Discount Tire Rip Off

InCommando · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:41 pm

Today I was pricing tires at 3 places. What I found out was that my local Discount Tire is a rip-off artist of the first order. Maybe all of them aren't, but the one on Poe Ave in Dayton is for sure.

I was checking for 4 235/85/r16 Cooper Discoverer S/T's. All tires involved are first run, not blems. All were the S/T and not the more expensive S/T-C or STT.

I went to a locally owned small retailer first. The small Mom & Pop shop qouted me $663 mounted/balanced/out the door. They put it in writing for me.

I then went to the national chain, Discount Tire. Surely this huge chain with their purchasing power can beat the local price. They qouted me $933 for the same tires & services. He did it with a straight face even. When I questioned the price he even spun the monitor around to prove his numbers were right. I produced Tire Express's qoute, and without batting an eye the guy offers me the deal for $650. I mean, he did not pause 1 second. He was shocked that I did not take his better deal. I pointed out that 2 minutes prior he was going to fleece me for an extra $300 dollars, and I did not want to do business with a company like that. Still astounded, he explained that " every" tire dealer overcharges for tires to give them "wiggle room." 33% wiggle room?? $300 wiggle room? As he still did not understand why I would not take his deal, he made it $635. I again pointed out that I did not wish to do business with a company that just tried to rip me off for hundreds of dollars and I left.

Maybe this is a unique experience. Maybe it only applies to 235/85/r16 Cooper S/T's. But I doubt it. Obviously Discount is going to stick it to you every way possible unless you are educated, apparently in the form of a better qoute. And if you have a better qoute, don't deal with Discount just because you can force them not to rip you off as badly.

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:16 pm

I have not ever had a problem with discount tires.The last time I bought something there was my 15x8 steelies and 35x13.50x15 Toyo Open Country MT's,5 of each.Mounted and balanced(free lifetime balance)and offroad tire hazard warranty for $1807.00 out the door(tax included).That's almost $800 less then any other place I looked at,and that was the first quote also,had it printed out and came back 3 weeks later and ordered and they still honored the original quoted price.

Discount will try to get full MSRP out of you but they do price match when you show a quote for a lower price,all big chain places are like that.The norm is 50%-100% markup for profit,even the dealer does this.The small mom&pop places give better quotes but ussually won't budge,they need to keep there prices lower to stay around.

tommudd · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:17 pm

Pretty common, its all a come on with them, if you dont question the price they have you! I tried to buy local here in Toledo but got so much double talk went back to my old standbys back down home, yes small Mom and Pop tire stores. I used to manage Tire Stores and you would not believe the "suggestions" they ( uper management) gave you to sell tires.

Albert · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2008 6:29 pm

This just proves that you need to shop around a little . I was helping a lady friend out with tires today and ran across the same thing at different places. It seems everyone has a different mark-up and believe it or not, the most reasonable place in my experience today was with the local garage and not the big tire store.

Just proves that you have to shop around.

Guest · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:01 pm

tommudd wrote:

Pretty common, its all a come on with them, if you dont question the price they have you! I tried to buy local here in Toledo but got so much double talk went back to my old standbys back down home, yes small Mom and Pop tire stores. I used to manage Tire Stores and you would not believe the "suggestions" they ( uper management) gave you to sell tires.

Yes I would :lol:

When we had a house-brand (Sigma) tire on spiff at my last job, all of a sudden our they were manufactured by Michelin. Makes 'em mad when you say "No they're not" in front of the customer :lol:

I hate shady sales practices.

Rush345 · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2008 10:02 pm

All Big Corporations do business that way. When I was in the paint and spray equipment business, we of coarse would do warranty work. But when dealing with Sherwin Williams Paint Company they worked off the "WE SAY SO PLAN" if a paint sprayer came in it sometimes was abuse by the Painter. Why spend 15 minutes cleaning your Sprayer when the Bar was just down the street. So if abuse was the situation we would call the Sherwin Williams Paint store and advise them it wasn't warranty theu would give us a purchase order number and we would submit the bill to SW with a discount on parts so they could make a dime off the deal too. Anyway 90 days later we would receive a letter stateing "CHARGE BACK" they refused to pay the bill, Because they SAID SO. They decided it was Warranty and refused to pay, after a few of these, being the General Manager I called what ever SW store who had dropped of the sprayer and inform him the Sherwin Williams was placed on COD CASH only. To which he would respond "WE ARE SHERWIN WILLIAM WE ARE THE LARGEST PAINT COMPANY IN THE WORLD" to which I would respond thats very nice we are Vern's Airless Repair Inc. Warranty Station for GRACO Spray Equipment and now that we have identified each other Sherwin Williams is COD CASH Only. I have seen this time and time again Large companys making vendors bend over forward so they could have an unfair price or leverage in the market place. Sad but true. The vender had to decide would his business fall down with out the business of Sherwin Williams ??? Or would they just buckle and let SW rape them on a daily basis. Such is the world of business.

Jeepjeepster · **Posted:** Wed Mar 12, 2008 11:12 pm

gosh, almost 1k for 4 tires mounted?!

I wonder how many people have paid that. :shock:

Joe Jeep Owner · **Posted:** Thu Mar 13, 2008 10:04 am

Something similar happend to me too with the same brand. I was pricing out Cooper ATR's and ST's and got a wide range of prices. The best I found was a local place and Benny's. I think the local place beat Benny's by a few dollars but not by much (and it was a little closer), walked out with 4 245-70-16's for $420 out the door (no alignment included). Other places had me up to and over $600.

Shopping around is your best bet. I personally dont like going to large chains and haggling with the price match thing, sometimes it turns into a headache (at least that is my experience).

Discount Tire Rip Off

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