Tyre Price Fixing?

BFG's are cheaper in that size anyway. I shopped around and had a difference of $40 per tyre

Cheers
Dave

I also shopped around for the Cooper STT 265/75/16's and found a small difference. Got them for $350.

Phil

Has been the practice for quite some time on MTs I believe.

I did a deal with my friendly local distributer that showed I paid full wack for the tyres but got a HUGE discount on the wheels I bought at the same time!

But yes, I would have thought that setting rrp was OK, but stopping a reseller from discounting is a bit sus.

Why pay high prices for their marketing. To make matters worse you are paying top dollar as they have not reduced prices with the high Aussie dollar. Prices should have come down 25%. Personally I would not use either brand as I don't like to make myself look like a wacker that is sucked in by marketing and advertising for disgustingly high prices. Compare the US price and see how you are getting hugely ripped off.

ACCC Re Retail price Maintenance

Have a look here. I think you are correct about there being laws against that sort of thing

Why not send in a complaint to ACCC ?

ACCC Online Complaint Page

Last time I priced Coopers it was about 8 years ago. Every dealer I enquired at quoted the same price - $288 for a Cooper ST 265/75/16. I asked one guy whether I could get a discount for quantity etc, and he quietly said what you said - he'd lose his licence to sell them if he discounted. I have no idea whether that is still the case - I'd guess things have changed.

I think you will find that the companies are within their rights to set the retail prices in this way. It is more common than you think. Apple and Miele are two other companies that do this. The price setting is a contract condition. The dealers can choose to not sell those brands. It is not anti competative as it is one company and there are many other companies that supply equivalent products. If MT and Coopers's had an arrangement that would be anti competative. If Cooper's and MT were the only suppliers of tyres that would be an oligololy and subject to further restrictions under Australian law.

Any discounts you see are manufacturer discounts, there is no reseller discounting. You can get other services as part of the deal though. The manufacturer is using a service delivery model that is quite common in many industries. They are producing a situation where you can go to any dealer and get their product at basically the same price. Some people prefer this, and many companies see it as desirable.

If you don't like it vote with your feet and buy something else.

Steve

i just purchased BFG M/T in that size, difference in price $90 per tyre from 4X4 shop to tyre retailer in same suburb! tyre retailer got my business
cheers Steve

If you were Mr Thompson or Cooper you to would be protecting your interests.

You will find even that this practice is illegal most consumer products are the same.

The distributor can not tell you what to sell for but if you do the right thing by them there are other incentives involved like advertising, rebates, sign age and a range of other things.

What the distributors will do is if your a reseller and you don't follow suit is make you life difficult or restrict some aspects.

Getting something cheaper is programmed into people from an early age and they think if they don't get some sort of discount then they are getting ripped off....perhaps it comes from the hunting instinct that humans have where they want to win or have the upper hand over someone or something.

We don't discount and never will due to the fact I want to make money and I want to pay my staff well and offer our customers the best service.

Think of it this way, if you worked for a company and you were getting paid $30 per hour and the boss came in and said we are going to discount everything we sell but I still want to make my bottom line....how about we cut your pay by 20% to help me stay in business.

I'm sure you would be more them happy to help him out....all for the sake of the customers.

I'm sure most people don't understand the real costs of a business.

If you sold a product for $400 and you marketed it as a premium product whereby all the oppositions products were cheaper by lowering your price below theirs is sending a message that your product is not as good as theirs and by doing so you have removed the premium persona attached to it.

There is a simple answer don't by the Coopers and by something cheaper.



The other thing is try a Cooper dealer and not a reseller...why.....We wanted some Toyo M/T's for our 4x4 and went to the tyre place who we deal with through our business for tyres for our vehicles....they are a Toyo reseller and quoted us $437 a tyre so we phoned around and spoke to a Toyo dealer who knew nothing about our other vehicles and quoted $386 a tyre.

There is also the possibility the retailer didnt want to discount or spend time haggling so may have suggested the price fixing excuse as a way of not doing so.
Kind of making it look as though it was out of his hands.

Just a thought.


Cheers.....Lionel.

Two retailers agreeing to set their prices at $ 200 a tyre is price fixing and illegal in Australia, the wholesaler dictating to the same two retailers the price will be $ 200 a trye or loose his dealership is unfortunately legal at the moment.

Snowy
Not true you can get goodyear mtr's they have just changed the tread pattern.
Got two last week and ordered two more. New tread pattern is a lot more agressive than the old one.
Paid $335 a tyre.

Rossco

Suggest you ring around. I got a $29 per tyre saving at the 3rd dealer I rang for Coopers. He like all of the others didnt stock them but had to have them delivered to him the next day. The agent I purchased from is a large reputable one and is very closely located to the others here in south west sydney. cheers....

Interesting repsonse from people just checking back through my records,

I bought my last set of MT MTZ's in 285/75 R16 in July 08, height of the world economic boom, a barrel of oil was up around $130-$140 US per barrel, and the Aussie dollar was buying around 70-80 US cents, I paid $325 per tyre.

Fast forward to now, Aussie dollar is buying around 90 US cents, the price of oil is around $70-$80 US per barrel, and the tyres are now $370 each, go figure???