Southampton Tire Center

Southampton Tire is the BEST. They are very honest-​they don’t try and up-​sell or sell you something they don’t need. They stand by their work. Totally recommend them.

In a town where everything is 20%-35% more expensive then the same products in RIverhead, SH Tire always matches the price from Costco or Tire Rack. Nice, «Old School», service too.

Probably the least customer friendly business on the east end. Expect to be yelled at when you have an extra question. Terrible. Avoid if you can.

Hamptons BS free zone! Extremely honest, courteous and fast! I needed my tire replaced after a blowout on the road He replaced my blown tire and told me I only needed the one, that the others were nearly new. These owners deserve your business!
Overhead at the counter. The owner was telling a caller that if her son got there soon it would be an hour and a half wait (behind those of us already there!) for service. I could hear her yelling at him. He said «Wait I know your son. He missed his appt yesterday afternoon cause he was too drunk to drive, missed this morning’s appt at 7:30 where I promised him a 30 minute wait, and he’s not here now at 9:30. So let me get this straight, you are giving me attitude because your son’s priorities are all messed up? Ma’am this is what’s called a lose lose situation for you.» And hung up on her.
Ooh rah!

Price was fair and I didn’t wait long. However, they scratched the HELL out of the aluminum wheel on my less-​than-​one-​year-​old vehicle. This is not a «woops» with a wrench or tool. These are scratches across several spokes and the center cap.
Spoke with some friends in the area and was told the «IDGAF» attitude is rampant among the owners and workers. «Don’t bother» complaining, they said.
So glad they prance around with rubber gloves to protect their delicate hands. Too bad they don’t have enough pride or concern to treat my property the same way.
Do yourself a favor and take a picture of your wheels before you get any work done. Inspect them before you pay. Apparently this is nothing new. I’m not sure if they would treat a Mercedes the same way; my vehicle only cost 40k.
Never going back. I’ll take it to the dealer.

I got my tire patched here. It’s the only tire shop in the area so expect to wait. Fair priced as well.

Beware of the con! After getting my front brakes done at here at STC 8,000 miles ago, I brought my car in for a front ball joint replacement. I was surprisingly told I needed (gasp) $ 1,100 of service! Knowing this to be about double what I should be paying I asked to see the work itemization and low & behold they had «New Front Brakes & Rotors». I explained they had just done my brakes only 8,000 miles ago and that they were fine. I heard a «That’s impossible» as the old lady walked back to check the car. She came back saying that they did the back brakes, not the front, which was an absurd lie.
I nicely told her I can show her their receipt for the front brakes & that I had just gotten the back brakes done 500 miles ago elsewhere. The old lady got flustered, realizing she had been caught, and then put on a sudden zealous cranky attitude & said «Well if you’re not going to do ALL the things on the list, due to liability I won’t do any work on your car.» My jaw dropped with the continued absurdity as I had just used my one free AAA tow to have the car towed there.
So basically the bottom line was: if they couldn’t rip me off for brakes I didn’t need, they wouldn’t do the ball joint replacement at all. Not the quality you look for in an auto repair center, methinks. I got the work done a couple miles away and the entire bill was only $ 575. When I asked this mechanic about the front brakes he said they were in good condition, were only half worn, and the rotors weren’t even close to needing replacement. Beware of the STC con!
Since this happened I’ve caught wind of several other similar incidents where these people insist on unnecessary repairs, and blurt out similar «it’s their way or the highway» or «have to do it because of liability» BS. They probably didn’t count on a bad Unilocal review when they spewed their old-​school ripoff terminology. Only positive thing is that they didn’t hold my car hostage when I had a tow truck show up to have the car taken elsewhere.
On a final note, the STC mechanic who I spoke to also had a rather doomsday attitude, truly «putting it on» to make my car seem worse than it was. I think his first lines were (shaking his head) «oh man, it’s bad, it needs a whole new everything». After 30 years of car owning I can smell BS when I see it and I was kind of surprised to see it here. I could tell in 30 seconds he was exaggerating the situation when his explanations to my questions weren’t exactly viable (you must have a bad brake caliper), and immediately got a 2^nd mechanic shop’s opinion (see above) which was roughly half their estimate and brakes were reported as «good». Just saying…

Reasonable prices and fast efficient service. Yes, they give food to those in need from the area. Reason enough for me to always recommend Southampton Tire.