Snowfoam lance etc

[Rosie]

I decided to save a ton of $$$ and order straight from the autobritedirect shop in the uk .. was delivered in 1 - 1.5 weeks.

So did I, but this is what I got back from Autobrite Direct.

Hi there,

Thanks for your recent order, due to the increase in volume of Foam lance orders from Australia we are now re-directing all the orders through our distributor in Australia, Car Care Australia. Please contact Mike @ Car Care Australia to place your order. We will refund your payment ASAP!

Many Thanks

Jill @ Autobrite Direct

I have sent the following to Autobrite,

I am very disappointed to receive the message below. The reason stated
for not accepting my order insults one's intelligence, and I see nothing
to be gained from persuing a sensible explaination of it.

When I placed my order, had it accepted, and had my payment confirmed I
was under the impression that I had just completed a commercial
transaction in good faith with a reputable firm.

As for Care Care Products, I have been a satisfied customer of theirs
for the last two years or so, but purchased from you as I could not
justify on any basis paying an additional 49% of your purchase price and
shipping for the same item from them. I still can't justify it and so
have no intention of buying it from Car Care Products unless they were
to match your price.

I have revisited your Autobrite Direct website, and see no disclaimers
regarding Australian orders. In fact, I am still able to change
currencies to AUD to purchase the foam lance. That being the case I have
resubmitted my order.

Should I be given any further reason to suspect that Autobrite was
refusing to sell to Australian customers in collusion with Car Care
Products I would immediately cease to be a CCP customer, and move camp
to their main competitor in Melbourne.

I'll post here what happens, but if they knock me back again I'll buy this foam lance from Q Washers on eBay instead, which upon reflection I should have just done in the first instance. As seen below, the Q Washers lance seems to do the same job, and will be about $72 including postage, and after taking off the 20% VAT not applicable to non-EU shipments.

[Big_M]

Man I hope they work it out for you. I know what you mean about inflated prices. I had the same argument with a local / overseas company.

I'm sure when these companies buy in bulk they get a discount and pay less than the stated UK price minus 20% VAT.

[Rosie]

It seems that Autobrite Direct UK are now able to cope with the apparent deluge of orders they are receiving from Australia as I have received a pro forma email from them informing that my order status is now "processing".

I'm sure when these companies buy in bulk they get a discount and pay less than the stated UK price minus 20% VAT.

A couple of things about the comment above. I don't bother doing the following for small purchases, but if making a purchase for a larger amount on eBay or through a website from a seller in an EU country I simply contact the seller and advise them that the end destination is Australia, and as a non-EU country we are VAT exempt. I ask to be invoiced with purchase price minus the VAT, and shipping. I've always done this, and I've never had anyone baulk at it. It's really simple. If you're in Australia you don't have to pay EU VAT. It used to be 12%, but since the GFC has gone to 20% in many EU member states, and the official EU maximum rate is 25%. Unless you tell a seller you are exempt they will charge it.

Autobrite's online store is so well set up that there are VAT as well as shipping calculators. The VAT calculator applies the varying rates dependent on the shipping address (Australia is listed. Rate 0%), and the shipping calculator applies postage rates dependent on end destination, and preferred shipping method. It's a very sophisticated set up, which is why the message about "the increase in volume of foam lance orders from Australia" was BS, and its motive blatantly obvious.

I've no axe to grind with CCP. In fact, I've always found them very helpfull, which of course has resulted in me purchasing their recommended products. Win win. I know CCP are VWWW sponsors, are the mods of this section of the forum, and would have no problem identifying me from my email to Autobrite. This forum is for information sharing, and if I can save nearly $50 on an item that other members are thinking of buying then I owe it to them to tell them how. In this particular case CCP's price just isn't competitive. The obvious question is why not? Why is it that as a non-trade retail customer I can import a single unit of an item 49% cheaper than CCP are retailing it for when presumeably, as Australia's Autobrite distributor, they are buying the same item by bulk order at wholesale prices? And that's after they've "discounted" it $20 from $139.95 to $119.95.

[Corey_R]

The obvious question is why not? Why is it that as a non-trade retail customer I can import a single unit of an item 49% cheaper than CCP are retailing it for when presumeably, as Australia's Autobrite distributor, they are buying the same item by bulk order at wholesale prices?

The same reason why no other Australian retailer can compete with overseas prices on items which are not "high volume sell through". You are not having to add your home loan/rent overhead, wages, electricity, water, rates, marketting, training, insurance, etc etc etc. Australia is an expensive place to do business due to so many things. The company I work for has at times been the largest company in the world (as in the largest of any company, not just in its field). They operate in almost all countries in the world. They currently consider Australia the most expensive country to operate in. They're just providing services here and not any goods, but they'd rather employ 25 people in India to replace a single Australian due to the operational cost differences. The unfortunate thing, is they actually have done this several times

Anyway. It's a complex situation, one that I feel is going to get far worse for Australia before it gets better...

[Rosie]

Never mind that my email to Autobrite Direct was never even acknowledged, now four days after being advised that my re-order was processing I have recieved this,

As per our previous email, we are no longer shipping orders to Australia. This is mainly due to the ever increasing postal costs, and we have had a number of parcels getting lost in the post .
Please contact Mike @ car care products to place any future foam lance orders.

