$35 for mounting a tire?
Maybe it's time to give up telecom engineering and start a motorcycle shop....
People say that all the time until they actually do it and find out what costs are involved and some dude comes in and wants you to mount a tire he didn't even purchase from you. That's why it costs $35 to mount a tire.
I actually mount and balance my own tires, and as long as you have the tire removed from the bike, $35 seems a bit to high to my eye. It would be more than reasonable if that price involved wheel removing, tire changing, balancing, and wheel installing -plus chain tension adjustment-
I understand that shops make a living out of man hours but they have a markup also on parts. I understand that charging high on tire changing when the tire comes from outside intends to discourage customers to buy outside and simply order tire and labour in the shop. But if you have a shop and your customers are buying outside you have a problem: your dealer is not competitive. You either get a better deal, because charging high for your labour will only make customers find another shop, and you will end up without the tire sale NOR the labor sale.
I work for a big telecom company. It used to design and manufacture electronic equipment. Some time ago, it was clear we couldn't compete with asian manufacturing prices. We could have decided to charge high anytime the customer wanted us to configure a network from a different supplier. But instead, my company decided to get rid of the manufacturing business, and the company turned into a service provider. What we do now is mounting the tires that somebody else sells -and we couldn't sell for less price-, but we try to mount them better and cheaper than the rest. Anyway, we also sell our own "tires" -manufactured in Asia with our brand name- for those customers that just want a one-stop shopping.
Enough thread hijacking.... :-) Regarding the original post, my opinion is that Bridgestone is selling defective tires, they should cover the costs incurred by the customer, such as shipping, mounting etc. It is not like "sorry I ordered the wrong tire, would you exchange it for me?" but "you sold me a tire that is defective". That's where the middle-man comes in handy. Big companies can't care less for a single customer, but if it is your middle-man the one who speaks for you, they will listen to him. They know that he values his customers -people like you- and he will not buy from somebody who make him lose customers.
