Thats sucks. Your buddy should have complained more. They would have gave in eventually (it's the Wal-Mart way). I watched my manager give a guy two brand new tires just to shut him up. Why was he complaining? He came in and wanted two tires put on the front of his car or so it seemed. When we got the car in the shop we noticed the two front tires were brand new and the rears were bald. The tires he picked out even matched the ones of the front. So naturally we assumed the ticket was wrote up wrong (it wouldn't have been the first time) and put the tires on the rear. The guy notices the new tires on the rear and comes back to let us know he wanted them on the front. The ticket writer relays the message and tells us just swap the rear tires and wheels with the fronts. No, big deal....a little extra work right? Nope, this time the guy comes back and says he wanted to keep his bald tires and replace the brand new tires that were on the front. He explains that they had flat spots on them and that's why he was replacing them. So we put his old bald tires on the wheels and send the car back out the way he originally wanted it. However, that's not what he really wanted. He comes back a third time and complains that he can't be sure if the new tires on the front of his car are the ones he bought from us or the ones he came in with. At this point the manager is called and they take the guy out to the place where we store old tires and show him the two tires he came in with and points out how they don't have the sprues (teats, nibs, nubs etc...) and the tires he bought from us (that are on the car) do have them. This doesn't satisfy him so they take him back to the security office and show him the video tape from the security camera in the shop. This doesn't satisfy him either (in his defense the quality was really poor on the tape). At this point the customer is raising 9 kinds of hell with the manager and threatening to sue. So what does the manager do? Send him packing? Nope...He refunds the guy his money for the tires and gives him a gift card!