Am I just being a tight a**e?

Steve Legend

I need a new Big Bite Valve for my Camelbak and they're £5.99 - £6.99. That's a lot of money for the damn thing esp when this one has only lasted a year.

I don't think I'd mind if it came with the tube but it's only a tiny bit of rubber! Pfft!

Is it just me? :shock:

cgarossi

Camelbak know they're good so I guess you pay a premium.

yoohoo999

so let me get this straight...........

you have been biting on a bit of plastic for a year (which I presume has performed its function well), and surprise surprise it now needs replacing. The new part costs a whopping £5.99 (less than the price of 2 pints).

And you don't want to pay that?

Yes, IMO that is remarkably tight for more than one reason:

1. It's a part that is engineerered and made speficially to work with a limited number of products.
2. It is made by a manufacturer with one of the best reputations in its industry
3. It probably performs its task better than many of its rivals
4. After a year of biting on something.........shouldn't you really be more concerned about hygiene than anything else?

Just pay the £5.99 and enjoy a drip free and clean hydration system for the next 12 months!!!!

projectsome

:roll: :shock:

Steve Legend

See, now you've made it worse by comparing it to 2 pints! I guess I'll put up with the wet leg for a bit longer ha ha ha!

scotto

yes you are very tight, I have an online shop (not bike related) and I dread people like you, if you work out the cost of time wasted thinking and writing about it, that is probably more than £6

I bet you screw at paying carriage as well, no offence meant but in life things cost money and you can't take it with you, get your wallet out or go back to bed.

Thewaylander

your tight no question

Steve Legend

scotto wrote:

yes you are very tight, I have an online shop (not bike related) and I dread people like you, if you work out the cost of time wasted thinking and wriring about it, that is probably more than £6

I bet you screw at paying carriage as well, no offence meant but in life things cost money and you can't take it with you, get your wallet out or go back to bed.

Ok, so I was being pretty light hearted about this, only posted it taking the p*ss but your comeback is actually pretty frustrating.

Yes, things cost money but when things cost more money than they should then you do something about it i.e. question it or you don't buy it or you find a cheaper alternative. Now, I can guarantee that a big bite valve cost Camelbak just a few pence per unit to make so where the £6.99 comes from god only knows? If someone posts on here and tells me that actually it costs Camelbak £3 to make each unit then I'll quite happily pay up £6.99.

I also don't question carriage. I understand that you need a van, insurance, tax, MOT and a bloke to drive then thing so you can see where the money goes...easy! I'm a Driving Instructor and I get questioned over the price on a weekly basis but I can easily justify the price and if you don't like it fine...you go elsewhere!

And why I would go back to bed only you would know...it's the middle of the day :?

scotto

Steve Legend wrote:

scotto wrote:

yes you are very tight, I have an online shop (not bike related) and I dread people like you, if you work out the cost of time wasted thinking and wriring about it, that is probably more than £6

I bet you screw at paying carriage as well, no offence meant but in life things cost money and you can't take it with you, get your wallet out or go back to bed.

Ok, so I was being pretty light hearted about this, only posted it taking the p*ss but your comeback is actually pretty frustrating.

Yes, things cost money but when things cost more money than they should then you do something about it i.e. question it or you don't buy it or you find a cheaper alternative. Now, I can guarantee that a big bite valve cost Camelbak just a few pence per unit to make so where the £6.99 comes from god only knows? If someone posts on here and tells me that actually it costs Camelbak £3 to make each unit then I'll quite happily pay up £6.99.

I also don't question carriage. I understand that you need a van, insurance, tax, MOT and a bloke to drive then thing so you can see where the money goes...easy! I'm a Driving Instructor and I get questioned over the price on a weekly basis but I can easily justify the price and if you don't like it fine...you go elsewhere!

And why I would go back to bed only you would know...it's the middle of the day :?

Well it's called profit, people have to make it in order to survive, they are not sat there waiting to send plastic valves out to people for nothing.

You are what we call a nosepicker.

cgarossi

8 replies in, and this thread has already gone off the rails.

allthegearnoidea

i put an elastic band doubled up on my chest strap to hold my tube end up as was dripping a lot and i was too tight to buy another! worked alright for a while, but then the laccy band broke so thought s#d it and stumped up a fiver for it at the lbs! as it happened, the lock valve cost the same as the rubber end loL!

MrChuck

Maybe it's not so much a question of the value of the materials/manufacturing as the value of what it does?

I see your point that it does seem a lot for what it is, although I wouldn't be that surprised to hear that relatively low volumes and high tolerances might make it a bit more expensive than we might think.

But I think I'd look at the value to me of something that is going to do that job for a year or 2 at least as well as a Camelbak valve and conclude that £5.99 isn't that bad.

That's not to say I never feel a little bit ripped off by little parts like that though!

Steve Legend

Well it's called profit, people have to make it in order to survive, they are not sat there waiting to send plastic valves out to people for nothing.

You are what we call a nosepicker.

Ha ha ha, profit is fine, good and what makes the world go round, man...I bought a Camelbak in the first place all is good, didn't question it or the price. Excessive profit is greedy though. Greedy is bad!

It sounds to me that you have a lot of people complaining about your prices (cos they're too high) and that miffs you (and now you're taking it out on me 8) ).

Only silly people go through life paying silly prices for everything without questioning it.

The funny thing is I'll just buy one like everyone else and Camelbak will continue to laugh!

scotto

Steve Legend wrote:

Well it's called profit, people have to make it in order to survive, they are not sat there waiting to send plastic valves out to people for nothing.

You are what we call a nosepicker.

