Some Spanish bike shops are trying to stop manufacturers selling to CRC.
http://antichainreaction.com/
claiming unfair pricing!
http://antichainreaction.com/
claiming unfair pricing!
Spanish bike shops vs CRC
- Thread starter kaiser
- Start date
They're just jealous. The pound is so low against the Euro it works out very cheap for guys in Eurozone countries to buy from the UK. When I last worked in high end photographic retail at about the time the recession started we used to get a lot of Europeans coming over and buying equipment from us. A buying a high end digital body in the UK saved them enough for the return air fare over local prices buying a body and a couple of lenses saved them enough to pay for a decent weekend break in London.
I used to be able to import loads from Japan back when the yen was at 220 to the pound, now it's at 135 or so it's not worth it. (Also explains why Shimano stuff is so much more expensive than it was 3 years ago.) Though that having been said, it is a brilliant time to sell stuff to Japan, got shot of some of my surplus retro camera gear over there last week
This sort of thing has been going on for a while now. The only way to stop places like CRC is to stop all grey imports, as a lot of stuff they sell comes from this source. Not really possible.
Windwave (the UK importers of Marzocchi) refuse to honour the warranty of any fork bought from CRC as it's supplied from outside the UK (that's what the engraved serial numbers are for). Anyone who buys a fork from them will have to send it back to CRC for warranty work. A bit inconvenient to say the least, as the fork will be away for a minimum of a week.
The other thing to bear in mind is that grey import stuff is usually OE, which means that it was bought by a cycle manufacturer to fit to their bikes. These parts are usually, but not always, lower spec (in features and materials) than the after-market equivalent.
There's a good reason why some stuff is significantly cheaper than official imports.
Windwave (the UK importers of Marzocchi) refuse to honour the warranty of any fork bought from CRC as it's supplied from outside the UK (that's what the engraved serial numbers are for). Anyone who buys a fork from them will have to send it back to CRC for warranty work. A bit inconvenient to say the least, as the fork will be away for a minimum of a week.
The other thing to bear in mind is that grey import stuff is usually OE, which means that it was bought by a cycle manufacturer to fit to their bikes. These parts are usually, but not always, lower spec (in features and materials) than the after-market equivalent.
There's a good reason why some stuff is significantly cheaper than official imports.
It's in every part of the retail industry and isn't anything new..
An example : I managed a pet shop in the (very) early 90's.. it was cheaper for us to go to Tesco and buy tins of Pedigree Chum to re-sell than it was to buy wholesale from any supplier who delivered to us.
An example : I managed a pet shop in the (very) early 90's.. it was cheaper for us to go to Tesco and buy tins of Pedigree Chum to re-sell than it was to buy wholesale from any supplier who delivered to us.
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