How the %$#& is this possible?

[Bike Mob]

CWC = Chris Willemse Cycles

LBS= Local Bike Shop (Generalization)

 

[Montblanc]

[LazyTrailRider]

Tarmac' date=' Popeye's question is very valid. Do you really want the pain of dealing with people's complaints? To go head-to-head with any established shop is admirable, but foolish. You will need to carry the stock that they do to compete.

 [/quote']

 

Few people understand the support thing. And I'm not just talking about at distributor level, I'm talking at all levels. Anyone who's ever sold anything to "end-users" (inverted commas on purpose) knows that it can be a royal pain in the ass... and pain in the ass, in business, always means cost.

 

Many years ago, I was in the business of selling PCs, peripherals, etc to "end-users". Inevitably, there will always be *someone* who'll have some issue that needs to be taken care of, whether it's fair (ie legit warranty claim) or not (ie "my stuff is broken, and it's your fault, fix it!")

 

Just to field questions, to apologise, to be friendly and promise, to organise warranty repairs, even to keep to the person in the loop with what's going on, costs money. Heck, to have someone available for people to ask even routine stupid questions costs money. Much more than most non-business-owners will usually understand.

 

I'm not saying that:

Distributors' margins are always warranted (because often they may not be)

Distributors/retailers always have these support structures in place

Rather, to just claim that you can import something from China and sell it for half the price and thus everyone who's not doing that is ripping you off, is foolish at best...

Sadly, what usually happens in distributor scenarios is that the intention and justification of margins is that of a service/support structure. The reality though, is that it is just that... a justification; and it's very easy for the business in question to plan to offer support, but to never actually do it.

 

It happens everywhere, not just the cycling industry!

[butafly]

agree with you martinhattingh, thats why i would rather deal with crc or totalcycling whose items are still in the correct wrapping than with cwc whose goodies are wrapped up in foreign newspaper (hopefully thats changed). just the way their goods are delivered gives me peace of mind when dealing with crc / totalcycling. 

[Icycling]

Have any of you paid over R10.00 for a 500ml Coke - yet at Pick 'N Pay it about R5.00 same applies here!

 

 

 

What I have noticed since I put my DA groupsets at R16 995.00 CWC droped his price from off the top of my head R19k plus!

 

 

 

On the plus side I had have been told I will get a better price on DA next week out of Europe and I paid a while back when the euro was closer to R11 to the euro! I suspect that my new DA price will be round R15 995.00 taking all these factors in consideration!