Ha ha ha, profit is fine, good and what makes the world go round, man...I bought a Camelbak in the first place all is good, didn't question it or the price. Excessive profit is greedy though. Greedy is bad!

It sounds to me that you have a lot of people complaining about your prices (cos they're too high) and that miffs you (and now you're taking it out on me 8) ).

Only silly people go through life paying silly prices for everything without questioning it.

The funny thing is I'll just buy one like everyone else and Camelbak will continue to laugh!

Yes I could have written that response before you did so typical are the answers given by the classic nosepicker,

paul.skibum

What's the alternative? Buy a whole new pack or bladder from another manufacturer at more expense and be faced with the same costs to replace the same part next year but by a different maker.

Sadly there is no cheap way to do it - granted the part may cost CB pence to make but there is development and so on to pay for - their mark up, the suppliers mark up VAT etc etc - it all adds up matey.

Pay the man and suck the life out of it - its less than 2p a day! although I guess if you ride twice a week it smore like 7p a ride.

On the other hand my bite valves fine after 3 years - the unbottle (or whatever its called) seems to be leaking when left lying down though.

MrChuck

Only silly people go through life paying silly prices for everything without questioning it.

Well it depends what the options are doesn't it? You can question the prices of Camelbak (or whatever bits) but I'm not aware of a similar product that does the same job for significantly less money, and it would cost me a lot more in money/ time to make my own, so...

ride_whenever

it is also a low demand product. If they were shifting them in quantities simliar to say, penny sweets, then they would probably cost a lot lot less.

BurtonM

by the way boys, this is the credit crunch.
If you have the attitude of ohh its only 6.99 lets just buy it, what happens when you buy your bike. "oh its only 1699 lets just buy it" or your porsche boxter "oh its only 16999 lets just buy it"
If you can buy a cheaper alternative, buy a cheaper alternative. How good can a bloody bit of rubber be? He was only having a joke, yet everyone seems to pound him at the slightest opportunity

projectsome

BurtonM wrote:

by the way boys, this is the credit crunch.
If you have the attitude of ohh its only 6.99 lets just buy it, what happens when you buy your bike. "oh its only 1699 lets just buy it" or your porsche boxter "oh its only 16999 lets just buy it"
If you can buy a cheaper alternative, buy a cheaper alternative. How good can a bloody bit of rubber be? He was only having a joke, yet everyone seems to pound him at the slightest opportunity

A decent bit of rubber can be the difference in a 'life' making decision

supersonic

It is a bloody joke. They make thosuands of these. I can buy a whole hydropak, with bladder for that money!

miss notax

BurtonM wrote:

by the way boys, this is the credit crunch.
If you have the attitude of ohh its only 6.99 lets just buy it, what happens when you buy your bike. "oh its only 1699 lets just buy it" or your porsche boxter "oh its only 16999 lets just buy it"
If you can buy a cheaper alternative, buy a cheaper alternative. How good can a bloody bit of rubber be? He was only having a joke, yet everyone seems to pound him at the slightest opportunity

Agreed

I realise that there is often no alternative, but I do also begrudge paying good money for a tiny bit of rubber or whatever.... I had to pay £10 for a stupid peice of plastic to hold 2 parts of my car key fob together and that REALLY annoyed me :evil:

But hey ho.

BurtonM

my hydropak in my el guapo bag p155es all over the camelbaks me and my mates have owned. it has the slide feature on which just makes things so much easier filling up and cleaning wise. you dont have to buy one of those overpriced camelbak cleaning kits neither

miss notax

I didn't even know you could get camelbak cleaning kits :oops:

I just rinse mine out and bung it in the freezer after each use, and stick it in milton fluid to sterilise it ocassionally! I'm all for an easy life

Daz555

Yep, rinse out after a ride and straight in the freezer. No worries.

supersonic

I actually lost my last hydropak. it was half full too, and was last seen under the stairs. I think it got up and walked off, new life forms were been created.

Skonk

Dont Camelbak hold the patent for that particular type of mouth bite-valve?

I guess they could charge anything they like, £5.99 sounds a bit steep for what it is but it's a much better valve then used on all the other brands of pack I've used.

But if they last a year with the usage you give it, £5.99 spread over the whole year really isn't much.

Steve Legend

Well, I'm glad a few people agree with me. Was starting to actually feel tight ha ha!

Too many people pay too much and just accept it so where does it stop? The companies wont change what they charge all the time you're prepared to pay over the odds so we have to stop buying the stuff at that price and you just watch the price drop.

A good example is T-Shirts. (I know its off-subject but still the same) Big bands and companies will sell you a T-Shirt for £16-20. My band can make coloured high quality T-Shirts with front and back colour print and sell them for £6-7 and still make a quid or two profit. And we don't even do them in massive quantities.

It's daylight robbery which many thousands of people put up with! :roll:

Steve Legend - The Nosepicker (this still makes no sense but I'm feeling ok with it lol_ :P

trekhead

tight wad

BurtonM

everyone disputes the prices of the gear, but theres no way to stop it. There is absolutely feck all we can do about it so in most cases we put up with it, however when it reaaaaallly does take the micky, the way to do it is find a cheaper version or an alternative. My first hydration pack was a red tesco one, if had a two litre resevoir and a bag for 7 pound. thats 1 pound more expensive that the piece of rubber camelbak sell, for me its a no brainer.

dave_hill

Steve Legend wrote:

Is it just me? :shock:

Do you have Scottish or Yorkshire ancestry by any chance?

Get your hand in your pocket.

scale20

Check out Decathlon.

http://www.decathlon.co.uk/EN/bite-valv ... #INFO-TECH

You can buy a new bladder for £7-8 thats if your not aresd about camelbak?