poor deal on spare parts

[MikeThePom]

While I appreciate that we now live in a throw away society I do get the feeling that the customer need to be given a better deal. I recently took a power washer in for repair, it is a model from, what I thought was a reputable manufacturer (with a big site just off the Westall Road in Clayton in Melbourne). Admittedly the item was 3 years old but was over $400 new so I thought it might be worth it to get repaired.

The quote I was given had the part, the control head listed as around $100 but discounted to just over $40 and the labour as another $85. I had already taken the thing apart to see whether I could fix it and had seen the 50cent piece of plastic that had broken and was letting the water run out. It took be about 10 minutes to take it apart and diagnose the problem and a further 5 minutes to take the 4 allen bolts off and inspect the unit all with no prior knowledge of the unit.

My first response to the quote was for them to sell me the part at the discounted price and I will fit myself. Oh no said the technician you must go through a service agent. Looking the agent up on the web gave the large green shed people.

I contacted them and was told that the part would be almost $130. At this point I looked around on the web and found a site in the UK that would sell the part with courier postage to Aus for just about $80, still more than the discounted price but well below the 'service agent's price.

I did send an email to customer service of the multinational manufacturer but got back a rather pathetic note saying that due to different business models and pricing structures the price is different in different countries and they recognised my right to order the part from overseas but that it wouldn't be covered by any warranty!


Mike

[Mobyturns]

that due to different business models and pricing structures the price is different in different countries

Mike

Sounds like gouging doesn't it? I would like to know how they arrive at a list price for spare parts any way. It bears no relationship to the cost of manufacture and storing.

[Evanism]

Stuff the warranty. Get the part and do the work yourself.

Bloody Bunn*%#s cant sell a bag of dirt without getting it wrong. I'd trust that like I need a hole in my head.

It gives me the when companies won't sell parts

[Master Splinter]

Well, they do have their fixed costs to consider. Your average international CEO needs at least $1-2 million per year to even make it worth their while to get out of bed in the morning....and even then they have to wear the shame of not even making it into the top 500 with a paltry remuneration of a couple of mil'.

[Mobyturns]

Stuff the warranty. Get the part and do the work yourself.

Bloody Bunn*%#s cant sell a bag of dirt without getting it wrong. I'd trust that like I need a hole in my head.

It gives me the when companies won't sell parts

I would be thankful spare parts are at least available. I doubt many machines & products from asian origins will have any spares inventory. In the case of the green shed several years ago my Mum purchased a lawn care product from a once reliable & well respected brand. She got absolutely no practical use from it due to an inherent design fault which rendered it incapable of operation. No warranty support whatsoever from the retailer/supplier. The Service agent has literally hundreds of them all with the same fault and almost all in out of the box condition - no real use so it has to be an inherent design flaw. No warranty, no money back, don't care - bugger off you are making a scene type stuff to an elderly pensioner. The fight with the green shed died a slow death after almost nil support from OFT - because the manufacturer went through the illusion of providing warranty support. Fact that they could supply & fit the same faulty part had no real bearing on the matter. Time to cut your losses & keep your sanity - its now land fill! The green shed still sells the same piece of crap!


Same service agent btw had hundreds of battery drills from another once reliable & well respected brand all with a dicky trigger - no spares and the manufacturer wanted him to canabalize new product to provide the spares - say what? Why not simply exchange new for faulty? - a firm no was the answer he received.

[artme]

Pathetic isn't it!!

I have a KÄrcher high pressure washer that I bought second hand. Eventually the pump cacked itself. Would cost almost as much to repair as to by a new unit. I asked about buying the bits and the price was not far from the total repair bill. When I expressed my disgust I was abused by the sales person!!
I left with a parting shot and two potential customers who had been looking at cleaners left with me.

I then went and bought a Larvor.

Ozito products that I have have been great in terms of reliability and warranty. One item was simply replaced when it refused to work after very little use.

Have a look at car parts!! What a rip off!!. I once had a water pump on a Nissan cave in. A genuine part was presented alongside a "non-genuine part". The non genuine was less than a third the price but was exactly the same as the genuine part!! Even the serial numbers on the castings were the same!!

Even servicing of a car by the brand agent is a rip off. I get my vehicle done for about half the price by a good mechanic.

[stuffy]

A few months ago I went into the big green shed to buy a spark plug for a lawn mower.

They had the exact same model mower for sale, a victa with the honda motor, but didn't stock the spark plug.

There should be a law requiring them to stock common spare parts and consumables for machines they sell.

Unfortunately theres no guarantee they will even sell the same brand from one week to the next.

Steve.

[Mobyturns]

Unfortunately people will go into a "full service" store to view products and have the sales person give them a full run down on features etc only to say "you're to expensive I can buy it at xyz for less" and walk off. Those same people then come back to the "full service" store for warranty etc when the cheap retailer offers no support and then chuck a song and dance about lack of service blah blah blah.

My son sees it every day of the week. Local competitors selling the same product for less with no support what so ever, or purchases over the internet that have warranty / customer service issues. In some instances the distributor directs the customer to them because they have the product knowledge and expertise. Their firm instructs them to be firm and politely say "NO, you did not purchase from us take it up with the original retailer / distributor".

