Don't Buy Junk | Home Depot vs Amazon vs Plumbing Supply Store

welcome to the DIY

home

run division I'm Jeff Thorman your host today we're talking about

plumbing

fixtures we're talking about the difference between good stuff and crap we're talking about my recent experience I recently purchased three of the faucets that were advertised to be the same product from Amazon to Home Depot and an online

plumbing

supplier and I did it because I am a consumer advocate for you. I want to know what the difference is. Are they the same product? Are they different today? We're going to do some dramatic things, we're going to open up some things and find out what makes these products tick because I want to know why they were all selling at different prices and yeah, so what we're going to do is we're going to learn about that and Let's start with a quick little demo.

I want to share a little bit of information because you know I've been doing these kinds of talks for a while and now we're talking about how you can get a better deal. but the most important thing is that the market is changing, we are getting new players in the market by selling things to them, so I wanted to make them aware of what is happening in the market so that they understand the complexities and can make an informed purchasing decision. First of all, we have something called MSRP in our business, the manufacturers suggest the retail price and if I want to be a distributor for something like a bathroom faucet, I go to the company and say, Hey, I want to be a distributor, they make me sign an agreement. . and they say, hey, you can't sell anything cheaper than MSRP and you can get approval for a sale or two here and there, but you have to get all that in writing, you have to come to an agreement because you can't sell it cheaper because everyone our other Distributors have the same treatment.

Understand that relationship and when we call, MSRP equals retail and if you're familiar with going out and shopping online for a good restaurant, get the one dollar sign, two dollar signs, three and four for the cost of the product, the retail Retail is a two dollar sign scenario. Well, now the other scenario that exists in that distributor. The deal is that you can sell it to contractors, they are a single purchasing group. and that allows you to sell them with a dollar sign, you can give them a discount and that's a special buying group and it has a special privilege now personally as a YouTube channel.

I like to see them as a special buying group that we have. I've been trying to have that conversation but we haven't gotten anywhere so far so one of these days we'll start all that and then there's this new thing called list price and that equals b. Okay, it's a three dollar sign situation, so what are we going for? What we need to talk about today is where the list price is coming from, how it's going to affect you, and if you understand what that means, then you're not going to be a victim of what's happening online because you know we're at almost 15 percent. of all products are bought online now, that's more than just a couple of years ago, there were between eight and ten of us and that means that the list price is our new nemesis and you should be aware of this so as not to fall victim to this and here we go, we have a manufacturer, I don't care what the product is, almost all companies do it today, talking about a manufacturer and then they make a product, it will cost like 30 dollars, they sell it to a distributor, they sell it for 50 .maybe 60 true, they're going to double your money now the manufacturer makes a product makes a profit when they sell it to the distributor now a distributor in the world of plumbing fixtures because let's keep it up to date it would be something like in Canada we're talking Wolseley, we'd be talking like Ferguson in the United States, all the different plumbing

store

s you see in town are Distributors and they have the opportunity to sell to contractors because they are a special buying group at a discounted price and they range from 50 to about 100 dollars double your money they make a profit the contractors sell it to you they double it and make a profit well they can also sell to retailers who are subject to MSRP rules and can only sell it for 159 Well okay now look and look at this so a manufacturer can sell to two Distributors who sell to your contractor to sell to you or they can sell to a retailer who can sell to you or they can go online and sell to you directly with a listing. price now, I'm talking about this specific distribution, the product I'm talking about today was listed as 325 online as the list price and the reason I wanted to mention that is because that's the information you need to understand today's presentation. let's get this out of the way let's talk about the product that I bought and it's this one it's a Moen Adler faucet it's a kitchen faucet it's actually a good product okay it has a pull down faucet it comes in chrome and the idea here is that Chrome is The cheapest metal, you can get black, you can get bronze, you can get a nickel brush, but all those other options are also more expensive.

