I previously wrote an article on how to get a discount on tires in Las Vegas without even needing a Big-O-Tires coupon by calling around to a couple Big-O-Tires asking for each one to give me their best price.

I ended up going to the Summerlin Big-O-Tires (10127 W Charleston Blvd, Las Vegas, NV 89135) near Charleston & Hualapai, as that's where I negotiated the best price.

The manager at this location understands how to work with customers that want to get the best deal possible; especially those that have called around and know a bit about prices. He gets it.

First, I want to say that I've been to this location twice before to get a leaky tire fixed.  Both times, I was not charged for the repair, the manager simply asked me to tip the guy that did the work, which I happily and generously did.

When I arrived to have my new tires installed, the manager I spoke to hadn't arrived for the morning.  The guy working the desk who checked me in made sure to tell me that I was getting an amazing deal, nearly cost on the tires, which would seem silly for the manager to give out, unless he's smart and rather than potentially losing a customer, he is willing to take the highly discounted business to reach revenue and sales targets (to make corporate happy and get help reach their high-volume purchasing discounts tiers).

So they took my car in and a short while later, the manager arrived and was the one to come out and tell me that my battery needed replacing.  My wife actually had an issue with the car not starting a few days prior, so I wasn't surprised to get this info.

He gave me a price for the new battery, then discounted it down.  I asked if that number included installation, tax, and was an "out-the-door" price.  He agreed.

As I sat in the waiting room, I looked up the cost of a battery for my car on the Batteries Plus website.  It would have been about $15 cheaper to go over there, so I didn't get the very best price.

I did show the manager what I found and he said it was that it wasn't as good of a battery.  I doubt that's true, but I didn't bother to hammer the issue as I was getting such a good discount on the tires.

But when I went to check out and pay is when a little shennannigans showed up and this is where I caution anyone dealing with any type of barter to pay attention.

I was checked out by one of the other guys working the counter.  He gave me a total and I almost paid it.

But then I did the quick math in my head.  Both the prices we agreed on for the tires and the battery were out-the-door prices, so my total should have been the sum of the two agreed upon prices.  The total I was about to pay was significantly more.

It turned out that "the computer had added labor and tax" to the battery install.  Since the guy working the counter didn't know about my agreed upon prices with the manager, I had to call the manager over to fix the pricing.

When the manager came over, he looked at the screen and told the attendant to delete a few things and suddenly it was at the correct price.  He told me the computer automatically added the extra fees.

I'll never know the truth; whether it was an attempt to make a few extra bucks or if it really was a computer error.  But it did remind me why I always need to check the total I'm about to pay against the pricing I negotiated as its easy to play the "blame the computer" game at checkout in these types of situation (especially if I don't verify that the price I'm getting on each charge is the everything's included "out-the-door" price).  I'm sure at least 50% of people just figure they are being charged what they expect and the manager can make a few extra bucks on his bottom line by tacking on these extra charges, especially if the customer doesn't verify the "out-the-door" pricing. Its a quick easy way to add revenue.

Regardless, I'd expect this from anyplace here in Vegas as shennanigans seems to be the norm. Overall, I love this tire shop and will continue to happily give my tire business to them (of course they will need to continue to give me their best pricing) while recommending others to go there as well.