AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

A moral dilemma:

Last week our fridge freezer packed up, so we've been looking around for a new one. It's a built-in model, so we need a new one that's exactly the right size to fit the space.

First stop was the local retail park, where there's a Comet and a Currys. Both were quite spectacularly useless - almost nothing in the showroom, and "help" consisted of a salesman sitting me down in front of a PC, looking at the company's web site, and reading it to me. Cheers guys, that's great. (Cue a Joey Deacon moment).

Next was a couple of evenings spent trawling the internet. Different sites have conflicting or misleading details, and finding accurate installation diagrams was surprisingly difficult.

So, I picked a local specialist appliance retailer out of the yellow pages and went to look around. The manager understood the problem, pulled out all manner of brochures and manuals, and helped us finally pick one that'll do the job and fit the space. It's in stock and we can have it on Thursday.

The problem? He wants £650 for it and won't budge. There's a sign above the counter listing "15 reasons to buy from an independent" and another "15 reasons not to buy over the internet". He doesn't have a web site.

The best online price is £566 delivered, ironically from another independent retailer with a showroom 30 miles away, representing a saving of £84.

Now, I don't mind paying a bit extra for good advice and to help the little guy. But, I'm not a charity, and considering the time we were in the store and the premium we'd have to pay to buy the machine from him, it works out that his advice is about £150/hour.

Plenty of places have the same unit available for £600, which I'd have happily paid. But I think he's taking the p*ss, and his attitude towards the 'net is going to cost him big time.

What would you do in my position?

Peanuts

iTrader: (15)

ring the other £600 independant, ask him a couple of questions, see if he is as helpfull, spend the money with him and enjoy ££££ for a few beers or a meal somewhere

MattW

Internet unless he is also going to deliver, unpack, install and remove the old one.

Andy-C

Print out the quote from the other firm, take it to him and ask if he can match it. If so, great, if not use the other supplier. No skin of your nose if he is too obnoxious to change with the times.

I have done this with a graphics card and saved myself £30.

HTH

Scooby.Newbie

£84 difference on a £650 purchase is too much for a 'local service' in my opinion, I would go for the £566 online deal and try not to feel too guilty about it as at least you tried the local guy, but like you said you aint a charity.

SN

Brendan Hughes

Send him a list to put above his counter, entitled "15 things to do with £84".

STi wanna Subaru

iTrader: (1)

*Sonic*

doesnt the kid off the advert get one for 50p

Hoppy

You're paying for his advice and expertise, and convenience. Now you've pinched his knowledge, you want to go behind his back to save £84.

He is probably living in a by-gone era, but I actually think we'll all be the 'poorer' for it when the small specialists are all squeezed out.

Personally, I'd have said thanks very much, bring it round on Thursday and shaken his hand. But if you want to save money and keep a clear conscience, go back to Currys

Richard.

PS Why didn't you go to John Lewis in the first place

GCollier

Personally I would pay the extra £84, happy for the good advice I'd got and his ability to locate a product which meant I didn't have to start hacking my kitchen about. I expect when your fridge packed up, you'd have quite happily paid £650 for a replacement if the alternative was not being able to get one of the size you required.

Gary.

scoobyboy

so would you all pay an extra £84 for a dealer to do a service on your car.......i think not his loss go to the cheapest supplier i would.

Jay m A

iTrader: (2)

Next time go to fridgefreezerNet.co.uk ask the question and get some spod to answer it. Then find the cheapest online price for the item.

Whilst you're there, go to Non fridgefreezer Related and ask A Subaru question.

boxst

Hello

I would pay something more for a local company that I can get advice and service from. Not 15% more though.

Steve

Hoppy

a) Your average service does not cost £650.

b) There's no such thing as a 'cheap' service on an Impreza. You'll get what you pay for (and the newby apprentice will rag it round the by-pass with a sump full of cold oil, for no extra charge)

Richard.

OllyK

A standard scooby service is not expensive by any means. I get mine done by a main dealer and it runs to about £140 compared to £250 when I had a Pug 206 GTi.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Sadly there's no JL nearby, otherwise I would. Do they still price match?

I'm sure that anyone who has a 'reasons not to buy from the internet' sign above his counter knows perfectly well that he's charging a lot, and that people are going to walk out and buy elsewhere. I did make a point of asking if the £650 was his best price, to drop the hint and to give him the opportunity to budge. The model we settled on was in fact one I'd already picked out and found prices for, so I did already know how much extra I'd be paying.

It's not the principle of paying the extra that bothers me, simply the amount. Lots of places sell the model in question, presumably at a profit, for around £600.

(I'm also more than a little p*ssed off that a free-standing unit of similar size and spec is more like £400 - manufacturers charge rip-off prices just for a unit that's 4cm narrower and which comes without door handles. But that's another debate entirely).

Ironically the best price was from another independent, who rather than digging in his heels and refusing to move with the times, has instead set up a web site and sells nationwide - and therefore generates extra revenue allowing him to be more competitive on price.

NWMark

Id buy from this guy, get it delivered and more than likely everything will be spot on, if for whatever reason it needs to go back after its been delivered, you can travel the 30 miles to drop it off.

£84 in petrol is a lot of 60 mile round trips to get it fixed, 'if' it does go wrong!

