Buying Kitchen Appliances Online? (Boots, Next, M&S, Sainsburys, etc) Watch out...

unitedwestand

[FONT=&quot]Hi,[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Love the site![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Been popping in from time to time over couple of years and have found it a great help, thanks all.:T[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Finally, came across something whilst shopping online that:[/FONT]

• [FONT=&quot]wasn’t common knowledge to me,[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]I couldn't find much more on online,[/FONT]
• [FONT=&quot]annoyed me enough to register to MSE and post on.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Before I go on, apologies for the small novel but this has really blown my idea of how some high street retailers ‘make their money’ out of the water.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]As most home owners will know, buying household appliances will most likely be some of the most expensive purchases you will make.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]In fact, putting things in to perspective, I spent more buying my first washing machine than I did my first car[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Recently my washing machine broke down, and like most net savvy users, decided to venture online to find a good discount on a replacement.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I’m a fairly experienced internet shopper and wouldn’t consider myself to be a naive consumer, but so far it’s been an eye opener that’s left me doubting the whole structure of online shopping, questioning supposed respectable high street brand names and left me a little bitter and angry and I haven’t even made a purchase yet![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Like many online shoppers would do, I did some browsing and review reading, picked out a washing machine that I like and was in my price range and proceeded to the price comparison sites with a note of the make and model number to find the best price.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Usually when price comparing I would normally expect to get a wide range of results and prices, not so this time. Instead only a handful of results were returned and strangely many of the results had the exact or very similar price.[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]This raised my suspicions, and after some digging was shocked to discover that I was wasting my time comparing prices for home appliances, at the end of the day it wouldn’t really make a difference.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Why?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]When you go to buy a home appliance online, there’s a good chance all you will actually be doing is buying ‘through’ one of the big name high street retailers, not actually ‘from’ them.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Take for example:[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Boots: www.bootskitchenappliances.com[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Next: www.nextdomesticappliances.co.uk[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Sainsburys: www.sainsburyskitchenappliances.co.uk[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]House Of Fraser: www.houseoffraserkitchenappliances.co.uk[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]Marks and Spencer www.marksandspencer-appliances.com[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I stupidly had the idea that these guys would actually have in house staff, in dedicated home appliance departments, running around, shopping for the best deals that they can find and passing the savings on to their customers.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]How wrong was I![/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]From what I can find, they all just pass your details on the same and ‘only’ company called DRL Ltd, who in turn, give them a back hander for your business.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Each of the big brand name online appliance shops are basically just an artificial shop front, each sporting their logo and brand names all the real buying selling and distribution is carried out by the same company DRL Ltd.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]In fact, if you look up the website info on Allwhois for [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]www.bootskitchenappliances.com, [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]www.sainsburyskitchenappliances.co.uk, [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]www.marksandspencer-appliances.com, [/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]currently they are all noted as being registered to DRL Ltd, which would suggest that the big names cant even be bothered to register their online appliance shops names, never mind run them.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Its not just the big high street names that are doing this but also others, some of the ones I can find are:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]www.screwfixappliances.com[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]www.freshkit.co.uk[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]While Googling for more info I cam across someone’s online resume, I have the link but wont out it up, according to it though DRL was/is also behind the appliance departments of Debenham’s, B&Q, MFI & Focus.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]It also appears that DRL also have their own Parent websites and shops:[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]www.appliancedeals.co.uk[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]www.appliancesonline.co.uk[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So from the ones that I can see there are at least 13 websites out there including big high street names that appear in comparison results but are all governed by the one company, DRL Ltd.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Independent of how much you search or compare, when it comes to ‘Home Appliance’s’ there’s a good chance you’re predominant option will to either pay the DRL price or more.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]The Appliance Deals website (DRL), calls this their ‘affiliate’ system...[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]They say: “we review our prices regulary to ensure we always have the best offers available for your visitors”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I wonder what they mean by review, do they compare them against Boots, Next, Sainsburys and the other online affiliate shops they supply?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Surely this leaves the door wide open to the fear of price fixing, whats driving down the costs if there is no real competition between the online chains?[/FONT]
[FONT=&quot]I suppose the possibility of price fixing would only be a major concern if DRL was one of the U.K.’s major Kitchen Appliance suppliers?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Here’s what they say……[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]“DRL is at the forefront of internet retailing for major domestic appliances and since we began in 2000, we have grown to be the largest on line independent retailer of white goods in the UK. DRL is also the trusted brand of choice for our retail partners such as Sainsbury's, Boots, B&Q and NEXT.”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]I always though the main reason you got bargains online was completion and that you were cutting out the middle men, not adding one in, not to mention the same one as your competitor then taking back hander’s from them.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]…and why then is that middle man, who is the largest supplier in the U.K. selling them for the same price as you, would that not suggest that he’s deliberately selling them over priced, so he is in line with his affiliates and would that not suggest that already the largest proportion of white goods in the U.K. have already been price fixed?[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]So many questions..... [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Would be good to hear your views [/FONT]

