Bleed screw

Parked up the old E39 BMW to see steam coming from under the bonnet. Hot water was peeing out of the rad bleed screw - the head of which had disappeared, leaving only the thread (with groove to let the air out) in place. Contacted Eurocarparts - BMW part only. Phoned my local dealer - not in stock but costs 7 quid. For a plastic screw...

Ebay has them at 1.70 - post included.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
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Ebay has become the place for odd little bits and pieces: got some pegs for an ikea CD rack from there for 99p inc post, have also bought odd things like roller blind repair bits.

Reply to
Chris Bartram

Ikea parts like that are given away for free, in IKEA strangely enough. So that could be a lucrative sideline, get them for free , sell them on ebay.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

They may be free in the shop, but it's a 30 mile round trip for me to my nearest branch so the eBay offering is better value. And by the time you've paid postage and for the packing material I can't imagine the profit margin is very high. Especially with the effort of going to get all the little bits. Presumably you'd need a friend working there to get away with getting so many little packs of spares too.

Reply to
Simon Finnigan

Yep, distance is a factor, nowadays I always look at the option of delivery too. My IKEA is a 10 minute walk away, so I am rather spoilt in that respect. Ikea cooked breakfast with tea and coffee £1.50, brilliant.

Reply to
Mrcheerful

Last thing I bought from Ikea was this computer desk. Very nice and excellent value - except that when I got it home, the unopened box had bits missing. Not just the odd screw, but the runners for the keyboard shelf. Went back to get things sorted only to find it had to be treated as a return. And it was already mostly assembled. And it took about 2 hours queuing to be told this.

Not been back. Service like that for something their fault is simply a joke.

Seems to be the Ikea customer's thing. Buy something one week and take it back for a refund at the weekend, judging by the numbers doing this. Probably just as good as daytime TV.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

It probably does vary by store, my experiences have been quite alright, but I do avoid the busier times, just as I do everywhere.

Reply to
Mrcheerful
[...]

I'm lucky enough to have an old-fashioned hardware shop withing 10 minutes walk. Whilst browsing eBay for some Stanley knife blades, the best hit was a seller with the same name as the local shop. Checking revealed they were indeed one and the same, so I visited the (real) shop. The ladies in there told me that their business had three facets; real, eBay, and a huge trailer they took to trade and DIY fairs. They employed someone simply to wrap Ebay parcels, and said without on-line selling they would have gone bust years ago.

That's the way lots of local businesses should have gone; embrace the new ways of selling, rather than moaning about the competition.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

Snag is of course is when most of their profit comes from online sales. Why have the bother and cost of a 'high street' presence when they can be done from anywhere?

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)
[..]

Hardly the High Street in this instance! (If you lived locally to me, you would find that amusing.)

The way they explained it, in order to provide a competitive eBay service, and have things available to sell at shows, they needed somewhere to keep stock. It makes financial sense to be able to sell locally from that source at the same time because it pays for the storage.

Chris

Reply to
Chris Whelan

Possibly because they enjoy it?! The 'human' side of whatever they sell is why they got into it all in the first place?

Depending upon where the 'high street' is, a shop front needn't add a great deal to overheads. My old local motor factors in Plaistow had entry-by-bell - which seemed to be connected to the owner's bedside. judging by the state of him.

Also, service and repairs. My brother's got a couple of boutique computer shops off-high street but on the SUV run. Internet and fixing things from the internet the bulk of the work. Not quite sure how that'd scan with a motor spares shop - they often seem to have some sort of sideline though.

Reply to
RJH

That's the line a local model shop took a while back. They had a 'high street shop' and whilst it was on the high street (rather round a side street etc) the foot-fall wasn't particularly high and customer parking wasn't that brilliant either.

The landlord went to put the rent up so they moved to a much cheaper (for nearly the same floor size but was much taller, allowing for more stock ... better buying power) industrial unit and they configured it with a counter rather than wall-through shop. As much of their business was (then) over the Internet, that was made easier by the fact that the couriers could now get to and park right outside (as could anyone still wanting to shop in person of course).

The only downside (as a customer) is they now don't open on Saturdays but I don't know if that's their personal choice or a limitation of being on an industrial estate (I'll ask the next time I speak to them).

In contrast, a local music shop doesn't want to 'go online' at all, because a big part of doing what he does is the customer interface thing. He said he'd rather go mini-cabbing than take his business online (if it came to it). ;-)

I use a variety of sources for car parts and tools depending on a whole load of criteria. Like if I need it 'today' and it's not that much more expensive than online, or even if it is and there is a risk it could be faulty and need returning etc, I'll try to buy it locally or at least in person. Plus it's handy to have a very good mate in the garage game that has all the main makes and suppliers delivering to him daily. ;-)

I'd like to add my vote for Toolstation but only for personal collection so far. The one time I did order something to be delivered it seemed to take a while (but that may have been down to stocking issues, rather than them as such).

Cheers, T i m

Reply to
T i m

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