Breckwell P2700 low price....is there a catch I'm not catching???

[sorka]

Just ordered a P2700. I checked local dealers, all of them, and prices ranged from $2600 to $3300 just for the unit itself...no install. Homeclick has it for $2053 with free shipping. I called Breckwell to ask about warranty if buying through Homeclick. They told me that Homeclick was not an authorized seller and Homeclick doesn't service their warranties.

Still, given that I intend to all my own servicing all I really need is the parts warranty, Homeclick wasn't out yet because the price was so much better.

Breckwell said if I were going to buy online that they had two dealers that sell mail order and are authorized. RuralKing.com is one of them. So I called them and they quoted me a price of $1599 + $127 shipping.

So that was WAY cheaper than Homeclick and from an authorized dealer.

Is there a catch? Is there something that I should have asked about that I didn't?

Delivered, the stove is $1726 which is more than $300 less than homeclick and more than a $1000 less than most of the local dealers.

 

[webbie]

I would have a few comments.

While any company is free to set their own policies, Breckwell will obviously end up losing a LOT of dealers by suggesting where folks can buy their stove cheap - end result being they will be hurt financially - but that is a "big picture" view.

As I mentioned here in another thread, I would not currently suggest buying from Homeclick or their MANY other online aliases...and I also suggest that anyone who is not exceptionally handy should not buy ANY Pellet Stove without local sales and service. A large percentage of pellet stoves end up needing everything from hand-holding to parts to testing with instruments.

If you envision being able to do 100% of your own warranty and service work....and installation and setup, then there is probably not much of a catch. But very few people can really do all these things, so you are the exception rather then the rule. You also are, of course, banking on Breckwell being in business for many years, but so is the customer paying $1000 more.

Congratulations! You just bought a stove for well less than most dealers pay for it! There are a glut of stoves in warehouses around the country, and some folks are doing ANYTHING to dump them. Some reports say Harman didn't build any stoves at all this season....

 

[sorka]

Thanks for the response.

Just for clarification, Breckwell certainly did not imply that I should buy online to get a better deal. They told me that *if* I were going to buy online that they have only 2 authorized online dealers in the US. RuralKing is a chain store that has 38 locations in the midwest. They do huge volume in retail and mail order.

I'd think the volume is either getting them better prices from Breckwell and or being able to sell on much lower margin.

 

[webbie]

Thanks for the clarification. I would guess that Breckwell dealers already know then that the stove is available for vastly less.

Funny thing, when I was a dealer (for 20+ years), I would have had a tough time selling a customer something for "x" price if I knew they could get it for "1/2 x" price elsewhere! After all, I was in business to give my customer that best possible value, which is price AND service. If someone didn't really need a stove (after I answered their questions), I'd tell them not to buy one (maybe they had allergies, asthma, etc.)....

And the same with price - I would have a tough time taking money from folks if I truly had not known that I was giving them the best deal (all in all) anywhere.

But I was able to accomplish this only by sometimes going against the grain. For instance, one time we found out that a company was discontinuing a really nice wood stove model - and they wanted to dump them. The stove used to sell for $899 retail, but the company was dumping them for something like $179 (in quantity). We ended up buying a truckload at an even lower price - sure, it took us 3 or 4 years to sell them, but at $499 to $569, the customers were REALLY happy and so were we! Ah, the old days....

I also had some of my suppliers who would get mad at me, despite the fact that I paid every bill on time. They would get mad if I discounted stoves, if I sold them a distance from my store and many other "transgressions". But, heck, I always figured I was in business for myself and my customers, not for my vendors! I guess it depends where one looks at it from!

Funny that Homeclick can somehow get ahold of unlimited black market stoves! They might be buying them from Rural King!

 

[hearthtools]

Like I have said in other post

I stopped selling Breckwell because I did not want to be the Showroom and sales people for free for the Many online dealers they HAD.
(they are trying to get the local dealer back so they only have online dealers that have showrooms now)

Myself or my paid staff spend 1-3 hours with someone showing them the stove and all the options of how to install the stove and how to use it.
they the same people you spend hours with go and order the stove online and cut you out of the whole deal. WE WHERE WORKING FOR FREE.
Then 2 months latter come crawling back to you because the stove stopped working and they cant get the Etailer to call them back or the Etailer has no Tech knowlage of the product to tell them they have the burn pot in backwards.

Someone might be Handy enough to install a stove. but it takes training and research to learn what is wrong with the stove unless you want to start throwing Hundreds of dollars in parts at it to get it to work.

We replace about 2 control boards a year locally that is not a SHORTED OUT TYPE THING.
We sell hundreds of control boards to people online. AND 50% of the time THE CONTROL BOARD WAS NOT THE PROBLEM it was a simple thing like CLEANING THE STOVE.
OR a $18 dollar limit switch.

