Like other local online companies that have the same products?
We already price our products to be competitive with other retailers, so you will usually find them to be at or below their prices. If you have a price on a specific product from a specific retailer, give our sales team a call at 1-800-584-1445 weekdays to get a comparison.
I can’t speak for 2 way radios, but here in the UK, I’m really fed up with the concept of price matching. My response to the question now from strangers, who often find me by internet positive comments is “yes, let me know which bit of my service you want me to cross off”
It is infuriating to really go out of the way to help new customers, answering queries, unboxing stuff and measuring it, sometimes even opening a radio up to confirm if X can be done or there is space to add things - or of course, program things - THEN they ask if I can match the box shifter who is ÂŁ10 cheaper and they think we make massive profits. Very few radios I sell will make me rich individually - very often return postage makes things a loss!
Maybe I am getting old, but if people want price AND service I like to offer price OR service. When I buy, if something is ten quid more expensive from a seller I trust and can rely on, that ÂŁ10 is well spent!
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Thank you so much you guys are awesome as always! 73
Just a reminder to everyone to keep discussions civil and respectful to maintain a healthy, helpful and welcoming environment. It’s the first item in our FAQ.
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Yessir I apologize just a simple question some old timer took to the heart, I always buy from you guys anyways… And you all always give me the best price! And best customer service! Shout out to Taylor this time for an awesome sale! It’s 2024 some people are stuck in the analog ages 
I did not have time to address this yesterday, so am going to do so now. Paulears was not attacking you or anything. He was merely posting a general observation that many dealers encounter on a frequent basis. Your profanity laced response to him was completely uncalled for and way out of line. This type of behaviour has no place on our forum.
At the time I was advised by another member of our team to delete your post, but I was too preoccupied with other tasks and left alone it to review again later. That was very poor judgement on my part, and to the members of the forum, I apologize. It will not happen again. I have since deleted the post.
Since I have a few minutes to do so, allow me to explain how retail pricing works, which is what Paul was attempting to do.
The retailer is where a product actually gets to the market, and in many cases is the only part of the distribution channel where the customer has a direct interaction with anyone related to that product in some way. The thing is, the retailer is not the manufacturer, so has little control over the quality and availability of it. Sometimes the manufacturer also sets the pricing in certain ways, in which case the retailer is limited in how the price can be set.
Sometimes the manufacturer tells the retailer they can’t sell the product lower than a certain amount, and if the retailer wants to sell that product, they must comply. Other times there is no minimum, so it’s a matter of what the retailer can afford to sell it for and still pay the bills.
This is where it gets really tricky for the retailer. They need to cover all the costs of doing business and still try to make a profit. This is what bothers me personally about the accusations of “price gouging” that is usually invoked by politicians and the like, most of whom have never run a legitimate business themselves. Does price gouging occur? Absolutely. This is what may occur in a monopolistic environment, where there is little to no competition.
However, that’s an exception to the rule, not the norm. Most retailers are in very competitive environments, so they generally don’t do that, and they can’t afford to do so.
This is particularly true In the two way radio business. There is a lot of competition, and it’s becoming more competitive every day. There was a time when radio dealers could make a decent profit (profit, btw, which is generally used to help grow the business). Today it’s a whole different ballgame. Everything is so competitive now that it’s often a race to the bottom, with dealers constantly trying to outdo the competition with cut-rate pricing. This is a dangerous thing to do, because unless the seller is very careful, they can price themselves out of business.
A lot of shoppers think that the retailer is always making money hand over fist, and this is not true. In reality, the average retailer is working with margins that are becoming slimmer every day. I experienced this when I was in the computer business in the early 2000s, and it got so bad that I left it because it wasn’t worth the effort.
To enlighten those who are not familiar with retailing, here are just a few of the costs that need to be built into the price of the product:
The cost of the product (what the retailer pays the manufacturer or distributor for it)
shipping the product to the retailer (it’s not necessarily free)
building/office leasing/rental
utilities
administrative costs (and there can be a lot of them)
labor (cost of employees)
spoilage/returns
advertising/marketing costs (no one will buy from you if they don’t know you exist)
And there are other costs as well.
Now, in many tech businesses, and this very much includes radios, there is one more cost that has to be factored in, and it can be a huge one. The big box retailers and companies such as Amazon don’t have this cost, and it is one reason why they can be a challenge to compete with. But the rest of the market, and especially the small business owners who can least afford it, find themselves increasingly straddled with it.
Product support.
Support can be very difficult and expensive for two reasons. First, it is very, very time consuming, and time is money, so when a customer calls for support, It is almost always a loss on the sale of that product. Second, the retailer isn’t the manufacturer, and didn’t actually design or make the product, so there is a limit to what they can do. Even then, this requires a dedicated staff to handle support requests, which is an added cost to the retailer.
This brings us to price matching. Many retailers will try to price match a competitor, but there is only so much they can do, because their costs are built into the prices of their products. Remember, it’s already a highly competitive business, and margins are already low. To match the price of the competition, they may have to move around some other things to try to make that happen without going into the red.
And this is what Paulears was talking about. Things can get to the point where they have to cut some service or value-add somewhere else to get that price point the customer wants. And for many proprietors, it can be a very stressful thing. That’s why I left the computer business, so I can completely understand Paul’s frustration.
Again, I should have simply deleted that post, because it was a personal attack on someone who was just trying to make a fair point. My apologies to Paulears, and I hope this post will help everyone better understand the limitations of product pricing.
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There are a lot of products on buytwowayradios.com that you will not find elsewhere so no they probably don’t price match. If you want good quality products at a good price then give them a try. I have bought several radios and accessories and have never had an issue, just good quality for a good price.
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