Tire Bead problems of the 2002 Dodge Dakota

The contact has a pickup truck that has original factory goodyear wrangler st tires, p215/75r15. When the vehicle was taken to a local repair shop for maintenance the technician noticed slits up to three inches long on the sidewall above the bead running with the circumference of the tire down to the inner fabric on all four tires. There have been no previous problems with the tires. Because the tires were no longer covered by warranty he replaced all four tires with a different brands. He experienced no further problems after the tire replacement. There were cracks on 3 of the 4 tires. Updated 11/29/05.

Goodyear tires: I purchased a 2002 Dodge Dakota in June, 2002. From day 1, I had trouble steering. After 3 trips to the dealer, I learned today that the goodyear tires were defective. I was told to immediately get new tires. The goodyear dealer was unresponsive to my need. It was obvious that he did not want to deal with defective tires. I went immediately to a michelin (sp) dealer and purchased 4 new tires. The michelin folks could insert a car key fully inside splits that were in my tires. I found news reports of abc investigating goodyear but obviously this is not getting to the public, either through the media or dealers. No incident but only because I took the truck in for an oil change and again complained about difficulty keeping the truck on the road. This complaint is sent in hopes that an investigation will start. I was told that the tires were from a "bad batch". How many tires are in a batch and where are the other tires? please respond and let me know the appropriate actions to take. I was most fortunate because I drive 70 mph on interstate-10 daily. The oil change may have prevented an accident and perhaps my life. Respectfully, patricia hunter.