The three star review isn't really about this site being "average" it is actually about the site earning both a 5-star and a 1-Star review!
I recently bought a set of tires from Tire Discounters. Starting on their website, I found the tires that I wanted. Looking around I found the exact same tires a little cheaper on the website of another major tire store in my local area. I have previously bought tires at both stores and I like Tire Discounters a little better, so I submitted the information for a price match.
The next morning I got a call from someone at Corporate about the price match. By his figures, once you added in all the fees at both stores and the price of the "free" alignment that you get at Tire Discounters, he said their price was actually a little cheaper than the competitor. I didn't 100% accept his figures (mostly because I didn't NEED the alignment) but the price was very close and based on my recent purchases at both stores I do prefer Tire Discounters, so I set up an appointment.
This was Monday morning, so I set the appointment for 11AM Wednesday because the guy at Corporate said they had my tires at the local warehouse and would bring them to the store either later Monday or Tuesday.
When I got to the store for my appointment, it turned out that the guy at Corporate didn't know that they don't deliver tires on Tuesday, but just first thing Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. Because my order went in on Monday, the tires were being delivered on Wednesday -- so they weren't at the store yet, but were on the truck coming to the store. I could either wait or schedule another appointment. I decided to wait. The tires arrived soon and the store got the four tires changed and the alignment completed all in a little over two hours so that was pretty good.
The tires themselves were absolutely great and I was happy enough with the job the store did.
A few days later I got an email from Tire Discounters asking me to post a review on their website. I posted a five star review for the tires - explaining in detail how great these particular tires were. I also mentioned the same information that I gave here. (Note that I carefully did NOT mention who the other brand was). Great tires, good price, great experience at the store, one small slip by corporate, but overall 5 Stars.
I was happy with the product and the service and I said so. Any store would be happy with the review. But not Tire Discounters! Rather than posting my review (which would have been their first review for these premium tires) they sent me an automated email saying my review was rejected because it did not meet their guidelines. I couldn't figure out what the problem was -- I couldn't think of anything in the review that would have been considered unacceptable. Yes, I had mentioned that Corporate made one small mistake, but as part of a great review I wouldn't expect them to have a problem admitting a trivial error. I went back to the Tire Discounters website -- there are no guidelines anywhere on their website, so I used the Contact Us link to ask them what "guidelines" my 5-star review had violated. I certainly couldn't fix the review without knowing why they rejected it. About a week later I got a phone call from another guy at Corporate about my review. It turns out that Tire Discounters DOES NOT KNOW what their guidelines for reviews are! The reviews are handled by some third-party that they have contracted to keep track of all the reviews. The guy at Corporate knew some of the issues that could cause a review to be rejected, but none of the ones he knew about would have applied to my review. The closest would have been their rule against naming a competitor - but I had been very careful to never name the other store or give enough information to identify them.
So, at this point, I don't know why Tire Discounters rejected by 5-star review AND THEY DON'T KNOW WHY THEY REJECTED IT EITHER. How's that for a strange way to run a company.