Mark

RayC

we had this but more expensive!

measured respective gap, decided on model after trawling though currys and looking on web, trotted round to local Alan yates or whatever, quote was "going to be more the £500 mate", buggered off to price checky type website result £277 delivered, van driver even unpacked it, waited while i checked it, then helped push it into gap, then took rubbish away!

not going to that over priced twonk again!

i would go in and ask if he can get close to price as you value his expertise and advice, but nearly £100 notes of your hard earned should not be lining his pockets, businesses do have to adapt to changing markets!

farmer1

See the problem is he probably doesnt buy the units at anyware near the prices the other retailers do, so infact they are probably more of a retailer.

If your happy with say £25 above your best price, just go in and say im willing to pay this.

I work in a chandlers on a marina. And always makes me laugh when they wont buy are paint brushes at say £1 each because they can get them for 20p at trago mills and off they drive burning £4-5 worth of fuel to save 80p.

GaryK

Go for the best deal! Its competition anyone has to compete and as a consumer you have a choice and you make the choice *you* want.

The Internet opens up two things

a) Keener Pricing
b) Ability to research a new purchase

So the fact that as a consumer I can spend my time on b I can then save some money when I buy something from the 'net because of a.

Gary

davegtt

Send him £20 in the post with a note explaining its for his advice and thanks for it, since hes not willing to budge on his profit margin then you've bought the product else where and valued his advice at £20. Thank you very much. Off course if it was me Id tell him to get knotted and just buy it the cheapest price you can but if you feel guilty do the above. buy the cheapest and pay him what you think is reasonable for the advice

Gridlock Mikey

Tenner ought to do it

computerangel

How many of the Internet retailers that were here 5 years ago, now trading ?

One of the best sites was called Great Saves, this is now defunct and gone, Uk Appliances, a massive web e-tailer, now gone.

There are many web sites that have been and gone.

Give the retailers a chance, talk to them aboout price, after all they pay for the showrooms, the staff, the knowledge, then all you lot go and buy it off the internet. Soon there won't be any showrooms and you will complain then that you can't go and see the product and then buy on the internet.

Oh, and built in appliances are made on a different platform to Freestanding products and they have to be cooled and vented differently, they also have to fix heavy wooden doors to them with different types of fixings. But it's all the manufacturers fault that you bought a built in product, buy the freestanding one that sticks out like a sore thumb in your nice kitchen.

Fuzz

So let me get this straight Andy.
You couldn't find what you were looking for online
You couldn't find what you were looking for from the big retailers
But then you found a small guy with brochures, help advise and knowledge to get you the right product..
All be it for less than the equivalent two tanks of petrol extra...

So, from there you have decided that you'll keep your £84 and get the product HE found from one of the big retailers or off the net.
He goes out of business because no one buys anything...

Tell me what you are going to do the next time something breaks and he's not there....
Spend two tank of fuel travelling round differing large retailers trying to find a product with little or no help or backing to guide you?????

Sounds like typical Britain, Only the cheapest will do.
No wonder we dont make anything anymore.

and breathe.....
Andy

paul-s

yea cos your 84 quid might just keep him in business for an extra day - if he's unwilling to budge on price its his fault if he loses business, and wont realise until customers stop buying from him.

your not there to keep small places in business, make the saving and spend it on your family

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Let's not forget that widespread use of the internet is new. Businesses may have come and gone before the customer base was there, but I'm not at all convinced that's relevant. I'm also not sure that such an internet-averse local retailer who has been in business for 25 years is necessarily guaranteed to remain in business for the next 25 - or even until the warranty on my appliance has expired, frankly. (Yes, I'm aware of the irony).

I did, and he wouldn't budge. £650 was the price, end of.

In fact, I'd already picked out the exact same model from the brochure on the manufacturer's web site before I even went in to the store, so what the retailer really did was help me establish that there wasn't a more appropriate model out there.

The trouble is, I had no way to know just how expensive he was going to turn out to be until after I'd walked into the store (they were useless over the phone) and started talking. It's almost as though the moral of the story is "don't even walk into an independent unless you're prepared to end up paying whatever they quote, however uncompetitive".

At least if I find an expensive web site I can just click 'back' and go to another site - I don't have to look anyone in the eye and tell them I think they're overpriced, nor feel guilty at having used a bit of their bandwidth.

OK, so they're different - but can you explain why those differences justify such a massive price difference? Tha basic materials, size, weight and components are the same.

Our washing machine and dishwasher packed up recently too. They were built-in, but I replaced both with freestanding units because of the enormous price differences. You can't tell me there's a major difference in design and construction there - the new machines fit exactly in the place of the old ones, they just don't have the matching door bolted to the front.

Petrol is f**king expensive!! That's one reason my car is sitting in Iain's showroom for sale, and why I now drive a diesel!

I think you're missing the point here though, Andy. I'm prepared to pay handsomely for quality products, which is why I'm replacing my old Ariston fridge with a new Bosch. No doubt I could have found one from a low rent manufacturer for £300 or so if I'd wanted to - but I expect a quality product to last longer without breaking down, and to need a whole lot less support in the first place. In the long run, I expect it to be cheaper, and I've never regretted buying German.

OllyK

If we were comparing different products and he was going for the cheapest I'd agree, but trying to find the best price for the SAME product is just plain common sense. Unless you're getting extended warranty or some other service thrown in to the price I don't see why you should pay extra. It's a salesman's job to be helpful.

lozgti

Having just spent a week without our fridge freezer I have realised it is the most important thing we have in the house.Warm beer and smelly milk is disgusting

Whoever can get it delivered done and dusted in the quickest time go for even if it costs the earth.

As to a proper answer to the scenario,I have not and will not buy off the internet.Foolish/stuck in the past or not.I prefer to speak to people and would pay £84 extra to do that .