The appliance market is booming, and it’s no surprise that there are so many brands vying for your attention – some with deep cash discounts. But what is the right choice? How do you know which one is right for your needs? In this post we’ll explore the three most important factors for success in subscription appliances: brand, model and method of acquisition.
Brand
Brand is the first of the appliance success factors we will cover when choosing an appliance. For an appliance brand to be successful, it must deliver on its brand promise. A brand promise is an expectation of quality and service that you have when dealing with a particular business or person. If the brand itself promises good quality products at affordable prices and meets the customers expectations in a previous sale, then customers will trust those promises more than ones made by other businesses who may offer cash discounts and cheaper options.
Different brands have different promises. Electrolux, LG, Bosch, Fisher and Paykel, Samsung, Miele, and Asko all have their brand promises. Fisher and Paykel is a relatively expensive brand, with the promise that it will last a long time and parts will be available for many years. Miele and Asko are very expensive brands which come with extra prestige, with the promise of the highest quality, some confusing buttons which will mean no one but you can use it, and very long parts availability. If you are considering buying one of these expensive brands, especially if you will be buying on finance and making monthly payments, you really ought to consider the subscription appliance market or subscription services instead. Subscription services lets you to subscribe to an appliance usually with monthly payments instead of owning it outright, meaning you essentially have a lifetime warranty on the subscription appliance. More on the subscription appliance market later.
Model
Model is the second most important of the three appliance success factors to consider. There are two main things to watch out for in model. First try and avoid buying a fresh brand new design, and this can be a bit difficult. The fresh designs will usually be the most fashionable and often have cash discounts – but they come with a problem. When a new model type first hits the market it often has design flaws – and you won’t know about them because there won’t be any reviews to go off yet – all you can do is trust the brand. These design flaws often cannot be fixed, they’re just lemons. Some brands are constantly updating their models – Samsung and LG are notorious for releasing a new design seemingly every 5 minutes. Other brands like Fisher and Paykel tend to make incremental changes. For example Fisher and Paykel fridges have the same basic design they have had for the last 30 years, and their frontloader washers for the last 6 years. They don’t risk releasing a lemon and wasting time on gimmicky addons, but the downside is they might not seem as cutting edge and fashionable as other brands.
The second consideration here we’ve already touched on – check out the customer reviews for the model online. In fairness these are usually skewed to the negative, as customers who are dissatisfied about their appliance from a big business are much more likely to vent their negative experience than a positive experience. A rating of 3 stars out of 5 or higher would be acceptable, but make sure to read the reviews and see if there’s a common theme. For a good example try googling “Samsung SRF890SWLS reviews”.
Method of Acquisition
The final of the three appliance success factors is how will you get the appliance. Your choices are buying outright, buying on finance or credit card (with monthly payments), traditional rental, or the up-and-coming subscription appliance market and subscription services. Depending on how you acquire the appliances
Buying outright is pretty straightforward. You have the cash, you buy it – you might even be able to get cash discounts. Alternatively if you cannot afford to buy the appliance outright you use a credit card and pay for the appliance with monthly repayments. Traditional rental is very similar to buying with a loan or credit card. You rent the appliance and there’s usually a buy it for $1 clause at the end of the term. Essentially though you end up paying a very high interest rate and get all the unwanted obligations of ownership as well. For example once the warranty has run out, if the appliance breaks, too bad – that’s on you. If you send it to rubbish you still have to pay out the rest of your term, and if you repair it, you’re responsible for the cost of repairs – and guess who pays for the cost of any damage like spoilt food or a flooded apartment – Hooray you do!
Subscription services for appliances is not just appliance rental by another name. There are what appear to be small differences, but they compound to result in a completely different experience. Subscription appliances are the more sustainable option helping to close the loop, and they’re also often the more economic option. In the subscription appliance market customers usually make weekly or monthly payments, with no lock in contracts, so the subscription services can be cancelled anytime, and the appliances returned without further weekly or monthly payments. With subscription appliances, the subscription services provider is responsible for the appliance working, you’re not actually paying to have a fridge or washing machine, you’re paying to have cold food, or clean clothes. And if there’s a problem they will usually have customer protections, so you’re not out of pocket if anything goes wrong. Whether you’re looking for a cheap appliance or an expensive one subscription appliances often makes more sense. For example, if you are looking at buying an expensive washing machine it usually works out cheaper to subscribe, because you effectively have a lifetime warranty, and cash compensation for damage caused by flooding in many cases. If you’re buying an expensive appliance for a long warranty, the subscription appliance market can generally offer a better option to suit you. If you’re buying a cheap, poorly built appliance with a short warranty – again the subscription appliance market generally has you covered, A cheap washing machine is more likely to fail and ruin your clothes and flood your house, a cheap fridge more likely to fail and take your food with it. Make sure you consider these risks when you’re buying. A cheap appliance is much more likely to have a shorter service life than an expensive one as well. Once all things have been considered it often makes more sense to go with more reliable, better quality appliances offered with subscription services. Businesses in the subscription appliance market have a strong incentive to provide good quality appliances that are well looked after to avoid maintenance issues or compensation pay-outs under their protections. So for the buyer looking at a cheaper machine, subscription services means they get a better quality machine, at a lower price once all things have been considered and with far greater flexibility to upgrade or downgrade their appliances as their life circumstances change – such as adding a member to their family, or downsizing from a house to an apartment.
We hope that after reading this article, you feel more confident about your chances of finding the right appliance for your needs. If you need any help with acquiring a subscription appliance, contact us today!
