GardenKit

Yeah, of course there are always exceptions. I can usually tell within the first few minutes with the customer whether I want to help him. Some are decent folk who knew no better than to buy from wherever they did. Some of these have taken them back to the shedstore and got their money back, then come into me to buy a proper machine.

TBH, most of my customer base is domestic, and its these people who tend to take the p**s. Most domestic users are good as gold but some are trouble. They buy online, or in shed stores, and would never dream of coming to a specialist shop. They probably only have one or two machines anyway. So they buy cheap and then expect me to do warranty repairs, but they are often out of luck. Its doubtful they would ever become loyal customers. They are just the sort who chuck it away and buy new cheap junk again. The irony is that most of the stuff they buy is pretty well guaranteed to go wrong, whereas the kit I sell is pretty well certain not to.

It, is blatant sexism......not at all fair on the 'ladyboy' who posed for it:biggrin:

I agree with you on the car issue. If I bought my new car in Exeter, but it broke down in Inverness I would expect to get it fixed there. The car industry know this and work accordingly. If however I bought my car secondhand with a 90 day warranty it would be a different story, even though it is still a legal warranty. In our industry there are different contracts existing between dealers and manufacturers. Some manufacturers insist you repair any machine irrespective of where it was bought. Others state clearly in their terms that the selling dealer is responsible solely for all obligations and that they (the selling dealer) "must not imply to the purchaser that the UK dealer network wil in any way take responsibiity for the supplying dealer obligations" My policy is that I only perform warranty on equipment that I have supplied. I will however make exceptions when someone comes in who has moved into the area having previously bought his achine from his old dealer. But the local guy who bypassed me to buy on the net, but then wants me to repair, is generally out of luck.

Films in the 70's showed that we would all be wearing tinfoil suits, live in pods, eat only pills and fly to work in a hovercar by the year 2000. Only some of that has come true. Yes, I do agree that more manufacturers will go down the dealerless route on some items, but only some. It is easy to post a camera, but a stump grinder may prove a little more awkward to drop off at the post office. Others, especially the ones selling bigger kit, and those who realise the need of a 'handover' will stay with the dealers, but possibly those dealers will be bigger and cover a larger area. Their labour rates will also increase dramatically as a consequence(see what has happened in Ag). Whilst these labour rates will not worry the consumer when the problem is covered by warranty, he will be a bit concerned when warranty is over. He will then go searching for a small,local,old fashioned independant dealer to maintain his kit. But he may have difficulty finding one. So be careful what you wish for.

I like this post. Very well put and informative. Thanks.

I feel for you on this Genset Steve, but it really is not worth you doing it at that margin. Your standard of service simply cannot be compared to an internet price. You have to charge extra for your expertise, travel etc, but once this is given it can not be taken back, so if the customer decides to buy on line having taken your advice, you will not be paid for your time. Only if you can make your package unique (so that the product and expertise is inseparable) will you be able to make reasonable margin.

The other problem with 'internet prices' is that many of them are simply not realistic. I recently had a customer for a mower that retails at £950 but our advertised price is £835. So the customer waves a printed page before me with a price of £675 (inc vat) and asked me to match it. Now that price is simply ridiculous, it is way less than cost, but of course that does not matter to my customer. So I get on google in front of him and check as many prices as possible and find a variance from £795 to £849 (with the exception of the £675) so stick with my fair £835. He still thinks I am ripping him off, so I let him phone the £675 vendor from my shop, and he is told they no longer stock that model but can offer him alternative makes. The £675 price was simply a sprat to catch a mackerel. Yet had I been the sort of guy to match a price I would have been well and truly had. But luckily I am not, I am just an awkward git.

In this case I presume the dealer, like myself is not a main dealer, but has bought from one. Hence paperwork on the box. The £390 ish price was probably £399 and the cheapest internet price is £435 (all plus vat) So if that dealer matched the internet price he made only £36, which is not a 'good profit' by any stretch of the imagination. From that £36 he has to deduct the PDI time, fuel and oil. Then, as it is profit, he will pay tax on it. Not much left in the pot after that, so if there is any 'after sales' work to be done he will most certainly be in a loss situation. It is for this reason that I will not match internet pricing. It does my business no good at all, we need to be profitable to survive. If it means that we do a few less sales the so be it. But the sales we do make will be profitable, and that is what is important.

If you are not making at least £600 then you should pack in selling them! But I would prefer about £1200.

Well said:001_smile:

Where is Janner Cove, Dan?

