Very disappointed in Tire Rack. I have been keeping my eye on closeout wheels for winter on my new GTI. I found a couple different wheels on clearance for $119. Shipping was going to add $20-something/wheel but I have the option of pickup for free.

Today they started free shipping, but raised the wheel price to $137ea. Doesn’t sound very free. I can save $40 if I pick them up, again shipping doesn’t seem free.

So raise the price by $17/wheel and I can save $10/wheel if I don’t want “free” shipping! What a fail.

Well the good News is Walmart still has good prices and free shipping!

Just change the wording to “shipping included” and I wouldn’t be so peeved

If you live in a state where they have a warehouse, or you pick them up, you pay sales tax.

For me, it is actually cheaper to have the tires shipped with no sales tax than it is for me to drive the 90 minutes to their Indiana HQ/warehouse and pay sales tax.

Shop somewhere else then. It's their business, they can do as they please.

For people who want it shipped to them, most people, it seems like the price actually went down $2.

If this is the disappointing event that literally had no effect on you since you didn't buy anything; maybe you should count your blessings, look inward and reflect over why such a non-event made you so upset.

Believe it or not, NOTHING ships for free. If it did, everyone in the world would use that shipping company for sure.

Look for your wheels or tires on ebay, particularly with a 15% coupon.

This really doesn't bother me as prices go up and down on a regular basis. Over time they'll end up at where they are most competitive against competitors.

I'm wondering if it means it is a better deal or not if the tire has no nearby inventory, and has to be shipped from another warehouse, or are they going to show inventory level based on your location like Amazon does (yes, they prioritize inventory level based on your location, so they can sell it to someone that has cheaper shipping)

Or wait until DTD has another of their holiday sales, with rebates, or eBay specials (as eljef mentioned)-I haven't bought anything from TR in years, their prices aren't good, at all. They're only good as a free research site...

SO, how does Tire Rack's new "free shipping" prices compare to DTD and Walmart?

I’ve found some good deals on leftover stock at TR, like 16” runflats for the MINI for $65 each. I haven’t bought tires from them in years as DTD has such good promos several times a year.

Their closeout wheels are a good deal but searching through Craigslist I see some OE wheels are pretty cheap, but some people treat them as they do gold!

I’m not upset, more of a rant...and know that shipping isn’t free. It’s just poorly implemented by them and their marketing department should be sacked.

Free doesn’t mean free and it pays to be informed.

Tire Rack changes their prices all the time. Not saying your situation isn't due to adding Free Shipping, but maybe not. The thing to do with them is to be flexible on delivery and just check from time to time, and bite if it looks good enough to you as it might go higher as well as lower.

I'm not even sure they had a choice; Free Shipping in the Contiguous USA is so common now for almost everything available online if you spend a Benjamin or more I suspect they had to do it or start losing sales. Who knows maybe they were losing money on shipping at $20 and once they crunched the numbers it was too late for your chosen item.

Repeat, if the price looks good enough to you at Tire Rack you need to bite immediately, not expect it to hang around at the same price later, because at least with what I buy, the prices are always moving. One tire part# I buy repeatedly has been anywhere from $90 to $150 over the last six months.

Edit:

I just checked, they're on closeout at $141, last set I bought was $97 each in stock and current. The replacement (stickier compound) is $120. Japan-made tire, yen was about 88 when I bought last, now is 110, so $120 is about right if no price increase at originating country. In this case "Free Shipping" actually seems to be free.

Yeah, I just use their site for research and to read the reviews. It's usually cheaper to buy it at a local store because by the time they ship it and you get it and pay to get them mounted/balanced, you can just get a price match at a local store and skip all that. Costco tends to be cheaper anyway once you factor in their free mounting and lifetime balance/rotation. Can't do that with tires bought on TR. Plus I'm sure warranty problems aren't any fun when you can't go directly to the vendor.

Also look at ECS Tuning for wheels. They specialize in VW, Audi and a few other Euro manufactures.
https://www.ecstuning.com

Buying from the TireRack will most likely become more expensive for many because of the recent internet sales tax ruling.
I've gone to Discount Tire and negotiated the price when mentioning the TireRack. Factoring in shipping and installing, they matched the price.
Don't expect to do that with cheap tires however.