A little story about Tire Rack and our local tire shop…

[A930Rocket]

Over the last 15 to 20 years, I’ve bought tires locally at Geralds and online at Tire Rack. Never had a problem taking them to my local shop to get mounted and balanced. Earlier this week I ordered tires and went with the preferred installer (Firestone) recommended by Tire Rack. Install to be $59.95

I had the tires (265/35/18) shipped and when I called to inquire about them, the service guy at Firestone said he wanted to take a look at the rims first. Okay…

Being out of town, my wife takes the brand new Apex 18 x 9-1/2 wheels to Firestone, and the guy says it’ll be two days before they can get to them. F that. I need by Friday morning, so I can mount them before I head out to the track.

She takes them to our local tire shop Thursday, where we buy everything we don’t buy at Tire Rack (and have the tires mounted when bought from Tire Rack). He says it will be sometime Friday before he can install them, but he will call me when they are ready.

I don’t hear from him Friday morning, so I ass-u-me they did not get them installed. I’m 45 minutes on the road headed to the track, and I call them, to make sure they use tape on weights. When I talk to the guy, he says they’re ready! Ugh.

I called my wife to pick them up today and she does. They charged her $200 to install four tires on four loose wheels. On top of that, she said they were very rude and she had to ask for help to load them in the Tahoe. She wasn’t happy.

Obviously the $200 charge to install four tires on loose wheels was a **** you price. We don’t need your business and don’t bring me tires from somewhere else.

Needless to say, we won’t be darkening the door to their shop going forward.

Rant over…

[flatbutt]

Wow that sux. I've drop shipped to my local guy from TR and never a problem and no ass stabbing.

[herr_oberst]

Wow. That's an ass stabbin' for sure.

Worthy of a rant.

[cabmandone]

I guess as a small business owner I look at it a bit different. I can understand why they'd charge more for mounting tires bought elsewhere and why they'd give priority to people who bought tires from them. I've only had my local tire guy mount tires bought elsewhere once. I found a deal on some BFG TK02's. The price I found was less than my guy's cost. I asked if he'd mount and balance. He said "if you can buy them for that, I don't blame you". I've paid more for tires I've bought from him in the past because I value the service he offers. The price was so far off in this instance that he couldn't blame me. It was around $50 per tire difference.

[JackDidley]

Discount Tire for the win.

[Kraftwerk]

Sometimes ya gotta pay to play... but they really should've warned you there was an 'extra fee' for bringing your own tires / rush job? etc. Cool of the wife to p.u. the wheels for you though, my wife would probably not do that for me. Lol's...

[ted]

Originally Posted by JackDidley

Discount Tire for the win.

I won poorly balanced tires, damaged rims, ripped inner tube, too much winning.

[Gogar]

Since we are here I was wondering:

What is a "proper" price to mount and balance when the shop didn't get the sale?

[red 928]

who tells a shop to do work without getting a price first
they lose business and you learn a lesson

[A930Rocket]

Originally Posted by red 928

who tells a shop to do work without getting a price first
they lose business and you learn a lesson

True, but when is the last time you paid $50 to mount and balance a tire? I’ve never paid more than $25 in the past.

It’s not like they’re 24 inch rims with a 15 profile tires.

Edit: of all the tires we’ve ordered from tire rack, only a few sets were street tires and the rest were race tires. Something my local guy could not get.

Edit 2: they’ve grown so much, you can’t find a parking spot in the lot, they don’t take reservations and they’ve screwed up service the last two times on my wife’s Tahoe. She’s made appointments for rotate, balance and alignment. When she went to pick up the Tahoe, they forgot to align it. They said the next time it would be free. When she brought it in, something happened and they said the alignment would be free. She told them from the last appointment, the alignment was free.

[sugarwood]

Your mistake was not going to the shop yourself
Was it Hunter Road Force balanced? I've seen places charge $50 for that.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Obviously the $200 charge to install four tires on loose wheels was a **** you price. We don’t need your business and don’t bring me tires from somewhere else.