You get what you pay for!

[Evanism]

A few months ago I went into the big green shed to buy a spark plug for a lawn mower.

They had the exact same model mower for sale, a victa with the honda motor, but didn't stock the spark plug.

There should be a law requiring them to stock common spare parts and consumables for machines they sell.

Unfortunately there's no guarantee they will even sell the same brand from one week to the next.

Steve.

Stuffy reminded me about a thought I had after posting my rant (the naughty words seem to have been removed!).

It seems reasonable that consumers need to make an informed choice. Simply choosing "a good brand" or a pretty box is worthless (they are all trying to beat each other in a race to the bottom) and relying on the impressions of the "salespeople" at "those places" is like relying on a first year lawyer to get you off an Indonesian death sentence....i.e. dont hope for too much!

WHAT is needed is a simple system!

1 - a "repairability index". One star is unrepairable, Ten Star is entirely repairable. e.g. Apple Ipad is a 2. My Victa lawnmower is an 8. My Festool gear is a solid 10.
2 - a "parts availability index". This is the same. It is a combination of the suppliers commitment to stocking in the future (includes Bastard Stockist Index). 0 means its available, if at all, exclusively from a small hut in the jungles of the Amazon, 10 means the parts are universally and readily available (if not stocked, are posted/delivered centrally)

e.g. Lawnmower A is RI-3, PA-3... then I compare this to lawnmower B RI-8, PA-8...which are you going to buy? (Price dependant of course)

Perhaps some optional explanatory text too..."Parts are shipped from Germany for 10 years".... "Stockists can order for availability in 48 hours"...."consumer repairable post warranty period"

This whole SCAM of parts+labour being the same as parts-to-the-public needs to end.

Simply replying on a brand to do the right thing is meaningless hope and relying on some Big Box Drone who nods enthusiastically and claims the drill "is a really good brand" is worse than meaningless (its a Trade Practices fraud as far as I'm concerned)

[Sturdee]

It's a fact of modern life that when you buy solely on the lowest price the manufacturer/store you bought from will only guarantee to maintain parts during the warranty period, being either one, two or three years.

If you need repairs or parts because the item broke down after that period you are on your own and you should have bought better in the first place.

Peter.

[Handyjack]

Unfortunately people will go into a "full service" store to view products and have the sales person give them a full run down on features etc only to say "you're to expensive I can buy it at xyz for less" and walk off. Those same people then come back to the "full service" store for warranty etc when the cheap retailer offers no support and then chuck a song and dance about lack of service blah blah blah.

My son sees it every day of the week. Local competitors selling the same product for less with no support what so ever, or purchases over the internet that have warranty / customer service issues. In some instances the distributor directs the customer to them because they have the product knowledge and expertise. Their firm instructs them to be firm and politely say "NO, you did not purchase from us take it up with the original retailer / distributor".

You get what you pay for!

Bikes are another example. I had a client who obtained a bike on the internet. He had trouble assembling it. Bike shop did not want to know him. I looked at the bike and found it physically impossible to assemble correctly.
A lot of small store will stand behind what they sell, the big stores way only want to sell the goods, after sales service is another thing.

[Robson Valley]

Cheer up! The Canadian Government has been dragging it's feet since 2002, looking for "the best deal" to replace some aging aircraft.
Just recently, the Canadian Air Force revealed that it had gone shopping for spare parts in an aircraft museum.

I have a slim-line, portable dishwasher in my kitchen. It quit.
Nobody, in the past year, can tell me what error code 'E5' means.
Not in any manual or repair shop or even the manufacturer.

Seems to me, I need to know WHAT TO FIX before I advance the job!

[Evanism]

I have a slim-line, portable dishwasher in my kitchen. It quit.
Nobody, in the past year, can tell me what error code 'E5' means.
Not in any manual or repair shop or even the manufacturer.

Seems to me, I need to know WHAT TO FIX before I advance the job!

Sounds like a job for Mr Google!

I typed in "E5 was".... And it suggested a great many things and all of them automatically finished off "washing machine e5 error code"

Hand over the model and we'll dig it up!

[Mobyturns]

Bikes are another example. I had a client who obtained a bike on the internet. He had trouble assembling it. Bike shop did not want to know him. I looked at the bike and found it physically impossible to assemble correctly.
A lot of small store will stand behind what they sell, the big stores way only want to sell the goods, after sales service is another thing.

Amazing what you can pick up cheap because some one does not have the nouse or skills to fix minor alignment errors or minor repairs.

[A Duke]

Cheer up! The Canadian Government has been dragging it's feet since 2002, looking for "the best deal" to replace some aging aircraft.
Just recently, the Canadian Air Force revealed that it had gone shopping for spare parts in an aircraft museum.

I have a slim-line, portable dishwasher in my kitchen. It quit.
Nobody, in the past year, can tell me what error code 'E5' means.
Not in any manual or repair shop or even the manufacturer.

Seems to me, I need to know WHAT TO FIX before I advance the job!

She sounds feminine, if you don't know what you did to upset me I'm not going to tell you.
Regards