Scrooges at Discount Tire

[Jawa]

I swung by my local Discount Tire today to have a used set of tires/wheels I have put on my rig. I needed them to dismount the tires from the wheels they're on now and swap them onto the wheels on my rig, then mount, balance, etc. I was blown away by what they quoted me...

Per wheel, $3 to dismount the tires from the old wheels, $3 to mount them to my current wheels, $15 to balance, $2 disposal fee for the old tires, and $5 for an "oversize" tire fee for my 33s. That's $28 per wheel or $112 total! Add in tax and I'm over $120. Yikes! :shocked:

The shop I go to for alignments and general work will do everything for about $80, but they couldn't get me in today. I tried to get Discount to match that, but they didn't even think about it for a second before telling me no. I guess I won't be going back there anytime soon.

What's with the $5 "oversize" tire fee? Does it actually cost more or require special equipment/training to balance a larger tire?

 

[.40CalPatriot]

I swung by my local Discount Tire today to have a used set of tires/wheels I have put on my rig. I needed them to dismount the tires from the wheels they're on now and swap them onto the wheels on my rig, then mount, balance, etc. I was blown away by what they quoted me...

Per wheel, $3 to dismount the tires from the old wheels, $3 to mount them to my current wheels, $15 to balance, $2 disposal fee for the old tires, and $5 for an "oversize" tire fee for my 33s. That's $28 per wheel or $112 total! Add in tax and I'm over $120. Yikes! :shocked:

The shop I go to for alignments and general work will do everything for about $80, but they couldn't get me in today. I tried to get Discount to match that, but they didn't even think about it for a second before telling me no. I guess I won't be going back there anytime soon.

What's with the $5 "oversize" tire fee? Does it actually cost more or require special equipment/training to balance a larger tire?

Last time I went in there to do that I only paid $50. I think my friend that used to work there mentioned something about an oversize tire fee but I thought it was for over 35's.

 

[ManBearPig]

I work for them here in cali. and we dont charge an oversize fee. But yeah the rest is pretty much on the money, in fact here its about 7 per dismount /mount. Im glad I dont have to pay to do work on mine or my friends vehicles.

 

[Jawa]

Do you have any idea why they charge an oversize tire fee in the first place? If it takes special equipment or the person doing the balancing needs some sort of special training, I guess I can see charging a fee. Otherwise I don't get it...

 

[XCastleXJ]

thats insane!

my friend but an xj a couple years ago and the rims were ugly so he found some nicer ones, went in to discount and asked if they would just switch the tires out for him and they did... FREE OF CHARGE

 

[ManBearPig]

Only thing I can think of is that they want more money. Its obviously harder to mount n balance because its bigger but not to such an extent that they need that fee. Whenever one of my friends need something done i tell them to hit me up when Im off the clock, when they ask why I tell them, "Cuz those m#%@&^F*&^$#@ dont need any more money".

 

[Hugothegrunt]

Right before I got my first XJ, I had a '88 Toy P/U 4x4 that I had for 20 years. I had just put new tires on it (from Discount) and 3 days latter I blew the head gasket in the middle of a blizzard. Well I had a family by then and having a 2 seater as a 2nd vehicle wasn't working, so i went and bought my 1st XJ. It had bald tires so I took it and the Toy over to discount and showed them my recipt, thinking they would change the tires over for free or a resonable charge since I just bought them. Nope! they charged me $110.00 to swap the 5 tires.

 

[philip_g]

too bad autobayz went out of business, you could use their machine for way less than that.

 

[YELLAHEEP]

I took it and the Toy over to discount and showed them my recipt, thinking they would change the tires over for free or a resonable charge since I just bought them. Nope! they charged me $110.00 to swap the 5 tires.

Well, personally I think you're asking too much of a business to do that much extra labor to swap tires like that just because you bought 'em from them and had 'em mounted once already. They gotta pay people to do the work - it ain't free for them either. And the profit margin on tires certainly isn't huge enough to allow that kind of wiggle room.

