A common query from consumers is about bath fillers. There are several ways a bath can be filled. These are via the overflow, spout, from a bath filler that is wall mounted, floor mounted or deck mounted.
Filling via the waste overflow is one of the fastest growing ways to fill a bath as it removes the need to have any taps. The water is mixed in a triple valve and then the bottom outlet of the valve sends water to the waste overflow. Hudson Reed, Saneux, Bristan are some companies making bath waste fillers.
A spout can be used instead of the bath waste filler.
Wall mounted bath fillers are quite hard to find without a shower handset. That is bath shower mixers are commonly found, but fillers on their own are less common. The gauge on a bath filler is larger than a basin mixer. Wall mounted basin mixers are quite common.
Floor mounted bath fillers are large and costly. Eurobath, Hudson Reed, Marflow, Saneux all make them. They are feature pieces. They have stand pipes for the actual filler which then hangs over the bath rim, or comes up through the bath rim.
A deck mounted filler is an older solution seen in budget bathrooms.
There is a huge swing towards the sale of shallow trays. Shallow trays are only about 40 mm high. They are made from steel or acrylic, normally.
Acrylic trays are the cheapest when buying shallow trays and HSK offer a good selection. JT40 is new in the market and the trays are very good. The JT40 trays especially making a stunning statement, as the finish is very good and the general design is slender.
The steel tray market is really dominated by Kaldewei as the costs and quality are not really widely available from other manufacturers.
Other suppliers are Homestyle and Ferratsi for shallow trays.
Trays can be mounted on legs or straight onto the floor. When they are mounted onto legs, you use an apron to cover up the gap.
When a tray is mounted onto the floor, the waste is installed partly under the floor. To avoid cutting into supporting floor timber, you can build a false floor in your bathroom.
Shallow trays need a 90 mm waste, often these wastes are called turbo wastes as they have to remove a large amount of water quickly.
After installation allow a means to access the waste in case of repairs. This can be done by a small trap door to the side of the tray and then covered by a tile.
I have seen in my own company a big trend towards shallow trays, which is part of a trend toward more up market bathrooms. Often these include Hydromassage cabins, shower poles, body jets, rainbars, drenching shower heads. Shallow trays would normally be part of a minimalist or ultra modern bathroom design. Such designs have a lot of glass, and slender bowls.
My next blog entry will be about waste bath fillers and triple valves. Again, they are taking off in the market.
Sayworth started about 3 weeks ago, and today I got my first comment! I guess that means at least on person is reading this blog. I have had about 12 articles published now.
Today I am going to talk about baths and the materials of baths. I have found consumers are confused by bath materials. I will offer an abridged version in this blog, as the whole subject is large.
Basically acrylic baths are the cheapest and most available baths. There are some large acrylic baths now on the market from Sanuex, Saninova, and Banacril. They are all good choices.
If you can afford a more costly bath, then 3mm steel (the 3 mm matters) is a good quality. Kaldewei and Bette are two big sellers for steel baths. Steel baths are not colder than other types of baths, as baths cool via the water surface.
If you are building a luxury bathroom, then a stone resin, or stone bath is best. Castello offer excellent baths in stone based materials. A small wholesaler in Essex called BC Designs also sell good baths. For stone resin baths, you will need a strong floor as the bath will weight 500 kg when filled with water and the bather.
There are also high quality aluminium and copper baths on the market. They usually are very expensive.
Cast iron is rarely used now, but Roca still make them.
So the bath choice is largely an issue of money. I would recommend a stone resin bath if you can afford one.
My next blog entry will talk about shallow trays.
How safe is Safebuy?
Internet shopping is highly competitive and a key aspect to success is getting visitors. One way of doing that is by endorsements from consumer watchdogs. Today, I am looking at one such watchdog called Safebuy and asking a simple question – who watches the watchdogs and are they just seeking profits?
Safebuy is a newcomer to the watchdog scene. The private company Software Research Limited registered the name (safebuy.org.uk) on 22 January 2003.
Companies House shows Software Research Ltd had 54,000 GBP in gross profit for the year ending 2006.
Safebuy is endorsed by some impressive names such as Carphone Warehouse, Institute of Directors, Which, TrustUK, and others. These endorsements appear to be the result of business dealing by some key people. Safebuy states it is endorsed by the OFT. The OFT had a press release about Safebuy in 2006 which states Safebuy had more than 1000 members and was growing at 40 members a month.
Wikipedia has no entry for Safebuy, which surprised me and made me wonder why the people’s encyclopedia had no entry for Safebuy when it is supported by such high level names.
When I wrote to Safebuy in January this year asking for the private company to state how it is held accountable, I got no reply at all. This week I contacted my Southend Trading Standards office and they said it appears the sites supported by Safebuy have unlawful Terms and Conditions. The principal trading standards officer, Ian Ralph, referred this matter to the OFT.