Update.

The following websites that appear in price comparison site searches are all actually part of the ‘The Shop Direct Group’

Like DRL inevitably it will be the same appliance and service you’ll be buying, from them all, just not the same price on each.

www.additionsdirect.co.uk
www.choice.co.uk
www.empirestores.co.uk
www.greatuniversal.com
www.kays.com
www.littlewoods.com
www.littlewoodsdirect.com
www.marshallward.co.uk

Browntoa

not a suprise to me ,always understood these were not "in house"

same applies to insurance , most of the own brand sites like Tesco etc use Direct Lines "engine" to do the quotes and insurance for them , Direct Line also own Churchill and Privilege. The companies like Tesco decide their own promotional discounts to apply to the policy , which varies the prices but in all truth there is no competition as the original quotes start off the same

withabix

Nothing new here.

Many online shops are the same ones in different 'clothes'.

Anyway, this is not really any different to how the retail supply chain has worked since, well, forever.....

The consumer DOES make savings through extra choice and by means of selecting the retail front end with the lowest markup.

There is no extra 'middle man' in the supply of white goods in this example - DRL have replaced SEVERAL steps in the supply chain:

The old way:

You visit you local retail outlet/electricity board shop/whatever.
You select the ZanHooElectroIndePoint washing machine you want, after visiting several shops to find the 'best' price and using petrol and tyrewear in your car in the process.
It gets delivered from the manufacturer to the distribution agent.
It gets delivered from the distribution agent to the retailer's warehouse.
It gest delivered from the retailer's warehouse to the retail store.
It gets delivered from the retail store to your house.

The new way:

You visit several online storefronts naked from the comfort of your own home.
You select the ZanHooElectroIndePoint washing machine you want, after drinking several cups of tea and visiting several online store fronts and comparing prices on Shopping Search Engines which are only there because the retailer PAYS the website commission to display their prices (SHOCK, HORROR!!!!!).
It dets delivered from the manufacturer to the distribution agent.
It gets delivered from the distribution agent to your home.
OR
It gets delivered from the manufacturer to your home.

Result: You pay a LOT less for your ZanHooElectroIndePoint washing machine than you did several years ago, despite all the things that go into making it costing a lot more than they did then.

2nd result: It might actually get delivered without a load of dents in it...

in_debt_again_but_dealing_with_it

Must say I bought my washing machine and dishwasher from sainsburys appliances on line a couple of years ago. After I placed the order they called me and said item ordered was out of stock but would I accept another model - it was a higher spec and supposed to be £80 dearer but they honoured my original order price. Didn't know they weren't "sainsburys" until now but I was more than happy and would use them again.

kiddy_guy

I'm sorry OP, but if you buy from Boots etc... surely that makes them a middle man by definition as it's not their own brand? What's another middle man into the chain. Imagine the increased costs if each of these companies had to stock hold all of the items and the size of the warehouse, plus additional H&S considerations you'd have. It's not cost effective and I'd rather these companies outsourced to an "expert" in the field than tried to manage it badly themselves.

Basil1234

sorry this nothing new here its called franchising ie sainsburys and so on do there name under license with them getting this company to run it nothing new here. something slightly different look at littlewoods website there are at least another 5 sites with exactly the same web design also pages and prices but look around the whole web and you will find cheaper prices then phone them up and twist the screws a little more i did.

