C’mon Bridgestone!
Bridgestone have a “Sweet
Easter Deals” promotion on at present and after looking at the quoted price on some new Duelers, decided to contact the local dealer.
“Um, the price quoted for the 693 Duelers ($239) are for the more common 265/75R16 size”
“OK”, I say, ”so what price can you do for the 245/70/R16’s size.”
“Um, we can do them for $249 each, including balancing and fitting. And you get another $5 off per tyre, if you show your RAA
membership card”.
Still not too bad a deal I figure, so I advised them to go ahead and book me in.
Arrived Tuesday morning as arranged. “Um, we’ve got a problem” said the dealer.
“Bridgestone won’t release the remaining stock of 245/70/R16’s in the D693's as they are being held for emergency vehicle use”. But we can supply D694’s in that size for the same price. The 694’s are now made in Australia and are a better tyre”.
What the….!
Well it just so happens that I had a set of 694’s (made in Japan) which I got 65,000 kilometers from, but changed a warn pair a while ago over to 693’s because I liked the tread pattern better and the heavier duty construction over the original 694’s. Now, with the cheaper price, I wanted to upgrade the other worn tyres, and the rarely used, but 6 year old Goodyear Wrangler, so that I had a full set of D693’s. (Only got 40,000 from the original Wranglers)
“No”, I said, “I don’t want the D694’s, they (the new Australian made ones) haven’t proved themselves yet. I want the D693’s or I’m going elsewhere”.
So the Dealer looked up his computer records and rang another dealer in
Adelaide who had stock of a few D693’s in the size I wanted and agreed to send three tyres over. “OK”, I said, “I’ll be back tomorrow to have them fitted”.
Now it’s Wednesday and the D693’s have been fitted for a good price. The local Owner/franchised Bridgestone dealer looked after me in the end and has retained my business. For now!
But hear this Mr. Bridgestone. Your current policy sucks! Your normal retail price for the D694’s are about the same as that of your opposition, (Cooper’s, Mickey Thompson’s, etc.) and I will be having a very close look next time around.
A customer is a customer, regardless of whether they are an individual member of the Public, the Emergency Fire Service, or the St.
John’s Ambulance Brigade. (Which ever ones use Rodeo’s as part of their fleet because the Rodeo uses the same size tyre)
A sale is a sale in my book.
I have kind of stuck with Bridgestone because I have had a good run with the tyres I have selected so far and Bridgestone Australia has it’s base and manufacturing facilities in South Australia. I’m willing to support “local” manufacturers but I will not be buggered about with either.
So a not very enjoyable experience, although it ended up OK this particular time.