BRIDGESTONE/FIRESTONE
STATEMENT
Regarding Venezuela Voluntary Customer
Satisfaction Program
September 4, 2000
In keeping with our commitment to our
customers, Bridgestone/Firestone
Venezolana announced today a voluntary customer satisfaction
program to replace, at no cost to consumers, about 62 thousand unintentionally
mis-stamped, Venezuelan-manufactured tires.
The specific tires involved in the
customer satisfaction program are the Venezuelan-produced
Wilderness AT, white letter, size P255/70R16 and the Venezuelan-produced
Wilderness AT, white and black letters, size P235/75R15 --
including original equipment (our only original equipment
fitments on these tires in Venezuela are with Ford) and replacement
tires. These tires were distributed only in Venezuela, Colombia,
and Ecuador. None of them were ever shipped to the United
States.
These tires were unintentionally mis-stamped,
but this error does not affect the quality of these tires.
Moreover, based on our documentation, these tires were manufactured
to appropriate specifications.
Our company decided to implement the
voluntary customer satisfaction program to guarantee the complete
satisfaction of our customers and despite our respectful disagreement
with the tire-related findings of Venezuela’s Consumer
Protection Agency (Indecu).
