I finally found the perfect in between a tiny mower and weed wacker for Erik but it’s not only made in the U.K. but the dealers there refuse to ship beyond VERY specific borders including Scotland and Ireland let alone the United States. Even sellers on Ebay U.K. and Amazon U.K. (the product won’t even display on other country Ebays or Amazons) have very narrow shipping venues.
So, I’ve sent messages to the main manufacturer/dealer http://www.flymo.co.uk/node631.aspx and to a couple of business product sellers on Ebay U.K. I’m pretty sure I’ll become a nightmare-bitch if they don’t or won’t give a reasonable answer as to why they are so restrictive (they don’t even sell in Canada nor will they ship there).
A lot of it isn’t so much the fault of the dealers trying to export the product, but rather the fault of the importers. Sometimes a product is perfectly legal where it’s made, but doesn’t meet some official standards in another place. Sometimes it’s a case of the product infringes on the licenses of another manufacturer in the place where it would be imported. And often it’s a case of protectionist tactics such as high tariffs and quotas and whatnot on imports making it too hard for the maker to ship stuff to other countries.
And sometimes the maker has some sort of an agreement with competitors to each have their own area of selling, to save a lot of hassle that would come from actively competing.
Or maybe the owner of the company was bitten by a stoat in North America, and so has vowed never to do business in the area.
... or the packaging doesn’t meet standards for labels in the country ...
... or the materials used are illegal for environmental or safety reasons ...
... or the shipper takes a steep loss on shipping if they have to use anything other than one specific shipping company, which doesn’t go there ...
... it looks to me that they’re simply a UK/Europe company, which means that shipping a mower overseas (rather than having a factory in the US) would be prohibitively expensive. They don’t have any dealers over here, so there’s nobody representing them, so they wouldn’t make any money at it, unless they charge you a buttload for the shipping.
If you don’t mind a buttload, have one of the UK contingent buy you one and ship it over?
As an aside to the shipping, doesn’t the UK have different electrical standards than the US? So to plug this in and run it is going to be a problem. Yeah, you can get a travel converter, but is that going to be sufficient for a long-term use of something this powerful? And without causing safety concerns?
Either that or have someone you know in the UK (cough cough The Scottish Girls cough cough) buy one and send it to you.
Side note: When i was living in Spokane Washington around 1988, I rented a house that had a Flymo electric mower. No wheels. The spinning blade produced a hovercraft effect.
It. Was. Awesome!!!!!
The only mower i have ever used that was FUN. You could mow any direction, no resistance. The only downside was that it would only cut a couple of inches deep at a time, so you had to do the lawn several times to get it back down to ‘regulation’ length. (It rains nonstop in Spokane, so grass grows an inch a day or more, seems like.) It was bright orange, but only weighed like fifteen pounds or so. Awesomesauce!
And I found several on Ebay, and several say they will ship worldwide.
(Though it does look like there will be a power supply issue. Something to think about. I haven’t yet located a used one that used to be sold in the US and that used 120v ac, but I will keep looking…)
This pull down shows countries where they have distributors: http://www.flymo.com/node623.aspx which includes South Africa and Australia. On some sales sites including Ebay UK though, it appears that Ireland and Scotland are also excluded. Because of those exclusions I do not think a convertor issue is the barrier. Because of omissions within the Island of Britain itself, I am completely baffled and irritated.
Delivery is available to all UK mainland addresses. Customers living in some remote rural areas should note some delivery services are either extended by 2 days or in some instances not available at all.
We regret that we are unable to deliver to Norther Ireland, Scottish islands, Isle of Man, Isle of Wight, Isle of Scilly, Jersey, Guernsey and BFPO addresses.
While it’s possible that reasons listed are accurate, I still like those good and reasonable conditions displayed.
Huli, there’s a difference between the company having outlets and selling lawnmowers in other countries and having a seller that won’t ship to certain areas. The sellers in this case are basically franchises and set their own guidelines within the requirements of the company. Even then they’re not necessarily a franchise and probably more just a business that sells that brand. Where and if they ship is up to them. Amazon partners with these companies and if they want to ship or not ship is up to them individually. Neither Amazon nor Flymo would have anything to do with that.
You best bet is probably going to be to contact the Flymo directly (which I believe you already did?) and see if they have any suggestions for where you might get one in the U.S.
I would guess that they probably stopped selling them in the U.S. because of safety/litigation issues. I could certainly see how a hovering lawnmower, that can easily move in any direction with a slight push, could be dangerous to have around small children and (small) pets. And with as litigious as the U.S. is it’s probably a conscious decision for Flymo not to sell them here anymore. But that’s just wild speculation on my part.
It was the cord that I thought was a major hindrance/danger. even though they did a good job of making sure it didn’t wrap around the handle, one still had to be pretty aware of where it was at all times. (Why no, I wouldn’t have run it over several times one summer, why do you ask?)
