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Old April 1st 17, 04:32 PM posted to alt.home.repair,rec.autos.tech,ca.driving
Jonas Schneider
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Posts: 20
Default I used to buy tires from TireRack - now SimpleTire (how can they do it?)

On Sat, 1 Apr 2017 08:17:53 -0400, Red Hymen > wrote:

> The local tire shop matches TireCrack and SimpletonTire prices, labor is
> extra but it's very reasonable.


Matching always made no sense to me, but maybe it makes sense to you since
a *lot* of people swoon over price matching.

Matching gets you absolutely nothing.
Worse, you may end up with less.
Rarely will you end up with more.

If you told me the local shop *beat* the price of TireCrack &
SimpletonTire, that would be something to swoon over.

But merely matching?
What good is merely matching?

What do you get out of a match?
Absolutely nothing.

> They also take appointments so you don't have to wait in line for
> hours. On the off-chance a problem shows up, they take care of that too.


OK. Now you're talking about "something" and not "nothing".
You're talking about "time".

Somehow, you "save time" by "price matching" at the local tire installer.

Saving "time" is ok, but I do my own mounting and balancing, so, saving
"time" isn't in my equation (since it costs me more time just to file this
thread than it does to mount a tire).

Is the only thing you save time?
If the shop merely matches your online price, then what are they giving
you?

They're giving you nothing by way of price, and, worse, you may get less
than nothing.

So let's compare the two situations.

a. You have chosen, out of all the tires out there, a specific tire and a
price shipped to either your door, or to the door of the online installer
(if you don't install them yourself at home).

b. Let's say you chose the tire that I chose, which is this exact ti
$66 final cost including shipping, tax, mounting, balancing, valve, &
recycling for Hancook Ventus V2 Concept2 H457 P225/55R16

c. Here are some rough prices on the net for that exact ti
http://i.imgsafe.org/fc51390d4c.gif

d. You print that out and go to your local tire shop.

e. Do they have that tire in stock?

f. Almost certainly not. Do they still price match? Dunno.

g. Let's assume they price matched, and they can "get" the tire.

h. Now you lost all that time you saved.

i. Two days later, the tire is in the shop, and you go down for your second
appointment.

j. They mount and balance your tires and you pay them, plus you pay their
price for a new valve, and you pay their price for recycling, and they try
to upsell the heck out of you on road-hazard warrantees and free lifetime
alignments, all of which you resist successfully.

k. Then they tax you and you walk out the door satisfied.

But what did you gain?
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