May never get to use the product...

[MediaMan]

This *****. I live in the largest city in Canada (Toronto), and have no easy access to Meguiars products.

I cannot directly purchase off the Meguiars site as they dont ship to Canada. MeguiarsCanada offers no on-line purchases.I 've checked out 6 authorized dealers - each only carries a small subset of the product line; some listed as retailers carry none! Have not found a single store or Canadian internet dealer that carries the whole line....or even one that carries the six products I wanted...and I am not looking for anything obscure - mainly NXT stuff per earlier posts.

I refuse to drive all over the city to 3 stores, plus make 3 internet purchases just to buy one brand of product!!

I feel like I am back at square one deciding what products I will use to maintain my car, prodcuts that I can simply to run to a local store (or a single web site) to buy more of when I run out.

Does Meguiar's ever plan to offer on-line purchases for delivery to Canada?? If not, why not?

[sneek]

Re: May never get to use the product...

the 3 main Canadian online stores are eshine, thedetailingshop and carcaresmart. They all carry a decent selection of meguairs, but if you can't find everything your looking for you can order from an American site such as autogeek. If you don't want to purchase from an American site you can always give Greg Morton of Meguiar's Canada a ring. I am sure he is willing to help you out. If you want to purchase the products in person, call a UAP NAPA ahead of time and ask them what they have on hand. You can also get NAPA to order almost any Meguair's product you want.

[sneek]

Re: May never get to use the product...

BTW: if you do end up ordering form Meguiars Canada they have a show car detailing kit. It includes Quik Detailer, Quick Interior Detailer (safe on leather), A12 Cleaner Wax, Soft Suds car wash, a hi-tech applicator pad, a bone sponge and one Ultimate Wipe (microfiber towel)

[justgiver]

Re: May never get to use the product...

[QUOTE][This *****. I live in the largest city in Canada (Toronto), and have no easy access to Meguiars products.
/QUOTE]

I feel your pain.

Depending on the size of a Canadian Tire near you they should carry most of the NXT products your looking for, I am finding a hard time finding a PC, eshine is not stocking them right now.

I hope Meguiars plans to make more of a presence in Canda in the future.

[Skuz]

Re: May never get to use the product...

My local Canadian Tire seems to have stopped carrying QD. I was looking for some, but couldn't find it. I thought they were out of stock, it can happen, but I noticed there wasn't a single unused product spot on the shelves. There are still some bottles at my local Wal-Mart, but if WM stops carrying them, I guess I'll clay with Mothers' QD. :/

Strange, CT still have Meguiar's clay, but not Mothers'...

[MediaMan]

Re: May never get to use the product...

BTW: if you do end up ordering form Meguiars Canada they have a show car detailing kit. It includes Quik Detailer, Quick Interior Detailer (safe on leather), A12 Cleaner Wax, Soft Suds car wash, a hi-tech applicator pad, a bone sponge and one Ultimate Wipe (microfiber towel)

How does one orderi anything form Meguars Canada??? All I see on thier site is Meguiar's products are not available to order on-line. Please see our dealer listing for a dealer in your area for the product you wish to order.

I didnt see any refrence on the site re a detailing kit. What is the link?

Thanks

[MediaMan]

Re: May never get to use the product...

Thanks guys for the suggestions.

I can accept that not all stores carry all products, and can even accept not all stores support e-commerce, but the problems is most of these stores do not even post what they carry!!

So, if I have my shopping list of the 8 products I want, and no option to order them on line, then I need to start driving/calling/emailing every store. Sorry, but that's a complete pain, and a waste of my time.

If the company with the resources of Meguiars, has no serious interest in supplying the Canadian market, or offering on-line purchases that ship to Canada, then, well I am concluding I have the same level of non-interest.

I think it is:

1) WRONG to have to go to a major US e-retailer to purchase products presented on the Meguairs CANADA web site

2) WRONG to have to contact the distributor directly, when dozens of retailers are listed on the site.

3) WRONG to have dozens of retailers listed on the Meguiars Canada site, and few them will let you know, in advance, what products they carry.

I have contacted Meguairs Canada with some other questions/suggestions ( before I knew I could not easily buy these product!!) - no reply after a week. I ahve no plans to follow-up.

I tried CT, e-shine, carcaresmart, and garageguy - each only only a handful of Meguiar consumer products (but at least they post but they do have)

I looked up thedetailingshop , NAPA , PartSource, and even Walmart - did not see any on-line references to Meguiar products.

I'm sure autodetailsoultions, autovalue etc have what I want - but thats the US route.

So far, based on on-line research:

NXT Gen Tech Wax - easy to find
NXT Tech Wax Paste - nowhere
QuikDetail Mist and Spray - nowhere
NXT Gen Speed Detailer - nowhere
NXT Gen Tire Cleaner - nowhere
Hot Rims All Wheel Cleaner - CT only
Hot Shine Tire Spray - CT only
NXT Gen Tech Protect- CT only
Leather Wipes - GG guy only
NXT Gen Car wash - GG only
NXT Gen Glass Clear - GG only


So, I think 'm gonna give up. In the time I have spent to date trying to find the product, I could have detailed my car!! And I think thats waht I will do - with another product line I guess.

