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I had a customer today order a Smeg dishwasher interference suppressor, part number 813410094
Smeg’s list (sell to the public) price is £12.20 ex VAT
MFI also use the same part and would sell it for £8.48 ex VAT to the public.
I have ordered if from Masterpart for the trade price of £4.98
The main reson for the title of this thread is Connect once again take the prize for rip off of the year with an astonishing £23.04 😯 😯 trade price tag and it’s not even a special order so they can’t use that old excuse.
I mean, what the hell is that all about ?
Dave.
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
Dave_Conway wrote:I mean, what the hell is that all about ?
It’s about being yet another sign that you should shop about a bit, Connect may be easy in some ways to order from especially if you’re doing agency work for them, but they sure ain’t the cheapest.
Quite how a price almost double the retail price from the manufacturer can be justified is beyond me. It wouldn’t be so bad if this was the first time, but it isn’t.
Bring back Joe Strummer I say. 😉
K.
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
I had one today also , not quite as extreme but nevertheless , Hoover Dryer Motor 04350196 @£23:55+vat from Connect , order going to Masterpart@ £9:99+vat.
There can`t be many trade customers out there who don`t double check prices , so all they`re achieving is loosing an order 🙄 .Bryan
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
kwatt wrote:
Bring back Joe Strummer I say. 😉Sorry to go off topic but there you go Ken 😆
Wasn`t really him was it 🙂
Bryan
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
Tiny URL, great tool. 😉
No it wasn’t really him, or at least I hope not as he’d be a bit fousty by now I would have thought, but he certainly made some people stop and think I’m sure.
The point about this is this…
It’s an old game we used to play doing spares distribution as well. You price up the fast movers or target them to particular businesses that you know will most likely buy in the hope that they buy more than just the things you’re making a small margin on. You then claw back the margin on other spares.
You do this in the hope that the customer continues to buy and then adjust the margins as appropriate, usually ending up in an all round fair deal for both as it’s regular, steady business. However, the bigger you get often the harder it is to keep that sort of arrangement on the go unless it’s a big account that gets special attention as the pricing process will generally be automated.
It’s not rocket science and the supermarkets do exactly the same with loss leaders, BOGOFFS etc.
But we’re supposed to be on a pretty good craic with CDSL/Connect or whatever the damn name is, but continually we can find spares cheaper, a lot cheaper, elsewhere. So, we just vote with our feet, there’s little more that we can do really.
If the prices were fair and correct we’d probably use Connect, but thus far I’ve seen too many examples of, perhaps not malicious pricing, but certainly careless pricing; the above being a classic example of such an instance.
Personally it was always my view that if you charged more than RRP for a part then you could hardly classify yourself as a wholesale supplier irrespective of the trade. But of course that’s just my opinion.
Which leads to another point, from Masterpart in particular, the part will probably be sold for ~£10 with a healthy markup. From Connect it would be in the region of £30-35 to the customer, quite a difference and I dread to think how many jobs have been lost and appliance tossed due to overpriced spares. We have a go at the manufacturers for it often enough, seems that they’re not alone in overpricing parts.
The other side of that of course is that Connect do offer a pretty decent service as a general rule where spares are in stock, so I guess you pay for that service and stock level.
I wonder though how many of us don’t check pricing and just blindly order spares from the one supplier. Trust me, when we were doing spares distribution we loved customers like that, especially the ones with lots of spare cash like big retailers and the likes of British Gas. I didn’t lump up smaller businesses unless they did somethign to deserve it, but then I am a bit pro-independents. 😉
You can bet some spares suppliers will not look after the small repeat customers like that.
And as for the amount of stuff that’s ordered from Connect without price checking just because your an agent and the order’s going in anyway or you’re paying carriage anyway or well the cariage is free as it’s over the £65 limit…
Well the above shows that it’s well worth checking and I’d far rather pay the £3 small order charge or whatever than pay an extra £19 on just a single spare.
K.
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
All these wholesalers buy on a standard discount structure which varies depending upon which manufacturer they are dealing with. In Leeds, this led to our local Hotpoint agent offering a straight 26{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} to the trade, plus the usual “promotion” prices on fast movers – carbons, pumps, boots and the like. So, to allow the wholesaler to operate at a profit, we can safely assume that they are getting a 50{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} discount. Sell at 75{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} of list and the margin’s pretty good at a glance. So, £10 list, £5 wholesale price, sell at £7.50. Now stop and consider that the purchase cost to the manufacturer is £0.50…… Your £5 wholesale price now represents a margin of 1,000{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} to the manufacturer! Getting the picture yet?
