Axminster Tools New Year price hikes AMAZING

[Mooeee]

Just been looking at Axminster power tools web site and have had to have a double take at the prices, before Christmas I had been looking at buying a new Milling machine but thought I would wait until Christmas was over and get one ordered, Can't belive that the machine I was looking at has had a price increase of wait for it 28% it's gone from £5,249.94 inc VAT up to an amazing £6,719.95 inc VAT =D> . What makes this price hike even more strange is that I was originally looking at getting a Sieg SX4 with Digital read out which pre Christmas price was £3,699.95 without stand and I made enquires to ship the same Sieg SX4 machine direct from Sieg in China and was quoted £1535.00 including shipping and Taxes in China.... before anyone says I know I would have to add a percentage import duty which is around 5% and 20% Vat but still comes in a lot cheaper less than £2000 it would have to be collected from a port of my choice here in the UK, now the new Axminster price for the Sieg SX4 is £4079.95 inc VAT which is a 10.25% price increase =D> . I may need to now look at ordering the bigger machine from china.

Have anybody else noticed big percentage price increases from Axminster Power Tools ?????????????????????????????????.


Shame My wages don't go up at these rates I'd be able to buy all the tools I want. (hammer)

 

[Bodgers]

Yep, seems to be across pretty much everything they sell as well.

Do what I did and take your business elsewhere...

 

[RogerP]

The reason is Axminster's catalogue prices (published at the beginning of the year) usually last for whole of the coming year. So the time to buy from them is at the end of a year - not at the start.

 

[Bodgers]

Which is a strategy so antiquated, is laughable really.

 

[Chrispy]

Well me thinks some one's got to pay for the new store!

 

[woodpig]

As far as the machines go either Axminster supply better machines or maybe they're making more profit. No way of knowing really?!

 

[Mooeee]

Nearly almost all machines come from China and if you buy a Sieg milling machine they have all come from the same factory no matter who sells them.

 

[Harbo]

This happens every year and the Company is still in business.

Rod

 

[RobinBHM]

It is certainly nice to be able to browse through a tool catalogue that has prices and the Axminster catalogue is extremely well produced. I have always kept a copy on hand as a reference guide. However I find I refer to Axminster less and less nowadays and rarely buy anything, as their prices have become top end retail and for hand power tools they dont have a full enough range.

An annual catalogue, fixes prices for a full year and means items like hand power tools quickly become out of date.

I tend to look at Its London, LawsonHIS which are both generally keen for Makita, DeWalt and Milwaukee.

Ivd always found Axminster very reliable and good customer service, so its a shame they are no longer competitive on pricing. I do wonder if their stores are a reason for pricing to be high, it seem to me that the high pricing coincided with the expansion of their number of stores. Ive not been into a store but assume the prices are the same as the catalogue price. Overheads on retail shops must be higher than mail order, so maybe pricing has been averaged out to allow for this. I know toolstation etc have the same pricing online and in store, but their stores are more warehouses so a different business model.

Does anybody remember when Axminster tried doing their own deliveries? I had a few items delivered in Axminster sign written vans.

 

[Mooeee]

Yes I do appreciate that point of still being in business and when you can ship a machine for under £2000 and sell it for over £4000 that is if they sell many of them at the extortionate prices. They should be able to have a store in every city. Still doesn't mean they won't go bust, there is a limit as to what the average worker can pay for tools.

 

[Bodgers]

This happens every year and the Company is still in business.

Rod

I'm not sure if this is a mantra for long term success in any business...

 

[DiscoStu]

All companies will sell a product for what they think they can sell it for. The cost of them buying it is irrelevant. Most people won't want the hassle of buying something so big heavy and expensive direct from China, what happens if it goes wrong, or is delivered damaged etc. As with all things in life "you pays your money you take your chance". Axminster have excellent customer service and aftercare and they also have big shops where you can go and look at / play / test kit out and ask about items. This all costs money and as such Axminster are never going to be as cheap as someone who just has an online presence. They need to pay for all of this value add.

I'd suggest that on such an expensive item you could explain things to them and ask if they will match Decembers pricing? No harm in asking and you'd obviously get the after care.

 

[Mooeee]

I have to admit I am not a business man, but my reasoning has always been sell items and make a fair profit and you will sell more, sell for high end prices and make huge profits will initially get you the same profit by selling fewer but will drive customers away and maybe those customers do not come back not even to check the prices. I do also appreciate that material prices go up so the end product has to go up, but really a price increase of 28% must be far in excess of any material price increases even if the tool prices are set at the beginning of the year. I don't even think car prices go up at 28% a year.
I know that you do get good after sales service from axminster as I have had in the past, but you are still paying top prices for the service and never expect to get the service for free. The only hassel of ordering from China is that you have to collect from a port yourself, you do find that you have to select the right axminster shop to go too as not all stores have on hand everything to try out. Maybe yes something may go wrong but you do still have more of your money in the bank, On the Sieg SX4 you would have over £2000 still in the bank than if you purchase the machine from here.

 

[shed9]

To be fair, most other large suppliers don't change their core pricing more than once a year either and theirs are not always negative changes either.

I don't see the justification that Axminster has for the large increases it imposes at the start of every year; 28% on a £5k+ item is taking the proverbial. Their profit margins on some items are already way above those of other retailers, the SX4 for example was already taking close to 100% mark-up comparative to direct supply - so why an extra 10%.

This smacks of accountants to me, a complete lack of understanding of the market and it's customer base. Sure they will get away with it for a while but there will be a tipping point when the company is no longer viable in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I like the fact that Axminster exists, they have a good range but if they keep this up they will just become a supplier of well published catalogues.

