Limit Parts Price Mark Ups

A Newbie DIYers Ramblings - Comments Welcome

It occurred to me, as I drove back to the office, that the "throw away society" ethos could be partly remedied by imposing:

a) Mandatory parts availability. and b) Limitation on parts price mark up.

This way manufacturers would, in a small way, be forced to consider the longevity/support of their product.

I don't know if it's an age thing, but the older I get (41 at present), the more annoyed I get at the disposable nature of products.

Our mower has recently been giving bother due to failure of a plastic part which could make a profit at £5. This is difficult to source and comes in at over £20. So, do I spend a third of the cost of the mower on this part? No I buy a new mower on the basis that, if one part has failed, another will follow shortly and I'm on a hiding to nothing!

Had the part been realistically priced, I would have happily taken the make do and mend route, saving money and doing my small part in reducing land fill.

Frankly I find the lack of reponsibility from manufacturers and the lack of guidance/enforcement from the government a cause for concern. I have children. Should I encourage them to be meek? When they reach the end of their time I doubt the earth will be worth inheriting at this rate!!

Reply to
TheScullster
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Without knowing the intimate details of production costs, storage, turnover, transport and admin etc it's impossible to more than guess at the price of a spare part.

Reply to
Dave Plowman

I competely agree with your observations. I've managed to keep my petrol mower going for about 7 years now with a little silver soldering and pop-riveting. These failures should never have happened if the construction had been sound in the original design. The Briggs & Stratton engine is fine - it starts up every spring - all the problems have been due to the shoddy build around it (wheels, chassis etc). Why aren't these things designed to last the course? My TV, 'fridge and freezer go on for ever, so why not my mower. Admittedly, it has a much harder life, but surely it should be designed with this in mind! BTW, the mower is still going strong - a little application with a heavy hammer to sort out the bent grass collection guide and I managed to mow two lawns yesterday.

My Karcher pressure washer failed recently due to a starting capacitor, which I sourced at 2 for £18, and it's now working again. I dread to think what the repair would have cost otherwise - probably it would have been more economical to buy a new one. The main problem is that if you don't have the DIY ability then you're in the hands of the manufacturers, which can prove very expensive.

Terry D.

Reply to
Terry D

Me2. I've got a burned out (my fault) Homebase SDS drill that just needs an armature which logically should be £20 but (I've not asked) is probably unobtainable but if it were would produce a drill that will give plenty of useful service if used as designed rather than as a demolition hammer ;)

My ordinary mains B&D drill is years old and has had a couple of £40 repairs. I'd much rather pay this every few years than twice this amount for something that is probably less well made.

Beyond this there's just fashion: in my garage I've got an as-new ceramic shower tray: the only thing wrong with it is that it's pale green. But I know that really the only place where it will find a home is a skip.

Reply to
Tony Bryer

Price on parts mark up. Well about 8 years ago the company I work for had a "contract/arrangement" with a printer supplier whereby anyone who rang for parts etc. was passed to us. Don't know the specifics but the stuff we sold on their behalf was sold on a 50% mark up, so if we paid £140.00 for a bit for a laser printer the customer would be charged £280.00 now if that's not a rip off I don't know what is...

So the next time you go to a dealer/supplier and you have to pay what seems like daylight robbery for a tiny little part think on.

Add in two middlemen who only add on 10% and it soon mounts up in the same way.

Mark S.

Reply to
Mark S.

Actually it's even more - a 100% markup. This represents 50% margin (which is pretty good if you can get it)

50% markup would result in a selling price of £210 on a £140 purchase.

(Keeps you in chocolate biscuits :-) )

Anyway, a rip-off is only a rip-off if the customer feels that he hasn't paid a fair price.

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall
50%? 100%? ROTFL

We have a Canon photocopier in the office which needs a new catch chute for exiting paper. Canon price £3.53 - but they will not supply direct, go to a dealer or agent.

Agent price? £14.78 - except that they have a minimum £50 order charge, the item is not in stock, and they reckon Canon cannot/will not supply.

Rip-off Briain strikes again..................................?

Reply to
Woody

Doh. Wasn't thinking straight when I typed it. ;-)

Trouble was most of the stuff wasn't sold to customers but other suppliers who then supplied to customers... more mark up... :-(

Reply to
Mark S.

It's not just the price of spares, but also the availability. Too many things are not available as individual items, only as expensive assemblies.

