**Long story ahead, so please keep that in mind**
Okay, so I'm sending one wheel/tire back to the manufacturer as there is a defect in the chrome. I take it off my xB & package it up exactly like all 4 were shipped to me by UPS when I bought them in september. UPS shows up with the call tag and picks it up on schedule. Later that evening, I get a call from the UPS office in the next town over (I live in a very small town and everything is trucked from my town to the UPS office about 30 miles away) saying that they can't ship my wheel/tire as there is still air in the tire. They tell me that I can either come let the air out of it or they can SHIP it back to me so I can let the air out. Luckily I just happened to be in the town where the UPS office is, so I stopped by to let the air out of my tire. I asked the person working there why I had to let the air out and she stated that their regulations prohibit shipping any tires with air in them as they might explode. I thought it was a little rediculous as I was fairly certain there was more of a danger of an explosion from a tire mounted on a UPS truck carrying hundreds of pounds of freight than from a wheel/tire plopped somewhere in the back of a UPS truck, but I wasn't going to argue (too much). I then told her that was strange as I had ordered a set of 4 wheels and tires in september and this was exactly how all 4 were shipped to me: ready to mount on my car. She had no explanation. The part that baffled me was that they couldn't ship my wheel/tire from Kansas to Texas because it had air in the tire, but yet they had already taken it one-way from my town to the UPS office and was going to SHIP it back to me if I wasn't able to come by and let the air out myself.

Has ANYBODY had anything similar to this happen or even heard of this before? I ordered my wheels & tires from discount tire direct and I'm betting they UPS thousands of wheel & tire combos a year and I hardly believe mine are the only ones that would've come to me already aired up and ready to roll. BTW, I'm not knocking UPS...I understand rules are rules. It just seemed odd to me.

 

My guess would be that they are being cautious in case the package got shipped via airplane. They don't pressurize the cargo areas in planes so if tires were overinflated and the pressure drops with the high altitude, the tires could, theoretically, explode under those conditions. I don't know if that is the case, but it just came to mind after reading the story.

 

As an update to this, I called Discount Tire Direct just to let them know what's going on. The person I talked to told me that they ship MANY MANY wheel/tire combos and this is the very first time they have ever heard of having to let the air out of tires before shipping.

I wonder if somebody's playing games with me?

 

lol thats just silly I would have just laughed and took my business to Fed Ex. Did you also let her know that UPS shipped you the tires with air in them?
I just recently sent out 4 wheels and tire package thru UPS with no problems....

 

Yep, I told her I packaged that wheel/tire (air and all) exactly how UPS had shipped all 4 of them to me originally.
Also, I didn't have a choice on which carrier would ship them: discount tire direct issued the call-tag and picked up the shipping cost.

 

That is weird. When I ordered my 4 wheels and tires from Discount Tire Direct, they also arrived (via UPS) mounted on the wheels and fully inflated. Maybe it is a rule, but one they ignore. You just happened to come across the one UPS employee who read the company handbook.