Has anyone ordered parts from John Craddock in the UK?
Pro Wrench
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,462
Likes: 32
From: Duxbury MA
There, see, I knew you could do it!
Anybody in retail can back up those statements. I definitely am a fan of the next day parts delivery here in New England. I also appreciate how I get a call when I place an order online and it looks like I forgot a necessary gasket or o-ring. Plus, I find British accents annoying.
Anybody in retail can back up those statements. I definitely am a fan of the next day parts delivery here in New England. I also appreciate how I get a call when I place an order online and it looks like I forgot a necessary gasket or o-ring. Plus, I find British accents annoying.
Baja
Joined: Aug 2013
Posts: 5,845
Likes: 368
From: Near Bordeaux, France
haha...I'll have you know I just finished paying off my parts account!
Anyways, there are several reasons why the price is higher here.
Supply and Demand: While Land Rovers seem to be a dime a dozen in the UK, they are less than 1% of the market here. When they are serviced, it's generally by a dealer, with their parts(have you seen THOSE prices!??!). To sum it up, there's not a large demand. It's not like an American vehicle where there's 1000 NAPA/O'reilly/Advanced auto etc stores across the country shoveling parts out left and right. We have to stock the correct amount of parts, and hope that we don't sit on them for a long time. But if we don't have something and it can't be aired in? That's more than a month wait usually and people will just buy it used/somewhere else. Every week we get an air shipment, that gets expensive, and then we make $0 off the parts after you factor in the freight.
Pricing: If you haven't noticed already, Land Rover parts companies in the UK are like Napa here, they run on ZERO margin. They make almost no money at all, but because of the volume they stay afloat. A lot of the companies you envision are some mega complex with parts warehouses etc are just a big garage with everything on shelfs and the ground. Their overhead is almost nil, and they have VERY few employees.
Cost: Because of their pricing structure they have no room for wholesale pricing discounts. I.E. if we buy from Craddock or someone of the like, we're paying pretty close to what you're paying, except we have 20 employees to pay for, as well as the infrastructure that is RN.
Support: This is a big one for me. We(RN) have a 1 year, unlimited mileage warranty. This is customer support that you won't always get with a company over the pond(and forget about shipping it back to them, it's not cheap). We also have a sales team, sponsorship team, and magazine team. People that are on the phone to try to figure out what's wrong with your vehicle, never pressuring you to buy anything. I am the sponsorship team essentially, and I send out a few dozen packages a year with products, gift cards, and promo swag. We mail 30,000 magazines out every year for free, and only 50% of that or less are parts, most are articles etc. I don't recall seeing anything like that from Craddock, but I could be wrong. Our return policy is also pretty amazing, up to 30 days it's 100% money back, and if you bought it for a restoration 2 years ago and never used it, you'll get up to 75% back.
Speed: When we get an order before 4pm any day of the week, it goes out that day via a shipping company of the customer's choice. 1 day to New England, 2 day all the way to western Illinois and as far south as Georgia, you get the point. When you have a return, we send you a shipping label, or send you the new part you need with a return label in the box. We want you back on the road too.
So in conclusion my point is we're not greedy, some people just don't understand how businesses work and that's fine. I am not stopping you from buying parts in the UK but it certainly does not help the progression of the industry in the States.
Cheers.
Anyways, there are several reasons why the price is higher here.
Supply and Demand: While Land Rovers seem to be a dime a dozen in the UK, they are less than 1% of the market here. When they are serviced, it's generally by a dealer, with their parts(have you seen THOSE prices!??!). To sum it up, there's not a large demand. It's not like an American vehicle where there's 1000 NAPA/O'reilly/Advanced auto etc stores across the country shoveling parts out left and right. We have to stock the correct amount of parts, and hope that we don't sit on them for a long time. But if we don't have something and it can't be aired in? That's more than a month wait usually and people will just buy it used/somewhere else. Every week we get an air shipment, that gets expensive, and then we make $0 off the parts after you factor in the freight.
Pricing: If you haven't noticed already, Land Rover parts companies in the UK are like Napa here, they run on ZERO margin. They make almost no money at all, but because of the volume they stay afloat. A lot of the companies you envision are some mega complex with parts warehouses etc are just a big garage with everything on shelfs and the ground. Their overhead is almost nil, and they have VERY few employees.
Cost: Because of their pricing structure they have no room for wholesale pricing discounts. I.E. if we buy from Craddock or someone of the like, we're paying pretty close to what you're paying, except we have 20 employees to pay for, as well as the infrastructure that is RN.
Support: This is a big one for me. We(RN) have a 1 year, unlimited mileage warranty. This is customer support that you won't always get with a company over the pond(and forget about shipping it back to them, it's not cheap). We also have a sales team, sponsorship team, and magazine team. People that are on the phone to try to figure out what's wrong with your vehicle, never pressuring you to buy anything. I am the sponsorship team essentially, and I send out a few dozen packages a year with products, gift cards, and promo swag. We mail 30,000 magazines out every year for free, and only 50% of that or less are parts, most are articles etc. I don't recall seeing anything like that from Craddock, but I could be wrong. Our return policy is also pretty amazing, up to 30 days it's 100% money back, and if you bought it for a restoration 2 years ago and never used it, you'll get up to 75% back.
Speed: When we get an order before 4pm any day of the week, it goes out that day via a shipping company of the customer's choice. 1 day to New England, 2 day all the way to western Illinois and as far south as Georgia, you get the point. When you have a return, we send you a shipping label, or send you the new part you need with a return label in the box. We want you back on the road too.
So in conclusion my point is we're not greedy, some people just don't understand how businesses work and that's fine. I am not stopping you from buying parts in the UK but it certainly does not help the progression of the industry in the States.
Cheers.
Last edited by OffroadFrance; Feb 8, 2014 at 11:46 AM.
No comment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pro Wrench
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 1,462
Likes: 32
From: Duxbury MA
Just kidding. I'm mostly of English descent, with roots in the US that go back well before the revolution. Which pretty much means my ancestors were run out of the UK.
By the way, I'm not originally from the Boston area but that's currently where I live. Talk about awful accents! Is the letter r really that offensive?
By the way, I'm not originally from the Boston area but that's currently where I live. Talk about awful accents! Is the letter r really that offensive?
Recovery Vehicle
Joined: Jan 2012
Posts: 1,126
Likes: 11
From: mini soda
If the price difference isnt too crazy, I order from RN just so I keep getting the magazines.
) vendors, although it is not advertised.
Super Moderator
Joined: Jul 2013
Posts: 5,794
Likes: 211
From: dallas texas
wait a minute. what is all this magazine bs. I only get, what appears to be, shredded documents used for packing. I figure that must be the "dispose of all damning documents" strategy, in the conspiracy.