a tubeless tyre, there were no punctures observed till 3 days before this incident. There is no way that I could have accumulated 11 punctures in these 3 days considering I drove perhaps a total of 5 kms on roads where my other 2 vehicles drove a total of around 30kms (same days, same roads). There is no construction site or debris around.

My suspicions are more as 3 sets of nails were found in the tyre as if shot from a double barrel gun.
How can this happen? Do our puncture fellows indulge in some unscrupulous practices to get more punctures? More importantly how do they get away with this? I mean at what time of the tyre removal did they manage to add the extra punctures?

Mods, feel free to merge/ move as appropriate.

Edit: I was standing right next to the tyre. Another guy distracted me by asking if I had applied the handbrake and asked for the jac spanner. That was for maybe 5 seconds. I am not sure if he could pull off anything in that time. The only other time I was away from the tyre is when he was bumping it near his small water tray. Another 10 seconds.
The tyre definitely had a puncture for sure before I went to the guy. What I am trying to say here is that I suspect the guy added a few of his own. I may not be correct in this case, but I am sure some of these guys try to pull a fast one on us.
What I want to know is when and how they do it so that I can be more alert to their tricks.
I understand I can go to another shop but there are some situations when this is not possible.
^^

[bharat4ever]

What were you doing when you handed over the tire to him for puncture inspection? Were you not looking as to what you were doing?

[mayankjha1806]

How did he checked the Puncture? especially in tubeless ones its tough to get them immersed under water to check bubbles. In most cases i have seen they over fill the air in the tyre so as a small leak will start sounding clear and loud. Still small punctures can be only caught by putting under water.

11 Punctures sounds unreasonable to me for sure especially if its a new (almost new) tyre.

[sgiitk]

If there are holes in the sidewall then the tyre has to be replaced.

[Daewood]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

What I am trying to say here is that I suspect the guy added a few of his own.

Very much possible. Faced a similar situation here in chennai but that was with my scooter.
Went to a roadside puncture guy as i felt the air in one of the tyres was less than usual. He removed the tyre while another one was engaging me in a conversation, about the first-aid kit in my scooter box. Within no time the other guy comes up with the tube and claims 4 punctures, the repairing cost of which would be higher than the cost of a new tube. When i was arguing with him some beggars who were squatting nearby also joined in support of the puncture guy, and that's when i realized it's a racket, with all of them being part of the same gang. Fought with them and finally paid only for 2 punctures.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

How can this happen? Do our puncture fellows indulge in some unscrupulous practices to get more punctures? More importantly how do they get away with this? I mean at what time of the tyre removal did they manage to add the extra punctures?

Correct post. Correct thread. Wrong forum!

Funny you should put this here - there's a thread on this on our company forum - look it up Of course, this is a proper scam - you are not the only one to face this. As for how he did it, that's something only he can answer.

[hellmet]

I had once parked my new motorcycle near a shop and went in for a couple of minutes. The bike was riding absolutely fine until then. By the time I came out, when I sat on the bike I noticed my rear tire was totally flat. Then a puncture guy from across the street started walking towards me and asked if it was a puncture. I immediately understood that this was done by him. However, there was no other puncture repair shop nearby and had to give him unnecessary business.

So yes, it is highly possible that the puncture repair guy in your case might have pulled a fast one on you. Although I have to say, 5 and 10 secs sounds like too little a time to do so.

[zalaps]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Last Sunday, I noticed a puncture on my car so took it to the nearest puncture removal fellow. Mistake number 1.

Same incident happened to my neighbour last week. Cost was some what 1300 odd. Careless part from him was not having spare tyre in ready state and he has to surrender to next available puncture shop.

[mb_jg]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Last Sunday, I noticed a puncture on my car so took it to the nearest puncture removal fellow. Mistake number 1.


^^

I am extremely curious to know where this happened!! There's a puncture guy next to our place at NIBM (near Palace Orchard) & he fleeces every single person. He will damage the air valve while filling air, a perfectly good tire will miraculously have multiple punctures & all that nonsense.

[vikrantj]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Last Sunday, I noticed a puncture on my car so took it to the nearest puncture removal fellow. Mistake number 1.
^^

Is this place in Wakad ?
I had same experience with those small puncture shops on Wakad-Hinjewadi road . Somehow they distracted me and lo and behold I had 5 puncture on my front right tyre and they also claimed valve to be damaged. I had to get the punctures repaired and gave them 300Rs and a piece of my mind. They were on the verge of threatening me but I gave a speech in vernacular with a choice of words which they did not understand (they were from UP or Bihar based on their Hindi accent) . But they did not mess with me after that.