If you've never busted large tires before, (this isn't aimed at Hugo - just generally speaking to the audience here....) then you wouldn't be able to understand this - but it definitely does involve quite a bit of heavy lifting, wrenching those tires around, lifting one side to get the bead off-set enough for the machine to grab and move it around onto the rim..... I imagine a 33/10.5/15 off road tire would weigh around 35-40lbs. then add a wheel to that- all that movement off the vehicle, swapping to different wheels on the machine, back onto the vehicle...... Those prices seem fairly reasonable - ya figure at a minimum, mount/balance of 4 tires alone would take half an hour - more if you're mounting/dismounting another full set. Plus, if you've never tried to balance off road tires before - they frequently take multiple attempts.

I took a set of 33" MTR's to that Autobayz place to dismount, mount and balance 4 and I was there for an hour and 20 minutes - mostly spent getting them balanced, but the beads are so tight on those tires, it was a bit of a chore getting them onto the damn wheels too. Yeah, I only spent $8 per tire/wheel and I provided the labor..... it's unfortunate that there wasn't enough gearhead interest in that place because that was a bargain - but not a surprise that it went under at the prices they were charging trying to get interest in the concept.

Wheew! Well, that's my .02 anyway.

 

[in4aride]

ah wow!...told you to come see me...i would do the tires....and allignments are like 50-60 i think....no the oversized tires can sometimes be a lil time consuming......but not harder or special machine.....come see me...
changing tires over like that at big-o is a "snow tire changeover" charge...it runs like 30 bucks....
but come see me it will be free

 

[collkid]

Well, personally I think you're asking too much of a business to do that much extra labor to swap tires like that just because you bought 'em from them and had 'em mounted once already. They gotta pay people to do the work - it ain't free for them either. And the profit margin on tires certainly isn't huge enough to allow that kind of wiggle room.

If you've never busted large tires before, (this isn't aimed at Hugo - just generally speaking to the audience here....) then you wouldn't be able to understand this - but it definitely does involve quite a bit of heavy lifting, wrenching those tires around, lifting one side to get the bead off-set enough for the machine to grab and move it around onto the rim..... I imagine a 33/10.5/15 off road tire would weigh around 35-40lbs. then add a wheel to that- all that movement off the vehicle, swapping to different wheels on the machine, back onto the vehicle...... Those prices seem fairly reasonable - ya figure at a minimum, mount/balance of 4 tires alone would take half an hour - more if you're mounting/dismounting another full set. Plus, if you've never tried to balance off road tires before - they frequently take multiple attempts.

I took a set of 33" MTR's to that Autobayz place to dismount, mount and balance 4 and I was there for an hour and 20 minutes - mostly spent getting them balanced, but the beads are so tight on those tires, it was a bit of a chore getting them onto the damn wheels too. Yeah, I only spent $8 per tire/wheel and I provided the labor..... it's unfortunate that there wasn't enough gearhead interest in that place because that was a bargain - but not a surprise that it went under at the prices they were charging trying to get interest in the concept.

Wheew! Well, that's my .02 anyway.

Sorry but YALLAHEEP FTW!

 

[Jawa]

ah wow!...told you to come see me...i would do the tires....and allignments are like 50-60 i think....no the oversized tires can sometimes be a lil time consuming......but not harder or special machine.....come see me...
changing tires over like that at big-o is a "snow tire changeover" charge...it runs like 30 bucks....
but come see me it will be free

I'd love to, but the 3 hour round trip kills me...

 

[mavinwy]

I would think it would be based on what you purchased at the time of sale.

When I turned wrenches, if someone brought in tires that they had purchased from us, and had gotten the road hazard, which included lifetime rotation and balance, we would have only charged them for the dismount/mount since they had already purchased the balance on the tires previously.

If they were really good customers, or asked for some other work to be done while they were in, we would usually waive that fee as well.

