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Wheel sale at Discount Tire
- Thread starter ericr
- Start date
Thread Starter
#64
Sounds like your shipment might have been on the same container. 4 months is too long for anyone to wait for a set of wheels. I'm patient, but that really pushed it. If you have any influence with Rimstock, they really need to stop filling containers before shipping. Inventory in this country would be good.
For car accessories, instant gratification is the game. In 4 months, some people will have changed their minds on the purchase or have disposed of their cars.
For car accessories, instant gratification is the game. In 4 months, some people will have changed their minds on the purchase or have disposed of their cars.
Shipping partial containers will raise wheel prices. To what extent I do not know as I am not an employee.
This last container's lengthy arrival was due to something that has not occurred before, and was not communicated until the release of the container. Rimstock, the parent company, sells oem wheels to manufactuers here in the USA. A contract had expired with one of the OEMs and the flow of product stopped. Team Dynamics wheels piggyback on these OEM shipments as they make up a small percentage of a container. OEM's pick up the cost for shipment of the container, so those costs are not passed down to Team Dynamics dealers.
PCA is not a typical dealer. I offer the ability for customers to purchase one, or a million and one wheels in any combination of specs within the ranges the factory offers. When someone places a factory order with container shipping, the ETA is 12 weeks. There are a myriad of things that can crop up to delay the ETA. The port is backed up, customs holds the container for scanning, truckers on are strike, longshoreman are on strike...and new to the list, OEM contracts expire. Everything I have listed are exceptions/special circumstances. The OEM contract communication was a fail for sure. For what it is worth, an OEM contract expiring has not happened since I have been selling these wheels back to 2009. Rimstock was sold a few months back and this could have been the reason for the need to negotiate a new contract. Cannot say for sure, but makes sense.
The castings used to manufacture Team Dynamics wheels come off the same line as the OEM wheels. Yes, Rimstock manufactures higher end cast wheels for OEMs too. So there are production schedules that do change. One year the paint facility was contaminated and shut down for a couple of weeks to decontaminate, stuff that is part of manufacturing. With an operation with 20,000+ wheels on hand at any time, it is a process.
All of that aside, manufacturing individual spec orders is labor intensive, as compared to doing huge lots of wheels with the same spec. Almost all aftermarket wheel manufacturers in this price segment are not set up to do this. When you hear of group buys with a minimum number of wheels, all one color, size, offset, ect, these are companies who are not set up like Team Dynamics is. Smaller niche manufacturers of forged wheels can turn out a set in 3-6 weeks. Depending on the customer's location, individual wheel sets are either air freighted or ground shipped, so the wheels arrive much sooner. Team Dynamics, when the factory is not experiencing a hiccup, also completes manufacturing in 4-6 weeks. The length of time on the water is 5 weeks, and the length of time in between is for filling of the container. The container does make one port in Europe before heading to the US, this however has not to date resulted in any delays that I am aware of.
So while everyone wants quicker ETA's, lord knows I do, we are subject to a process. This year, what I would term as an extraordinary event, caused the extended wait for wheels, whether it be spec orders or stock for inventory here in the US. As a dealer, I can bitch and complain all I want about ETAs, but it is what it is until some other set up is put in place at the factory to somehow accommodate a faster transportation mode, without pricing themselves out of the market.
For what it is worth, I have championed the 4x108/63.4 hub bore market for going on eight years now. As a single player, the factory wasn't going to hand over the keys and say have at it. Quite the opposite, I have had to generate increasing sales each year to achieve trust at the factory, to not only do things like spec order group buys, but to build on hand inventory. This latest shipment is the single largest 4x108 shipment for stock to date. All these wheels everyone is buying are from my order I submitted last September.
The DT issue is a new one. Seeing as I was not aware either by a heads up here or from TD USA, I was not able to negotiate pricing accordingly. Why this happened is currently being heavily discussed for the future. With new ownership I cannot say what the result could be. Things are changing.
One other point I would like to make regards spec orders. Only one other company I am aware of, that offers spec ordering of cast wheel, does not offer container shipping and requires air freight, which is anywhere form $250+/-. In all my years of selling to the 4x108/63.4 hub bore market, maybe 1% of customers pay for air freight, and the 99% accept the cheaper ground shipping and the ETA that comes along with it. ETAs are just that, estimated. If you want something specific to you, in a premium cast wheel, you have to wait. Know you know why.
I went into this lengthy response because it is one thing to opine the obvious. Who wants to wait for anything? Nobody. The lesson to be learned here is ask before assuming. Not addressing ericr specifically. This is for everyone. No argument, no excuses. Reality.
This last container's lengthy arrival was due to something that has not occurred before, and was not communicated until the release of the container. Rimstock, the parent company, sells oem wheels to manufactuers here in the USA. A contract had expired with one of the OEMs and the flow of product stopped. Team Dynamics wheels piggyback on these OEM shipments as they make up a small percentage of a container. OEM's pick up the cost for shipment of the container, so those costs are not passed down to Team Dynamics dealers.