This was all at 8am while going to the office.

[Jet-thrust]

Hi selfdrive,
I sincerely doubt that the 11 punctures were made by your tyre repair man since you barely left the man alone for 15-20 secs. This is not enough to embed so many nails into your tyre without being seen or heard (try driving a nail into a deflated tyre and you'll see what I mean).
I think you should turn your attention to some local miscreant near the place of your residence.

Some tyre repair people do scatter a very small amount of old rusted nails nearby. If they scatter too many, it would hurt nearby shops, dhabas etc, and those people would chase them away. So, this is done only to supplement an existing business (for want of choice of a better phrase).
With the advent of tubeless tyres, now someone else bears fruit so this practice is ever reducing.

ADVICE for all fellow BHPians: If you want to avoid punctures, as far as possible do not park/traverse on unpaved surfaces. Since that's not entirely possible in our country, minimize it.

[selfdrive]

Originally Posted by ninjatalli

Funny you should put this here - there's a thread on this on our company forum - look it up. Of course, this is a proper scam - you are not the only one to face this. As for how he did it, that's something only he can answer.

I dont usually go there, but after you said this tried to search for 'puncture' without any success. Maybe I need to do better at using keywords. I tried putting up here as I thought many of us would be experienced in identifying and correcting holes in rubber.

Of course I am not the only one who has a jackass superimposed when I look in the mirror. But I figure if we can crack the code, we can stay alert for such opportunistic tricks and beat the crap out of such cheats.

by the way, I dont understand why they have to charge 100 bucks for every puncture. Its not as if he removed and fixed the tyre once for each puncture. Should second puncture onwards not be charged less?

Originally Posted by hellmet

So yes, it is highly possible that the puncture repair guy in your case might have pulled a fast one on you. Although I have to say, 5 and 10 secs sounds like too little a time to do so.

Maybe, but every time I visit one of these shops, I have to change a valve. Not sure how or when they do it. Next time if I go to one of these places, I am going to tell him beforehand that if the valve ends up having a puncture, he has to do it for free.

Originally Posted by zalaps

Careless part from him was not having spare tyre in ready state and he has to surrender to next available puncture shop.

I had a spare. just that I was too sleep deprived and lazy to do it myself. I didnt have a pump though. But now I am considering getting a puncture repair kit and trying a DIY. Maybe I will fnd out how or when they do it!

Originally Posted by mb_jg

There's a puncture guy next to our place at NIBM (near Palace Orchard) & he fleeces every single person. He will damage the air valve while filling air, a perfectly good tire will miraculously have multiple punctures & all that nonsense.

Originally Posted by vikrantj

Is this place in Wakad ?
I had same experience with those small puncture shops on Wakad-Hinjewadi road .

See? they are all over the place and they are looting us under our noses. In fact, some of my friends have sounded me out about some of these clowns throwing nails on the road just to ensure more business.

I didnt pay 5-6k a tyre to spend so much on it later. if I wanted such inconvenience I could have gotten it at 3K a tyre.

[abhijitvp]

Originally Posted by selfdrive

Last Sunday, I noticed a puncture on my car so took it to the nearest puncture removal fellow.
^^

By any chance has this happened on Sus-Pashan road? I had similar experience last month. The guy showed me 5 punctures on my brand new XM2s (Had done just 2k on them).. Had to shell out Rs. 350 for all of them. He was asking Rs. 500 for all of them but finally settled for 350. There was one genuine puncture but rest 4 of them were created by that guy. I was 100% sure abut that but couldn't handle the situation and had to pay.

[Ahmed]

I had once seen a puncture dude with ENO in a different container - realized that this may be a reason and this might be the reason for such scams. They will first fill the tyre threads with ENO when you are not looking and then they will put soap solution on the ENO place. Result - bubbles come out of the place ! He will simply wash it and will charge you for the work done. Had caught this dude red handed - told him that this will be reported to police - dude vacated the puncture shop the very next day and was never seen ! I am sure there may be a million more ways for this fraud. Its best to keep your own tyre repair kit.

[rajeev k]

Puncture repair guys plays trick in deserted roads by throwing sharp objects on roads in some places to get work and generally sells tubes in the pretext that there are many punctures. Second hand tubes with less number of punctures at higher cost.
In your case if you had a spare wheel ,ideal thing was to buy a new tyre or even inserting a new tube in this tubeless tyre.
t Side wall nail punctures can be left as such as they are not all dangerous.
The method to check for leakage of tubeless tyre is to fill air and immerse in water with the disc.