Rutlands - Sneaky

[Duncan A]

We all know that Rutlands (and others) manipulate prices up and down to make their "offers" look particularly good but it's even sneakier than I had realised.
Yesterday, I was looking at some lathe chucks on their website and found the XT650 Precision Scroll Chuck Complete Kit at £119.95
http://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+woodworkin ... a+xt650kit

and the XT700 Kit at £69.95
http://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+woodworkin ... kota+xt700

Both appear to be good value, but I thought it was worth waiting for one of their 15% off deals.....which by an amazing coincidence arrived this morning. BUT, when I went to the Rutlands website today, I found that both items had increased in price by £10 overnight so the 15% discount is actually about 8% in the case of the XT650, and almost nothing in the case of the XT700.

Very sneaky and, I suspect, borderline illegal.
Why do they think this helps sell stuff, when it just means that many potential customers are permanently put off buying from them?

Duncan

 

[mouppe]

In New York, if you buy something and it goes on sale within two weeks, you are entitled to a refund of the difference. I always thought this was a fair practice.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AJB Temple]

I had never heard of Rutland until I joined this site. I've met in person three members from this site so far and two of them have recommended suppliers for stuff.... and warned me off Rutland. It is an almost textbook example of negative groupthink and has subtly embedded itself in my mind, such that even though I have never bought anything from them, I am now quite wary.

I have no idea what the reach of this site is, but the negativity can't be great for their business model. They cannot quantify their missing sales as a result of it.

 

[Selwyn]

They are a bit dodgy but you get occassional good deals

 

[banjerbill]

Rutlands epitomize everything bad about online trading. They just don't seem to give a stuff for their customers. Because they are supplying a small niche market their sharp practices don't attract the sort of public attention that a more mainstream business would. This forum alone must have put off many people from using them by publishing perfectly fair criticism. I think their days are numbered. Shame because too many woodworking suppliers are closing and the choice is getting smaller and smaller. That said we don't need people like this.

Bill

 

[takeaflight]

Hi everyone newby here, been lurking awhile. Had my first experience with Rutlands this week, not good they had, an offer on 6 sash clamps which I ordered together with a couple of other bits and bobs, also they was offering a buy one get one free on guide clamps, on the checkout page I had to put in two codes to get the deal, these was registered and I paid. Confirmation email came together with would I review type email, as I hadn't received the goods I didn't open them.
The stuff arrived and I was a guide clamp missing, on phoning I was told that you can only have one offer at a time on a order and if you read at the end of the description it does actually say this. I never noticed. I said therefore I would like to return the clamp, which they no problems here's a number to quote, and you will have to package and pay the postage, but of course the item is longer then a metre so very costly.

I do understand I should have read the terms and conditions, also the confirmation email omitted the guide clamp. But the software IMO should not accepted my iniatal order or at least flagged up there was a problem.

Needless to say I won't be using them again.

Roy

 

[lurker]

Fair practice and rutlands in the same sentence does not compute

 

[RossJarvis]

I am aware of many not being overly chuffed by Rutlands. However on the one and only time I've bought something from them, a couple of parts were missing but following an email they did respond very quickly with the replacements arriving the next day, which impressed me.

 

[Duncan A]

As I said in my first post, I think their pricing policy is borderline illegal but, in their defence, they do have some good deals occasionally - you just have to be very careful and check prices elsewhere, as well as price movements on their own website. Much of the Dakota stuff is very poor quality in my opinion, and not fit for purpose, but I have returned items in the past without any difficulties and without delays in getting a refund.

As a consequence of the pricing and quality concerns, I rarely bother looking at their website and therefore very rarely buy anything from them. Not a good business model in my view, but I guess they are after a different sort of customer so they don't mind losing my trade.

Duncan

 

[RobinBHM]

They have a lovely website and the product photography is excellent.

Some of the products are very good ideas.

A have bought their brad point drill bits which are very good at the offer price.

I think it is very much the wrong marketing strategy for its target audience.

 

[misterfish]

I've bought various things frm Rutlands over many years and have never had a problem with them. The orders have always arrived quickly and complete. I've also bought various things from Axminster over the years and received excellent service from them as well.

Misterfish

 

[Rhossydd]

In New York, if you buy something and it goes on sale within two weeks, you are entitled to a refund of the difference. I always thought this was a fair practice.

If it were a 'sale' they couldn't do it in the UK, but it's a carefully manipulated offer of little real value.

I've only bought from them once, which was no problem and a fair price, but the tales of woe here about them have substantially put me off buying anything else from Rutlands.

 

[RobinBHM]

There is an ever increasing lack of transparency in the current culture in sales, on the high street, online with products, mobile phone contracts, energy supply, saving accounts, car insurance etc etc.

What it means is buyers have to to spend more and more time analysing the deals to find the underlying real price which is a waste of time for all of us.

I really dont think this type of marketing is appropriate for a target audience of a specialist craft market and its a shame Rutlands believe it to be a sound business model.

I used to buy office stationery from a large supplier (V....g) and got just so fed up of having to trawl through their latest 'sales catalogue' for the product codes that relate to the best price. They send me a catalogue almost weekly and they use different prices all the time for the same product, but with a different product code so you can only get the best price by finding the code with the lowest price. Really....there are better things to be getting on with.

 

[AJB Temple]

I agree with this. I have been looking to replace my old Ryobi battery drill (which has served me well for about 10 years) and am looking at Milwaukee 18 volt 5.0Ah drill and impact driver sets. Milwaukee have just introduced (in August) the second generation model of their heavy duty Fuel series, but it is the devils own job to tell from internet offers whether they are selling the new tool, the old tool, or the old tool with upgraded 5 amp hour batteries. It is so frustrating that it has pretty much put me off!

