Buy from NZ? I tried but come on...

[oldguy]

price is what drives me,

I am a customer, with a limited amount of money, so have no loyalty to local buissness,
if I can get it cheaper else where (overseas) than thats where my money goes.

[ynot slow]

Ok my perspective,recieved a chain oiler via UK recently,emailed the company about twin nozzles as mine was sent as single,recieved reply on Tuesday(email sent Sunday arvo)telling me their kiwi agent had them.Rang said agent and he gave me relevant info.Cost $42 kiwi,delivery took 10 days or so,and unbeknown available here for $60 approx.

Compare that to a huge company in Auckland selling bike gear etc,saw on trademe they're selling chain and sprocket sets at good price,with upgrades available on chains,rang Tues 18th for info,got nice lady who took my contact number and bike details,guess what I had no reply,sure lady may have passed on message,but no one phoned me back.This seems to be the issue here in kiwiland,the laxadaisy attitude to business not placing importance on follow up.

I was given a message about a quote a lady required last Friday arvo,rang ladies cell and left answer,this week rang and noted times of calls,at least 15 calls and messages twice still no reply.

[wide chicken strips]

I just imported some stuff from the states for my bike and a friends. While I made some decent savings on my stuff, it was the part I got for my friend that blew me away. Honda want to charge over $600 for the seat cover for a 2009 CBR1000RR. That's $600+ for a piece of plastic smaller than the cover of a magazine. Yes it comes painted and with decals. However I bought the same part for him from America for US$164 (NZ$210), add on shipping, customs and GST it still came out at being under half price.

Seriously. It's a fucking joke. I know it's not the dealers who set the price (thanks Blue Wing) but $600 for a fucking piece of plastic? After this experience (took less than 2wks to get here right on xmas time) I know I'll be looking overseas first. Sure I'll still look at NZ suppliers, but I won't be wasting any time if I find a similar situation to what I've just experienced.

So yes Robert Taylor and other staunch supporters of buying locally, I'd love to keep my money in NZ, keeping NZ'ers in jobs, keeping the NZ economy ticking along, but if it stays like this the only NZ companies I'll be supporting will be couriers.

I quite agree that importing from overseas...especially the USA can show you some decent savings over local pricing. It's a long, long time since I worked for a Honda motorcycle franchise but in the 1980's Blue Wing Honda had two tiers of discount they offered their dealers and I used to happily pass on the benefit of the cheaper option to customers. Basically Blue Wing used to offer dealers 25% (from memory) for parts ordered and shipped on the same day as ordered (assuming they were ex their Akld warehouse). If the dealers (and the customer) was prepared to wait for a weekly stock order I believe the discount may have been around 40%...and it was some or all of the extra discount that I used to pass on to the punters. There were pitfalls - If you ordered on the slowboat/weekly stock order basis I think the parts were non-returnable (to Blue Wing). This meant the dealer would probably want to be paid (at the discounted price) at the time of ordering as a safeguard against the customer never returning to pickup & pay for indented parts as this was a reasonably frequent & costly occurence. I wouldn't be in this least bit surprised if Blue Wing have discontinued the two tier discount option as a means of their increasing margin but it would not hurt you to investigate. It is also useful to tap into someone with guru like knowlege of your bikes spares as Honda (and I'm sure other manufacturers) would often have identical parts on different model bikes at totally different prices.Possibly Suzuki NZ et al had or have similar deals. Another tip for saving money on spare parts - Always buy a "naked" bike. A faired bike falling off its stand doing zero kph can do thousands of dollars of damage to itself while a naked bike will pick itself up, shake itself...and with a few hits of a Bronson Rock be totally roadworthy again for nix. Cheers.

[Brian d marge]

Hang on a min
Just thought , Im not in NZ and I order from NZ all the time and the ones who get my repeat business are ,,,good , ( I wont say good because if you want to see customer service ,,Japan is, well good )

I will email, wait , no reply , move on ,,,

If however I get some sort of reply , my wallet loosens and while I may not be spending much ( about 3, 400 each order ) its regular and reliable

On the whole I have found Kiwi business ( possible the older ones ) to be crap at communication , but the ones who do communicate are also pretty damn good at what they do ( and most of the time quite competitive , Except one Christchurch rapid prototyping firm who tried 700 dollars for a gear lever , hey try 60 dollars from Holland !!!)

I just sent some designs of to the machine shop , a 150mm triangular bracket and 2 40mm spacers, old guy round the corner from me . 35 000 yen , nice bit of work all good , from America 25 000 and probably the same from NZ ( haven't checked )

So for me the prices are similar , ( tend to be ) , its the communication I look for also with say Japanese if you make a mistake and call out say 5mm thick , They will machine it to 5mm , where a kiwi will say , hey as supplied sheet is 5mm is that good enough ?? Saving lots of Money
The American machinist , just has a min tolerance ( which is very handy I might add ) , you just click the button marked cheap as f5%&k highlight and tolerance the important ones and send ... Really quick , half the time I don't bother with the title block..just draw and send

Now when I need to work with someone, one of my favorites is Steve Bridge , from F1 , soo accessible . a pleasure to do business with ( not that I have in a while ,,,my bad )

So while SOME may be ,,,idiot , Many are just a pleasure to deal with ,,,,and they come from

eermmm

New Zealand

Stephen

[MarkH]

I have to agree - plenty of good bastards here in NZ!

BUT:
There are products available here in shops that are imported by the one official NZ importer and in many cases that imported is concerned less with market share and more with making as much as possible on each item sold. Unlike some that bring in a good product and sell it for a fair price they push the boundaries of what the market will stand. When the price here is 2 1/2 times the RRP of USA instead of 1 1/2 times (maximum) like the exchange rate would suggest and when you can easily find that item for well under the RRP in the US (like 2/3 RRP or less) then where are you going to buy from?

To me this is a case by case sort of thing - I'll buy here where the NZ merchant is good to deal with and has what I want at a fair price (why wouldn't I) but not when the price here is a complete rip-off. Often there is nothing your local store can do, since it is the greedy importer whacking on the huge margin.

I guess I just prefer to pay NZ$150 for an item delivered to my door (from USA) rather than NZ$250 from a local shop - I can find a good use for that $100 saved.

[warewolf]

Currently reading a travel book, written by an American traveling to Europe. Here's a passage that caught my eye, in light of this discussion about service:

We are getting used to tidy, noiseless waiters, who glide hither and thither, and hover about your back and your elbows like butterflies, quick to comprehend orders, quick to fill them; thankful for a gratuity without regard to the amount; and always polite--never otherwise than polite. That is the strangest curiosity yet--a really polite hotel waiter who isn't an idiot.

So, who wrote that, and when?

Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad, first published 1869.

Seems there are some things the New Worlds are slow to learn!