Using Black Circles - screwing your local out of ££?

[Speed 3]

ajap1979 said:

Anyone used Asda Tyres before? Planning on putting some all season tyres on my Polestar and they seem to be £40+ per tyre cheaper than anywhere else!

Yes, they're fine, same process as BlackCircles. You choose your fitter. They often have offers on the brands I'm looking for.

On-topic though, my local small chain fitters grumbled about how little they make with Asda (£10-£15 IIRC).

I have used Camskill too (best price normally) and paid the same guys what they would normally charge for fit/valve/balance - £20 each.

[dhutch]

Speed 3 said:

On-topic though, my local small chain fitters grumbled about how little they make with Asda (£10-£15 IIRC).

I have used Camskill too (best price normally) and paid the same guys what they would normally charge for fit/valve/balance - £20 each.

Yeah, I had a backstreet part-worns place in Uttoxeter that would fit and balance for £10 a corner, but most places want double that.
And yet if you get delivery only with Blackcircles you can often reduce the price by £20 a corner!

One thing I have yet to really bottom out, is the possibility of getting online tyres from the likes of Camskills delivered directly to a 3rd party tyre fitters.
Obviously if they can match the price then its a non-issue, but often I have found they can't if you want a specific brand/model etc.

[ARHarh]

My local independent tyre place are competitive with most online sellers, and you can order online a day in advance. Its a no brainer, unless some outfit has a special offer on what you want. But I guess if that happened I would give them a call and let them have a go at price matching.

[Court_S]

ajap1979 said:

Anyone used Asda Tyres before? Planning on putting some all season tyres on my Polestar and they seem to be £40+ per tyre cheaper than anywhere else!

Yes - they're fine.

Ultimately the fitting quality depends on the guys working there - their nearest fitters for me were poor, so I've not used them since.

I've used CostCo before - good prices, decent fitters but they're a pain if you deviate from OE.

[dhutch]

The other thing I don't really understand is why I cant order 'in branch' at National etc for next day fitting and get the price I can online.

Obviously same day fitting there is a huge cost premium on them having it on site there and then, and typically a very small choice if any at all.
However why they cant get even remotely close to their own online next day fitting in branch I dont know. Before now I have ordered online while stood in the waiting area infront of the guy and netted a huge saving, the guys on the shop floor dont understand it either, but what can they do about it.

[Mr_J]

I had 2 new tyres fitted a month ago.

I got a quote from Black circles and then drove to my local tyre fitter. He was £2 a corner more expensive. It wasn't worth haggling over £4 extra on £400 of rubber.

[ARHarh]

Mr_J said:

I had 2 new tyres fitted a month ago.

I got a quote from Black circles and then drove to my local tyre fitter. He was £2 a corner more expensive. It wasn't worth haggling over £4 extra on £400 of rubber.

He would have probably given you a fiver off if you asked, not that I would have bothered for that amount.

[vikingaero]

It's much like using the Just Eat, Deliverpoo or Uber Eats app/sites to order your takeaway. They lose between 17-33% of the order value.

Crazy thing people don't realise that prices are higher on the delivery sites - so a chicken chow mein might be £6.00 in person, and £7.90 on the delivery sites. Or some food places have a smaller container size for delivery sites.

[Mr_J]

ARHarh said:

Mr_J said:

I had 2 new tyres fitted a month ago.

I got a quote from Black circles and then drove to my local tyre fitter. He was £2 a corner more expensive. It wasn't worth haggling over £4 extra on £400 of rubber.

He would have probably given you a fiver off if you asked, not that I would have bothered for that amount.

I was happy to pay the small premium - I was thinking about replacing them and then picked up a puncture. I popped in at 08:30, he ordered the tyres in and fitted them a few hours later.

[Hants PHer]

I have a tyre and repair place within walking distance of my home, and always try to use them if possible. Over time, you form a bit of a relationship and that's a valuable thing, I've found.

For example, the other day I noticed a nail in the front tyre of our family RAV4. It was a Saturday lunchtime and we had a long trip planned for the next day. Took the car to my usual local place: "Oh hello Mr. Hants, nice to see you again. Yeah, we can repair that for you, take a seat, we're not busy." They did a puncture repair and insisted it was on the house. That guarantees I'll be going direct (not via Black Circles) to them - they're very competitive - for new tyres in the future. Win win, I'd say.

[dhutch]

vikingaero said:

It's much like using the Just Eat, Deliverpoo or Uber Eats app/sites to order your takeaway. They lose between 17-33% of the order value.

Crazy thing people don't realise that prices are higher on the delivery sites - so a chicken chow mein might be £6.00 in person, and £7.90 on the delivery sites. Or some food places have a smaller container size for delivery sites.

Yeah, its bonkers. Yet our local really nice Indian takeaway says that now about 80% of his trade comes through just eat!
We phone them and either collect in person or have them deliver, only downside to this is they are cash only.

Our local pizza place doesn't do 3rd party apps, but gives you 20% off if you use their own really awful app vs ringing the order through on the phone.

[vikingaero]

dhutch said:

vikingaero said:

It's much like using the Just Eat, Deliverpoo or Uber Eats app/sites to order your takeaway. They lose between 17-33% of the order value.