I need a bosch srs45e32gb dishwasher price on comaprison site was 305-345 with del also on there was a company advertising without a link for £276 but had to add on 25 for del so phoned up co op electrical(they offering free rapid del) said seen it for £276 said couldn't match that as not much mark up on the bosch said ok what can you do it for best he said was he could do was round it down to £300 and not a penny cheaper ok so agreed and up it turned.

point is if you look really deep and also phone them up and haggle abit more you will still get it cheaper and tbo i think you are a bit naive if you think all these compaines do it in house.
take music online for example all comes from the channel islands as is tax haven and all the majors deal with same comapny which is woolies/bbc one so is all come down to how much profit each comapany wants to make e.g. make a little sell alot or make more sell a little less or make an album a loss leader but buy some other stuff while there.

you never actually said what models of stuff you wanted what are they?

basil

tootiefrooties

I don't see the problem, am I missing something?! As long as you are happy with the price and it comes with a valid warranty etc, I really can't see why it would matter what the name of the company is or if there is more than one involved.

arcotplayer

I've just had to replace 3 major appliances and believe me you can save serious money

Zanussi washing m/c average cost for the one i wanted £300 or more
I paid £217 inc; delivery, ordered from Homebase, they get them from Argos Direct,I don't mind, just feel sorry for those who go direct to Argos they'll pay a lot more

Found an Indisit cooker £137 saved £70 quid here also

Use the codes and do your homework

Good luck:beer:

unitedwestand

piefacerecords wrote: »

I don't see the problem, am I missing something?! As long as you are happy with the price and it comes with a valid warranty etc, I really can't see why it would matter what the name of the company is or if there is more than one involved.

Hi PFR, it was more the principal of saturating the online market place with a range of 13 plus different names to gain a market strong hold.

Unlike the price which is going to be the same if not higher, at the end of the day the service you'll get will be exactly the same, its just the web interface that forwards you on will be slightly different.

Also it highlights that DRL should really be offering a substantial discount on their website prices seeing as they are commission free, they don’t.

The people I feel sorry for, are those that have bought from the M&S website instead of appliancesonline because they are under the illusion that they will some how get a better service from M&S. Where the truth is the service will be exactly the same and all they’ve done is pay a bigger mark up.

Or those who search and read through online reviews for ages, to compare services provide by Boots, Next, Sainsburys only to only to discover they are all exactly the same.

If consumers are quite happy to pay the lowest marked up affiliated price that pops up in an artificially saturated price comparison site that is essentially all the same company, or/and be duped in to thinking that they will some how be getting a better level of service from a brand name…that’s fair enough.

[FONT=&quot]I for one don’t really want online shopping just to turn into a replica of today’s high street, where we pay over the odds for the same product and service ‘just because of a brand name’ [/FONT]

unitedwestand

Basil1234 wrote: »

sorry this nothing new here its called franchising ie sainsburys and so on do there name under license with them getting this company to run it nothing new here. something slightly different look at littlewoods website there are at least another 5 sites with exactly the same web design also pages and prices but look around the whole web and you will find cheaper prices then phone them up and twist the screws a little more i did.

[FONT=&quot]Im learning now

Its not franchising more or less affiliate marketing [/FONT] [FONT=&quot]a[/FONT]nd its predominantly an internet based marketing practice, which is becoming more popular with the growth of internet shopping.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affiliate_marketing

In short I translate it as where an online retailer piggy backs on to another, and says ‘hey if you can extract more money from your consumer for our service and product than we can feel free to do so and we’ll pay you commission’.

...but surely its just another form of internet spam, and it looks like the big brand names are lapping it up at our expense.

Its saturating the online market place with hundreds of fake online stores and deals that no one needs.

I suppose its not really adding in middle men, really just over populating the market with more end men.

[FONT=&quot]If retailers and affiliate programs keep applying unnecessary mark-ups on to products, years down the line will the gap not increase between what the product should cost and what the consumer actually pays, artificially increase?

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]What ever it is, its not really fair as its not a service, just a cloak and dagger way to extort additional money from online consumers who don’t now any better.[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Retail 1 Consumer 0[/FONT]

withabix

arcotplayer wrote: »

I've just had to replace 3 major appliances and believe me you can save serious money

Zanussi washing m/c average cost for the one i wanted £300 or more
I paid £217 inc; delivery, ordered from Homebase, they get them from Argos Direct,I don't mind, just feel sorry for those who go direct to Argos they'll pay a lot more

Found an Indisit cooker £137 saved £70 quid here also

Use the codes and do your homework

Good luck:beer:

Different issue in this case:

Homebase is part of Argos.