When Meguiars gets serious and offers on-line purchases to Canada, or distributes products to Canadian retailers who AS A MINIMUM, can post what they carry (and ideally offer e-commerce) , then I might be interested.

I should not have to beg, drive, tour, call , email all around the city just to find product. I've seen many posts on the forum expressing the same concern, so Meguiars is aware of this. Too bad they choose not to address it.

[MDetail]

Re: May never get to use the product...

What is so bad about buying from a US retailer?

[MediaMan]

Re: May never get to use the product...

What is so bad about buying from a US retailer?

Nothiing that bad. I do order this from time to time, and pay the duty, brokerage, customs fees etc.....but only when there is no other product choice or no other way to get the product....I have never done it when there are Canadian distribtutors and Canadian retailers for the product.

I really dont understand why Meguairs, which offers on-line purchasing, which is very convenient, wont ship to Canada...when thousands of other US company do.

[MDetail]

Re: May never get to use the product...

It's going to be almost the same thing. Ordering from Meguiars direct, you will still pay the same duty fees as ordering from one of their US retailers. Part of it could be for security. The other part could be the different things they have to go through to ship outside of the US? Maybe you could call them and work something out, the least that will happen is you find out the reason why they don't ship to Canada.

[MediaMan]

Re: May never get to use the product...

It's going to be almost the same thing. Ordering from Meguiars direct, you will still pay the same duty fees as ordering from one of their US retailers. Part of it could be for security. The other part could be the different things they have to go through to ship outside of the US? Maybe you could call them and work something out, the least that will happen is you find out the reason why they don't ship to Canada.

Oh - on that point I agree - same diff whether ordering via Meguiars online vs ordering via on-line from another US retailer. But that was not my point. My point was that I think is quite strange that:

1) Meguiars has an e-commere site AND YET
2) Does NOT allow Canadains to order from it AND YET
3) Has a Canadian presence BUT
4) Does NOT offer e-commere on the Meguires Canada web site AND
5) Has such a hit and miss approach to retailing the product AND THUS
6) the only convenient purchasing choice for Canadiians (in Toronto anyway) is from a US retailer.

There IS no reason why they can't ship to Canada (either from US of canadian distribution points) ; thousands of other companies do it. They simply choose not to.

[ZoranC]

Re: May never get to use the product...

But does Meguiar's Canada allow you to order all products you are interested in over the phone from them?

[STG]

Re: May never get to use the product...

I was going to quote a previous post, but Geez, all that COLOR, FONT, COLOR, SIZE, etc. got in the way.

As much as I'd like to agree with MediaMan, you can't blame Meguiar's without asking the following:

Is Meguiar's Canada owned by Meguiar's, or is it a licensed distributor? If Meg's Canada is owned by Meg's, then I agree with your position on product availability to the extent that CANADIAN REGULATIONS DO NOT RESTRICT THE IMPORT OF CERTAIN ITEMS.

In either case, you can blame Canadian import duties and taxes for affecting how many US companies choose to do business in Canada.

For some reason, many MOL members outside the USA think we can walk into Walmart or Autozone or NAPA and buy a half gallon of #21, a quart of #83 and a gallon of Detailer Window cleaner Concentrate. Far from it. Many of Meg's professional products are only found on the shelves of auto body and paint stores.

In any case, it looks like Meg's Canada has chosen to import a selected portion of Meguiar's range of products. If the government of Canada makes it an expensive pain to do so, I can see the desire to import only the most high volume consumer oriented items.

Yes, I'm saying "Blame Canada!"


Edit: Picture removed. It was just a little to much Stan. Mike Phillips

[Mike Phillips]

Re: May never get to use the product...

I really dont understand why Meguairs, which offers on-line purchasing, which is very convenient, wont ship to Canada...when thousands of other US company do.

Just for a moment, forget I work for Meguiar's and I'm just playing Devil's Advocate, okay?


If Meguiar's were to ship direct to Canada, or any other country... What would our Canadian distributor's incentive be to order and warehouse our products? (Or any distributor in any other country?)


So many people only see business from the "Consumer Point of View", that's normal and to be expected, but it's not reality. Reality is kind of caputred in the below thread we've included a link to

About prices in Sweden ....Meguiars???


Below are my two posts to the thread that highlight important "Business Issues" that many people never take into consideration because they only see things from their point of view,

"I want it and I want it now"



Here are my posts in the above thread,

We've been told that it's because in order to bring products into other countries, there are often times,

• Brokerage fees
• Duties
• Taxes
• VAT taxes
• And other fees that each country's Government charges

Do you know all of the different charges and fees your Government charges any type of business to import products for resale? If no, perhaps you could look into this and share with the forum? Also, the type of Government your country has can also have an effect, as in a capitalistic structure versus a socialist structure. The U.S.A. operates under a capitalistic structure but we still pay huge amounts of our income into taxes, we can only imagine that people in non capitalistic countries must pay more of their income to the Government?

