Theoretically it could have been. Not sure what would have happened to bend it to the point where it was less than 1/2” away from the tire prior to taking it to the shop. However, they still gave it back to me without doing any quality check. They told me they heard a noise, but didn’t see...
*UPDATE* Shop replaced the damaged tire free of charge.
Word of caution when having shop install tires. Never thought this could happen, but here we are. Happened to me today, and it was an extremely strange occurrence. During the course of installing new tires, the shop managed to bend the...