Big O Tires Ripoff: Another Example Why Consumers Hate the Corporations

Posted By: David on October 10, 2011 4 Comments

You can literally feel it across the nation: consumers are sick and tired of the games corporations play. I ran into one of these games recently, and it really drove the point home about why we are all getting so edgy about things.

Big O Tires recently ran a “Buy 2 and Get 2″ tire sale. So I drove on over and gave the Big O Tires salesman the tire size I needed. I’d previously checked their prices and saw the tire I wanted was $72.50, so I’m figuring 4 for 2, mounting and balancing, etc, maybe $200 – $225.00 out the door.

Wrong. The quote: $748.00. And the tire salesman said that was a “great deal”, because after deducting for the 2 “free” tires, he could get the price down to under $600.00.

Whoopee! I’m thinking at that point that I could just forget the “deal” and buy all four tires at full price and STILL pay 40% less than what he was offering.

Turns out the Big O Tires “Buy 2 and Get 2 Free” deal actually meant “Buy an expensive alignment (whether you need it or not), buy the Tire Protection Plan, pay outrageously high mounting and balancing fees, plus buy 4 tires, and THEN they’d take the price of 2 tires off.

Right. Should have read the fine print, I guess. I left without buying anything, of course. But here’s the thing: I’ll never go back to Big O Tires again. To me, their “Buy 2 and Get 2″ is just a rip-off, a device to sucker you in and then take advantage of you.

Sure, maybe legally their sale passes muster, since the fine print spells out the details, but let’s be realistic here. Big O Tires knows damn well that when they place radio and TV ads announcing a “Buy 2 and Get 2 Free!” sale that few people will take the time to study the details. There’s an element of trust here, that if a company announces a blow-out sale that it’ll be reasonably close to what they are advertising.

In Big O Tires’ case, it isn’t even close. Like I said, one can buy 4 tires cheaper than if one took advantage of their “Buy 2 Get 2 Free” deal. If Big O Tires was being straight-forward, they’d advertise their tire deal as “Buy an alignment and two tires, and four tire protection plans, and get 2 more tires free. Mounting and balancing extra.”

Wishful thinking, sure. But the fact is this: people are getting tired of this shit. But consumers, whether they know it or not, have the upper hand. All we have to do is refuse to buy their crap. In my case, I’ll never give Big O Tires my business. Ever. In fact, I wrote a letter to the boys at Big O Tires:

Dear Sirs,

Your “Buy 2 and Get 2 Free” tire sale is a joke. You know it and I know it. I was quoted nearly $600.00 for four tires (and an alignment I didn’t want, plus your Tire Protection Plan), which is almost twice the cost of what I would have paid just buying the 4 tires alone.

You’ll never get my business. And I’ll make it my business to spread the word about you guys. I, along with many, many others, are tired of the bullshit and game-playing companies like yours play. You want to offer a good deal on tires? Fine, but don’t go around loudly advertising a “Buy 2 and Get 2 Free” deal and then wrap it up in some fine print that requires a customer to buy things he doesn’t want or need in order to get the “deal”.

In other words, don’t waste people’s time. Your advertising campaign may be on the thin side of “legal,” but in truth you’re just pissing people off. And I’m going to make sure I spread the word about my experience to everyone I know, plus I think I’ll sell t-shirts that state: BIG O TIRES SUCKS.

Sincerely,

Dave Urban
Green Man Blog
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