I like to buy Chrome because I bought this one on Amazon and I wrote the price here somewhere, let's say 159 dollars. plus taxes, okay, that seemed like a decent deal, that's what it is. I contacted Home Depot. I said, hey, I ordered online. I said Home Depot. I want to complain about the Adler faucet and was curious to know if it is the same product or. it's a different product, Moen makes some in China and some somewhere else and someone else somewhere depending on Marketplace Marketplace and guess what we have the exact same box, the same code, the symbols on the back of the oops, okay, all.

These things are exactly the same which was interesting, the difference is when I bought on Amazon because I'm a Prime member I received it the next day, when I bought it through Home Depot it took five business days, expectations aren't terrible from the manager and then just for fun I reviewed a major online plumbing retailer I'm going to be polite and not share who they are because it was a huge disappointment and I ordered the same faucet that Home Depot and Amazon had the exact same price now that the price from Home Depot that they have on their website was thirty dollars more, but now they have it discounted because they have competition and they have a rule that they can't sell at lower prices, so they keep the prices where the competition is.

Now this online retailer sold me this for 277 not 150 277. Surely if I'm paying that kind of money I expect these two to be plastic and the other one will be brass. I'm paying 277 for brass. Lo and behold, I have the same damn product, yeah, you bet. I went online and asked them for proof of return right away. This one will give me my money back. These two are interesting because what we're going to do today is find out if any of this metal is all plastic. It's all

junk

and just to make this even more interesting, I picked up this thing here, this one is $59, it's a kitchen faucet, it even has a little spray handle on it, okay, let's experiment, let's go and find out what's going on. .

These products we are buying garbage, does anyone sell quality? Okay, but before we do that, let's have a little fun exploring this list price concept. Now I want to share my screen on the Moen Moen website, moen.com, okay, retired. turn up the same faucet now look at this in the bottom left corner the list price is 325. Now what the heck is 325 about? Remember this famous online plumbing fixtures place was like 277. They are charging 325 as list. price, but right below it it says that the web price was 149. They look a lot like the Salvador, so now we have a manufacturer that is used to selling their product to a distributor for 50 dollars trying to sell something here for 149 and I checked it.

I went through the process and they added 11 in shipping. Guess what it's the same price as Amazon and Home Depot. dollar that is in the market and there is only one thing that can arise that is that everyone else will be driven out of the market we are going to have less selection less options and we are going to get closer and closer and closer and closer over time to the price list because they are going to get rid of their competition, it is scary what is happening now and it is not a I don't want to stop mowing the grass here.

I checked American Standard, the same as they have the list price. you can go and check it yourself on a website, they are selling the list price and then rebates seem to be your savior or your best friend, okay, delta is doing the same thing, their shopping site isn't even active yet, so It's new, they have a shopping cart in the corner, but they still recommend where to shop until the site is built, everyone is moving in that direction. Well, now what we want to know is if all this crap is any good because, as a consumer, I don't want to buy plastic accessories, so let's open up and take a look.

Why is it so cheap? Why do they all sell exactly the same thing from the same company? What are the differences? Well, first of all, here's Moen. It is a single handle, it comes with a plate, so if you have a four inch offset countertop when you have three holes drilled this will cover the other holes, if you only have one hole drilled you should go ahead and put this bad boy on that only one. hole, these are tap risers, they come 3 8, okay, here in the south where I am in Florida right now, some of the CPVC is actually not 3 8, it's half an inch, you'll have to go out and spend another five bucks .

In this case, this is a half inch female and goes with a 3 8 male, which will make that fit no big deal for you, but these bands are long enough that you won't have to buy bands, what a great offer! The little Quick Connect system comes with a metal plate and weights, blah blah blah, and it's basically set up so you can put a metal plate under here, you can tighten it down with some screws, this thing won't move, this is the quality I like. this product and then you have this, this is something sold at the local hardware

store

, yes that's right, it's a great option, 59 dollars right now, first of all, the attachment system is these little plastic rings, press that on your counter, okay?