Someone off the street, with unknown tires/rims would get charged the standard shop rates, but we were always clear with them before we did the work what it would be. You are talking used tires/wheels of an unknown condition (at least to the tire shop) and wanting them to discount it? Maybe if you had a lot of work done there....but if not, then they should be up front and tell you what their shop rates are. Sounds to me like they did that.

The one thing that confuses me is the "oversize tire" charge. Heck, we did not charge anything additional except for split rims...and after a time we stopped doing those.

Jim

 

[AIbandit]

I just went to discount tires to pick up a new tire. They had to break off one of my lug nuts and i needed a couple for my spare tire rack. i asked it they had any laying around and he said "there all inventoried". They charged me 16$ for 3 cheepo cap-less lugnuts...

 

[RCP Phx]

Go to HF and get a tire changer(50$),its saved me hundreds of $$.

 

[ManBearPig]

Yellaheep I understand why you might think that, but in reality its as big a deal as you think (at least for the people working there). I , along with any guy I work with, personally cant tell the difference between mounting a 35" and a 30" . All tires are basically the same. When you get up to 37 or 40 its a little trickier but no biggie. I can actually mount one of those monsterous tires easier than a low-pro tire for a performance vehicle. Not trying to bash you , Im just saying how it is.

 

[freerider15]

I just went to discount tires to pick up a new tire. They had to break off one of my lug nuts and i needed a couple for my spare tire rack. i asked it they had any laying around and he said "there all inventoried". They charged me 16$ for 3 cheepo cap-less lugnuts...

That Discount RIPPED you off, or should I say that sales person. Hell, we will usually give away new ones if ya just new a few, or well give ya some used ones sitting in the back. Those lugnuts cost Discount less than $.50 each. Hell for $16 you could get a whole lug nut kit from the one I work at.

Yellaheep I understand why you might think that, but in reality its as big a deal as you think (at least for the people working there). I , along with any guy I work with, personally cant tell the difference between mounting a 35" and a 30" . All tires are basically the same. When you get up to 37 or 40 its a little trickier but no biggie. I can actually mount one of those monsterous tires easier than a low-pro tire for a performance vehicle. Not trying to bash you , Im just saying how it is.

Only thing I can think of is that they want more money. Its obviously harder to mount n balance because its bigger but not to such an extent that they need that fee. Whenever one of my friends need something done i tell them to hit me up when Im off the clock, when they ask why I tell them, "Cuz those m#%@&^F*&^$#@ dont need any more money".

Yeah, as much as it may seem like more work...the only thing thats remotely harder is getting the beads to seal, and even then it usually just taked another quick hand to lift the other side. Otherwise I'de much prefer to mount a 35" tire vs. a low profile tire on a larger wheel. We've had those take 5 fukking people to get mounted, but yet I don't see any "extra" charge for those. Yeah I as well would do free work for freinds, I would just ask for them to buy me a beer or something in return if it was a bit of work. When your store manager gets a $30k bonus check straight into his pocket on top of the $100k+ he makes...I don't think he needs any more money either. Its amazing the crap that store managers and the guys up front can pull and get away with, as well as how fawking greedy they can be. Thankfully their not all bad, usually just the ones that take the JOB as if its a real "career." [/end rant]

 

[YELLAHEEP]

Holy shit........ If a Discount Tire store manager makes $100K a year + $30K in bonuses........ I'm resigning from the cop shop tomorrow....... I'd be more than happy to call that a "real career". Hell, I'm already labeled an asshat for being a cop........ just as well make more money being a different kind of asshat........

Seriously?

 

[Rev Den]

Damn buissness' always trying to make a buck.

Almost like they actually want to MAKE money....basterds.



Rev

 

[riverfever]

I'd like to extend this offer to all of you:

I will be more than happy to mount any bicycle tires that you might have. :shhh: Going one step further...I'll even install them on your rims. I do charge extra for anything over a 20" tire as they're a real bitch to do.