PCA is not a typical dealer. I offer the ability for customers to purchase one, or a million and one wheels in any combination of specs within the ranges the factory offers. When someone places a factory order with container shipping, the ETA is 12 weeks. There are a myriad of things that can crop up to delay the ETA. The port is backed up, customs holds the container for scanning, truckers on are strike, longshoreman are on strike...and new to the list, OEM contracts expire. Everything I have listed are exceptions/special circumstances. The OEM contract communication was a fail for sure. For what it is worth, an OEM contract expiring has not happened since I have been selling these wheels back to 2009. Rimstock was sold a few months back and this could have been the reason for the need to negotiate a new contract. Cannot say for sure, but makes sense.
The castings used to manufacture Team Dynamics wheels come off the same line as the OEM wheels. Yes, Rimstock manufactures higher end cast wheels for OEMs too. So there are production schedules that do change. One year the paint facility was contaminated and shut down for a couple of weeks to decontaminate, stuff that is part of manufacturing. With an operation with 20,000+ wheels on hand at any time, it is a process.
All of that aside, manufacturing individual spec orders is labor intensive, as compared to doing huge lots of wheels with the same spec. Almost all aftermarket wheel manufacturers in this price segment are not set up to do this. When you hear of group buys with a minimum number of wheels, all one color, size, offset, ect, these are companies who are not set up like Team Dynamics is. Smaller niche manufacturers of forged wheels can turn out a set in 3-6 weeks. Depending on the customer's location, individual wheel sets are either air freighted or ground shipped, so the wheels arrive much sooner. Team Dynamics, when the factory is not experiencing a hiccup, also completes manufacturing in 4-6 weeks. The length of time on the water is 5 weeks, and the length of time in between is for filling of the container. The container does make one port in Europe before heading to the US, this however has not to date resulted in any delays that I am aware of.
So while everyone wants quicker ETA's, lord knows I do, we are subject to a process. This year, what I would term as an extraordinary event, caused the extended wait for wheels, whether it be spec orders or stock for inventory here in the US. As a dealer, I can bitch and complain all I want about ETAs, but it is what it is until some other set up is put in place at the factory to somehow accommodate a faster transportation mode, without pricing themselves out of the market.
For what it is worth, I have championed the 4x108/63.4 hub bore market for going on eight years now. As a single player, the factory wasn't going to hand over the keys and say have at it. Quite the opposite, I have had to generate increasing sales each year to achieve trust at the factory, to not only do things like spec order group buys, but to build on hand inventory. This latest shipment is the single largest 4x108 shipment for stock to date. All these wheels everyone is buying are from my order I submitted last September.
The DT issue is a new one. Seeing as I was not aware either by a heads up here or from TD USA, I was not able to negotiate pricing accordingly. Why this happened is currently being heavily discussed for the future. With new ownership I cannot say what the result could be. Things are changing.
One other point I would like to make regards spec orders. Only one other company I am aware of, that offers spec ordering of cast wheel, does not offer container shipping and requires air freight, which is anywhere form $250+/-. In all my years of selling to the 4x108/63.4 hub bore market, maybe 1% of customers pay for air freight, and the 99% accept the cheaper ground shipping and the ETA that comes along with it. ETAs are just that, estimated. If you want something specific to you, in a premium cast wheel, you have to wait. Know you know why.
I went into this lengthy response because it is one thing to opine the obvious. Who wants to wait for anything? Nobody. The lesson to be learned here is ask before assuming. Not addressing ericr specifically. This is for everyone. No argument, no excuses. Reality.
Thread Starter
#68
My discount tire received an extra set of 15x8 in gloss bronze by mistake. They will sell them for the same price listed in the first post but no rebate. Call Devin at 425-897-7411. Good price and no wait.
I didn't have to read it. I got the call. I don't make the rules, but I abide by them because I do not want to jeopardize my ability to sell Team Dynamics wheels. Manufacturers have to not only protect their pricing, but also allow for a level playing field for resellers. Selling at cost crosses both these tracks.
It's business. Not personal.
It's business. Not personal.
Uh, no, that's bullshit. Since when is selling something at a discount to clear inventory some kind of travesty? It's costing them money every day it sits there. "Protecting their pricing" and "a level playing field for resellers" are just euphemisms for price fixing. It's anti-competitive and it's anti-consumer. Just because this kind of shit is somehow considered legal today doesn't make it right. If you can't compete on price, then compete on customer service or marketing or whatever. If at the end of the day you still can't make a profit, then you deserve to go out of business. ![[rant]](/images/smilies/rant.gif "Rant [rant]")
[steps off soapbox]
[steps off soapbox]
Thread Starter
#76
I hate to stir this pot any more, but I went to my Discount Tire store again today and saw they have another $100 rebate going on the purchase of 4 wheels if you get their credit card for the purchase. That makes the pricing just like the original post. Someone should jump on this 1 remaining set, or for that matter, any other size or color that the TD distributor now has in stock.
![[party]](/images/smilies/icon_smile_party.gif "Party [party]"){kind=icon}
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