Michael Kors Parker 5491 – UK Bestseller

The Michael Kors Ladies Parker (model MK5491) continues to steam ahead as one of the UK’s most popular watches. The allure of the Rose Gold finish coupled with the large white dial with rose gold increments, chronograph dials and hands. This is a watch to be seen in and many have already made thier choice.

MK5491 Michael Kors Parker Chronograph

We’ve round up the best prices on this model. Amazon may be the cheapest but don’t be put off from taking a look at the authorised stockists in the UK who also list this watch. Getting the peace of mind a full manufacturer’s warranty provides can be worth a little extra for a watch of this quality. The fashion for large dial chronographs for ladies looks set to continue for 2014. The watch boasts an impressive numbers of stones set both around the bezel and on the dial increments so it sparkles at any angle.

Why are Casio Sheen watches so expensive?

 

Just added a couple of these Sheen watches. I’m really scratching my head with the price though. £200? Are they kidding? If it’s the moon phase feature then I don’t get it – watches for £30 have that feature.

Coupled with the fact that it’s no oil painting I wonder just what the secret sauce is that makes it a good buy. Answers in the comments if you have them please.

G-Shock Awesomeness

Most of the watches I list are fairly drab, or at best ordinary. This one just jumped out at me as I looked at it though:

I had Lego as a child (it’s still around somewhere) and this monster of a watch with its brash red reminds me of happy hours spent constructing space ships with small coloured bricks.

 

Curse you Amazon!

As I add products, sometimes the Amazon listing displays the watch incorrectly. This is sometimes something simple like describing something as mens, when it is clearly ladies. It can be forgiven.

Unfortunately, all too often the actual product image is incorrect. This is entirely unforgiveable. Equally unfortunately, it’s not going to be fixed anytime soon it would appear. incorrect product data is supplied by merchants and manufacturers alike it would seem.

How to make an offer look better than it really is

*The following is a message sent to Affiliate Window. They did not reply.*

Hi Affiliate Window, I want to ask a question about one of your merchants and their advertisments on Quidco & TopCashBack.

Other merchants have similar offers on both Quidco & TopCashBack, that run through the Webgains Affiliate network.

Your merchants’ cashack offers are based on ExVAT prices, Webgains’ merchants are based on IncVAT prices. What this means is, as an example, with Quidco your merchants’ 10% offer appears identical to similar Webgains merchants who offer 10% cashback, when in fact it is actually 16.66% worse. On a £100 (IncVAT) product purchase, consumers using your cashback deal get back £8.33. Consumers using a Webgains cashback deal of the same notional percentage get back £10.

TopCashBack (I asked them directly and they were polite enough to reply) tell me that the inclusion or exclusion of VAT is at the discretion of the affliate network or merchant.

I did a small amount of research, since I know your merchant supplies products primarily to the general public. They make no secret of this as their website states: “We only supply consumers, and do not supply other companies in the trade.”.

The DTi code of practice for traders on price indicators (October 2005) states:

Valued Added Tax

(i) Price indications to consumers

2.2.7 All price indications you give to private consumers, by whatever means, should
include VAT.

In addition, the HMRC website states:

Prices in advertisements, catalogues and price lists

Products advertised in outlets, magazines, on the internet, or shown in catalogues, price lists and other literature may be aimed at the consumer, businesses, or both. If they’re only meant for the general public, they’ll show you a price including VAT. This is a legal requirement.

(Source: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/vat/sectors/consumers/basics.htm)

My question is, should the CashBack offers of your merchant be displayed based on ExVAT pricing? It seems deceptive and possibly illegal.

A reply would be greatly appreciated.

Amazon enters the grey market

Amazon, clearly frustrated with being unable to source some watch brands directly appear to have resorted to buying grey product.

At the time of posting, Amazon is listing (among others) the Nixon 42-20 Chrono in black here.

The tell tale is the “Warranty Offer” that states:

“This watch is supplied with an Amazon EU Sarl Two-Year Limited Watch Warranty”

To the untrained eye this doesn’t sound worrying, but what this really says is:

“This product has been purchased through a broker or other unofficial source. If you request warranty support from the manufacturer for this product, you won’t get it. Nor will they verify authenticity”

While this is not illegal in itself, it does mean the buyer is relying on Amazon’s buying team knowing that the product they are purchasing is genuine. They won’t be able to verify whether or not the Nixon Watches they buy are genuine because they’d have to ask Nixon, and in doing so reveal the unauthorised source they are buying from.

As a footnote, a grey source for a product is typically either an official dealer that sells products to trade customers through the “back door” (meaning without agreement from the licence holder) or a broker that buys overruns directly from the factory. I explained overruns in a previous post.

Compare Watches is back

After 6 months of downtime the site is finally back online. New database, new codebase and simply layout. This blog was also left unmanned for a while, but that’s all ready to change now.

Amazon takes the buy box

Bit of a disturbing change on Amazon recently. In the past, they’d take the buy box on a product if they had it in stock AND they were at least reasonably close to having a lower price than the third party merchants. Merchants with good pricing, stock available and decent sales metrics could win the buy box.

Now Amazon takes the buy box even when they are considerably more expensive and when they don’t even have the product in stock.

Seems to be a bit of a kick in the face for the merchants, and not really the right thing to do if they care about their customers to boot. Isn’t the user experience top of the priority list any more?

How long should my watch battery last?

You’ve just bought that shiny new watch. You make your friends jealous by wearing short sleeves all the time so they can see it. When someone asks you the time you make a big sweeping movement of your arm so they won’t miss the stunning vision of your watch before getting the nugget of information they want. Everyone wants to know where you got it. So far so good.

Just a month later it stops – the battery is dead. Common sense tells you to get onto the shop you bought the watch from, complain, and get a new battery fitted by them, or maybe even get them to completely replace the watch with a brand new one.

Unfortunately, common sense will not help you in this scenario. The shop sold you the watch – the battery was never part of the deal (financially at least). The battery was, in fact, a free gift that came with the watch. This is a standard practice not only in the watch industry, but for almost any battery powered devices. Batteries are “free”, so the shop will tell you by all means you can send the battery back to them for a refund since the amount of the refund will be zero.

I know it sounds harsh, but this is the way it is.

Water resistance – swimming in your watch

If you’re going swimming in the sea, and still need 6G82S724UAN9 to know what time it is you’ll be wearing your watch. If it’s 5 ATM rated, you’d think you were OK to do this. Hang on though, what kind of strap does your watch have? If it’s stainless steel, no problem.

If, on nthe other hand, you’ve got a watch with a leather strap you need to think twice. The watch head may well be up to the task, but what about the leather in the strap? Sea water has a corrosive effect on leather, which might not be noticeable after one or two dips in the ocean but the damage will be done, and it’s accumulative. The more often you swim in the sea, the mosre damage to the leather will occur.

Eventually, the leather will dry and crack destroying the strap.