AW
Adam Williams
Sep 1, 2026
We all have rough days, and today was mine (and my friends'). We were on our way to Burning Man in our RV, and generally we're an over prepared and resourceful group. Despite our preparations, nothing could have gotten us ready for two full tire blowouts within 50 miles.
The first blowout destroyed our water heater and caused some body damage, but we patched it up, swapped in the spare, and kept going. Down a spare, I called around to find shops on our route that carried our tire size. That's when I found the Les Schwab in Lakeview, Oregon. Jennifer answered the call and promptly passed me to Lonnie, the branch manager. After a quick chat about our very specific tires, he told me he'd get us squared away with a new spare when we rolled through town.
On the way to Les Schwab, 30 miles from where we'd swapped the first tire and 22 miles out from the shop, the second tire blew. It was the spare we'd just put on, and this time it destroyed most of our wheel well. I called Lonnie and asked if he knew any mechanics in town who could bail us out. He gave me his cell number to text a couple pictures, and within minutes he responded that his team could take care of it. Jennifer got tires ready and delivered them to Jordan, the service rep who met us roadside, and Jordan pulled the shredded tires, patched the wheel well, and handled our first dually swap, reseating and installing two new tires, in under an hour.
Given the luck we'd just had and the age of our remaining rubber, we followed him back to the shop, where they swapped the rest of our tires for a brand new set on the spot. Ryan got us set up at the front desk. They had our RV in the bay in under 10 minutes and swapped the remaining four tires in under 60 minutes, with Jeff handling our second dually swap and another technician, who I didn't get to meet, taking care of the front two, while we finally got to nap in the RV.
Jeff ended up being the true capstone of the whole day. He hyped up his whole team, offering genuine reassurance about how much everyone cared about doing a good job, and even offered to personally run to the hardware store for a vanity lug cover for one of our hubcaps. The whole team was friendly, reassuring, and went so far out of their way for a group of complete strangers that it's honestly hard to put into words. Between Lonnie, Jeff and Ryan, we also drove away with a deal on the whole visit that felt more than fair.
Every interaction with this crew was better than anything I've experienced at a shop like this before. Jennifer, Lonnie, Jordan, Ryan, and Jeff, thank you for treating us like family on one of the roughest days of our trip. We know exactly who to recommend to our friends on future trips.
I went to The Les Schwab Tire Center today for a massive loss of pressure on my left rear tire, I was told I was going to wait no more than one hour, after several people showed up and were helped before my vehicle was even looked at, I waited. An hour and a half later I walked out of the waiting room only to be waved down by the gentleman that I initially talked to. I'm a highway contract USPS rural delivery subcontractor with several thousands of pounds of cargo loaded. Apparently the gentleman made me wait 30 minutes longer after the tire was repaired as I was sitting in the waiting room. Then he told me that my wear bars were reached not that long ago and that I needed a new set of tires, he could not give me a life cycle on the nearly new tires that are on my vehicle. He then proceeded try to sell me new tires and the quotes he printed for me were thrown in the trash by the office manager and coffee was dumped on it. Not only will I never buy new tires from this Lakeview Les Schwab, I'll tell everyone I know never to go there again. Horrible service, technicians have zero knowledge base on tires and yet, expect me to spend another $1260 with them after this experience. Not only No, but Hell No.