I have to agree with the advise to avoid the big chains.  I have gotten
down right dishonest and just simply crappy work from Sears, NTB, and
Merchants ....   I honestly don't know where to go for tires anymore.  On
one of my old cars I had, Firestone lift it wrong and bend the frame
underneath.  On another I bought new tires from NTB and had an allignment
done.  It was done so poorly that after only 1000 miles the allignment
"went out" suddenly while driving down the interstate and the vehicle
pulled extremely hard to the right.  After finally finding a NTB during my
trip and wasting a day doing it I was told it was a problem with the tire
and they would replace it under warranty.  Catch was they didn't have the
right tire there and sent me to another store, which they had supposedly
had called.  That store put the new tire on. Then they tried to charge me
for it, saying it wasn't caused by a bad tire, it was caused by the
alignment being so far off.  Thats what I call a warranty! If Mechanic A is
an idiot and Mechanic B catches him being an idiot the customer gets to pay
for it.   Merchants did basically the same thing, saying oh thats normal,
when the tire wears a little more it will straighten out!

End rant
Dave K.