Regards

Jill

The English have a quaint term for the sort of expaination such as the one I've received, Bollocks!!!

If Jill's previous email, as posted on this thread in full, had have said anything about Autobrite "no longer shipping orders to Australia" I wouldn't have reordered.

According to Jill it also seems that the Royal Mail is no longer what it used to be. At least not for services to Australia. As Autobrite Direct still uses it for every other country they ship to I can only assume the services to everywhere except Australia are still affordable and reliable. I wouldn't have thought the affordability an issue at all really, given that I'm the one paying it.

A wise man once told me that the best part of banging your head against a wall is when you stop. I'll now buy the Q Washers foam lance, and report how it goes when I've used it. This whole episode has left a bad taste in my mouth, and while I've been happy to use and recommend Care Care Products in the past, I'll be getting my supplies from Wax It, or another company with equally competitive pricing, and customer support, in future.

[bluefrog]

They could at least have the decency to tell the truth, being that, quite obviously they've negotiated an exclusive distribution agreement. I won't moan too much here as there are obvious conflicts of interest, but I will certainly shop around when my current lance goes to car-wash heaven.

Like many other overseas companies, they seem to share the opinion that we Aussies appreciate getting screwed.

[Mi16 Man]

CCP has already proved much better re customer service.

I'd happily give CCP the 'retail' margin which is essentially, much less than a tank of fuel.

Also consider, if the snow lance is broken on delivery, CCP could turn it around very quickly. Sending it back to the UK, would/could take a veeerrry long time.

[Rosie]

CCP has already proved much better re customer service.

I'd happily give CCP the 'retail' margin which is essentially, much less than a tank of fuel.

Also consider, if the snow lance is broken on delivery, CCP could turn it around very quickly. Sending it back to the UK, would/could take a veeerrry long time.

I don't buy that much that often that I need to have a personal relationship with my Duragloss provider.

The retail margin might be less than a tank of fuel, but CCP are obviously happy to have an arrangement with a company which they know is lying to thier customers in order to protect their market. Why would I want to continue to give them any of my money for products I can readily get elsewhere?

I've bought a Bluetooth unit from Poland, an Rns 510 for my wife's Golf from Lithuania, and have been shopping globally on the intrrnet for things from shoes to cutter foils for my electric razor. All without a hitch. After being screwed by Autobrite, and by extension CCP, who have read this thread and have remained silent, I'm more than happy to take my chances by ordering the Q Washers foam lance from the UK.



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[Transporter]

I don't buy that much that often that I need to have a personal relationship with my Duragloss provider.

The retail margin might be less than a tank of fuel, but CCP are obviously happy to have an arrangement with a company which they know is lying to thier customers in order to protect their market. Why would I want to continue to give them any of my money for products I can readily get elsewhere?

I've bought a Bluetooth unit from Poland, an Rns 510 for my wife's Golf from Lithuania, and have been shopping globally on the intrrnet for things from shoes to cutter foils for my electric razor. All without a hitch. After being screwed by Autobrite, and by extension CCP, who have read this thread and have remained silent, I'm more than happy to take my chances by ordering the Q Washers foam lance from the UK.

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Good for you!

But sometimes people are prepared to pay a bit more to get local back up for the product they buy and just to be sure that the product is not a faik, cheap copy or is working properly.

I found CCP prices very reasonable.

[fuzion]

Ccp are currently in the process of moving still which may explain their lack of response and apparently are one staff down as well I've been told.

In my own opinion you seem to harp on a lot about very little.

If a company like many choose a distributor in another country clearly it's for a reason. And even if you don't agree their ethics on resale, maybe it is best to go elsewhere instead of bad mouthing companies because they are or could be following a written agreement of distribution of their products.

I have personally have something similar happen when i ordered from the uk for VW parts few years ago. And twice on eBay. Shipping from UK for anything isn't cheap and this I know as I purchase a lot from over there online.

I accept your frustration however you could of maybe contacted Ccp since apparently you are a good customer and possibly asked for a better deal to compete which I am sure they would of happily done so, instead of the banter due a agreement they possibly may have with autobrite.

You also do clearly not understand how much costs are involved for a business to import products. Any business owner who imports can tell you that most products singular could be purchased probably cheaper online however for a business to import these they have duties, shipping, the weight of the large amount of products costing considerable sum to ship as well as taxes and their overheads.

If you got a bad taste in your mouth because they have an agreement which you tried to go around and not contact the distributor for your Country then personally your the one who puts a bad taste in my mouth for poor form, lack of respect for Australian retailers and maybe best you shop elsewhere as they deserve loyal customers who support them as they support in return.

To add, I recently bought 3 sets of rotors which I could of bought from tirerack quite cheap or german auto parts but as I tend to like to Support Australian Business' and have purchased from Preeny on here who has competed incredibly well on pricing for me and has organized Everything as shipping was costly and slow from tirerack.

It took just One email of contact to discuss things and crack a deal.

You should try it next time dude.

It doesn't hurt and it may just get you the result and answer you want.

Just my 2psi about all this lol