Carba-Tec needs a new Financial Controller

[Charleville]

If I can get one that easily, surely they can organise something........

That's the point of the thread. If you and I can do it, why cannot they? Their margins might be shaved a little on these spot transactions but at least we will go back to them again for more stuff.

Bob Ansett of Budget Rentacar fame has written in his book, "The Customer," that when he first started his business, if he did not have a car available for a customer, he would run around the corner and get an Avis car and re-rent it to his customer.


That is the sort of customer focus that Carba-Tec management needs to foster if they want to keep the business.


After my surprise at how quick and cheap it was to get a Kreg jig from Amazon, I rethought my situation in relation to the Kreg screws that I have not been able to get at Carba-Tec for several weeks. The outcome is that yesterday, I also ordered some Kreg screws from Amazon that will arrive in early August and yet still be cheaper, delivered to my door, than Carba-Tec's price in their shop. I did not think that that would be possible with heavy boxes of dumb screws. The last time that I asked Carba-Tec about these screws, the very helpful sales person looked up the stock situation on the computer and told me that they had "minus 50 boxes." I assume that means back-orders by customers.


Sheesh! I want to support the local guy but the local guy has to want to be supported.


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[bsrlee]

Don't be too surprised if the goods you order from Amazon don't turn up for a while - weeks or months. They are notorious for offering goods they don't have and frequently can't get from the source, even when their web site says it is in stock & ready to ship.

The business plan seems to be to get you to order something on line, at which point Amazon can try to source it from the supplier. They hope that you will not look at other suppliers - who may actually have the goods on the shelf - because Amazon promote themselves as a one-stop supplier. In the case of many books, the publisher has not entered into any agreement to supply, and can't/won't give Amazon a huge discount, so Amazon then tell the customer the book is 'unavailable' from the publisher which causes many to assume the book is out of print, while it is available from another retailer & doing the publisher out of a legitimate sale (it has happened to me, but I keep looking).

You also have to look at the fine print - many non-media itrems are not actually being offered by Amazon, but are shipped direct by a third party, who can take their own sweet time about shipping or replying to emails - not Amazon's problem.

I also agree about 'parasite' distributors, who get an 'agency' but never seem to have any stock in the country - its all 'place a pre-paid order and we'll get some in a future shipment'. Unfortunately some (many?) overseas suppliers have some strange ideas about how to deal with overseas orders and insist on using a wholesale distributor rather than selling to a retailer.

[lesmeyer]

I have ordered from Amazon on a number of occasions, and have never had the problem described above. On some occasions the goods arrived up to a week ahead of estimated delivery, but also had a few days late on one occasion. Given the cost of the shipping, it has not been something to complain about. In fact some of the Amazon shipping (not the expensive express) has been faster than the "catch of the day" shipping from Melbourne to Perth. With some of the Amazon goods coming from central USA that is quite remarkable. I recently had a shipment that only took 5 days from Indianapolis - Alaska - Korea - Singapore - Perth. That was standard shipping costs.
Les

[L R P]

Hi All
For those who heard about Maxis!
It is inside the ct house, that company was set up by the son of the original owner.
They were to market DMT, LIDWIG CLAMPS, MAG SWITCH, INCRA, and KREG,

[Charleville]

Don't be too surprised if the goods you order from Amazon don't turn up for a while - weeks or months. They are notorious for offering goods they don't have and frequently can't get from the source, even when their web site says it is in stock & ready to ship.

According to the Amazon parcel tracking link, both of my orders from last week have been shipped and are scheduled to arrive in two weeks' time.



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[Charleville]

Hi All
For those who heard about Maxis!
It is inside the ct house, that company was set up by the son of the original owner.
They were to market DMT, LIDWIG CLAMPS, MAG SWITCH, INCRA, and KREG,

They certainly have some good products there. In the past few months, I have bought a half dozen Lidwig clamps, a couple of Magjigs and a fair bit of Kreg gear and they are all excellent products.


However, the Lidwig clamps have been on Carba-Tec's runout specials list for a while, there are gaps on the shelves in the Magswitch stuff and we already know of the Kreg supply problems.


Something seems unwell with Maxis, methinks.

[Master Splinter]

Maybe Maxis use the same stock control and ordering methodology and software as their parent company, if they sprang from Carba-Tech.