Crazy thing people don't realise that prices are higher on the delivery sites - so a chicken chow mein might be £6.00 in person, and £7.90 on the delivery sites. Or some food places have a smaller container size for delivery sites.

Yeah, its bonkers. Yet our local really nice Indian takeaway says that now about 80% of his trade comes through just eat!
We phone them and either collect in person or have them deliver, only downside to this is they are cash only.

Our local pizza place doesn't do 3rd party apps, but gives you 20% off if you use their own really awful app vs ringing the order through on the phone.

Tyre places and takeaways do like the websites as it drives customers to them and they may become direct repeat customers.

Years ago you could pretty much guarantee that any takeaway on Just Eat etc, were the crap takeaways, because any other takeaway bursting at the seams turning over £15k a week simply did not need them.

[SitCet]

Two consecutive bad experiences with BlackCircles.

First they falsely claimed tires had been delivered to my home address, even showing me a completely blank delivery receipt as ' evidence'.

A year later, thought I'd give them another chance but this time they just forgot to send the tires to the fitters.

Took many many hours of calls to get refunded.

[aterribleusername]

Have used them a few times now and only ever had two bad experiences.

The first was 2 years ago when I had 4 Toyo's fitted using the local ATS, the total cost was nearly a 1/3 lower than going direct. ATS managed to cock up the balancing so had to return to get that rectified but the fitter said it would be the next day before they could fit me in. Got them rebalanced at the Kwik Fit round the corner instead, Black Circles refunded the balancing charge though to be fair.

The second was on the last pair I had fitted back in November. Chose to have them fitted at the local In N' Out (I use them for MOT's) and they cancelled the appointment. Called them to see why and it was due to their machine being broken, they said they'd told Black Circles this but they were still adding bookings. Took Black Circles three times to allow me to change the fitting centre to a different local garage, pretty stressful when you're dealing with your dad passing away a few days before, doing big miles every day, the tyres are worn down to 2mm and one has a slow puncture. Finally got the tyres to be fitted but the local garage refused to fit the tyres in the 1hr timeslot I'd been given, instead it took them over 4 hours and I had to leave the car with them the whole day. Got a small refund for the inconvenience, just about covered the bus fare to and from the garage.

Gong to need a new front pair soon so undecided whether to use them again, never had any luck phoning the garages direct for a better price so might just go with whoever is close to the cheapest instead.

[Pica-Pica]

I have nearly always used Black Circles. As I have written before, the tyres fitted have always been less than 6 months old. I looking at the complete picture, it saves on storage costs for the local tyre place. Tyre replacement situations:
Planned, when tread depth becomes low = most usual, so Black Circles
Semi-planned: runflats had a slow puncture with a screw = 2 occasions, Black circles
Emergency: fairly flat tyre, wife’s car, drove round the corner to a local independent tyre place.

All were professionally done, no problems using locking screw sockets, no rim damage, new valves fitted (except when TPMS valves were fitted and retained on car).

[Pica-Pica]

PhilTyson said:

I generally purchase through Blackcircles or ASDA tyres and have never had an issue with any of their fitters. I believe the arrangement is that they get a fixed price for each tyre fitted depending on size.

I'm always upfront with the tyre fitters that I am super paranoid about any damage and let them know there's a £50 tip at the end of it. It definitely makes them extra careful!

Jeez. Do you tip a waiter/server for not spilling the soup on your lap?
I rarely tip. In Japanese-mode, tipping is an insult, the business and the customer should expect to give and receive good service.

[RSstuff]

I'd rather buy from a local tyre place if the price was competitive. The metal valve caps were replaced with cheapo plastic on my last BC fitting. I didn't think much of it, until I found out Ford wanted £5 each for the metal versions. I went back to the tyre place, and the fitter knew exactly where my metal caps were

Edited by RSstuff on Wednesday 28th February 13:15

[The Wookie]

ajap1979 said:

Anyone used Asda Tyres before? Planning on putting some all season tyres on my Polestar and they seem to be £40+ per tyre cheaper than anywhere else!

Yep, they were fine, painless process. I checked reviews for the nominated fitters and chose one that was a bit further away.

Probably still not the sort of place I'd usually go to (fast in/out and torque settings by the dagga) but they didn't scrape the wheels and were pleasant enough to deal with.

[Deep Thought]

My local preferred fitter cant compete with Black Circles on stuff like Michelin tyres for my M2, previous 6 series, or my wifes Z4 running on 19s.

Last time he was around £200+ more expensive for a full set of Michelin on my 630i.

Hes really competitive on cooking variant stuff and i wouldnt pass him by for a few £s but i cant justify giving him £200+ more.

[The Wookie]

Deep Thought said:

My local preferred fitter cant compete with Black Circles on stuff like Michelin tyres for my M2, previous 6 series, or my wifes Z4 running on 19s.

Last time he was around £200+ more expensive for a full set of Michelin on my 630i.

Hes really competitive on cooking variant stuff and i wouldnt pass him by for a few £s but i cant justify giving him £200+ more.

This matches my experience too with more specialist or marque specific tyres, furthermore my local fitters used to be cost effective if you supplied them the tyres from Camskill but they've increased their fitting charge as the online stuff has got cheaper and it just makes it too far apart.