Online tire stores worthwhile?

[tc1959]

I shopped around for some tires for the wifes minivan. Found Sam's Club to be the lowest by far for some BFGs. Then, yeah, a disclaimer here, reality hit. 700 miles in on the tires and I needed to remove them to do some brake work. 3 lugs on one wheel cross threaded and one on another. 2 of the lugs that crossed up ended up damaging the rim since they weren't holding it tight. I did the fix, had to buy a new rim, which surprisingly, no yards had a match. I ended up finding 4 American Racing wheels at the u pull it for less than $100.00. 4 new lug studs, a set of 4 lug nuts, and my labor in my drive to get it taken care of. This happened on a friday night, found wheels on saturday morning. I live an hour from Sam's. I went back in with receipts for $117.00 worth of parts, the four rims, the four rim/tire combos off the van, and told them they were gonna mount them free and reimburse me for the parts. I didn't ask for any money for my time. They argued like you wouldn't believe. Said they should have been called to do the work. I asked them if they would have sent a tech to my house, they said no. I asked them if they had their own tow truck, knowing they didn't. Asked them if they were gonna pay for a tow then. Asked them if they had a matching wheel in stock, again knowing they didn't. I told them it seemed like I did them a favor taking care of their screw ups then and I just wanted things made right and $117.00 seemed pretty cheap compared to what a tow, a NEW rim from the stealership, 4 lugs and studs, and labor time would have cost them. They balked and gave me a $75.00 in store gift card, mounted the tires to the new rims, and said that was all they would do. The store manager wouldn't even come out to talk to me. Made one of the techs keep running back and forth. I wrote a nice pair of letters to Sam's and Walmart corporate headquarters. A few days later, the store manager called. I demanded an apology for the treatment and asked them if $117.00 was worth losing a customer over and to remember that my word of mouth would cost them even more. She ended up apologizing on the phone, sent me a written apology, and another $200.00 store gift card. Even then, I'm still not a real happy camper. They assured me they would hand start each lug nut which its obvious now they didn't. Their balancing job sucked since they used stick on weights and didn't bother to clean the rim before sticking them on and half of them fell off, WHILE I WAS PICKING UP THE TIRES!! They rebalanced them while I waited, but I notice some have fallen off again. Lesson learned. Cheapest price not always best deal.

Sorry for the long rant.

That's almost word for word my experience with Discount Tire here in Surprise AZ. Except I didn't get any gift cards.

 

[79CMC]

Lot of people mentioned Tire Rack, but I'm surprised I didn't also see a Discount TIre Direct (DTD) recommendation. I have nothing but the best things to say about them and I'm not usually one to tout a company for doing their job, but DTD was cheaper and the service was excellent compared to their competitors. I was looking for a set of 18" Cragars (most places have to order them) and Continental DWS tires to wrap them. Jegs was the only place that had the wheels but don't do wheel and tire packages. As alluded to earlier, local tire places don't always do favors for people that buy rims from a third party.

I called Discount Tire Direct and they happily called Cragar, got me the wheels I wanted, wrapped them in the rubber I wanted, had the custom lugs I needed, and answered all my Cragar specific questions (the guy I got, Sam, was extremely knowledgeable about Cragars). I casually mentioned that Jegs was the only other vendor that had the wheels in stock, just making conversation, and the representative took this as a reason to beat the Jegs price by $10 a wheel, which was on top of the $50 rebate DTD was having. I even called Sam back later to change my lug choice and he had no problem making that happen. The wheels and tires also had free shipping and a great warranty.

The wheels and tires arrived balanced and ready to install within a week of ordering. I really wanted to buy local, because I figured they would work with me due to no shipping and I'd also get the wheels quicker, but out of the 8 or so places I went, prices ranged from $200-$600 more than DTD. The local guys surprisingly didn't know about Cragars and some couldn't/wouldn't even order them.

I'd check them out at least, and if you have a competitors price, call them and see if they'll beat it. They also run rebates on certain tires or certain purchase amounts, so you can keep an eye out for that if you're not in a huge hurry. Good luck!

 

[Bonnewagon]

Great stories! Let me add this- my Daughter needed some exotic sized 17" low profile mono-directional tires for the '95 Formula. New, they were stupid expensive. I scored a slightly used set of Continentals on Craigslist from a guy in Connecticut that liked to replace tires as soon as a couple 32's wore off. I think I paid like $400 for a like new set of 4. Anyway I mounted/balanced them at a friend's shop and let me say, we have never struggled so mightily with tires in our lives. They just would NOT go on without a ball breaking battle. The low profile sidewalls just would not slip over the bead. It took all of our combined skill and muscle to mount them without hurting the 17" Eagle rims. My point is- a crappy shop would have ruined the rims, tires, or both. I have like maybe one shop I would have trusted to do that job, (Whitey's in Brooklyn), and there's no way I would have used a cut rate place. Choose your tire shop carefully!

 

[79CMC]

My point is- a crappy shop would have ruined the rims, tires, or both. I have like maybe one shop I would have trusted to do that job, (Whitey's in Brooklyn), and there's no way I would have used a cut rate place. Choose your tire shop carefully!

Yep I agree 100%. That's another reason I wasn't enthusiastic to stick with the local guys-if they had been slightly more expensive but knew what they were talking about and gave me a warm and fuzzy that they'd take care of my car and couple thousand dollars of wheels and tires, I'd have gone with them to support small business. But too many places around here (a military town) are in the quantity over quality business and quite frankly, many car owners don't really care as long as their car gets them from A to B. My biggest concern in ordering wheels separate from Jegs was them getting all scratched up by the tire vendor/mounter. So I'm glad I got the package deal. Sounds like you at least got some quality time with a buddy and preserved your rims and tires. And a good car story to boot :lol:

 

[tc1959]

Great stories! Let me add this- my Daughter needed some exotic sized 17" low profile mono-directional tires for the '95 Formula. New, they were stupid expensive. I scored a slightly used set of Continentals on Craigslist from a guy in Connecticut that liked to replace tires as soon as a couple 32's wore off. I think I paid like $400 for a like new set of 4. Anyway I mounted/balanced them at a friend's shop and let me say, we have never struggled so mightily with tires in our lives. They just would NOT go on without a ball breaking battle. The low profile sidewalls just would not slip over the bead. It took all of our combined skill and muscle to mount them without hurting the 17" Eagle rims. My point is- a crappy shop would have ruined the rims, tires, or both. I have like maybe one shop I would have trusted to do that job, (Whitey's in Brooklyn), and there's no way I would have used a cut rate place. Choose your tire shop carefully!

Tell me about it, One of the last things I bought for the dealership before I retired was a Coats APX90E Rim Clamp Tire Changer.
$12,000 so we could do the 20 inch wheels on the new Caddys.

 

[rustyroger]

One point about buying tires online, particularly for unusual sizes; You wont know how old the tires are until they arrive, if you go to your local tire shop you can have a look at them before they are fitted. Tires deteriorate with age and the wholesalers will want to move their old stock, maybe by offering deals online.

Tires have manufacturing date codes, make sure you have a look at them.

Roger.

 

[pencero]

^ this is a good point but he's buying tires for a truck & with the money we're going to save him he can afford to buy a 5th tire and pack a full size spare!