Cost of swapping winter wheels - Ripped off??

[anonymous-user]

Hi all,

My girlfriend arrived in the house yesterday quite annoyed as well known tyre fitting centre, lets call them Kwak Fat, have just charged her £30 to swap her winter wheels for summer wheels.

Literally, just swap one set of alloys for another. It took them less than 5 minutes start to finish and didn't use any materials in the process. Didn't even check the tyre pressures upon fitting them as I had to do that myself today at the garage and found them to be all over the place. 2 were down to nearly 12psi.

She expressed her shock when asked for £30 and said that other places had previously charged her £5-10, which caused the guy behind the counter to have a go at her and said she should 'Think herself lucky' as the company wants them to charge £10 PER WHEEL for swapping winter/summer and claimed to have given her a £10 discount.

Yes, she should have asked the price when she first walked in, that goes without saying, but she simply didn't expect a bill like that.

How much would you normally expect to pay for a wheel swap? I think £30 is pretty outrageous!

I will await the PH question of "why didn't you do it yourself?"

Edited by NinjaPower on Sunday 15th March 12:41

[kambites]

It does seem a bit much but, as you say, she should have asked.

I'd expect to pay nothing because I'd do it myself. However, last time I had tyres swapped it was about £10 a corner and that's a significantly bigger job because it requires rebalancing and re-inflating. I rather suspect that Kwikfit have a single price for either, though.

[drivin_me_nuts]

You are paying for their labour.

At least you/she didn't ask them to do something hard like use their gear to recharge the A/C. Last year that involved two of their stations screwing up and dumping the best part of three litres of refrigerant into my car.

[itcaptainslow]

For not even checking the tyre pressures, that's pretty horrendous IMO.

When I was a main dealer SM we used to happily swap customer's winter wheels over FOC, because all main dealers are money grabbing scum.

[Sensibleboy]

I would say between £20 and £30.they will charge VAT on that too.

[anonymous-user]

The real question here is why you didn't change them for her? I think that £30 is a good punishment for laziness.

[anonymous-user]

Taz1383 said:

The real question here is why you didn't change them for her? I think that £30 is a good punishment for laziness.

I don't have a trolley jack or wheel brace etc at home.

In fact her car doesn't even have a jack as it's a 120D with a can of foam in the boot instead of a spare wheel.

[militantmandy]

Taz1383 said:

The real question here is why you didn't change them for her? I think that £30 is a good punishment for laziness.

Bingo! Invest in a torque wrench and a jack. At 30 quid a go they'll pay for themselves in no time.

[Impasse]

I had a set of tyres removed from their rims yesterday late afternoon at a place with a name not too dissimilar to the one in the OP (as the rims are going off to be painted).
The guys took them out of the back of the RR, stripped off the tyres, then carefully put all eight items back in the boot using odd bits of cardboard to prevent scratching.

Blokey at the front desk said "Nah, I can't charge you for that. We haven't done anything". So I gave £20 towards their tea-kitty. I guess like most franchises, it depends entirely on the staff at each branch as to the level of customer service.

[ecsrobin]

£30incVAT sounds a fair deal.

As for checking tyre pressures yes they probably should have but then your wife probably should have asked the price. Also depends on what she asked. If she just asked for them to be fitted then all they're going to do is fit them.

[bitchstewie]

Tbh I'd have asked.

I doubt it took 5 minutes I'd guess 10-15 so then you're into that old chestnut of where do they draw the line on what jobs are charged for and which aren't?

[loose cannon]

The most shocking part as already stated they didn't do the tyre pressures
What a joke ! I'd make sure you check they are torqued up properly also

[CoolHands]

You are paying for their highly-trained operatives! And the management's City & Guilds in how to be a pleb!

[anonymous-user]

bhstewie said:

Tbh I'd have asked.

I doubt it took 5 minutes I'd guess 10-15 so then you're into that old chestnut of where do they draw the line on what jobs are charged for and which aren't?

Don't get me wrong, I expect them to charge for the work.

I just think that £30, in Cumbria (not London/South East as people were speculating), to swap one set of wheels and not even check tyre pressures upon fitting, is pretty outrageous.

Most garages seem to charge around £10 per wheel to actually fit a new tyre including valve and balance, considerably more work and materials involved, which is why I feel pretty annoyed about the "£40 discounted to £30 just to swap wheels" story off the manager.

To be honest... I don't know why I bothered posting this thread... She should of asked the price, It's Kwak Fat so it was probably always going to be an absolute rip. I guess I'm just annoyed!

[t400ble]

Why does everyone feel they are being ripped off?

Companies need to make profit. If they kept swapping wheels around all day for nothing they'd soon shut

[bitchstewie]

NinjaPower said:

I guess I'm just annoyed!

I'd have been annoyed too, but I'm tight so I'd have asked first

It does put them towards main dealer rates if you extrapolate what they charged, which does seem a little steep when you think about it in that context.

[loose cannon]

You'll be even more annoyed when they fall off because you havnt checked they are torqued up correctly

[Driver101]

I needed a valve replaced the other week and they actually did it free of charge. I really didn't expect that at all and thought it was very nice of them.

Changing around 4 wheels will take a reasonable amount of time. I can't see them managing to do all that in 5 minutes. Any time I've seen a customer come in with wheels, they'll unload the car and reload the car too.

More and more people seem to be using all these cheap tyre suppliers from abroad. I guess many tyre garages will have to make more money back by charging people for switching these tyres and wheels around they've not supplied.

I don't think £30 is too bad if I'm being honest. It's not a massive amount of money.

[anonymous-user]

t400ble said:

Why does everyone feel they are being ripped off?

Companies need to make profit. If they kept swapping wheels around all day for nothing they'd soon shut

I realise that.

My dad has ran his own company, with the help of myself and my brother, for 35 years so I fully understand 'profit', but he also does smaller things cheaply for people to keep them happy in the hope they will return to make a bigger purchase.

Robbing people over small items is not good business whichever way you look at it.

[anonymous-user]

loose cannon said:

The most shocking part as already stated they didn't do the tyre pressures
What a joke ! I'd make sure you check they are torqued up properly also

That is what has annoyed me the most... Not even checking the tyre pressures.

And don't joke about not torquing the bolts up.. about 15 years ago I got a tyre replaced at Kwak Fat on my Golf GTi 16V and was watching them do it though the waiting room window. I watched the guy finish the job and thought "he hasn't torqued the bolts up".. but decided not to say anything as I was sure I must have been wrong.

The next day, I had nearly completed the 50 mile drive to my parents when i felt/heard a clunking noise from the rear of the car which got worse when I went round a corner. I stopped to have a look and discovered one wheel bolt missing, one halfway out and the others only just nipped up...

I went back to KF the day after and kicked off at the manager, telling him the full story, and he basically pointed to the small print about the customer having to check wheel nuts, didn't even apologise, and essentially told me to ps off.