The controversially is about refunds and returns. Refunds are difficult in online retail, as a refund would result in a heavy loss to the retailer. When profits are small, as they are in retail, one return can wipe out profits from ten sales. So retailers try and make returns hard.
The Distance Selling Regulations control how goods are sold online. The OFT publishes guidelines for the DSR. The actual regulations are lengthy but available online.
Under the guidelines from the OFT, we see some strange rules, but none the less they are rules enforceable by the OFT. Under 3.64, consumers have the right the cancel the contract without returning the goods. The contract has no legal basis when it states goods must be returned within a set period of time in order to obtain a refund. Under 3.46, the consumer has the right to a refund without returning the goods.
The guidelines under 3.47 even state that a refund cannot be withheld even when the consumer fails to take statutory care of the goods. The regulations clearly are unsound, but they are still the law. We have to live by the law, or descend into chaos.
If I look at many websites supported by Safebuy, I can see that the Terms and Conditions require a return of goods for a refund. Though that accords with common sense, and also established practice in online retail, it is not legal.
I pulled up one website from the Safebuy site at random, and after looking at a few, it was clear that there was a general breach of law. The one I looked at first was HomeandGardenGifts, which is endorsed by TrustUK, Safebuy and GA. Its Terms and Conditions state:
“Upon receipt of the goods we will give you a full refund of the amount paid excluding P & P or an exchange or credit as required.”
Those terms breach the guidelines setup by the OFT and they appear to be illegal. They do appear to conform to commonsense, but they also appear to be illegal.
My experience is that when schemes are set up in the private sector to “protect consumers” they are usually just seeking profit.
The facts point to Safebuy supporting sites that have illegal trade terms, and by implication, Which, Carphone Warehouse have the same support.
Buying safely online nowdays is commonplace. The early days of rogue traders are mostly gone. There are a few simple measures which I will highlight.
When entering card data look in the Address Bar of the browser and look for https://. That means it is a secure connection. You do not need that for name and address data but for card data only.
Check the company is limited in the UK. This means that the company has to file company returns every year and it adds a level of regulation. Do not deal with overseas companies normally. Limited UK companies have company numbers.
Check the company is VAT registered. Again this adds a level of protection as VAT registered companies have to file a return every quarter. VAT registered companies have VAT numbers.
Check the company has a postal address that is not a PO box. At least you have a real address to visit if something went wrong.
If the company has a phone number (not a 0870, or 0845) but a real number then that helps.
Nowdays most fraud is done by identity theft and not by fake merchants. Criminals can easily hack into banks and steal card numbers and then use them. This is how theft I normally done. So you are generally safe when buying from a merchant online.
Today, my topic is paying for goods by credit cards when buying online.
Card companies impose strict conditions on retailers for processing of card payments. One of the guidelines is that card payments should be processed when goods are sent and not ordered. This is to limit the liability to the card company.
In the USA, cards can only be charged when goods are sent out, by law. In the UK, it is just a guideline, and finally the retailer can choose, but the guideline is stated above.
So when ordering check when your card is debited.
It is common practice for retailers to charge cards at order time and not delivery time, even though this breaches guidelines.
After my blog entry about China, I am adding new details about a lesser exporting country but still a potent one in a niche market. That country is Turkey and the niche market is towel warmers.
About two years ago, a flood of budget towel warmers appeared selling for under 100 pounds in the UK. It changed the market dramatically. Companies like Vogue Towel Warmer were taken by surprise and within months were towel warmers for under 100 pounds.
When buying budget towel warmers ask about the warranty and also look for rust. Towel warmers are made from steel, stainless steel, brass mainly. Brass are the high quality ones. Cheaper steel can rust when it has alloy components.
If you want a very good towel warmer, buy a brass one.
Today, I am talking who really makes your bathroom goods. The short answer is Chinese people.
Re-branding is very common in bathrooms, and when people see company brand names they often think those names refer to manufacturers. Often those names are importer/distribution names and not UK/EU manufacturing names.
The global move to China for manufacture has been strong, and Chinese companies are now supplying a significant part of the British market. Many companies like Grohe and Bristan try and hide their Chinese links, fearing a low-quality label, but the truth is hard to hide.
Before Grohe’s move to China, I did not ever have a Grohe return. The return rate now is about 10-20%.
The BBC reported that Grohe has terminated the employment of thousands of German people, and started production in China. Grohe kept that almost a trade secret, but the Internet and word of mouth caused the truth to flood out. The once esteemed German product seen in almost every showroom as a quality product from Germany, is now made in Good Old China.
