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

chalkysoil

unitedwestand, thanks for some interesting posts and your research. I knew that the mail order catalogues ( which I don't use) all seemed horribly similar, and that there are some companies linked (eg argos/homebase) but certainly didn't realise quite what was happening. There are still quite a few pages of MSE and the internet I haven't read (old in age, young in technology stuff)

Anyone know if Tesco online (re kitchen appliances particularly) is part of an affliates set up or something? Thanks.

Fern_Merkin

Hi OP

I found a similar thing when I tried price comparison sites. I have NEVER had trouble free shopping with any 'well known' retailer for larger items. Either they try to bul***it you or let you down re delivery. When I checked out my choices I found the washer I wanted for £80 cheaper than most and delivery by a local firm in the north west.

By reading reviews on a supplier I hadn't heard of at that time I decided to give them a punt.

http://www.apollo2000.co.uk/home.php

They were great, the machine was great and now they do free delivery apparently (£15 when I used em)

Took 1hr from old machine smoking to buying new and being phoned to arrange a delivery time of 3 working days. Well chuffed as they turned up when they said they would.

I have never recieved service of that quality from larger retailers. Maybe your point that it's all a bit generic is why? Uniform contempt for customers?

Stick with the smaller outfits, you mean more to them and it shows.

Fx

chalkysoil

I've just bought an oven from Tesco for £244.55, but on appliances direct it's £305.97. appliances online it's £236 plus delivery £30. I'm frazzled by it all.

worcestersaver

unitedwestand wrote: »

[FONT=&quot]Im learning now [/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]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]

Are you that lacking in the understanding of commerce?
If you really knew what goes on in retail you would be happy someone is able to lower product prices to the consumer.
"cloak and dagger", "extort" are the words of someone who is unhinged.
Get a life!

KevinEdwards

Hi,

There appears to be a little confusion over 'white labelling', that is a provider creating a service then repackaging it with other branding so that a retailer can offer that service. The Internet is full of these white labels, they're nothing new and, in the case of DRL, they're run as very cost effective and efficient services.

Now separate this from affiliate marketing as the two are different. Many retailers, DRL included, will run affiliate campaigns, using online companies to generate sales for them. Quidco, TopCashback, Nectar, Airmiles, CashbackKings and even MSE are all affiliates. There are thousands of them in the UK and many companies have created significant revenue generating companies through affiliate marketing.

The benefit of affiliate marketing is it's marketing for performance i.e. affiliates get paid for sales, not advertising, making it very attractive to retailers. It's also tremendously cost efficient for retailers, with the cost per sale through affiliate marketing being significantly less than newspaper, TV and even other Internet marketing channels.

Hope that helps,
Kevin

Turnip_Edd

.. Well!! Being a Noobie..and not ever buying anything like this OnLine... I feel the reference to 'bank charges' quite apt.
Were this (the core expose) to appear on the inner pages of The Sun (Telegraph readers would presumably be quite savvy, here, and have shares in DRL..) with celeb comment "..aghast, high street robbery, Premier replica shirts, inquiry, my MP.." then something might happen..LoL

NB.. didn't mention replica shirts by accident..

I am very pleased to have had an opportunity to read all this & learn something useful.... more use would be knowing the alternative, but then, it is in our hands to Rebel:beer:

Turnip_Edd

welshdeedee

Just had a very bad experience with Appliances direct. Website clearly states delivery charged at £19.99 would be 7-10 days and they will let you know if it will take longer, very very misleading.

They have failed to deliver my item and have not even bothered to contact me. Just rang their Customer services and they are not at all bothered. I am very cross.

My advice avoid avoid avoid them, their attitude was shocking!!