TireRack's claim of free mounting of wheels & tires but..

[DreiPorscheGuy]

Hello,

I was pondering a new set of wheels and perusing the TireRack site when I realized something about their wheel/tire package shipping costs. If you have wheels and tires in your cart, you are asked if you would like them mounted and balanced at no additional cost. However, in reality what TireRack does is charge the combined individual shipping costs of the wheel and the tire when they ship a tire with the wheel mounted. So, in effect they are charging an additional amount. The overall dimension does not change with the addition of a wheel, however the weight obviously does. From my Fedex account, here are the costs of shipping an item that is 25"x25"x10" from their McCarran NV facility to my home in Tucson, Az:

Weight of #25: $24.65
Weight of #50: $25.83

In my cart, the cost for shipping a single tire is shown as: $17.27 and cost for shipping a single wheel is shown as $24.65.. That yields a total shipping cost for shipping all 8 items of approximately $167.68. If I put 4 wheels and 4 tires in my cart and opt for the "NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE" mounting and balancing, the shipping cost is $170.54 for what is now 4 items. This variance is probably because I used a front, 7", wheel/tire and the rears would be 8" wide but it is a marginal variance that is not worth sorting. However, in reality the cost of shipping a tire with a wheel mounted inside is actually only marginally more than shipping just a tire as shown above. Carriers are more concerned with cube(volume) than gross(weight). TireRack's individual tire shipping costs seems about right, it is the mounted tire/wheel prices that are out of wack. Using my small volume Fedex discounts the shipping for the wheel & tire package should not be much more than $104 or so allowing for the width of the rears and some rounding. I am a small volume shipper as well so surely they negotiate better rates; however my point here is not really the specific rates but the fact that they are adding the individual tire and wheel shipping rates together which I assure you is not what TireRack is being charged by their carriers.

Please check this for yourself; go to either UPS or Fedex and do a quote from the nearest TireRack facility to your home. Enter the dimensions of a relevant tire with an approximate tire weight and then do it again with increased weight for a wheel. You will see that the shipping rate does not change much; it certainly will not double.*

For me, that is their Las Vegas location:*

3300 Waltham Way
McCarran, NV 89434

From the TireRack site:
Would you like the Riken Raptor ZR tires in your cart mounted and Hunter Road ForceŽ balanced on the Starke Design SC16 wheels at NO ADDITIONAL CHARGE?

Yes
No

Is this perhaps a false claim? I made several attempts to discuss this with people at TireRack; I spoke with a total of 7 different people over 3 different phone calls. I was never told anything other than "we charge what the carriers charge us". Twice I was told that someone in management would contact me to discuss this; I have not been contacted. It is my suspicion that TireRack is charging the combined individual shipping costs to cover the cost of mounting and balancing wheels & tires. I have no issue with paying for a service that I am receiving but when it is presented as being free of charge, that changes. The lack of caring/concern on the part of every TireRack employee I spoke with was astounding; that nobody "in management" cared enough to call me probably explains why.

[maninblack]

I don't care either. Pretty innovatove conversion process to provide the consumer a free service while preserving their margins at the expense of the shipper. Well done on their part.

[DreiPorscheGuy]

Originally Posted by maninblack

I don't care either. Pretty innovatove conversion process to provide the consumer a free service while preserving their margins at the expense of the shipper. Well done on their part.

What? The TireRack customer is paying for the combined cost of shipping a wheel and shipping a tire when a mounted tire/wheel is shipped. They are not sticking it to the carriers, but to their own customers..

I am going to assume you have one car..

[maninblack]

You're a moron.

They offer you a price for wheels and tires shipped separately. They then offer you free mounting and balancing and the way they do that is by saving on shipping after the tires are mounted on the wheels. The consumer pays the same as they would have for wheels and tires shipped separately but gets the added benefit of having their tires mounted at no additional cost to them.

If that's something you don't want, just order the wheels and tires separately and pay your local shop to mount them at your own expense.

[davewadd]

Huh?
So what you want, is the mounting and balancing for free AND a discount on the shipping you were planning to pay, simultaneously????
I agree with maninblack.

[Matt Monson]

Agree with manwithmorethanonecar as well. And doubly so because I know the op’s math is off. Order 4 unmounted tires from tire rack and they show up zip tied together. Order four wheels and they show up in four boxes. Order them mounted and those boxes are now too small. The speculative shipping math is wrong.

[davewadd]

I don't even think they zip-tie them....they just slap a ups label onto each tire...so yes, the original post doesn't make sense on several levels. ��

[johnvan8]

Originally Posted by DreiPorscheGuy

The lack of caring/concern on the part of every TireRack employee I spoke with was astounding; that nobody "in management" cared enough to call me probably explains why.

Sorry to say but if I owned a business, I would not care that much about customers who would waste 3 phone calls and time of 7 employees trying to nickel and dime a few bucks.
Just not worth it...

[dg567]

Tires are usually shipped in pairs if that matters

[75 911s]

Also Mccaran is not in or near Las Vegas.

[faverymi]

Tire Rack is pretty reasonable, good customer service.

If I'm too worry about shipping or I order sets for multiple cars I just drive down to Connecticut and be done with it.

I will allow them to make money. They are a good business. Hope they stay around

[Matt Monson]

One thing I don't like about them is that their road hazard warranty doesn't transfer with the sale of a car. I got burned on that recently when I bought an Acura Integra from a flipper. He got 4 new tires, and 1 week after the car got here one of them got punctured beyond repair. They did nothing for me, saying that it stayed with the purchaser.

[MichaelB]

Originally Posted by faverymi

I will allow them to make money. They are a good business. Hope they stay around

^ This.

More people need to realize that we should SUPPORT good quality automotive related companies, not tear them down.

Do you want to end up with nothing but call centers to buy things from? No tech help, no auto enthusiast employees? No product testing?

Let them make a profit. And SUPPORT those who support our hobby. It is not so hard to figure out.

[Alan A]

I think I spent more than $60 worth of my time reading the first post. God knows what it would cost to type. Add phone calls and ranting. Holy crap dude you need a job.

[MrSlacker]

Don't you think it costs TireRack something to mount and balance tires, then package them for shipping. They need to make up for it. Technically, it IS a free service because your total cost doesn't change.

I am in online business and ship all orders. It honestly pisses me off when customers start counting my costs of shipping. No, I am not going to give you same price I pay for shipping when you place single order with me and probably will never shop again.

[dg567]

Well this backfired!

[911ish]

You wrote this post over $3 and your misguided belief that 4 packages should be cheaper than 8 regardless of package dimension or weight? I regret reading this thread.

[touringmandan]

We have been an "Authorized Installer" for Tire Rack for nearly 20 years. They have been absolutely professional and have been great to work with. Several times when a customer has mistakenly ordered the wrong tires, they have picked them up at no cost and shipped the correct tires at their expense.

[Mike80911]

When they mount and balance the tires they fill them with air. Does that not actually increase the shipping weight by most likely 35lbs. per wheel? It stands to reason that a wheel and tire mounted with air is heavier than a wheel and tire not mounted. So it actually does cost more to ship.

[nathanbs]

Originally Posted by Mike80911

When they mount and balance the tires they fill them with air. Does that not actually increase the shipping weight by most likely 35lbs. per wheel? It stands to reason that a wheel and tire mounted with air is heavier than a wheel and tire not mounted. So it actually does cost more to ship.

Conversely if you pay slightly extra for helium instead it actually reduces the weight so much so that the shipping is almost free.