Bristan has cultivated an image of British manufacture for years and it tries to hide the fact that most goods are Chinese.
Companies will go to great lengths to hide the origins of manufacture.
Chinese manufacture will mean cheap materials, cheap labour and therefore profit margins can hike. In the short term that looks great to managers.
Bristan, owned by the giant Masco, has its woes. In the last quarter of 2006, Masco racked up a 187 million dollar loss. That loss happened at a time when China is growing at 8-10 percent a year.
Don’t be fooled when you see “Made in Italy” as many Italian companies just import from China, make a small change, and then add a “Made in Italy” label.
So when shopping, be aware that the product you see could be re-branded, and almost certainly is not made in the UK.
Today, I am talking about re-branding and price comparisons.
The media glorified the concept of price matching and comparison; and extolled the virtues of sites like kelkoo. The media did not write that sites like kelkoo only work if products are consistently branded. To avoid price comparisons, products are re-branded. This is very common in bathroom retail.
Re-branding is so easy in bathrooms because most products are imported and actual brand names are importer names. Often the same manufacturer, for example in China, will supply several companies with the same product. The different companies change the name or brand name, and then sell it. Therefore, prices cannot be compared.
I will illustrate this with a simple example using the giant store bathstore.com. Bathstore sells Crosswater goods (an imported line) and Bathstore renames the goods.
Hey Joe is one brand name from Crosswater and sold to several retailers. If I look at Boundary Bathrooms I see the product sold for 156 pounds (prices vary daily):
http://www.boundarybathrooms.co.uk/WebShop.aspx?ProductDetail=21373
The same product is sold at Bathstore for 219 pounds under the new name Idea. The Bathstore customer is paying much more for the same product due to re-branding.
http://www.bathstore.com/_application/bathstore/products/taps/idea-taps/index.html
I can list a hundred more examples, or a thousand more. As I said at this site, do not buy on blindly seek prices comparisons. If you tried to price match the above you have failed. What is more is that the same product is sold under different names to Crosswater. See my blog entry on using google.it. You could buy the product straight from Italy and completely bypass the UK importer and retailer.
I hope you are starting to understand how complex the market forces are in retail, and why you need this Sayworth site to guide you through the minefield.
Today, I am talking about a very common practice in supply and retail called Price Fixing.
Price Fixing is a means by a price is controlled by an illegal trade agreement between a supplier and a retailer. Argos and Littlewoods were fined over twenty million pounds for price fixing which was a record fine then. Now we see that BA is facing hundreds of millions in fines for price fixing.
The concept of price fixing is applied beyond the strict legal meaning to more general price control. Suppliers like to have prices controlled and large retailers like to control pricing. Large retailers will force out smaller companies from the market by pressuring the suppliers to stop supplying them. The large companies just threaten to stop buying unless a smaller company is stopped from competing.
As one example, I recall well when Damixa refused to supply my own company after it saw I was underselling B & Q. The company stated that view in an email after explaining Damixa has signed a large trade agreement with B & Q and it was not acceptable for a small company to undersell B & Q. As they say in B & Q – “We never stop lowering prices.”
It is common practice in bathrooms for suppliers to stop or refuse supply to smaller companies in order to protect larger retailers and to keep prices higher than the free market would allow. That means you as the consumer pay more.
So when shopping around, you will not see a free market working but a market controlled to ensure larger companies are protected.
Today, I am talking the famous top ten Google rankings and if they can be trusted. The short answer is no. When shopping use a human recommendation.
There are certain companies that employ Search Engine Optimisers (SEO’s) and these people use techniques to get a website listed high in the rankings. One common method is to create Landing Pages that are heavily promoted. Another method is to optimise PageRank buy buying hundreds of links. Site owners also setup duplicate websites which are just copies and then they promote several sites all with the same content. Often these sites all link together, so the visitor ends up at one website anyway.
Other methods include the Google Bomb.
The history of Google rankings came from the university system and citations. A citation was a kind of vote, and they appeared at the end of a paper. Google used the same idea and said if sites link to another that is a kind of vote. So popular sites would come first. It also weighted links, so a link from the BBC is worth more than a link from a smaller website.
This ranking system worked fine until people started just buying links and using Reciprocal Links to trick Google.
The result of all this is that the top rated sites are rarely the best for shopping but simply the best for advertising and using clever SEO methods. If they are clever enough to use SEO, then they are clever enough to use loss leaders, and other methods to mislead you.
The only sure way to select a good website is to use recommendations. Ask your query in forums, ask friends or family, search for complaints against the company (recall many complaints are faked by competition companies, so be careful), and phone the company. Do not take the top ten position as the guide. That works for finding a fact, but when shopping you want the best price and quality. That will not be in the top ten.
