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

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 are being charged by their carriers. If they are, their carrier contract negotiators needed to be replaced.

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 does 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 Force® 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 opinion 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, I have an issue with being charged.

Sounds like it's a way to pass the cost of a "free mount and balance" onto the customer.

Why are you posting this in the for sale/wanted forums?