Steve, with respect, I have to say……………………. ……………………………………………………..you talk a lot of sense:thumbup:

I am currently dealing with a recall campaign on Tanaka brush cutters, It involves fitting a new exhaust and cover. I ensure that I leave whatever I may be doing when the customer brings the machine in (following our letter to him) and do the work whilst he waits. Its only a 10 minute job, but I do not want to inconvenience the customer any more than needed. Being a small business i have the flexibility to do this and the customers love it. I guess it would be more difficult for a larger firm to do this.

I do live in Devon, and do well out of selling Aspen:biggrin:

I am rather the opposite to Honey Bros, although i am talking machinery in general, not Stihl. It is common these days to get customers in waving printouts around and asking if I will match internet prices. In short, I will not. If I were to, then my profits would be insufficient to run my small business, and there would be one less sales/repair facility in the area. My prices are very reasonable though and never far off the mark, but if a customer chooses to shun me and buy cheaper elsewhere then I will happily shun him if he brings the internet bought machine into me to fix under warranty, and will concentrate my efforts on giving my loyal customers excellent service. I did once offer to match an internet price on a Ride-On mower by a pushy customer. The customer asked when it would be delivered as he wanted to be there for me to show him how to use it. I said it would be sometime over the next week, but could not say when, so he had better stay in. I furthermore said it would be on a pallet and would be left on his drive, and, as I was only a driver on that day then I could answer no questions. He did not like that, but as I pointed out, if he wants internet prices, he gets internet service. Or, I said, for an extra £100 he could have it at a time to suit him, and I would spend as much time as needed to commission it. He jumped at the chance and ended up paying £20 more than my original price would have been.

I did a bit of googling and found this. it may of course be out of date as it was dated 2011, but does give a little insight into Ethanol in fuel, and local variations. BP Ethanol is added at 5% to unleaded petrol at all sites across the UK. BP Ultimate (super unleaded petrol) does not have Ethanol added, except in the South West of England. Esso Ethanol is added at 5% to unleaded petrol at most sites in the UK. Esso Super Unleaded petrol does not contain Ethanol, except in the South West of England (Devon & Cornwall) Shell Shell has repeatedly refused to answer the question. It is therefore an assumption only, that all Shell petrol should be considered to contain 5% Ethanol. Texaco Ethanol is added at 5% to unleaded petrol. Texaco Super Unleaded petrol does not contain Ethanol. Total Ethanol is not added to any Total fuel (including standard unleaded petrol). Except in the North West and South East of England. Total have kindly provided a list of filling stations where E0 petrol can still be purchased. Click this link to download the list TOTAL E0 Fuel Sites.xls As far as the writer could gather, the only reason that the super unleaded fuels seem to be ethanol free is because it is harder to obtain the fuel quality required for super unleaded if Ethanol is present. However several of the oil companies told me that this will change in the future but that no date has been set.

brilliant!

The Stiga is at the lower end of the Pro market, which is reflected in the RRP of £899 against the £1116 RRP price tag of the Kaaz for instance. (I sell both) But the Stiga is worth every penny. The Aluminiun deck has indeed been around for ages, but its so good that many of the first ones are still around. Being made of a maleable aluminium it resists the cracks that many ally decks suffer from. The solid aluminium wheels are supported by proper, precision ball bearings, and the engine is mounted on AV mounts. For 2014 the Stiga will be fitted with a Briggs 850 series engine, which will IMO be an improvement over the Honda GCV 190 unit.

Very busy day yesterday (as usual) but sometimes it is one step forwards, two back. I am a bit short of storage space due to the 50 or so machines in this week, so had stood a heavy JD 42" deck upright against the wall. It had been there quite happily for about 24hrs but then decided to topple over. Its OK, it was not damaged by falling, as its landing was cushioned by the bonnet of the same tractor which was on the floor beside it! Only a bit of damage to the bonnet. a couple of cracks, but I will not send it back to the customer like that so it will have a new bonnet. The downer is that the new bonnet is over £400 at trade prices. Oh well, what is done, is done. Move on.

The KM 90 was upgraded to screw caps in Oct 2011

You obviously have no experience of that machine TCD:biggrin:

Aaah, I see. But not so likely to get sea sick with that, as in real life boating like what you do Rich.

Do not worry Burgess, you have made a good choice. That mower is excellent quality and will give you many years of reliable service. I am still servicing stiga mowers that I sold in 1993 and they are generally in excellent order.

Besides which I do not recall seeing any lifeboat stations in Herefordshire:biggrin: