Monday, September 3, 2007

Sears Tires Complaints Online

In searching around for consumer information it appears Sears Tires does have some complaints, but when you look over them the content and number of complaints is surprising.

First, for a company that installs as many tires as Sears does the quantity of complaints online is not overwhelming. In fact it's pretty hard to track down complaints about them. Thus either the search is inadequate or there really are not that many. Sure there are a few sensational big class action lawsuits out there that target companies like Sears right or wrong. Though if you look at the actual number of uniques complaints. It's relatively minor.

Second when you dig into the complaints many of them appear to be based on angry or upset people looking for someone to blame for something that has nothing to do with Sears Tires. For example the person in New Hampshire who accuses Sears by installing new tires and aligning her car caused the car to engine to throw a rod two days later. Hmmm....let me think about that.
So in sum, pretty good score for Sears Tires in the online complaints department. Oh yeah here's the link to the grumpy person in New Hampshire.

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Sears Tires Sells National Tires and Battery (NTB)

Sears Tires sold off their ownership in the chain National Tire and Battery (NTB). Part of this sale can be attributed to the Walmart effect. Walmart Tires also competes with Sears Tires in the car tire segment.

Here's some information about the Sears Tires sale of National Tire and Battery (NTB):
"Sears Tires today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell its National Tire & Battery (NTB)business to TBC Corporation for $260 million. Sears expects to recognize a pretax gain in the range of $50 million to $100 million on the deal."
TBC Corporation owns Big O Tires and Tire Kingdom.

In recent years Sears Tires has been under pressure from Walmart Tires and also online car tire stores such as The Tire Rack and Tires Easy.

Sears Tires The Mainstay Car Tire Seller

Sears Tires is the mainstay of the tire selling market in the US for decades, if not since tires first started being sold. In sum, if you are getting your car tires installed at Sears your are like generations of people before you doing the same. It's not a bad choice.

Sears Tires used to own National Tire and Battery (NTB) but they sold them in September 2003.

Some of the benefits they offer are:
  1. You get a discount when you buy car tires with the Sears card.
  2. If you buy car tires online they ship them free to any Sears Auto Center.
  3. They have car tire reviews, ratings and information to review before purchase.
  4. All major car tire brands are offered. Such as: Bridgestone tires, Firestone tires, Yokohama tires, Falken tires, BF Goodrich tires, Kumho tires, Pirelli tires, Hankook tires, and Kuhmo tires.
  5. You get the Sears guarantee, that literally generations of people have relied upon.

Recently with the advent of the Internet, Sears Tires has a new challenger in the car tires online business - The Tire Rack. They offer similar service to Sears even with the local free shipping of car tires. They developed a network like the AAA, where local car tire installation companies agree to install The Tire Rack tires for a set fee. So you can buy discount car tires online, often less than the price of Sears Tires and have them installed locally.

Either way if buy car tires online Sears Tires is a good way to go, but you should also price shop and compare car tires at The Tire Rack.