That doesn't work, plastic under compression always fails, so one day you're there and you turn on the faucet and everything moves on the counter. The problem is okay, so what you have to do is have a silicone. to the problem of your countertop that looks like

junk

, what else don't you see in that box? ER risers, so they were 60 bucks, but now you have to buy two of these, now your 50 60 tap is 80 bucks, well that's not a good deal if it's not going to stay put and I don't have a fossilizer, does it help? something? What is it really made of?

What are you saying? We discovered that it appears that the faucet itself is made of some type of aluminum-tin alloy. There is nothing real. brass on it, okay, it didn't turn to gold for me, so it's cheap, so when I take a look at that cheap plastic plus metal ring crap, now let's take a look at this Adler faucet and see if it's better . I'm dying to know what. Am I paying for that? A plumbing company wanted to sell almost 300 for this faucet board right away. You can tell it took a lot longer to cut it.

Well, let's take a look. It looks like some kind of stainless steel product, but you know what? The reason I opened this is for this reason: you can look at the product documentation, you can read the entire box, you don't know what the hell you are buying, nowhere does it say brass, steel or aluminum, so remember if you are buying based on the price, you're going to pay what you get, okay, you're going to get what you're paying for, sorry, now the other thing about these cartridges is that in this situation they have a little set screw here you can take out the set screw, remove the handle, use a wrench, undo this, the internal cartridge is actually replaceable, so Moen has a lifetime warranty on all of their cartridges, so remember, if you are doing copper plumbing, remove the cartridge, flush the system and then put it back because you don't want a piece of copper coming out or the solder ball valve inside your cartridge won't work and will leak, if it does they will replace it at your expense.

So I take my hat off to complain about that, but I just wanted to show you that this thing is heavy, that it's metal, that the other thing was tin, so when you pick up the box, if it doesn't feel substantial, take the cheap one at the same time in the store when you are buying and check it carefully. I wanted you to know that there are differences in product quality. It's fine, and if you want really good quality, you have to pay for it. Let's be realistic. It's disappointing to know that. We are creating a Marketplace, someone is making 30 products selling it for one hundred and sixty dollars and the goal is to avoid everyone in the middle and keep it the cheapest quality possible without any competition, that is what we are heading towards.

Buyer beware, there are companies now that manufacture Brass rehabel Pro manufactures brass items for bathroom faucets, shower valves and everything they actually manufacture, all their brass valves in Canada and then the plastic fittings that come from China . The truth is that quality is becoming something that is a thing of the past and if you are going to buy from retail stores that are in this cement mode here, they will have to pay, sell it at the same price as everyoneThe rest have no margin left, so first of all, there is nothing wrong. With this fuss this is a good quality for a piece of machinery, it has excellent tap lifts, it has great intelligence, it has an excellent ceramic cartridge, that's fine, and if you have a problem you can get a warranty.

In many cases you can go to your local Home Depot because they represent Moen and they will have the parts in a bin in that plumbing aisle so you can bring your old valve in, it will have a code on it and then they will give you the same thing and you go right to the store you do not have. to go with cash or nothing, so feel free when the time comes, guys, you have a store for the brand. I know brands are getting greedy, they're trying to start their own shopping networks, resist that local store, so it's not a bad idea to get a monopoly on us and feel free to get something like a Moen, a Delta or a AmericanStandard.

Okay, they represent the beginning of quality. There are now options on the shelf for people who don't have them. have the financial means to pay 150 dollars for a faucet and I appreciate that, but if you have the ability to buy something that is worth 150, never buy something that is worth 60 or 80 because you are going to be stuck with that shitty plastic connection and you are going to Go crazy and you're going to have water coming in behind your counter, so thank you all for joining us, remember you get what you pay for, don't buy junk, if you want to know if it's junk, cut it in half. greetings next time