Besides what your Government charges legitimate businesses, the business itself must invest their own money into importing and shipping case quantities into your country, this would include trucking and/or train shipping costs to get pallets of products from a ship to a warehouse. Then there's the cost of the overhead for a warehouse. If the company has employees and the employees work for money, then the company has to pay them wages and that has to come from somewhere. Then there's the light bill for the warehouse and the offices, maybe theirs a phone bill, and all of the other costs involved in setting up and running a business so that people can walk into a retail store and pick up a bottle of product and walk it over to the counter for purchase.

And of course the business owner has to cover his costs and make a profit or they wouldn't be in business for very long. My guess is that importing a premium product like Meguiar's in volume into a country separated by an ocean from the manufacture requires a substantial investment.

Just a guess...

and in reply to this,

I used to wonder the same thing. (You can check my post history and see. lol) Until I got into the business side of it and now I know why.

We wrote this,

Thanks for posting this first-hand experience.

Recently I read a post where the person complained about the price of a product, I looked at their profile and in it they said they are studying business in college and when they get out they want to start their own business.

What they are going to find out is that in order to stay in business, they are going to have to do good business, good business means making a profit, bad business of course being not making a profit. Kind of the nutshell version of Business 101

But it was interesting to see their mindset, on one hand they want their stuff cheap, yet on the other hand they want their own business. When they get their own business they find out that some people want their stuff cheap, but if they sell their stuff cheap, or too cheap, they won't make a profit and they'll go out of business. You can't have it both ways. The people in business take risk and their reward is called profit, no profit no business.

Convoluted thinking, hopefully he'll figure this out while he's learning about it in college.

The point is this, Your point is well taken

But reality is...

Like many companies, we "Partner" with and depend on other entrepreneurial minded people to risk their money and invest in our products as well as invest in everything involved in importing our products into their country, this means all of the expenses, with the "HOPE" that there will be enough customer demand to pull these products through normal "Retail Distribution" and "IF" this happens, then they'll not only make a profit, but they'll also re-order these products and hopefully risk more of their money to import and carry even a wider selection of products on the chance that you will go to a local store and purchase these products from your local retailer and thus sustain and grow the historical retail distribution cycle.


Does that make sense?

Everything I've posted above can be hard to understand if you've always worked for someone else. (Employee) If you've ever tried to start your own business, or if you are in fact reading this and own and operate your own business, then chances are you can understand what I've written. (Entrepreneur)


(According to Microsoft Word, the above came to 926 words, counting only my own words and not those quoted by other people. The point being we did try to invest some time into writing a reply that answers the poster's questions from a "Big Picture" point of view because when it comes to sales and distribution in a world economy there is no "Little Picture" point of view".)


Hope this helps...

[MediaMan]

Re: May never get to use the product...

Are we feeling better now that the Canadian bashing is over? Nice way to treat customers by the way.



Getting back to the point.

1) As to the Canadian availability:

- I am NOT complaining about the price (so I'm not sure what all that Sweden stuff was relavant). Did I once mention price??

- I am not even complaining about the availaibility of only part of the product line in Canada vs US (so again, not sure about the lecture on risk and distribution was all about).

My issue was the retailing of those Canadian products in Canada. No ability to purchase on line (Cdn web site) - and hard for the consumer to know what's available at each store. At least tell me "this product is available at these retailers". Eg NXT Generation Speed Detailer is on the Meguiars Canada web site...but impossible to easily find where to buy it. My opinion was that I didnt think I should have to be making a dozen calls to find out where to buy it. There is a FORUM link on the canadian web site - it points here, so I posted my comments here.

But that issue was not replied to. Instead I get a lecture, in 926 words, about the global economy, and what an idiot I am for thinking little picture like a consumer. Well sorry for wanting to buy the product. You are right, I should always think in terms of global risk, investment capital, profit taking, obstacles to distribution, and perhaps be concerned about the wages, health care benefits of Meguires employees worldwide. I need to drop the 'I want I want mentallity' I should think big and not be so obsessed with reaching my hand out on the shelf to buy a silly product to wax my car. You are correct.

Hmmm, but all I wanted was the NXT Generation Speed Detailer I saw on the Canadian web site. Well you know what they say at Meguiars - the customer is always wrong (and stupid - no how did you put it..oh ya.. it might be "hard to understand").

2) As to Meguiars US not selling direct to Canada, I do understand the points re this undermining the efforts of a Canadian distributor. I do wonder (being stupid and all) why it also does not undermine thier efforts when you all allow your US distirbutors to sell directly into Canada...ie I can go to a US site and order on line typically with no problem. Don't really need a reply as I am like to stupid to understand.

Anyways, thank you for the response. I am fascinated that you say there is no litle picture point of view. I disagree. Its called the consumer point of view, and it very much does matter. If you dont have customers, all your big picture world econmomy risk analysis doesnt really help much.