Are Leathermans on some form of price fixing here in the UK??

[tosh]

I've noticed for sometime now that the prices of leathermans here in the UK is more or less the same wherever you look. But yet Victorinox, a brand that in my view has no peers  fluctuates all over the place.

Lets take the Spirit, the steel used is easily one of the best around. Superb build construction, fantastic after sales service and yet as cheap as chips here in the UK.

Yet the leatherman Charge is simply ridiculous, doesn't have the precision of build as the spirit, nor is the steel as good (in my view) yet the price here in the UK is almost 3 times that of the spirit.

I do wonder if Leatherman, like Dyson (hoovers) are ensuring that ALL outlets use the same retail pricing.

Personally, I don't think they're worth it, not when a rival can produce something equally as good for almost a third of the price.

Any views??

[dks]

Amazon uk has some good prices on all, sometimes.

Here all LM and Victorinox are sold at the recomended retail prices; The Micra is 50 Euro and an MUT is 160; You have quite low prices in the UK, comparatively 

[tosh]

Amazon uk has some good prices on all, sometimes.

Here all LM and Victorinox are sold at the recomended retail prices; The Micra is 50 Euro and an MUT is 160; You have quite low prices in the UK, comparatively 

Granted dks, we do on the Victorinox's, Wenger's and Gerber's. But the Leathermans are still very expensive here - for what they basically are.

[Gareth]

All Leatherman's imports into the UK are done through Whitby &Co, it's them that fix the price.  So if you want to sell Leatherman's you have to buy through Whitby and they absolutely will not supply anyone who doesn't confirm with their pricing policy.   The only exception to this seems to be Amazon who are to big for Whitby to push around and likely bring in their own stock anyway.

All in all I suspect it affects LM sales in the UK massively as it doesn't allow for any kind of competitive pricing.

[tosh]

All Leatherman's imports into the UK are done through Whitby &Co, it's them that fix the price.  So if you want to sell Leatherman's you have to buy through Whitby and they absolutely will not supply anyone who doesn't confirm with their pricing policy.   The only exception to this seems to be Amazon who are to big for Whitby to push around and likely bring in their own stock anyway.

All in all I suspect it affects LM sales in the UK massively as it doesn't allow for any kind of competitive pricing.

Wow... cheers for that Gareth.

That pretty much explains it - as for amazon, even as you say they are too big to "push around" if they can get away with charging exorbitant prices...they will.
It's very very rare I buy new leathermans, interestingly play.com (based in Jersey) has some serious discounts on them, I picked up a Squirt PS4 £29 inc' postage  last week - by far cheaper than anywhere I've seen here in the UK. I'm sure they had B/O Waves delivered for £69.00 !!
That kind of pricing looks to be more honest to me. Other than that, they are simply overpriced over here and likewise I'll spend my money on better value  products - I won't play fool to no-one - the quicker Leatherman realises that, then the quicker their sales will spike!!

[AimlessWanderer]

All Leatherman's imports into the UK are done through Whitby &Co, it's them that fix the price.  So if you want to sell Leatherman's you have to buy through Whitby and they absolutely will not supply anyone who doesn't confirm with their pricing policy.   The only exception to this seems to be Amazon who are to big for Whitby to push around and likely bring in their own stock anyway.

All in all I suspect it affects LM sales in the UK massively as it doesn't allow for any kind of competitive pricing.

 

... plus imports from the US will be subject to higher taxation and duties than Switzerland. Logistic costs per tool will be higher too.

[Gareth]

Amazon's full price's are indeed much the same as the rest of the UK, but you will see some very good deals every so often.  Just be quick if you see something you like, they don't last for long.   Good tip on Play.com I'll have to go check them out.

[Grant Lamontagne]

Doesn't Victorinox also get distributed by Whitby?

You also have to remember that Leatherman has a pretty strict MAP policy in the US too- maybe they make Whitby enforce it and Whitby is even more proactive?

Def

[AimlessWanderer]

Wenger is Whitby & Co ... Victorinox is Burton McCall

[Grant Lamontagne]

Ah, right- my mistake.

Def

[AimlessWanderer]

 

[Grant Lamontagne]

Of course now I have to ban you for pointing out that I was wrong!

Def

[AimlessWanderer]

 

I will add in their defence that I've had great customer service from Whitby whenever I've had a problem, although I've never needed the services of Burton McCall

[Singh]

why not just buy from Amazon USA and ship to the UK? $1 is equal to £0.6218 so it'd be cheaper.

A Charge TTI is  $118.79. So that's £73, which is far less than the UK price.

Amazon USA £73.00
Amazon UK   £142.76

[MultiMat]

why not just buy from Amazon USA and ship to the UK? $1 is equal to £0.6218 so it'd be cheaper.

A Charge TTI is  $118.79. So that's £73, which is far less than the UK price.

Amazon USA £73.00
Amazon UK   £142.76

When I have looked on Amazon USA hardly any items are available for shipping outside the US 

[Sazabi]

why not just buy from Amazon USA and ship to the UK? $1 is equal to £0.6218 so it'd be cheaper.

A Charge TTI is  $118.79. So that's £73, which is far less than the UK price.

Amazon USA £73.00
Amazon UK   £142.76

When I have looked on Amazon USA hardly any items are available for shipping outside the US 

And that's why you ask someone to forward it to you.

[Gareth]

why not just buy from Amazon USA and ship to the UK? $1 is equal to £0.6218 so it'd be cheaper.

A Charge TTI is  $118.79. So that's £73, which is far less than the UK price.

Amazon USA £73.00
Amazon UK   £142.76

When I have looked on Amazon USA hardly any items are available for shipping outside the US 

That's pretty much it.   If Amazon have a National site (e.g. Amazon. UK) you are pretty much stuck dealing with that site and can't go shopping on Amazon. com.

If you do try then you get this message:
"Leatherman 830040 New Wave Multi-Tool with Nylon Sheath cannot be shipped to the selected address. "
 

[AimlessWanderer]

However .... my CS4 that arrived recently was ordered from amazon.com and there was some notation off a link which said it wouldn't ship to the UK (forgot exactly how it was worded). I didn't get anyone to do it for me ... it just worked!

I think it's to do with my ISP. I have a dongle connection rather than a landline connection, and websites seem to think I'm actually in Poland. I think the message you get normally in the UK is due to amazon autodetecting the origin - which didn't happen. What did happen though, is I had to pre-pay customs duties as part of the purchase - which doesn't happen if you get an overseas MTo buddy to give you a hand 

[Singh]

I've orderd from Amazon.uk and shipped to the USA with no problems. 

[Boyen]

I think it's the same in the Netherlands ( and if not, order from here because there's no problem shipping to UK). For instance, the Leatherman Micra is 40€ here, that's crazy!

[MultiMat]

why not just buy from Amazon USA and ship to the UK? $1 is equal to £0.6218 so it'd be cheaper.

A Charge TTI is  $118.79. So that's £73, which is far less than the UK price.

Amazon USA £73.00
Amazon UK   £142.76

When I have looked on Amazon USA hardly any items are available for shipping outside the US 

And that's why you ask someone to forward it to you.

& yep I have done that  .
I do feel bad about asking too many favours though 

[Taxi Dad]

'GO outdoors' the camping store, had Leatherman waves for £59.99 recently, I thought it may be a pricing error at the time, or they were changing their stock or something. have not been to the store since but on the WWW they are still listed as £79.99.
wish i'd got two now