Maplins!!!

Hellrazer

Had to post this one.

Been looking for a Bench power supply for a week or so now and eventually found the right one on Maplins.co.uk.

N93CX is the part number.

Price 49.99 @ todays exchange rate thats 58.17 euro.

I ring the Blanch and Jervis street and the price over here is 132.99.

Almost 3 times the UK price.

How the fook does a company get away with this crap.

delop

Ive always found it strange that a company that sell tech stuff dont have an Irish website in euros ...

Run_to_da_hills

Maplins is a last resort for anything, unless you are really stuck for the item I wouldn't go there.

1L Bottle of fog fluid is e14, you can get a 5l bottle of the same stuff for e30 in Sounds Around on Caple St.

tommy21

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

Maplins is a last resort for anything, unless you are really stuck for the item I wouldn't go there.

1L Bottle of fog fluid is e14, you can get a 5l bottle of the same stuff for e30 in Sounds Around on Caple St.

Must say the store in Blackpool, Cork is an awful soul-destroying place. Everything is overpriced and that is saying something with Argos across the road!

BostonB

I've often gone when in I've been stuck for something, but when I see the price I just can't justify it. Almost never buy stuff in there.

o1s1n

When I was putting on my end of year show in college, I needed about eight 3.5mm audio extension cables. Needed them fast and Maplin was the one place that had them.

I think it cost me about three times the amount it would have if I bought them somewhere else. Possibly even more. And they were fairly generic basic things.

Also, I really need a couple of multi scart switch boxes. Maplin has the exact ones I want, but the prices are insane.

stevek93

maplins are one of the dearest that i know of.

91011

Hellrazer wrote: »

Had to post this one.

Been looking for a Bench power supply for a week or so now and eventually found the right one on Maplins.co.uk.

N93CX is the part number.

Price 49.99 @ todays exchange rate thats 58.17 euro.

I ring the Blanch and Jervis street and the price over here is 132.99.

Almost 3 times the UK price.

How the fook does a company get away with this crap.

Firstly, exchange rate currently is about 1.225 for sterling assuming you pruchase via credit card. - Official mid market rate is 1.194, but this rate is simply not available.

The UK maplins price is a special offer until next Tuesday and price is normally £79.99 - still a bigish difference as even including the vat diffference the euro price would be slightly over €100. - Allowing for additional costs, I'd say a fair price is €110.

But like almost every other UK based retailer who do their euro pricing in a grey office block in Birmingham, they simpy use a 1.5 - 1.6 + extra vat mutilplier when pricing goods in ireland. - Applies to Argos, Debenhams, Monsoon, Homebase etc etc. - Though B&Q & Halfords changed their pricing last year and are to be applauded.

Run_to_da_hills

Ebay is the best place for components, PC stuff in particular, I would often buy a dozen for the same price as they are singly at marlins and this would include postage from UK. they would often throw in a few "loss leaders" such as external HDD's just to get you in the door.

Welease

On the other hand... ask anyone to drop their wages to UK level's and they suddenly claim "cost of living" in Ireland... can't have it both way's....;)

jock101

Yeah I worked in Maplins, a few years ago, and it was standard practice to jack up the price in euro for the Irish public. Somethimes even double it! Just avoid the place. I was always amazed at the number of people willing to shop in it! People even where often standing at the door at 9am, waiting to get in?????

compo1

You even have to pay for the catalogue!!! STAY AWAY FROM MAPLINS!

Haggis The Dog

The thing with maplins is that they do some really good specialist stuff and if it wasnt for the UK site i think on the whole most would be happy to pay it...makes you think what they could do if they got their pricing right

pleasant Co.

Haggis The Dog wrote: »

The thing with maplins is that they do some really good specialist stuff and if it wasnt for the UK site i think on the whole most would be happy to pay it...makes you think what they could do if they got their pricing right

They're irish division would be out of business long ago if people weren't happy to pay the prices maplins are charging

I'm on the total rip off side, the only times I buy in there is when I cannot get the product cheaper elsewhere (in B&R and online), so that's quite a rarity.

g32

Mactard wrote: »

They're irish division would be out of business long ago if people weren't happy to pay the prices maplins are charging

I'm on the total rip off side, the only times I buy in there is when I cannot get the product cheaper elsewhere (in B&R and online), so that's quite a rarity.

I hope they close. Why people cannot buy this electrical equipment from eBay or the internet, they are happy to pay 100% more from a monopoly....

pleasant Co.

g32 wrote: »

I hope they close. Why people cannot buy this electrical equipment from eBay or the internet, they are happy to pay 100% more from a monopoly....

I hope they start offering value, would rather they not close as too many irish jobs would be needlessly lost.

Kintarō Hattori

g32 wrote: »

I hope they close. Why people cannot buy this electrical equipment from eBay or the internet, they are happy to pay 100% more from a monopoly....

Not everyone is happy to buy online, older people especially. You'd be surprised how many adults don't have credit cards. Finally some people, strange as this may seem...... just like shops.

!MAVERICK!

If I were to make a list of the biggest robbers in Dublin, Maplin would be right up there at the TOP!

Nearly every product is overpriced, I spotted a labeler ( The exact same model) which I purchased in Lidl for 20 euro, and they were charging around 70!

A bag of Heath shrink which I purchased at an airshow in America for 50 cents, costs around 10 euro in Maplin.

They reallly have a monopoly on most of the electronic supplies in Dublin, Wish they would bring radio shacks or similar stores to Dublin.

!MAVERICK!

Also another Maplin Rip off... Optical switcher (same model) 25 euro in Maplin...
And got it on ebay for 3 euro.

ejmaztec

!MAVERICK! wrote: »

If I were to make a list of the biggest robbers in Dublin, Maplin would be right up there at the TOP!

Nearly every product is overpriced, I spotted a labeler ( The exact same model) which I purchased in Lidl for 20 euro, and they were charging around 70!

A bag of Heath shrink which I purchased at an airshow in America for 50 cents, costs around 10 euro in Maplin.

They reallly have a monopoly on most of the electronic supplies in Dublin, Wish they would bring radio shacks or similar stores to Dublin.

I found Tandy(Radio Shack) expensive enough when there were shops in the UK, but I think that they pulled out a long time ago. The prices charged by them were nowhere near what the same shops charged in the US, and were pretty much as expensive as Maplin. I think that Peats of Dublin advertised a Tandy connection years ago, but I don't know whether this still exists.

For the goods sold by these types of store, I don't think that anyone in Europe sells at dirt-cheap US equivalent prices. For saving money, a good Ebay seller seems to be the only choice.

ch750536

being devils advocate for a moment....

We're talking about a supply / demand issue here. If I were to sell oranges for €5 each and run out of stock each day then I will of course increase the price as I can (we live in a capitlalist system after all).

If I were to have oranges left at the end of each day then I may decrease the price, at the very least I would consider the issues with why my oranges are not selling.

So, just dont buy the stuff. Or the stuff is priced correctly for the Irish market (Maplin china makes Maplin uk look well pricey...)

Dewie

compo1 wrote: »

You even have to pay for the catalogue!!! STAY AWAY FROM MAPLINS!

I agree. They are top of the rip-off charts!