Ebuyer Verses Halfords.

[Guest EVSS]

just a note steve , in the same job.. been there had the video and the the book. 22 years and the customer still wants us to beat on line prices and the cat 1 fitted to vsib standards on there driveway. :unsure: (in the rain.....)

[gregers]

and your problem is? :unsure: :blink:

[Guest TDiAds]

Ive used Ebuyer loads of times with no problems at all, why should anyone pay the exorbitant prices of local stores (halfords included) when you can get the exact same product delivered to your door the following day, im all for supporting local business but not at the cost to my pocket. :unsure:

[steve67car]

thats no my arguement what i said was [evss will prob back me up]

is that us small local specailists do not have the resorses to compete with the net cause they sell you a box and thats it and there overheads are smaller cause no shop and workshop to pay for [ yes these believe it or not do cost monies landlords dont give us it for free]

so when it dont work and the mail order company says sorry you need to take it to your nearest stockist to get it repaired [yes i get it 5-6 times a day]

you then come to us but remember if we dont get where we have to day with out a strugle so use us or lose us :blink:

IF YOU BOSS CAME TO YOU TOMORROW AND SAID OH CHARLIE CHINAMAN CAN DO YOUR JOB FOR

[gregers]

ill set up a firm and sub all my work to them and sit back and enjoy :blink: on a serious note though how many times have most of us gone to halfords and asked questions and the reply is i dont really no :unsure: thats when the specalists come into there own

[katman]

I think the jury is still out on who is going to survive this

 

I really hope that it is the smaller traders that come through, they deserve to, generally they are the people with the real expertise and in reality it is them with their lower overheads that are better placed to compete on the pricing, though they can probably never compete with the Ebuyers of this world.

 

I think Steve has a point, the smaller businesses have their place and we would all suffer without them and I for one am prepared to do my bit to keep them in business.

 

Cheers.

Oggy.

Sadly many of the smaller speciallist retailers have already disappeared.

Not driven out of business by the Internet but by greedy chain stores.

 

We used to have 3 specialist record shops in town and they were about the only place to buy records (obviously going back before the days of CD but the point it relevant). Then department stores all opened record departments. They didnt have the wide selection of the speciallist shops but did stock all the chart stuff. This took a lot of revenue from the speciallist shops and eventually drove them out of business.

 

Same thing happened with the smaller electrical retailers and TV dealers who would ensure that a TV was properly adjusted when they insalled it for you. Dixons, Currys et all killed them off.

 

B&Q, Homebase, Focus have destroyed the traditional hardware shops and ironmongers.

 

Butchers, Fishmongers etc have been killed by Supermarkets.

 

Its getting to the stage where if you want anything that isnt mass market you have no choice but to buy online as no one locally will stock it.

 

I bought my wife an iPod for her birthday and wanted to get a USB Car Charger so that we could use it in the Galaxy. Tried about 20 shops locally and had no luck whatsoever. They do exist, Expansis have them for

[Guest EVSS]

i personally dont have a problem with halfords.... we get a lot of work because the company they sub work to, keeps causing problems :P however work is dropping off with private individuals, but hey we saw all this with the windscreen trade and i laugh now when i see some of the prices the big boys charge, no wonder insurance goes up. we are not saying You must support us . Just sometimes give us a try, there are a lot of small companies who do an excellent job (and as in most trades some complete rogues) but i dont see halfords working into the night to get an alarm fitted. and i bet steve knows that scenario all to well. gary

 

On a similar note steve , we are also getting lots of people asking for repair quotes for catalogue bought products.... strange.

[Guest vr6galaxy]

but i dont see halfords working into the night to get an alarm fitted. and i bet steve knows that scenario all to well. gary

 

YEP! and customers ringing up at 5.30 and asking questions! and getting an answer and the guys own private mobile number :P you dont get that sort of service or back up from online shops! and straight advice, online shops dont give that they just ask for your credit card number :D

[steve67car]

:D i wounder who gave you that one

dont ring it the mother in law bites :D :P

p.s your siren should be with me on monday will call ya :D

[Guest vr6galaxy]

Good man :D head units in a running, well impressed :) nice little unit

alarms started, internal siren mounted, ultra sonics and LED mounted, bonnet switch done, main unit in place but not secured yet, just the majority of the wires to run and connect tomorrow and then it's done :D

[steve67car]

:) proves we can help some people all the time :D

siren is at work ready for collection :D

[Guest vr6galaxy]

Am working down in Andover this week at the head office so I wont be back most nights till afdter 6.00pm :lol: how ever I get ti finnish early on Friday at 1.00 pm :P then it's only a 2/3 Hour drive home so I'll pop up friday and pick it up :(

[steve67car]

:P you gonna have to do the full hours this week :lol:

can take it home if you want so you can collect if you want :(

[Masked Marauder]

Sadly many of the smaller speciallist retailers have already disappeared.

Not driven out of business by the Internet but by greedy chain stores.

 

I used to do some work for a freind in his computer shop. We had a stream of people asking advice on new PCs, but no matter what we did we could not convert the request into a sale. You could spend an hour talking to someone and they would just say that they would have a think and come back.

 

Turned out the local Dixons was telling people who were asking for advice that we were the experts at advice, but they were the best at price, so go find out what they wanted from us and bring the spec sheet to them, and they would do a better deal!