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Well I never, ALDI missed the opportunity!


TIGHTCHOKE
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Yesterday my 24 year old Qualcast cylinder mower finally gave up the ghost.

I spent a couple of hours stripping it down to get to the broken part. Stopped at 17:30 yesterday in order to replace some fluids and have a little dinner.

Whilst eating I decided to search on line for a new cordless mower. The best deal was a Ferrex model from Aldi, I went in this morning and they had two left.

I bought one and when loading it in to my boot, saw a small notice that said, " Battery and Charger SOLD SEPERATELY"

I returned to the store and to the last remaining cordless lawn mower, no batteries or chargers!

I enquired from a Staff member where they were?

She took me to the chargers, but said there were no batteries!

I phoned the Aldi Customer Services line from my car to be told, "yes, we are aware of the lack of batteries" I asked "should I go to another branch?" As Peterborough has several. I was told, "No there are no batteries available anywhere at the moment."

I have now complained via their website and wonder when I might get an answer?

You really COULD'NT MAKE IT UP!

I will now go online and see if I can order one for when they are available.

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Yes thank you, I have the charger, they were available and I have one of those batteries on order through their online section.

Shame that their top brass couldn't work out that if they bought a thousand cordless lawn mowers from China, then they should expect to need a thousand chargers and possibly a thousand or even two thousand batteries.

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Just now, bruno22rf said:

Maybe wrong but I think that those batteries fit a variety of Ferrex products so anybody shopping may have bought a new battery for something they purchased a while ago.

Yes I am aware of that, but still feel that the Aldi buyers missed an opportunity!

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I'd personally just fix the Qualcast - they don't make em like they used to, I was given a 1970's qualcast suffolk 35 this week (donated for the scout group to have a go at fixing up). Fresh fuel and a little tinker with the carb and off she went. All the spares still availible too. Otherwise I'd be picking up a mountfield around the £175 mark that should have 10-15 years in it, batteries just don't last that long and they keep changing the shape on purpose to keep you buying new kit. Stanley have just done it with the fatmax range and now all my batteries are redundant. 

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53 minutes ago, Papercase said:

I'd personally just fix the Qualcast - they don't make em like they used to, I was given a 1970's qualcast suffolk 35 this week (donated for the scout group to have a go at fixing up). Fresh fuel and a little tinker with the carb and off she went. All the spares still availible too. Otherwise I'd be picking up a mountfield around the £175 mark that should have 10-15 years in it, batteries just don't last that long and they keep changing the shape on purpose to keep you buying new kit. Stanley have just done it with the fatmax range and now all my batteries are redundant. 

I note your point, but unfortunately Qualcast do not keep spares after 4 years, let alone the 23 years I have had mine for.

 

I might rebuild the Qualcast and fettle a couple of parts if I don't get any joy from Aldi.

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I'd say Aldi have nailed it, I've looked at a few of this tool range, lots of stuff using the same batteries,  and if they are still selling stuff without even having batteries available that probably means others have bought multiple batteries.

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13 minutes ago, Mice! said:

I'd say Aldi have nailed it, I've looked at a few of this tool range, lots of stuff using the same batteries,  and if they are still selling stuff without even having batteries available that probably means others have bought multiple batteries.

I am sure you are correct, but it still means their buyers did not source sufficient batteries.

The exact same model of cordless lawnmower is available under a different name at another supplier, but it comes with a charger and a battery for a similar price to the Aldi version if you add on the charger and the battery.

Horses for courses I suspect, but I reckon I will not be the only one to complain to Aldi Customer Services.

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1 hour ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I am sure you are correct, but it still means their buyers did not source sufficient batteries.

The exact same model of cordless lawnmower is available under a different name at another supplier, but it comes with a charger and a battery for a similar price to the Aldi version if you add on the charger and the battery.

Horses for courses I suspect, but I reckon I will not be the only one to complain to Aldi Customer Services.

Just take the mower you’ve got back to Aldi for a refund and buy the other version, would be the easiest solution surely? 
i agree, most frustrating though! 
 

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If you can find out which engine it is (usually made by 2-3 companies for all mowers) - just done a champion mower that is 15 years old and it shares the engine with mountfield models and a number of others - maybe it will work - a carb rebuild and new plug usually fixes 99% of non starters.

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17 hours ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I am sure you are correct, but it still means their buyers did not source sufficient batteries.

I don't think you understand how these Lidl/Aldi centre-aisle deals work.

They are there to entice those that normally do not like the weekly foodshop - mostly men - with strictly stock-limited offers to browse and spend more money than they otherwise would.  They then market these deals to 'drop' on a specified date (Thursdays and Saturdays) so people get into the habit of anticipating them, creating an 'event'.  They buy a production runs' worth of stock, and distribute it to the stores.  Once it's gone, that's it, TS.

Leaving aside for a minute pandemic-induced shortages in the supply chain, they didn't source insufficient batteries.  Every store receives an allocation and once it's gone, that's it.   They try not to over-stock to ensure stores aren't left with unsold product they can't shift.

Although I'm usually a fan of the 'fun aisle' tools, I deliberately avoided the battery powered tool line up, for reasons you've found.  Although there's now an unofficial supply chain -including enterprising individuals buying up items and flogging them on Ebay a few weeks later (possibly one cause of your issue).  I've gone with a 'proper' tool brand for my cordless stuff, which although more expensive, allows me to add items as and when I need them, and not at the whim of the S&M dept of a supermarket.

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1 hour ago, udderlyoffroad said:

I don't think you understand how these Lidl/Aldi centre-aisle deals work.

They are there to entice those that normally do not like the weekly foodshop - mostly men - with strictly stock-limited offers to browse and spend more money than they otherwise would.  They then market these deals to 'drop' on a specified date (Thursdays and Saturdays) so people get into the habit of anticipating them, creating an 'event'.  They buy a production runs' worth of stock, and distribute it to the stores.  Once it's gone, that's it, TS.

Leaving aside for a minute pandemic-induced shortages in the supply chain, they didn't source insufficient batteries.  Every store receives an allocation and once it's gone, that's it.   They try not to over-stock to ensure stores aren't left with unsold product they can't shift.

Although I'm usually a fan of the 'fun aisle' tools, I deliberately avoided the battery powered tool line up, for reasons you've found.  Although there's now an unofficial supply chain -including enterprising individuals buying up items and flogging them on Ebay a few weeks later (possibly one cause of your issue).  I've gone with a 'proper' tool brand for my cordless stuff, which although more expensive, allows me to add items as and when I need them, and not at the whim of the S&M dept of a supermarket.

Fair enough, we will have to agree to disagree.

I can order the batteries and charger on line.

Although the lawn mower is not available on line.

As it is a lawnmower that will be used once a week for little over half the year I will see what the quality is like and if it is poor I will use the 3 year guarantee to get my money back.

It was interesting that the chap from Customer Services stated it was a balls up and that he and his colleagues had received loads of calls on the subject.

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