I had a central heating boiler (conventional, fan flued) and the fan motor failed. The boiler had originally cost me 230 GBP, but a replacement motor from the manufacturer was only available as a complete fan unit (fan housing, fan, motor, mounts, pressure switch) for 120 GBP + VAT.

The unit was not "sealed" in any way - the motor could be removed from the assembly with no more than a screwdriver, a spanner and an allen key.

I could have arranged to get a motor elsewhere, but I thought that other things might soon start to fail and that it would be better to take the hit up front and replace the whole boiler with a more efficient one.

Steve W

Reply to
Steve Walker

Steve

From your example above, [to complete the thought process] would you have fitted a new motor for (say) 60GBP? If so, then this "assembly mentality" does, as you say, help to perpetuate the disposable approach to supply.

Your mail highlights the fact that the age of the item to be repared also figures highly in the argument. But I have a concern that, as society becomes more and more disposable, the perceived (as well as design) life span of all products is reducing fast.

As I write, a colleague of mine has just complained that replacement bearings and seals for his washing machine have been quoted at 90GBP+.

Phil

Reply to
TheScullster

If you believe the hype, the WEEE directive makes all producers liable to have end of life plans and finance the treatment and recovery of electrical and electronic equipment covering large and small household appliances, IT equipment, radio and audio equipment, electrical tools and telecommunications equipment.

I haven't seen any practical effects of this at the consumer level yet and it doesn't completely stop waste going to landfill but it's a start.

MBQ

Reply to
MBQ

Couldn't agree more.

Also remember that we are in the minority of people in that we would fit parts ourselves - most would have to pay perhaps £20 upwards for someone else to do it. Add that to the cost of the parts and it just makes it worse. Even if they know how to do the work, few actually do

- my friend threw away a perfectly good vacuum cleaner even after I told him how to fix it - he "couldn't be bothered" He was also seduced by the marketing of the new cleaners which of course are are so much better than the old ones. Hmmmm

Have you tried calling your local mower places to see if they have a second hand part?. The place I used to work at broke up machines for spares all the time and sold the bits at 1/2 the new price, delighted the customer, still made a decent profit, didn't have to pay to dispose the waste and of course, saved the environment.

Alan.

Reply to
Alan Campbell

In message , MBQ writes

I didn't think the provisions started coming into force until august, so probably not much happening yet.

Reply to
chris French

I might have gone for a 60 quid repair, but I wouldn't have been comparing it with the original purchase price years ago, but the replacement cost now. This is what has changed in the last few decades: we have become so used to disposables that "repair" has gone from being our first thought, and "replace" has... errr... replaced it.

On a similar line I have a Canon LBP-4 printer. I bought it in 1990 for just shy of a grand - yes, a thousand pounds. It saw very heavy service in its early years, printing off hundreds of pages a month; church magazines, newsletters for various things, posters, university work and all sorts. It worked flawlessly until 2001 when the error code translated to "scanner motor failure". As someone else talked about elsewhere on this thread, I contacted Canon directly and, despite having a good friend who is reasonably "high up" in the company I could not persuade them to sell me the relevant part.

I was quoted 100GBP for a repair and service which, compared with

1000GBP doesn't seem too bad, but took a bit of thought when compared with the 2001 prices of 4 page per minute lasers. I went for it though, and fully expect the tank to last probably another ten years when I'll be able to buy a 16ppm colour laser or dye-sub printer for £300 and finally lay the old workhorse to bed.

Perhaps cost has something to do with it. A 1000GBP retail price in 1990 for a printer with similar features to one retailing these days at

150GBP. Something has to have been "down-specced". My other piece of ancient technology - a 10 year-old Philips Brilliance 17" monitor cost me 400GBP over the price of the computer with a 14", probably translating to a 550 ot 600GBP retail price. It, too, has performed without problem so far and has a much wider range of accepted input signals than my mother's new LG 17" which cost somewhat less. I wonder whether the LG will still be here in 10 years' time?

Hwyl!

M.

Reply to
Martin Angove

Only because you're incapable of googling properly

Reply to
geoff

In message , TheScullster writes

Try £40

Reply to
geoff

In message , MBQ writes

Maybe it's time that manufacturers had to indicate how long spare would be available for products sold

Reply to
geoff

I thought they had to guarantee 10 years from last production to get a GC number??

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

In message , Andy Hall writes

Following the development of the thread, I was making a comment about goods in general rather than specific fields (boilers, cars etc)

Reply to
geoff

I see what you're saying. That would make very interesting reading for some products.....

.andy

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Reply to
Andy Hall

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