[Charleville]

Amazon lied to me!!!!


They told me that the Kreg product that I ordered on Tuesday last week, would be delivered to my door on 6 August.

They lied! It was delivered today.


That's 6 working days. Unless the Carba-Tecs lift their game on stock management and price, they have no hope. Will we miss them? Of course we will but someone will fill the void. That's the way that a market economy works.

I shall pull back from that hard line to reiterate that I want Carba-Tec to succeed but I have just paid AUD$35.27 for a product that I now have in my hands that was going to cost me $45 at Carbatec and not be available until at least mid August. How does that work again?


.

[SAISAY]

Amazon lied to me!!!!

I shall pull back from that hard line to reiterate that I want Carba-Tec to succeed but I have just paid AUD$35.27 for a product that I now have in my hands that was going to cost me $45 at Carbatec and not be available until at least mid August. How does that work again?
.

Yes, prices are lower from overseas but so are their wages.

Just remember, when you buy stuff from overseas, you can import $1.000 worth before paying import duty and no GST.
When suppliers do the same thing, they pay duty on everything plus GST.

You get your single items by airmail, they get theirs by shipping containers.
To do that they need a reasonably large order, not just one part.

If your part is faulty, forget about warranty.
They have to warrant the stuff they sell.

Then there is the mark-up margin. For some strange reason they need to cover overheads like staff wages, power, rent, telephone, insurance, etc. etc.

Pity they can't get all that for free.
That goes for every importer, not just CarbaTec.
Wolffie

[jimbur]

Will we miss them? Of course we will but someone will fill the void. That's the way that a market economy works.
I shall pull back from that hard line to reiterate that I want Carba-Tec to succeed but I have just paid AUD$35.27 for a product that I now have in my hands that was going to cost me $45 at Carbatec and not be available until at least mid August. How does that work again? .

Exactly so. The market is already filling the voids being left by understocking (for whatever reason).
Some posts have implied that many complaints are nothing but whining and that whining will become louder if Carbatec closes. The answer surely lies in the hands of the retailer. It's not a duty of a customer to subsidise a business. It's one thing to patronise a business by paying a little more for personal service but only if it supplies what we need. We have much the same with Ford at the moment - brand loyalty is fine if that brand supplies what the market wants.
Cheers,
JIm

[silentC]

You get your single items by airmail, they get theirs by shipping containers.

I dare say that most of the stuff people like us would buy from overseas is not coming into the country by container load. Chinese machinery for sure, but I doubt that Carba-tec or any other Australian retailer/importer is bringing stuff in from Lee Valley, for example, by the container load.

But as you say local retailers do have overheads which are a natural part of doing business. It hasn't been a big problem for them in the past because it hasn't been that simple for people to circumvent them. These days it's very easy to do.

I often read arguments along the lines of "if you don't use them you will lose them" in support of buying locally. I find it hard to believe that retail in Australia will completely disappear. There are businesses in operation today which survived the depression. I'm sure that it will change though and many of them will go out of business if they don't find new ways of doing business.

The thing is, if local retailers are relying on "use us or lose us" as a tactic, they are in a lot of trouble. If they're relying on the average shopper to "do the right thing" it's a lost cause. Look at how many people still smoke.

[petersemple]

You get your single items by airmail, they get theirs by shipping containers.
To do that they need a reasonably large order, not just one part.

But by doing that (buying in bulk), the price per item is considerably lower, not higher. Also bear in mind that people buying from overseas places in USA, UK or Canada (pretty common places to order from) are also buying from retailers who have similar overhead/markups and even wage costs as Australian retailers. The real issue at present is none of that - it is the exchange rate. The Aussie dollar currently favours buying from overseas retailers.

[Charleville]

Yes, prices are lower from overseas but so are their wages.

Just remember, when you buy stuff from overseas, you can import $1.000 worth before paying import duty and no GST.
When suppliers do the same thing, they pay duty on everything plus GST.

You get your single items by airmail, they get theirs by shipping containers.
To do that they need a reasonably large order, not just one part.

If your part is faulty, forget about warranty.
They have to warrant the stuff they sell.

Then there is the mark-up margin. For some strange reason they need to cover overheads like staff wages, power, rent, telephone, insurance, etc. etc.

