Ebay - Tyre fitting

The online sites seem to be very confused, it's not obvious at all whether fitting is included or not....

Camskill seem to be separately charging for delivery, but they seem not to mention fitting at all. Are you saying fitting is included in the price you pay at checkout?

No, they just sell tyres, usually mail order. If you buy 4 tyres from them, a courier will turn up at your house, a few days later, and give you 4 tyres. What you do with them after that, is up to you! A decade or so ago, Camskill used to fit and balance, but they just retail now. I'm lucky in that I live close enough to go and pick the tyres up, but even that is getting harder, as they're set up as a "sausage factory". They cut their costs by having a pretty inflexible sales and distribution process. Anything that requires any part of the sausage factory to do anything even slightly different, causes problems for them.

I think most online tyre vendors are similar. The biggest ones like Blackcircles, often have a slider bar on the screen so you can set it to "tyres only" or "fully fitted". If you select the former, they're like Camskill - tyres delivered to your door. If you set it to "fully fitted", they have a network of tyre fitting places up and down the country. You pick one near you, and they post the tyres there. You then turn up and get them fitted. However, I've never found the online vendors' fully fitted prices to be that much better than what I can just find locally, with a few minutes on the phone.

The plus side of all these online tyre vendors, is that small tyre fitting places who would never have had the buying power to get good discounts on tyres, and don't have the throughput to be able to hold a lot of stock anyway, are now very used to people wanting "fit-balance-disposal" only. I don't think many of them would turn a hair if you just phone them up and say "I've got some online tyres, how much to fit and balance, please"?
 
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However, I've never found the online vendors' fully fitted prices to be that much better than what I can just find locally, with a few minutes on the phone.

I have. I get my tyres fitted by my trusted local tyre company. He reckons its better business than trying to match the Black Circles price. He'd need to order them from Michelin anyway (who own Black Circles).

I go back to him when I need repairs or anything.
 
You then turn up and get them fitted. However, I've never found the online vendors' fully fitted prices to be that much better than what I can just find locally, with a few minutes on the phone.

I'm really struggling with the local ones. I mention a tyre size, make and model, but they just quote for some completely random, unnamed tyre make and model of the right size. That makes it impossible to compare prices.
 
I'm really struggling with the local ones. I mention a tyre size, make and model, but they just quote for some completely random, unnamed tyre make and model of the right size. That makes it impossible to compare prices.
You've heard of the law of diminishing returns - considering the amount of time you have spent online and contacting local fitters etc.
...and add in the hourly rates of us contributors to this thread - you've probably spent more energy and effort in searching for a bargain, than you will ever recoup in savings! :D
 
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I'm really struggling with the local ones. I mention a tyre size, make and model, but they just quote for some completely random, unnamed tyre make and model of the right size. That makes it impossible to compare prices.
Yes, I get that too. It's one of the reasons that I'm using online suppliers more, because then you're clicking on exactly what you want, rather than the nearest equivalent that your local tyre place has in stock, from a brand you've never heard of, that the man in the shop tells you is much better than what you went in asking for! Sometimes, they're right, of course. Other times, they're just saying it to get your business or because that's what they make the most mark-up on.

The last set that I bought "from a tyre place", were my local branch of ProTyre. I asked for 4 Falkens, came back to find 4 "Sumitomos" on the car! (And a spiel from the bloke about how they couldn't get the Falkens but these were very bit as good, made by the same company that now owns Dunlop... etc etc...). I haven't been back...

Part of the reason, I guess, is that they're all trying to cut costs and carry as little stock as possible. Partly, it'll be because of Brexit, and it being more hassle to ship stuff in and out of the country if it has to come from (or pass through) Europe. Part of it is probably because more and more people are going to the big online retailers anyway. Small tyre fitters are just going to have to change their business models a bit. As JohnD says, they can't afford to buy tyres in big enough quantities to get really good discounts, so they end up buying from the big warehouses that do online tyres anyway. They wouldn't have made that much profit on the tyres themselves, so they're now charging me £20-a-corner for fitting balancing and old tyre disposal. They seem happy enough with that. A bigger problem, I think, is when you are on a trip and get a puncture bad enough to need a new tyre, but the nearest tyre place to your location no longer carries anything suitable.
 
You've heard of the law of diminishing returns - considering the amount of time you have spent online and contacting local fitters etc.
...and add in the hourly rates of us contributors to this thread - you've probably spent more energy and effort in searching for a bargain, than you will ever recoup in savings! :D

Yes, but do enjoy investigating things, and satisfying my curiosity.
 
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