Discount stores usually include the words Massive Sale, Discount, 4less, Low Cost, Savings, Cheap, Internet Prices, and similar words to suggest a low cost. They seek to create an impression that they are cheap, when they are not cheap. They will often bombard a visitor with messages stating the costs are unbelievably low, and you say cannot buy cheaper.
They use clever advertising to secure your confidence and give you the impression that the store is cheap. They will employ many techniques such as selling ex-display, seconds, copies (re-branding), VAT concealment, or using loss leaders. Loss leaders are items over discounted to get consumer confidence and then other items are increased in price.
When shopping do not buy on price but buy on quality. Prices can vary for the same item at the same website depending on the shopping habits of the consumer. CNN reported a couple of years ago, and then it was headline news that Amazon was charging people more when they returned, ie they were more confident of buying. This was done by using cookies to record the customer’s buying habits. There are methods used by websites to measure your visitor actions.
Discount stores will also have very clever advertising to get well listed in Google. They do this but buying links.
Discount stores often have illegal re-stocking fees, or illegal cancellation terms. They will also not use goodwill to solve any issues such as faulty goods delivered.
When considering your purchase, phone the store and ask some simple questions about returns, quality, and assess if the products are genuine. Do not be fooled by high Google rankings, clever advertising, or a name including the word discount or a synonym.
VAT concealment in prices has become one way dishonest retailers can mislead customers, and I will explain this trick in today’s daily tip.
In Germany they call it MwSt, in the USA Sales Tax, and in the UK it is called VAT. It is stealth taxing which allows the Government to collect money when you simply buy something. What makes VAT unusual is that businesses do not pay VAT and also it is not paid for export. It is a tax which is collected by the retailer and paid every quarter to HM Customs and Excise.
VAT is often concealed by dishonest traders in advertising and pricing on the pretext that the advertising is aimed at trade customers who do not pay VAT. VAT is then added at the end of the transaction. This is especially done on websites which make much mileage of low pricing. Such sites will often have prices in large writing with text indicating how cheap that item is for you and how much you are saving.
In fact, often the item is actually expensive.
The law states that the consumer must be clearly shown the VAT information. Any purchase over 100 pounds MUST show the VAT amount on the receipt. It is illegal not to show it. The commonest method used by the honest trader is simply to have everything VAT inclusive. It makes all the advertising easier. VAT is then officially shown on documentation as required by law.
When buying on the Internet, do not be misled by clever advertising. Only dishonest people attempt to hide VAT when selling to the public in order to give an illusion of a big discount. In contrast, trade catalogues often exclude VAT since VAT is not paid by business customers (they claim it back).
VAT is one of the worst taxes ever invented. It requires retailers to collect money and the collected money is then paid to them every quarter. Aside from the bureaucracy involved, VAT simply inflates the prices for the retailer. VAT is not paid for export, or for business customers who claim it back.
Hi Folks, today we are talking about how to find those great buys. Let me guess what you are doing. You visit google.com or google.co.uk and you enter bathrooms and then you spend a few hours checking listings and paid ads from bathroom retailers. There is an easier way.
I already explained how many in fact most products are imported. So for certain items it is very easy to buy direct from where they are made. Brands like Grohe are made in China and Germany and then imported in the UK. But at this time it is much cheaper to buy in Germany and get them to post the goods. There is one downside: the goods are not guaranteed. Imports have to be guaranteed by the importer and that is you. They are still original goods.
To find an exporter for Grohe, which is really a retailer located in Germany, visit google.de.The de refers to Deustchland and means you will see German listings. That is the key. For Vola (a Danish product) use google.dk, google.it (Italian), google.fr (French).
It may be 50% cheaper, so the savings could be vast. Just try the foreign google site and see what is available – you will be surprised. It helps if you understand some of the foreign languages, but google also have countless translators and the foreign bathroom retailers understand English if you phone.
This is another tip from sayworth to help you get ahead.
This is my first daily tip and it relates to WRAS approval. The law states that all taps and mixers (brassware) must be approved before being installed. WRAS is the UK approval system, and there are some EU wide ones which run in parallel to the UK one.
In the current market most, in fact almost all, brassware is imported. A lot is imported from China, also from Italy and Spain. The UK market is flooded with goods which have no approval. One major line is Crosswater which is not fully approved but still sold. Bathstore.com and others sell the Crosswater line.
The law is not always logical, and the law in this area states it is legal to sell a non-approved item but illegal to install it.
When buying brassware goods asking the retailer if the goods are WRAS approved. If they are approved, they have a WRAS certificate number which should be listed.
Running in parallel with this theme is the one of TMV which is about providing anti-scald protection on shower valves. Last year thousands of people were scalded by shower valves. I will expand on this theme later. But for now I will just say always buy thermostatic goods for the shower.