Tires: Tire rotation, dis service, tire manufacturers

Question
Hi,

Today I took in car for 30k mile service & before taking car to shop, I minutely marked the tires to note their positions. After taking car back (after leaving the dealership already unfortunately), noticed they were in same positions. Also noticed spare tire was in exactly same position as I had marked it. If I didn't mark the tires, it would be harder to tell, especially by a novice like me. Do you think my marking them is a good idea or is that going overboard or showing you don't trust the mechanic? Makes me wonder whether they checked the tire pressure on the spare, unless they check the tire in place in the trunk or are very attentive to positional detail, or just happen to put it back in same position.

I saw this thread online about rotate vs not rotate tires:

http://www.f150forum.com/f38/dealer-service-dept-didnt-rotate-tires-because-fron...

it's kind of interesting to me. My tires don't appear to have uneven tread wear, so it's not as critical.

Here's the interesting part for my case though: the papers I got back say the mechanic rotated the tires, and that the "better" tires are on the front. Following the other thread above, could that mean mechanic felt the front tires were already better than the rear so didn't do the rotation?

Thanks,
David

Answer
David,

First, if the papers said they rotated the tire for you and they didn't, particularly if you paid for that service, then that is just not a good way to do business.

Second, recent bulletins of the the tire manufacturers say that the best tires should be on the rear, regardless if the vehicle is FWD or RWD.  So I think your mechanic did you a double dis-service!