Desser - Ugh.

flyingcheesehead

flyingcheesehead

Touchdown! Greaser!
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iMooniac
Where do people get their tires these days? I'm set for now, but looking around for next time.

I've been getting my tires from Desser Tire & Rubber for a long time. They've always had good service, reasonable prices, and everything else you want from a vendor.

Not so much today. They used to be a mom-and-pop shop, but apparently they were bought out since the last time I bought tires. Despite being part of a much larger company, the web site is horribly glitchy - In my IT mind, enough so that it's inexcusable that it was ever put into production. Many parts of it flat-out do not work (and I used two different browsers in the process, too).

And to top it off, the prices were 74% higher for the same items since I last got them 4 years ago. Probably not going to use them again next time. :(
 
Sad to hear that. I bought many a tire from them back in the good old days...
 
I hate it also. It used to be a great local company. The owner kept his airplane in the hanger next to one I use to have. Those days are long gone apparently. I’m not giving up on Desser as they are still a great resource. Here’s my recent experience copied from another post:

Desser experience: I’ve used Desser for years and have always been super happy, but this purchase didn’t go smoothly. The balancer had a missing part. Not knowing what the missing part was I had a very difficult time figuring out what I needed. Desser decided to send me another balancer but somehow the communication got crossed up and the package didn’t ship. I had to call back and repay for the 2nd balancer. The 2nd balancer arrived with the box totally destroyed. Huge rip in the box allowing small items to fall right out. Some of the weights had actually fallen out and were missing. Then it took forever to get refunded for the first item which had to be returned before they credited. We finally got everything straight. They were always easy to talk with, easy to contact, and tried super hard to make everything right. Based on our last conversation I think they’ve probably addressed the packaging issue of this item.
 
I've gone to a mom and pop store up the street, btu they didn't really have good prices. They were asking about $800 for 4 tires, which seems rather high for my car ('18 Leaf)
 
Dislike hearing any mom and pop getting bought up by corporate.
After that happens, customer interests always get flushed and money is king.
I'd been buying Desser tires from ASSCo without trouble but its been a year since last done.
 
You're right about their website. It is terrible.

But I still use them (or Aircraft Spruce) for tires/tubes.
 
I have had nothing but good luck with Desser. A while back, I bought some Monster retreads. They were too big in diameter, and hit the mud scrapers on my wheel pants (despite them being adjusted previously). The problem became apparent on take-off, as the tires expanded from heat and centrifugal force. I sent pictures of the damaged tires to Desser and explained the problem. The immediately offered to take them back, and gave me a discount on a set of Goodyear tires. They even paid for the return shipping. I couldn't have asked for a better result.

YMMV.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
Where do people get their tires these days? I'm set for now, but looking around for next time.

I've been getting my tires from Desser Tire & Rubber for a long time. They've always had good service, reasonable prices, and everything else you want from a vendor.

Not so much today. They used to be a mom-and-pop shop, but apparently they were bought out since the last time I bought tires. Despite being part of a much larger company, the web site is horribly glitchy - In my IT mind, enough so that it's inexcusable that it was ever put into production. Many parts of it flat-out do not work (and I used two different browsers in the process, too).

And to top it off, the prices were 74% higher for the same items since I last got them 4 years ago. Probably not going to use them again next time. :(
Click to expand...
Given I fly a cruiser similar to yourself, I just order a nice set (Goodyear, etc) from Spruce. If I ran a fleet of training planes I’d probably have a different philosophy.
 
Agree on the Goodyear sentiment for personally owned.

The other stuff is for flight school rentals where it won’t matter, they’ll have a hole in one of them inside of 3 months no matter what.

With that in mind, even though the story once again goes in my “Why do places make bad websites and not understand it makes them look like morons?” file...

I’d just dial their 800 number, say Goodyear and a size, pick a shipping speed and price, read my credit card number to them, and be happy.

Assuming they handle their phone system correctly and you can get to a live body that can take your money in 30 seconds or less. If they can’t do that... they’re done for, with a broken website.

Some places make it harder to spend money than necessary. I literally spent hours today trying to give a company my company’s money. It was dumb. All related to them tying quotes in their database to individual email addresses instead of a company. But they’re a good enough vendor in other ways that we’ll put up with it.

All their competitors have to do is match their terms, warranty, and stock levels in the new and refurbished tech they sell — and they’re dead. But they don’t even realize it. Well their sakes guy does, but either he doesn’t feel empowered to say so to the bosses or they’ve given up.

The number of times a year I find it difficult to get a vendor to actually take five or more figures of our money without their tech or processes making it more difficult than a phone call and the company Amex, is impressively and sadly quite high.

Companies should try to buy things from themselves every so often to see how good or utterly annoying their process is.
 
Cool. Never heard of Wilkerson but I’ll definitely check them out on my next order.
 
Timbeck2 said:
I couldn't find a price list, do they have one?
Click to expand...

Did I mention mom and pop? Give em a call.

I'd say email them but I suspect it's like emailing my parents; they check their email once a week on Thursdays at 2:00 pm, lol.
 
denverpilot said:
With that in mind, even though the story once again goes in my “Why do places make bad websites and not understand it makes them look like morons?” file...
Click to expand...

No kidding. And oddly enough, when Desser was a mom-and-pop, they had a perfectly good web site - Mom-and-pops often don't, because they don't understand it or don't feel like it's worth the cost to get someone to help.

Now that Desser is part of a big corporate conglomerate, though, their site is almost unusable. Normally, a large corporation will have an IT department that, while often slow, at least has processes in place and testing that happens to ensure that you can at least order their stuff.

Some places make it harder to spend money than necessary. I literally spent hours today trying to give a company my company’s money. It was dumb.

The number of times a year I find it difficult to get a vendor to actually take five or more figures of our money without their tech or processes making it more difficult than a phone call and the company Amex, is impressively and sadly quite high.

Companies should try to buy things from themselves every so often to see how good or utterly annoying their process is.
Click to expand...

THIS!!!!!!

It absolutely astounds me how difficult it is to give some companies my money! Their entire purpose for existing is to take my money and they can't get it right?!?

Apple is one of the largest corporations in the world now, after being taunted as a company that was going to go out of business 20 years ago. A VERY large portion of their success is owed to the success of their retail arm, which has completely redefined the retail shopping experience, and has made it SO easy to give them money that people do exactly that.

Sure, that new iPhone I have was expensive. But do ya know what? I bought it on an Apple credit card (read: Automatic 0% interest and 3% cash back), and it took nothing more than a look at my face to make the purchase. I'm using Apple Pay quite a bit now because I can touch my finger to a sensor instead of dragging out my wallet to find the gosh darn CVV code for the umpteenth time.

The "secret" to success in business isn't a secret at all. Make it easy for your customer to give you their money, and make them happy. It's not that freaking hard.
 
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