 

[Wizard9999]

A number of the emails telling me they have x% off over have tempted me to look at their site. But whenever I have I find that any of the non-Dakota items I want have mysteriously gone out of stock and then come back in stock as soon as the offer is over :roll: . Maybe I am just too slow off the mark, as to be fair other non-Dakota items do still show as in stock.

But then to be fair the one time I did buy something from them everything arrived and it was all perfectly reasonable stuff.

Terry.

 

[woodenstx]

I used to buy office stationery from a large supplier (V....g) and got just so fed up of having to trawl through their latest 'sales catalogue' for the product codes that relate to the best price. They send me a catalogue almost weekly and they use different prices all the time for the same product, but with a different product code so you can only get the best price by finding the code with the lowest price. Really....there are better things to be getting on with.

CPC do the same, its quite infuriating, and confusing at the same time. The postage must cost them money, printing and warehousing the catalogues must cost money, yet I get 3-4 different price lists a week from them and you cant buy for the low price by simply searching the site. I've no idea how they make their money (well ok, they must do by getting sales in the higher priced but still its odd)

 

[Lonsdale73]

We all know that Rutlands (and others) manipulate prices up and down to make their "offers" look particularly good but it's even sneakier than I had realised.
Yesterday, I was looking at some lathe chucks on their website and found the XT650 Precision Scroll Chuck Complete Kit at £119.95
http://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+woodworkin ... a+xt650kit

and the XT700 Kit at £69.95
http://www.rutlands.co.uk/sp+woodworkin ... kota+xt700

Both appear to be good value, but I thought it was worth waiting for one of their 15% off deals.....which by an amazing coincidence arrived this morning. BUT, when I went to the Rutlands website today, I found that both items had increased in price by £10 overnight so the 15% discount is actually about 8% in the case of the XT650, and almost nothing in the case of the XT700.

Very sneaky and, I suspect, borderline illegal.
Why do they think this helps sell stuff, when it just means that many potential customers are permanently put off buying from them?

Duncan

Rutlands, like many retailers, regularly promote specific lines with an offer of some sort, e.g. X amount off, two for one etc and these usually have a limiting factor - today only, while stocks last - so I don't think it is so much sneaky as unfortunate timing that one offer should expire as another begins.

Recently, I was looking into the prices of a Festool Domino. One supplier was offering it in a variety of configurations (Domino only, Domino plus accessories, Domino, accessories plus dominos) with each appearing to represent bit of a saving. However, on closer inspection, the all inc package worked out dearer than buying the individual components. They have a similar situation this week with another line where buying the individual pieces represents better value than buying the 'package'. I don't for a moment think this is them being sneaky, simply a kind of unwanted synergy, one of those rare occasions when the sum of the parts is greater than individual parts.

Caveat emptor needn't apply solely to dodgy dealings, with so many factors affecting prices it really does pay to pay attention.

One other thing, Rutlands checkout process does (or certainly did) flag up the use of multiple codes, the last one entered taking precedence over any entered earlier and particularly for BOGOF offers this will reflect immediately in the basket.

 

[Duncan A]

Rutlands, like many retailers, regularly promote specific lines with an offer of some sort, e.g. X amount off, two for one etc and these usually have a limiting factor - today only, while stocks last - so I don't think it is so much sneaky as unfortunate timing that one offer should expire as another begins.

I accept that the name of the game nowadays is to manipulate prices up and down to create perpetual "special offers" but this was marketed as an extra 15% off and I think it unlikely that the addition of £10 to the chucks was due to poor timing, so this really does come across to me as somewhat cynical marketing.

Having said that, we all know this sort of thing goes on, and it's up to the individual to do his research and decide how much something is worth. Personally, I can't be bothered monitoring prices too closely and if I don't think a stable "real" price is available, I often end up simply not buying due to the confusion engendered.

So I'll be seeing what's on offer in Harrogate in a couple of weeks time!

Duncan

 

[GroundFig]

I've bought from them a few times and had a satisfactory service. They are by no means the first place I look, but occasionally have something that other places don't and can sometimes offer good value. Agree that there pricing strategy is generally not great.

 

[Lonsdale73]

Rutlands, like many retailers, regularly promote specific lines with an offer of some sort, e.g. X amount off, two for one etc and these usually have a limiting factor - today only, while stocks last - so I don't think it is so much sneaky as unfortunate timing that one offer should expire as another begins.

I accept that the name of the game nowadays is to manipulate prices up and down to create perpetual "special offers" but this was marketed as an extra 15% off and I think it unlikely that the addition of £10 to the chucks was due to poor timing, so this really does come across to me as somewhat cynical marketing.

Having said that, we all know this sort of thing goes on, and it's up to the individual to do his research and decide how much something is worth. Personally, I can't be bothered monitoring prices too closely and if I don't think a stable "real" price is available, I often end up simply not buying due to the confusion engendered.

So I'll be seeing what's on offer in Harrogate in a couple of weeks time!

Duncan

Someone very kindly sent me a voucher for £50 off a Festool Extractor. The issuer was selling the model I wanted for £275 and I emailed them to ask how I redeem the voucher. Four days later and I've still not received a reply but note the extractor has gone up by £20, effectively reducing the voucher vale to £30, always assuming anyone ever gets back to before either a) voucher expires or b) price rises again by enough to offset the discount. Are they being sneaky? I don't think so.