Needless to say, we won’t be darkening the door to their shop going forward.

Rant over…

Drive there and talk to somebody. You might find out there was a reason that might not be worth terminating the relationship over.

Maybe their lot is full because they cant move service through their system?

Ask them why you were "fined" with the $50 charge. That's $20 over a highway robbery (Goodyear/Firestone) price.

[p911dad]

I just this past week paid $48. total to my local Firestone store to dismount 2 old tires and mount 2 new Bridgestone SO4's on my 993 fronts. I got the 225/35 18 tires from Simpletire in PA. No problem at all. I shopped Tire Rack and Discount Tire, but Simpletire beat them along with free shipping to my house, and 2 day delivery.

[Norm K]

Originally Posted by A930Rocket

Obviously the $200 charge to install four tires on loose wheels was a **** you price. We don’t need your business and don’t bring me tires from somewhere else.

Consider that the local shop might look at your tire TireRack tire purchase(s) as a big FU to them.

I've also had great luck with Discount Tire. Quick availability, prices that are always competitive with TR (better actually, with the 10% military discount they offer on their website). Like so many other products, the quality of the physical service depends on the quality of the employees. Fortunately, the manager of the shop near me is very good and requires the same of his staff.

_

[stevej37]

Most tire places have a 'rate' board for mounting tires in the entrance. (own and purchased)

Along with Discount Tire, we have Belle Tire here. Belle is a lot nicer place for the same rates as Discount.

[GH85Carrera]

In our area we got lucky. A local Porsche only repair shop was tired of having his customers complain about damaged wheels or out of balance tires when he sent them out for customers that needed the service.

He does not want to be a "tire shop" and does not buy and sell tires, but he invested in a Road Force balance and mounting machine. He runs it himself and he can mount a tire on a perfect wheel, and not damage the wheel at all.

I took him my last set of tires to be mounted and he removed the old tires and mounted the new ones and disposed of the old tires properly. The Road Force balance is the only way I have ever had tires on my 911 not be out of balance.

He charges $45 per wheel so it ain't cheap, but the wheel comes back to me with the new tire I bought from Tire Rack on it and not one mark on the wheel. It beats the heck out of some tire monkey beating up the wheel and having a crappy balance.

[craigster59]

Originally Posted by Gogar

Since we are here I was wondering:

What is a "proper" price to mount and balance when the shop didn't get the sale?

I recently bought 4 tires from Tire Rack. i have an excellent tire shop that I normally use but with the supply chain problem they were going to have to get the BFG KO2's shipped from Colorado at an additional cost of $120.

There's a guy with a mobile tire shop in a cargo van (looks like a nice setup) who will come out and mount and balance for $40 per tire. Multiple 5 star reviews, I think I'm going to give him a shot.

[chrismorse]

My inlaws had a set of michelins put on a 2003 volvo wagon. a few months later my wife'e honda died and they gave the wagon to her. On getting the car home, i started looking it over and found both right side tires wearing very badly on the inside.

The costco tire busters had raised the rear of the car by jacking it up on the sheetmetal "toe" arm on the rear suspension and bent it up enough to force the tire into about1/4 inch of toe out. The front just had a worn out ball joint, (110K miles).

fugh

On a brighter note, when the Jongbloed 15x7 rims arrived, i took them and a set of tire rack's Direzzionales 205/50s to my local tire shop and gave the owner $100.cash and asked him to please do them himself, when he had a chance and give me a shout when ready. His supplier could not get the tires.

:-)
chris

[cabmandone]

The weird thing about this is the store could have bought the tires at a wholesale price from TR Wholesale and sold them with an installed price.
Did you give the store a chance to quote the tires?

[Sooner or later]

I would expect a local to put you to the bottom of this install list if you don't buy from them. That is one of the negatives when you use Tire Rack. And I wouldn't expect the same mounting cost as tires that were purchased from the local guy.

I bend over backwards to support local shops even if it means a higher price or a delivery delay. Sometimes that may be impossible and I bite the bullet.