IT’S A RIP-OFF !
Now, let’s be fair here. Most of the wholesalers sell on at a reasonable margin on their purchase costs. Because of their fixed purchase costs (It’s a contractual agreement to buy against the list), they can’t negotiate a purchase cost, so the larceny goes on, perpetuated by the manufacturers.
When you consider the above, the policies pursued by Connect are nothing short of shameful. To blatantly put up an SSP far higher than the manufacurers own means that they are using the “list” system in reverse – fixed margin on purchase cost to achieve their own margin. This must be laughable in some ways – Connect double as a work provider. They must be BERing machines based on the expense generated by their own pricing policy.
The prosecution rests.
Chris.
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
Here’s some more evidence:
Whirlpool module A1D 09
Connect website: 5031680799057 £71.71 (SRP £90.73) (in stock)
Masterpart website: 481921478165 £13.99 (in stock)Now I guess this may be because it’s an old seldom used part and so Connect might have bought their stock a long time ago whilst MP bought theirs more recently. ❓ But given the bad publicity this is generating for them I would think it worth them doing a regular review of their prices against their rivals. (Bit like Tesco vs. Asda).
Mike.PS This one’s so old that both EMW & QER have dismantled their test rigs!
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
Grrrr, it gets worse and I nearly lost a sale due to it 👿
Delonghi gas cooker, removeable wok support part number 217498
Connect £29.63
Masterpart £12.00Same part, both genuine Delonghi, now who’s taking the urine I wonder ?
Dave.
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
It would be interesting to know what it costs to manufacture some of these parts e.g. Hotpoint Hinge bearing 1603031, Connect price £2.48/pair. I charge the customer £3/pair for these and take 9 pence profit but still feel I’m ripping them off. 🙁
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
Zanussi fan oven motor 3581913773 £16:49 from Masterpart , and a ridiculous £30:23 (to me) from Connect. Guess who got the order , two for the price of one nearly :roll:.
Bryan
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
Smeg oven stat 818730401
Servevast (Smeg): £47.80 including vat and delivery.(Good website BTW http://www.smeg-service.co.uk with live interactive link to spares info.)
Connect: £56.21(to me) excluding vat and delivery (“SRP” £77.70 😯 )
Masterpart: £19.99 excl. vat and delivery.Phew!
Hvaen’t put in many Connect orders yet!
Mike.Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
I have been having this out with my rep lately as connect price for some LG bearings was just outragous compared with SEME Not got the figures right now but the seme price was around a fiver while connect wanted twenty somthing quid. both had them in stock. The other matter is the suggested retail price which connect display and base their non special’s price on, is often nowhere near the actual rrp price. Look up some Hotpoint parts on partfinder and see the real price, often less than connects trade price even before Hotperloni’s account holder discount.
My Reps reply to these concerns was price bands, certain items fall into different bands, eg. bearings and each band is discounted seperatly and just cos I get a certain discount rate on, say carbons, the rate for say bearings has to be adjusted seperatly. He suggested that when a price difference such as these occurs, to contact him and he will adjust the price of that band. Doesnt make pricing jobs easy does it.Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
Never yet seen a rep down here. Probably we’re not worth the time spent travelling.
Mike.Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
Had the rep here about five months ago. Prices duly mentioned with a promise that i must be on the wrong wholesale price band :con: and that he’d sort it out on his return.
Nothing happened.
The reason I’m on the wrong band is probably because I don’t order enough from them. The reason I don’t order enough from them is because the prices are too high. A Catch 22 type thingy.Mediator is helpful though (even more so if it had the manufacturers part numbers on it)
TC
Re: Laughing all the way to the bank
cornwell40 wrote:
The reason I’m on the wrong band is probably because I don’t order enough from them. The reason I don’t order enough from them is because the prices are too high. A Catch 22 type thingy.Yes Tony , this has been discussed several times before , one of the most stupid and useless marketing strategies ever (apart from Hoover 😆 ). The guy who thought it up has been promoted several times and probably on about £40k per annum 🙄 .
Bryan
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