 

[Rhossydd]

before anyone says I know I would have to add a percentage import duty which is around 5% and 20% Vat but still comes in a lot cheaper less than £2000 it would have to be collected from a port of my choice here in the UK,

Actually from a quick google, import duty appears to be 1.7% for that item at the moment. You're very likely to get hit for a handling charge to deal with the import paperwork at some point, although that might not be very high.
You'll need to factor in the costs of having it collected and shipped from a port too.
Another important factor is insurance; big items like this can and do get damaged or lost in transit. Do the costs quoted to you include the full cost of this and are they credible, ie could you successfully claim for a loss ? (Think of how you'd deal with the costs of damage in transit on mainland China, how good is your Manadrin ?). Big companies use shipping agents to deal with these issues and that costs.
Also think of what you'd do if the machine arrives with a fault. There's enough evidence of poor QA from China that this should be a real concern. The major importers just take a bit off another in stock. You might have to disassemble and remove the part and pay to have it shipped back to China for inspection or replacement, and maybe have to pay for the shipping on the replacement part(if they accept liability and you don't have to pay for the part).

These are the types of issue that cause importers to have such apparently high mark ups, providing decent UK standards of customer service cost a lot.

Yes, you might get lucky and get a good machine, delivered in good time at a bargain price.....or not. How much do you like to gamble ?

 

[Willy]

Shame My wages don't go up at these rates I'd be able to buy all the tools I want. (hammer)

Your wages might not but the wages of Chinese factory workers are growing by about 15% a year.

Coupled with the Chinese Yuan (RMB) gaining in value over the last few years I think it's understandable the prices are going up. Manufacturing in China is getting to be the same price as manufacturing anywhere else. It's something we'll have to get used to.

As for the markup on imported products, 50% margin or (100% markup) is a standard amount. I wouldn't want the financial risk and burden of importing high ticket items (or even high stock levels of cheap stuff) without doubling my money. That's before even considering the costs of running the business.

Ultimately Axminster are entitled to (attempt to) charge whatever they like for their goods and services. It's part of being within a free market. Likewise we are all free to purchase elsewhere if we so choose.

 

[paulm]

Likewise we are all free to purchase elsewhere if we so choose.

And I frequently have and do !

They have proved to be significantly uncompetitive, not minor amounts or percentages, on a range of power tools and consumables that I have purchased in the last couple of years, for example £220 versus £130 recently on theexact same power tool and that was during their supposed sale !

Well worth checking prices elsewhere before buying from them, or anyone else really, with the benefits of the internet it's easy to check these days that you are not being ripped off, and then you can make an informed choice about whether you want or can afford to pay a little bit more, or a massive amount more, for shopping locally and/or customer service etc.

Cheers, Paul

 

[Aden30mm]

Mooeee

May be worth sourcing or getting a price from another distributor. I've bought items from Germany in the past and received good service and warranties are sound.

Here is Sieg distributor site, it worth using some of the links just for price comparison. P.S. the £ to Euro is at a good rate at this moment in time.

http://www.siegind.com/distributor.html


Good luck, buying items at top prices only allows the seller to push prices even higher. I've stopped using Axminster for all but chuck jaws.

Aden

 

[Mooeee]

Yes, you might get lucky and get a good machine, delivered in good time at a bargain price.....or not. How much do you like to gamble ?[/quote]

I appreciate that you may get something damaged in transit but I did find out about insurance, as for getting it collected, It would be collected by me from a port of my choice so although there is an additional cost for fuel it wouldn't be much. There is an element of gamble when you purchase an item from the internet a lot of items would not be a problem and most are money back if it goes T**s up. I do like the fact that you have a customer service that will put things right if it goes wrong or breaks when using, but there has to be a limit to how much you pay for this service, all my figures showing what I can get the same Sieg milling machine at over half the cost less of what Axminster are now selling for does not take into account how much they are paying when they order a quantity of machines so the difference will be an even bigger profit margin. As for outlets having high cost items on the shelf at their risk, the quantity that they buy in must be based on previous sales so if they only sell one machine in a certain period then they would be stupid to buy in 10 more units and put a mark up of (in this case 28%) and then wonder why they are not selling. I have no problem with anybody making a profit that's how the companies stay in business but how long do you stay in business if you don't sell the goods?. It has to be a chance I'm willing to take to save 50% on a purchase, it still seems to be the better option, the risk may not be for everyone liking and taking the chance, but I just hope that for the people who don't take a risk and keep buying from the likes of Axminster will just keep paying more and more for their tools. The one thing I have to ask is If you all where to take the time to think of how many things you have actually had to send back for repair, get an engineer out to fix or to get your money back (tools wise) I can bet there is not many of us that have, maybe a few of us have bought something and it not done what you thought it would which does not normally qualify for any money back. Most of these machines come in wooden crates and then inside a shipping container so must have a bit of a chance to come not smashed, as for not working what can I say it does happen, so lets hope it doesn't happen to what's in the wooden crate that has my address on it.

 

[Rhossydd]

There is an element of gamble when you purchase an item from the internet a lot of items would not be a problem and most are money back if it goes T**s up.

Sure. I've made plenty of personal imports from abroad and fully understand the risks, costs and benefits. I also know many other people that have gone down the personal import route and then found that when the final tally is calculated they haven't saved as nearly much as they'd expected, sometimes nothing at all.
An expensive, heavy machine tool is a different proposition from anything I've imported. It's not something you can easily send back and I doubt the manufacturer will offer any sort of refund policy if things go wrong.

That Axminster appear to add such a big mark up on these items ought to be a clue that things might not be as simple as you'd hope. Maybe they've found that 10% of them are junk and need a lot of post sales support or repair and that significant mark up reflects the hidden costs of junking some of the imports, holding spare machines for parts and associated support costs.