Fwd: West Marine, but...
Return-path: JE1449@aol.com
From: JE1449@aol.com
Full-name: JE1449
Message-ID: 159.4583d49d.2ee11f36@aol.com
Date: Thu, 2 Dec 2004 20:45:26 EST
Subject: West Marine, but...
To: jim@starfish-marine.com
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I agree that West Marine is getting expensive. In fact I was at the New
Bedford, MA store today and mentioned to the manager the slamming they're getting
on the net.
To cut to the chase, he raised 2 good points.
The 1st, being the most important. If I make it to FL and have a problem w/
some item I bought from West Marine in N.E., any West Marine store in FL (or
the world for that matter) will take responsibility for the issue and help me
out.
2nd, they will match any catalog. For instance, I was at Jamestown
Distributors today and their medium sized "Git Rot" was 1/2 the price that it was at
West.
I am often offended by WM's prices, but they do match catalogs, and are most
gracious about returns.
I always over buy, as we live 2.5 hrs inland from Buzzards Bay, and the "Boat
Places" around here are useless.
All in all, I think they are a great store. I wanted some "anti Bond 2015"
which is supposed to break down 5200. Jamestown Distributors had not heard of
it, WM said "Isle 2, at the end cap"
Context is everthing, even me!!
JE
JE, good post. I believe the thread has featured the return policy afforded
by WM, which is valuable. One question for you, or the list, I see you say
they will match catalogs, but catalog operations are also disappearing, at
least from the ranks of heavy discounters. It's a cost to print and
distribute them, which is passed along to catalog prices. Will WM match a
price printed out from the Internet operations. Actually they are the ones
offering the best prices, and although a few may print catalogs, I've never
needed, seen or used them. I look up a price for what I'm buying at several
online suppliers, find the best one, factoring in taxes and shipping, and
then place my order. What are the odds that I could print out the price
from the retailer's web-site, take that into WM and have them match it?
That might be worthwhile.
Bob Peterson
47' Lien Hwa CMY
"Lopaka Nane"
San Francisco
-----Original Message-----
From: trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces@lists.samurai.com
[mailto:trawlers-and-trawlering-bounces@lists.samurai.com] On Behalf Of
JE1449@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 5:51 PM
To: trawlers-and-trawlering@lists.samurai.com
Subject: T&T: Fwd: West Marine, but...
I agree that West Marine is getting expensive. In fact I was at the New
Bedford, MA store today and mentioned to the manager the slamming they're
getting on the net.
To cut to the chase, he raised 2 good points.
The 1st, being the most important. If I make it to FL and have a problem w/
some item I bought from West Marine in N.E., any West Marine store in FL (or
the world for that matter) will take responsibility for the issue and help
me out.
2nd, they will match any catalog. For instance, I was at Jamestown
Distributors today and their medium sized "Git Rot" was 1/2 the price that
it was at West.
I am often offended by WM's prices, but they do match catalogs, and are most
gracious about returns.
I always over buy, as we live 2.5 hrs inland from Buzzards Bay, and the
"Boat Places" around here are useless.
All in all, I think they are a great store. I wanted some "anti Bond 2015"
which is supposed to break down 5200. Jamestown Distributors had not heard
of it, WM said "Isle 2, at the end cap"
Context is everthing, even me!!
JE
At 08:50 PM 12/2/2004 -0500, JE1449@aol.com wrote:
The 1st, being the most important. If I make it to FL and have a problem w/
some item I bought from West Marine in N.E., any West Marine store in FL (or
the world for that matter) will take responsibility for the issue and help me
out.
Don't bet on it. My dad's earlier post glossed over the major struggle that
he went through to return a defective windlass. The local store REFUSED to
do a return for a windlass which was purchased at a different store. They
said that a return would be greater than their income showing a negative
sales amount for the day and the manager didn't want that. This was for a
windlass that failed within a just a couple uses.