Any Small to mid size dealer that provides a Showroom, Sales staff, Service staff and Stocks stoves and parts is going to have to make at least 35% margins.
You cant expect a store owner to pay 3 to 6 grand a month just for rent or mortgage for a store for the customer to walk in and see hear and feel the stove burning.
Pay and train sales and Tech staff, pay Ultilities, Insureance (liablity and Loss), Vehicles, Gas, Taxes, upkeep and keep $100k of inventory
to sell a product for less than 35% margins.
After all that overhead that margin in down to 3 to 5% for the owners Pocket to feed and shelter his own family.

The big box stores are different they have lots of stores and work in volume if they make 2% profit at the end of the day they are good because they had a million $$$ in sales for all the 50 stores they have per day.

 

[webbie]

Well, more of a "dealers" post, but the good news is that our Rod is smart enough to hedge his bets and sell pellet parts all over the USA! (and fix those stoves sometimes with advice).....

But the marketplace is cruel - I didn't make it that way, just an observer. It's funny the the same manufacturers who probably sell the pellet stove to Rural King for $1300, want the dealer to pay them $2000 for the same stove! Really sad. As is proven by China, Sweat Shops, etc. - the American consumer generally just wants the best price (and who can blame them?), so it is really up to the chain of distribution to call the shots. I have to hand it to some of the major stove manufacturers who made policies 10 years ago and have stuck to them through thick and thin. Not that one decision is "better" than another, just that it is best not to speak out of both sides of the mouth. If a maker wants to go the discount route, go there - all the way, and let the dealers get in on it by giving them the same price and terms as the big guys!

Rod is very right about troubleshooting of Pellet Stoves. You do have to be "more than handy", but there are a lot of folks who are - the kind who can rewire the entire hot rod that they built from the ground up. But I would say we are talking about less than 10% of customers.....and, the biggest problem is that 40% of people probably THINK they are that 10%.

Heck, I replaces two wall switches the other day before I figured out their was a short in the ceiling light fixture! (but switches are cheap, if they would have been control boards I'd be out a couple years of my fuel savings!)

 

[hearthtools]

Email I received today

"
Hello, I was wondering if it was possible to cancel this order?

Long story short, my power cord was running too close to the stove and it shorted from the excess heat. It's working fine now.

I've ordered from you in the past and have received items. I would really appreciate it.
"

This was for a $250 control board he orderd the we shipped yesterday.

 

[webbie]

One thing for certain - in a biz like your the policies have to be tough, tough, tough (restocking, etc.).....

I still don't think we have hit the "tipping point" yet for biomass stoves, as I wrote in the blog entry:
https://www.hearth.com/econtent/index.php/hearthblog/article/the_tipping_point/

It is largely an immature market, as is quite evident by the Harman things and others. Risky for those folks spending tens of millions on pellet plants and factories. But that is one great thing about America - folks have never been scared to try!

 

[sorka]

Email I received today

"
Hello, I was wondering if it was possible to cancel this order?

Long story short, my power cord was running too close to the stove and it shorted from the excess heat. It's working fine now.

I've ordered from you in the past and have received items. I would really appreciate it.
"

This was for a $250 control board he orderd the we shipped yesterday.

How Ironic. He wants to send the board back because he thinks he doesn't need it. The very fact that he ordered the board without first scoping everything out probably proves he needs a spare. Ironic because I'll be ordering a spare shortly even if I don't need it to speed up future diagnosis. It's also probably the one piece that couldn't be replaced if the manufacturer went out of business unlike the motors which have plenty of third party options.

 

[hearthtools]

Email I received today

"
Hello, I was wondering if it was possible to cancel this order?

Long story short, my power cord was running too close to the stove and it shorted from the excess heat. It's working fine now.

I've ordered from you in the past and have received items. I would really appreciate it.
"

This was for a $250 control board he orderd the we shipped yesterday.

How Ironic. He wants to send the board back because he thinks he doesn't need it. The very fact that he ordered the board without first scoping everything out probably proves he needs a spare. Ironic because I'll be ordering a spare shortly even if I don't need it to speed up future diagnosis. It's also probably the one piece that couldn't be replaced if the manufacturer went out of business unlike the motors which have plenty of third party options.

We have a link to this
http://www.hearthtools.com/parts/Breckwell_help.htm
Control Boards
Please Read before ordering a control board.

I get 4or so emails a day chastizing my website because I have so many CAPS and BOLD letter Yelling at people.
Well it is because people dont read and order parts they dont need.

 

[webbie]

Hah, Rod, how does it feel? Put the big sign up on top of the desk - "Can't please all of the people all of the time".....
Everyone is a critic until the shoe is on the other foot. You are giving amazing advice for free on your site and here. That should forgive your other transgressions......such as some of the spelling!
"Climate Control Systems are not the Manufacture of Breckwell stoves. "

replace with "Climate Control Systems is not the manufacturer of Breckwell stoves".

I don't know how you do it - install stoves, show up here, then do the web site. You must stay up late and wake up early.