Off The Cuff

Adventures At Walmart: The Tires

Posted by: From Arkansas in Are You Kidding Me?, It's A Rant
on May 08 2008 | 2 Comments

Have you ever bought tires from Walmart before? I have. It usually went nicely. Years ago, Walmart had some pretty good prices and it was a really good idea, because of the prices of the tires and the little extras that went with them, to buy from them. Through the years, though, it became obvious that they were not the only place to go for good deals. The last time we bought tires, they came from a local tire store who did everything they could to make us feel like the customers.

Then came the prices crunch. Gas prices rose to a horrible height and things that used to be pretty cheap were getting more and more expensive. Having called several places to get quotes, I found that Walmart, once again, was the cheapest game in town. So, today, we trotted off to Wally to get our tires changed. And so the adventure began.

Actually, the adventure began when I called the tire and lube area of Wally. The young lady I talked with gave me a price for the tires, valve stems, road hazard insurance and lifetime rotation of tires. It was a pretty high price for us so I checked around with other places and found that, because our tire size is strange (it figures), we would have to stick with the places who could actually GET the tires.

I talked with one rude young man at a local tire shop where we used to get used tires. Well, I guess he was young. When I asked if he had the size tires, his reply was “Nope”. Silence. I then asked him if he might be getting any such size in? His reply was “Nope. Been waitin’ on some for over a week.” I guessed from that, that he had no intention of tying up his phone one more second with my foolish questions. I hung up.

Thus we went to Wally to buy our tires. We talked with the person at the desk. I asked him for the total of what we would be paying for 4 tires. He wanted me to buy the “special” which were nice, name brand tires but they were too expensive. I wanted the ones we picked out. Now, lest you get the idea that a) I was alone and he thought he could put one over on me, my BIG husband was with me or b) that he would allow anyone to have what they actually wanted…uh, no, he did not want that. But I do get what I want because I am the customer. Or so I thought.

First, he told us about the price, the quote, handed us a paper with the total on it. Fine. I did not want all that. He gave the price of individual tires times 4. Fine. After that, he added the valve stems…which are a separate charge. Oh yeah??? That’s funny. I thought you always got the valve stems WITH the tires. Seems pretty basic to me. But they are now a separate charge. Then, he added in road hazard insurance. That’s fine. Uh, it’s so much PER TIRE. Okkkkkkkkaaaay.
Not done. He also added lifetime rotation and slipped in balancing in the deal. It was only a separate charge too. Add all that up and you have a total that’s somewhat more than expected.

Okay, let’s negotiate. I didn’t really need the lifetime rotation. I can handle paying a couple of bucks as we need it. Take that off! He did. And the road hazard insurance, now that one is like gold since if you get a flat, they fix it for free. If the tire gets ruined, as long as it’s the road that did it, you get a new tire…prorated after a certain time. Not bad. I will keep that one. Adding the stems. Have to have those. So, I was expecting to at least have about a $40 difference and it came out to $10. Say WHAT??? Now that just ain’t right. What happened???

Well, the guy was pretty superior to start with acting like he knew so much more than we did. Then, he totally ignored my husband which is a bit hard to do but he did it. He wanted to argue with me about cost per item. The big problem came with the lifetime rotation which includes the balancing of the tires. See, if you do not want the lifetime rotation, you don’t have to take that. It was $30 I thought I was saving that way. However, if you do not take that they make you have the one time fee of $5 PER TIRE. That amounts to $20 for those swifties that didn’t get it. That makes the savings a grand total of $10. Now that was something that they could have mentioned in the first place, right? Nope. They did not.

Ah, but the real kicker is this. I asked for a TOTAL of what I would have to pay to buy the tires. The arrogant salesperson told me the total that he stated earlier. But when I pushed it, he admitted that that total did NOT, in fact, include taxes which amounted to an extra $30 or so. I was MAD! Neither the lady on the phone nor the arrogant know-it-all at the desk wanted to give out that little piece of info until the register was ringing it up. See, then you are stuck!! And stuck good!!! The tires are on the car. You have waited for quite a while because, even though they are not busy, they do not pull your car into the bay for about 20-30 minutes. Then, they want to know if you want those stupid whitewalls out or in. Who the heck needs whitewalls that amount to a white painted strip about three quarters of an inch wide. Sheesh.

The grand total came to way over what we had intended to pay. It was actually about almost $60 more than what we had figured they would cost. See, when they gave the quote, it included all the so-called extras which, in reality, are not extra. I thought we could do without some of them. You cannot do that. You NEED them especially if you travel in the country much or on bad roads and who doesn’t travel on bad roads these days. But now, Walmart is treating this much like you would going to a cafeteria where all the foods are separately priced. They did the same with the tires and accessories.

In reality, shopping is not what it used to be. Companies love to get the best of you, make you pay out way more than you count on paying. It does not matter that you are giving them your last dollar until payday. They could care less. They want the money, yours or someone else’s and they do not care if that means the kids don’t get their shoes this week or month. They are a greedy bunch now.

Very few companies are ethical anymore. I will not say that Walmart is or is not ethical. You can judge that for yourself. But we did find out that you are not going to get the real price of such things until you press it A LOT. That desk clerk was not going to tell us until the register rang it up, period. Then we would be forced to pay it, like it or not. I pretty much had to drag it out of him. That is a crying shame. Why must this be this way??? And I have no doubt that Walmart wants them to do it that way. None at all. How do I know? Because we went through this last time we were there with a different product.

While this is legal, it is misleading to the people who ask for a price. It is misleading because when someone asks the price, they are expecting the total and are getting the subtotal. So, buyer BEWARE!! Things are not what they seem. And I should mention that Walmart is not the only company doing this. Lots of them do it. They consider this to be good business practice. But I seriously doubt that if Sam Walton were here, he would accept that. He would be very unhappy with how his company is working. Very unhappy, I am guessing.