"Shopping
around leaves me exhausted"
[back]
First Published April 20th,
2005.
So goes the new slogan from Advance Pitstop.
Their new advertising campaign, launched this week featuring
Orlaith Rafter from Fair City, goes on to tell us, "When it's time
for a new set of tyres, I couldn't be bothered shopping around for
a quote. I know that Advance Pitstop offers fantastic value".
Should we follow their advice and make tracks
straight to their door when we're buying our new tyres?
Value Ireland doesn't think so. In fact, this
kind of advertising is very much out of favour with Value Ireland.
If a company was so confident that it provided the best value for
money, it should be daring it's customers to shop around to find
that no other company can actually beat them on price.
Value Ireland has tested the promises made by
Advance Pitstop and will show you that you should still, always,
shop around for every good or service that you purchase.
Diarmuid MacShane, editor of Value Ireland, is
in the market currently for 2 new tyres for his Ford Mondeo, 1.6. The
requirements are very specific. Two Continental tyres, to match an
existing two, size 195/60 R15, speed rated H.
We called 9 Advance Pitstop outlets in the
Dublin area, and 2 outside Dublin, looking for a quote for the
tyres above. We asked for quotes to include fitting and balancing.
Bear in mind that the original set of two tyres cost €125 each
fitted with Advance Pitstop in Monkstown a couple of months ago.
We discovered a range of prices offered by
Advance Pitstop in their outlets across the city. They varied from
a low of €100 per tyre in Swords, to a high of €113 in Dundrum and
their city centre outlets. Fitting a car with a full set of tyres
in Advance Pitstop in Swords rather than Dundrum would have saved
a consumer €52.
So, even by shopping around amongst the Advance
Pitstop outlets, which they tell you you don't even have to do, as
a consumer you could save yourself over 10%.
The average price across the Advance Pitstop
outlets was €110, with the most popular price being €113 in 5 of
the 11 outlets. Only 2 of the 11 outlets actually charged less
that the €110 - Swords at €100 as mentioned, and Dun Laoghaire at
€105 each.
For balance, we called a number of other
outlets to compare Advance Pitstop prices with other suppliers. We
found the best of the rest to be Kwik-Fit in Santry who quoted
€109 per tyre, followed by Fast-Fit also in Santry quoting €110.
The worst we found was the Fast-Fit city centre outlet looking for
€128 per tyre.
So, the conclusion? Advance Pitstop do
provide the best value for the tyres Diarmuid is looking for - if
he was lucky enough to hit upon either Swords or Dun Laoghaire.
However, in the other 9 of 11 outlets checked, the best value
available wouldn't necessarily have been forthcoming - by shopping
around, we've found better value elsewhere.
Lesson Learned? It's still better to
shop around, despite what companies are telling us to do in their
advertising. We've even shown that it's worth your while shopping
around different outlets of the same businesses - not necessarily
something that would be immediately obvious.
Results of Phone Calls Requesting Quotes