Pity they can't get all that for free.
That goes for every importer, not just CarbaTec.
Wolffie

That is linear thinking. A number of factors now make such linear thinking about retailing as terminal as horse and buggy transport; interstate train travel as a norm and square sailing clippers as overseas transport.

Those factors are not related to the exchange rate albeit that helps from time to time; nor are they related to labour costs (Surely the wages paid to American store staff are not that low relative to ours - but more proof in the next paragraph or two), nor the lack of a GST. (Even with a GST, the Kreg product from Amazon would still be 16% cheaper than the very same product made in the same factory but bought from Carba-Tec, nor are there warranty issues unless the product is bought from a "grey market" (Google it) supplier which is not the situation here.

In fact, Aussie retailers can do the same thing as Amazon and do it well. Last month, I bought a CTEK 15A Marine battery charger from this crowd ... RV Technologies 4x4 and Camping Store, Your One Stop 4x4 and Camping Shop!
I bought from them because they had the cheapest price in Australia and were an approved dealer.

So, how's this for delivery performance?!

I placed my order online and paid with Paypal at 1.45 am on a Friday morning. The product all neatly packaged up in its sealed box in a bubble wrap satchel was hand delivered to my door at 1.57 pm on the same afternoon. Given that no one would have been at their workplace at 1.45am, that represents just about a half day delivery performance for an online purchase.

Absolutely stunning delivery performance!!! Check out their website for testimonials by the hundreds. If these guys can do it because they have sorted out their processes to match the customer habits of this millennium, why cannot Carba-Tec? The same set of tools is available to Carba-Tec. ie online ordering plus very cheap transport of products.

So what happens if Carba-Tec and their ilk don't recognise that "the times are a rapidly changin' "?


Well consider, what Amazon is going to do to them.

Within the USA itself, Amazon is already moving to same day delivery...

Amazon same-day delivery: How the e-commerce giant will destroy local retail. - Slate Magazine



....."but they won't do that here!", I hear you say.


I would not bet on that either. They have already been shopping around for warehousing facilities in Australia ....

Amazon eyeing off local warehouse in Australia


In fact, perhaps they already have them - or at least have a workaround to get cheap products quickly into Aussie customers' hands.

This is an extract from the Amazon invoice for my Kreg thingie. Notice that the delivery cost is just $7.85...

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch


Now, have a look at the package that my Kreg thingie arrived in....

Click for large view - Uploaded with Skitch


Look closely and you will notice that it is not A US Mail package but an Aussie Post package and that it was posted from Tullamarine in Melbourne, undoubtedly by Aussie workers getting Aussie wages.


What this suggests to me is that Amazon are aggregating up their Aussie orders, perhaps on a weekly basis, to a pallet or two, flying them by cargo plane to Melbourne and then individually posting them from Melbourne.


So what should Carba-Tec do about this? Well they can either do the same or die. There will be no in-between, methinks.


The time for linear thinking about retailing has gone. Aussie retailers need to rethink their end to end sales and delivery processes. Can they do it? Of course they can!


By only if they don't think linearly.





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[Big Shed]

In the main traditional retail businesses in Australia have totally missed the boat as far as online business is concerned. Look at Bunnings and compare their website with the Masters website. Try and search for a product on the Bunnings website, set aside an hour or so. Now look for that product on the Masters website.

Most of the sucessful online businesses in Australia are not traditional retailers but people that saw an opportunity early and based their business model on online selling.

Let's face it, the retailers may be Australian, but the majority of what they sell is imported, even the camera importers such as Canon have finally realised they can no longer treat Australian customers as milk cows. Apple still has to come to that realisation and there are a few others.

Look at one of our sponsors, Timberbits. Here is an example of an Australian business that didn't exist a few short years ago, now he sells in to the US and UK etc and has special deilvery rates for those countries, in fact his delivery cost to those countries is lower than his delivery cost in Australia.

His website is easy to use, he has good product at very good prices, in fact most of his pen related stuff you can't buy overseas at those prices.

Place an order today and nine times out of ten it is in your hands the next day, even in country Victoria.

So if Carbatec doesn't move with the times all they will do is create an opportunity for someone else, be that an established business, such as Amazon, or a startup we have never heard of before. There will always be a business that will recognise a demand exists for certain products and rise to the occasion to meet that demand.

[Acco]

CWS is another that excels here as well, great service and prompt service