I've had plenty of bad experiences from letting shops service my vehicles, which is why I tend to prefer doing the work myself, even if it means spending more money in the end on special tools and other supplies.
The thing that ticks me off the most at tire places is when they go trying to roll two wheels across the shop at once, and manage to let one of them drop right on its face against the concrete floor. Yeah, that's real good for the wheel finish. Thanks a lot.
I find that the best tire and wheel service comes from the high-end custom wheel shops. At a store where selling appearance products such as aftermarket wheels, they know better than to scratch, bang, or otherwise mistreat any wheel, and they don't grind grease in to my floormats, either. I'll pay $20 per wheel to have them balanced on a good machine at such places. I'll have them filled with nitrogen while I'm at it, as well. Air tools? Those do nothing but screw up pretty chrome lugs, so they don't use those, either.
The only trick to dealing with such shops usually revolves around tolerating some of the spoiled-rotten customers that are there for a new set of rims because the set they bought last week was just seen on another car in town, and besides, they're a week old. We all know how those week old rims are always
so "last week!"
