why are serger prices secret?

Hi,

I have been looking around at overlockers/sergers online, learning about their features, and trying to work out what I could afford. However, all the dealers seem to just show which machines they sell and do not show the prices. The websites say that I have to e-mail to find out the prices. Do you know why this is? Is it like buying a car where buyers are meant to play one dealer off against another? I find it all very perplexing, especially as the sewing machine accessories have very fixed prices across different shops and even different countries. I would be much more comfortable with dealers just displaying prices openly and setting the prices according to the features of the machines.

Does anybody have any idea of how I am meant to deal with this?

Thanks,

Jennifer

Reply to
jclark
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Sometimes it matters where you are as tax rates in different states are different... Sometimes it's that there are so many offers floating about that they cannot keep the websites up to date... And sometimes it's in the franchise agreement. Just email a few and ask about the same machines, then make your choice. Don't forget to ask your local dealer, too: they may have the best offer, and will certainly have the best support! :)

Reply to
Kate Dicey

If they posted a price, the competition could beat it, and then you have a price war with no one making enough to stay in business. I see this in electronics and bicycle stuff too.

You might try going to one of the "store" sites and doing a "compare items" thing.

HTH

--Karen D.

Reply to
Veloise

When a store makes it too difficult to find out prices, I must assume that they are charging way too much , and take my trade elsewhere. If a store does not display their prices or reveal them without an accompanying high-pressure sales pitch, they do not need my business, nor do they need me to e-mail them (thus revealing my e-mail address to them) so that they can spam me forevermore.

Open competition is completely normal in business (if the business is operating above board) and should well be expected. Keeping prices secret is not normal at all, and I would seriously wonder what else the dealer in question would "keep secret" or "neglect to reveal" to it's customers...... Err, thanks but no thanks.

me

Reply to
me

Dealer agreements with some machine companies prohibit legitimate dealers from advertising prices on websites and selling machines over the internet.

gwh

Reply to
G. Wayne Hines

Usually there's some kind of restriction in the contract with the manufacturer. If a retailer was to publicly post their price, the manufacturer could pull their contract. It's a fairly common practice. I know that wehn DH was running a small retail/wholesale business, there were entire classes of products that he couldn't advertise a price for. Customers were more than welcome to contact them for prices, but they weren't allowed to post them publicly.

-- Jenn Ridley : snipped-for-privacy@chartermi.net

Reply to
Jenn Ridley

Hi,

Thanks for all this information. That's very useful to know.

Jennifer

Reply to
jclark

No idea Jennifer. I see you're in the UK like me, have you tried this website - fully priced when I last looked, and they respond to email queries. I've not purchased from them, so YMMV etc...

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Sarah

Reply to
Sarah Dale

There are prices here -

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was looking for the Singer overlock with coverstitch which we have here, but it's not listed. It's one heck of a deal - for the cost of an overlock, it has the coverstitch, too, but no LCD screen. Since nothing on the serger is run by a computer, that's no loss - it's just an "eBook" for stitching setup instructions. I made copies of those pages in my manual to have handy for reference.

Reply to
Pogonip

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