On Thu, 24 Feb 2005 20:02:36 +0000, Capitol
wrote:



Andy Hall wrote:
This strategy has worked for me to
goo cost effectiveness for many years. If there is a problem (and
there very rarely is, then the supplier fixes it. Simple as that.
And they do.


This philosophy only works when the manufacturer/supplier stays in
business. In todays world, this is increasingly unlikely. The production
efficiency required to survive in a global market place cannot be
attained with low volume products and increasing overhead costs. Just to
pick up a piece of paper costs over £10 in todays world. Repairing a DIY
tool is totally uneconomic.

Here is the fundamental misconception - that a DIY tool is
automatically associated with "cheap".

If you mean a "DIY grade" tool as the volume retail outlets have
defined and their hapless customers have accepted, then I take your
point. The customers have been pushed into the assumption that
"DIY" = "cheap", from a premise that "DIY" = "primarily a money saving
exercise" and doing everything for the lowest possible cost.

I don't accept either premise as far as my own purpose of doing DIY is
concerned. The primary purposes for me are to achieve a better
standard of work and quality of outcome than bringing somebody in will
typically achieve, to be able to do it at my convenience and not
theirs and to be able to enjoy doing it. If saving of some money
happens in the equation, then fine, but it is not my primary
objective.

In order to achieve all of these points, I want to use good quality
tools and materials that are going to be pleasurable to use all day if
needed, and that will produce a good quality result when used
properly. I don't want to waste time having to go and wait in
queues at DIY stores to get failed cheap tools replaced whether they
have a three year warranty or not. That is a time wasting,
frustrating and pointless exercise which benefits nobody.


Repairing professional tools is equally
uneconomic, both for the supplier and the user. If the supplier can
afford to repair the product , then the product is overpriced to start
with.

Another misconception. If the tool is designed and manufactured
properly in the first place, then it is unlikely to need repair and
will produce a quality result. If it does need repair, then it will
be economic to do so. I would rather see the manufacturer build in
a margin to be able to provide that level of product and service,
than to build it down to a cut price and not have that facility.


A good example is Miele, a washer controller is about £250, from
Miele. It is almost exactly the same as the unit in a Hoover Logic
series washing machine, which is available for £50. Both units come from
the same component supplier for about £10. The customer believes he is
buying reliability, tosh. He's buying a marketing image, in which a high
initial selling price, supports the service operation.

Presumably you have never had a Miele product. I have had Hoover in
the past and I now have only Miele white goods. There is an
enormous difference in build quality and reliability.

The days when any
European manufacturer produced a well engineered product IMO are long
gone, what you are left with is a marketing operation geared to minimum
production cost and maximum profitability. With a product production
life of 18 months, if you are lucky, and the necessity to resource all
your components every 2 years, because the supplier has disappeared,
service is a pipedream. Which manufacturer is going to shelf parts for
10 years supply? None!!

This is precisely because people have been convinced by retailers that
buying down to a price rather than buying quality and longevity is the
right thing to do.

In fact I can easily get spares for my Miele washing machine (all of
them) and that is more than 10 years old.



I recall your derogatory comments on not buying in Walmart, I
selectively do, as do most Americans that I know, from all levels of
society. Buying good value products is the mark of the intelligent user.

Exactly. That means looking at *all* of the issues and not just the
price. That is the point of buying intelligently and not just on
price and scam warranties.



--

..andy

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