My 06 3500 4x4 came with 17”. I bought new take offs from a 2015 3500 4x4 that are 20s for $700 from a dealer, they were rotated and balanced a few times then new tires put on last year, nothing was said. Of course this is the sane east coast.

Why call that person a dumb+++ *itch? Do you know them in real life? Did not think so. Hmmm, you having a bad couple of days Mr. Angry?

for many, many, [and many more] years, i changed tires using a manual machine i built, and used a bubble balancer to balance them.
last summer, i put new tires and wheels on "the bus". using the equipment i have, it just about did me in.................
so since i play with tires and wheels on a regular basis, i pulled the trigger on one of those chinesium tire machine and balancer combos.
before i pulled the trigger, i researched those machines and talked to others that had bought them, to find out what problems they have had with them, and how good the service after the purchase was.
these were tire shops from mom and pop operations, to tire stores that sell a very large volume of tires.
as i will not be using these things every day, i determined it was worth the risk.
after they show up [late next week] and i get them installed and in use, i will report back my experience with them.

There are so many independent shops around here it isn't an issue. I called Discount Tire to get an appointment to swap tires I had purchased from them mounted to a different set of rims. Tires are nine years old, but have stored indoors with minimal miles. I knew the policy of not touching anything over ten years already. Tech was very non-committal about it even though he confirmed the age policy hadn't changed. Took it to a small shop in town and the guy only charged me for a $100 for mount and balance.

If I had to guess there has probably been a number of cases of lawsuits that make the chains not want to deviate from stock and play it safe with age. That and wanting to sell tires.

Lots of European countries don't let you change factory tire size as a matter of regulation.

I dunno….I earn my living selling and installing production equipment to venues in western Canada. I quite often get requests (usually from churches) to install knock-off Chinese made garbage they have purchased off the internet.

My response ranges from “go pound sand,” to politely suggesting they ask the e-commerce site they bought the stuff from to install it for them.

Tire shops have made the investment in staff & equipment to serve their customers… Maybe that means limiting that to servicing what they have sold.

Exacly, you nailed it.
It's a nonsensical policy, no where on the receipt does it show what tires were installed/balanced.
They didn't take any pics or note any serial numbers on the receipt.
Theoretically I could crash with a completely different set of rims and tires (that are complete garbage) and sue them for mounting them. Absolutely no way to prove otherwise.
I still think it's a ploy to sell the tires, mail order must be killing them.

He also mentioned they no longer patch trailer tires, "New or nothing, not worth the liability of someone wrecking their $200k boat and blaming the repair"

Don’t they know how to read the date code on the tire?

Just bought a nice reman coats 50/60AX tire machine today, so I'm good that way.. but try bringing in a tire new or not to a Harley dealership to have mounted, the last and only time I ever tried that they wanted to charge me the price of a new tire along with mounting fees since I didn't buy the tire from Harley?? I had the counter full of stuff I was buying at the time..
like 600 dollars of stuff on counter and walked out. I've been having my Harley tires mounted at a dirt bike shop ever since, that had to be 15 years ago now. Not to mention 6x cheaper for the mounting!

It seems everyone can buy tires for about the same price unless there's a special deal. The bread and butter seems to be how much you make on the install. I don't know the agreed paid install rate between say Tire Rack and your local installer is and the RULES therein for liability but it sounds like it's getting out of hand.
Like some others here. I bought some good used equipment and avoid the tire store all together.

i don't know what the cost is to mount and balance tires these days, but even with the rim clamp machines and "no touch" mounting hardware in use, it seems the "operators" [if they could be called that] of these new style machines can still find ways to hack up, er, i mean, mar expensive rims during the mounting and balancing procedures.
no one seems to care about others investments in tires and wheels anymore..............
that usually isn't a "small dollar" deal these days, and i'm sure there are others out there like me, that must save for quite a while in order to afford what one really wants.
only then to find out some numnutz doinks up a sizeable investment when it comes time to mate the two investments together.
this is what led me to fabricate the manual tire machine i build back around the 1986 or so, time frame.
since then, i have probably changed hundred upon hundreds of tires and wheels, without causing damage to any tire or wheel, no matter the size. the smallest was a wheelbarrow tire, while the largest was a 31x19.50 mt tire on a 15x15 rim.
although the machine i made still works perfectly, i'm getting too old to use it, as it takes effort to use, and my effort "got up and went" as my old man used to say.

Im pretty stern at the shop I go to. I take them perfect rims and take pics of them in front of the workers when I leave them. I also inspect them before I pay. They may not like it but the do not mess my rims up. Some may not understand English well but the terms I use they do. Dont XXXX my rims up please! But I also tip well and they know this so in the end its all good. I can understand a minor issue can happen, no one is perfect but I do expect a certain level of quality work. Lets the rim killers work over in the farm/industrial side where they can do no harm.

On the plus side is, they will mount anything without question since most out here in the rural dust bowl have a good bit of common sense and know what will work and what wont for there application.