So the bottom line is, sure they'll refund you the extra $0.45 screws,
(which if you'd bought at a normal priced store would have been $0.15) but
don't count on it for a bigger ticket item. Situational ethics on return
policies certainly don't endear me to WM!
Jim McCorison
Starfish Marine
(619) 337-5370
http://www.starfish-marine.com
Can't speak for all of them, but the ones around Houston will. They will add
estimated shipping to their "matched" price, and then of course add sales
tax. The sales tax sometimes makes it a better deal to buy over the web.
I've always searched on big ticket items like VHF's, radar, etc.
Keith
__
Life is short, make fun of it.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Bob Peterson" bob@peterson.org
What are the odds that I could print out the price
from the retailer's web-site, take that into WM and have them match it?
That might be worthwhile.
" What are the odds that I could print out the price
from the retailer's web-site, take that into WM and have them match it?"
Bob, I have full success with that approach at our local WM. Print out as
much info as possible, especially the order page where might be stated that
item is in stock and ready for immediate shipping. One item, heavily
discounted, met some resistance last year and apparently required a call to
the regional office (or somewhere) but the price was ultimately met. I did
have to pay shipping if the item wasn't in stock in the local store.
BTW, the same approach has worked at Lowe's and Home Depot.
John Adams
m/v Oriental CT T-35
New Bern, NC
John, I'm confused. Re: "I did have to pay shipping if the item wasn't in
stock in the local store". We were discussing buying in-stock merchandise
at a WM store and getting them to reduce the price to someone else's catalog
or web-site price. If they don't have it in stock, why would you order it
from them, instead of order it from the original discounter?
Bob Peterson
47' Lien Hwa CMY
"Lopaka Nane"
San Francisco
-----Original Message-----
From: John/Buck [mailto:jadam315@earthlink.net]
Sent: Friday, December 03, 2004 6:29 AM
To: bob@peterson.org; JE1449@aol.com;
trawlers-and-trawlering@lists.samurai.com
Subject: Re: RE: Fwd: West Marine, but...
" What are the odds that I could print out the price from the retailer's
web-site, take that into WM and have them match it?"
Bob, I have full success with that approach at our local WM. Print out as
much info as possible, especially the order page where might be stated that
item is in stock and ready for immediate shipping. One item, heavily
discounted, met some resistance last year and apparently required a call to
the regional office (or somewhere) but the price was ultimately met. I did
have to pay shipping if the item wasn't in stock in the local store.
BTW, the same approach has worked at Lowe's and Home Depot.
John Adams
m/v Oriental CT T-35
New Bern, NC
" What are the odds that I could print out the price
from the retailer's web-site, take that into WM and
have them match it?"
Not only does that work at the WM stores around here, it even works at the
bait shop at the harbor (Santa Cruz) for value items like rods and reels.
(Bayside Marine for the locals) The store owner will usually go for an offer
that includes the price printed on the page plus little extra that covers
what would be your shipping cost and incentiv'ises him to keep product on
the shelves, 7% to 15%.
Jim
John, I'm confused. Re: "I did have to pay shipping if the item wasn't in
stock in the local store". We were discussing buying in-stock merchandise
True Bob, but if I get the item from the local WM, they receive their
warehouse shipments every Thursday so as long as my request is in before
noon on Wed, I get it on Thur! Saves time and I support my local store.
Although owned by a large corporation, it does employ local folk, my
neighbor for example, who would like to stay employed. Also, this builds
good will that allows me to "borrow" a depth transducer to see if my sounder
is at fault, or the transducer. Guess one has to choose which is the
greater good; supporting the low overhead on-line supplier so that he stays
in business, or forcing the higher overhead local business to compete! In
the final analysis, I take the more selfish route of which serves me and my
dollars best. That decision can change from purchase to purchase, depending
upon any number of issues. I order on line when it serves my purpose, I buy
from WM (or others) when it serves another of my purposes.
John Adams
m/v Oriental
New Bern, NC