I recently bought the ST starter kit and at the same time checked what the various sensors cost. I now check the prices on Amazon and PCW and see that they have jumped up in price - a lot.
For example the power outlet was £31.99 and now £44.99
Motion sensor £20.99 now £29.99
All the other sensors were £21.99 are now £29.99
BTW stop this 99p nonsense, I know that £29.99 is as near as £30 to not matter.
So a jump of 30% in prices, wow that isn’t good news.
I think you’ll find they’ve gone back up to the full price.
That’s what they “normally” are and seems you bought it at the discounted price of £139.99 like I did.
But that’s a sale price they’re normally £189.99
Yes Steve, it was £139.99 when I bought the starter kit, and at the same time I checked the price of the other component parts as I knew I would be needing them. I didn’t buy them at the time regretfully as I wanted to test how it all worked before committing more money at the time.
I wonder how often sales come along? The kit I got from PCWorld must have been lying around for a while because the lithium battery in the multi sensor was leaking. Samsung couldn’t send me a replacement battery, as they didn’t have the system to handle that, so I had to stump up for one myself. Not a very good start.
The reason for going to ST was because my previous ZigBee system was by AlertMe who sold out to British Gas and they have announced that at the end of this month the AlertMe server will be switched off for good. They offered free Hive gear in place, but it doesn’t meet my requirements at all, so SmartThings looks like the nearest I could get, again ZigBee, but won’t work with the existing AlertMe ZigBee hardware…
There are some good Xiaomi sensors that cost ~£6-10 per device and have been working very well for me, its very easy to add device handlers to support other brands.
Ive probably seen 3-4 ‘sales’, so if you did want to wait I would probably put money on there being at least one before the end of the year.
Yeah the pricing is a bit of a con to be honest.
Like @cjcharles said there’s plenty of 3rd party contact and motion sensors really cheap if you don’t mind waiting for delivery from China.
But also Maplins do a good range of smart devices but just check as not all their devices work with SmartThings , but their SmartThings products are still at the reduced price at the moment if that’s what you want.
https://www.maplin.co.uk/c/smart-home?intcid=homepage:popular-2:smart_home
Steve funnily enough I just found the Maplin prices myself and have ordered another starter kit plus the couple of other sensors I need, it will give me a spare hub too.
Thanks to all for the excellent assistance.
I wouldn’t bother with the Smartthings devices, I’ve had two replacement outlets, my motion sensor is dead, and the presence sensor is now also playing up.
PC World are clueless, the kit you bought is probably the original stock from 2 years ago. My local PC World never got any new stock in after the initial launch. They missed out on a few impulse purchases when I was passing the shop.
Check out http://www.vesternet.com/ much better devices with advice and support.
I like the Fibaro stuff and the TKB sockets.
Thanks for that. I also am getting a free Hive system to replace the AlertMe system that is being closed down at the end of this month. So I have lots of options now.
Just curious, is that uncommon in the UK?
Retailers in the US do that all the time for all kinds of goods and services.
Yes it is common, amongst especially bargain places, but still insulting to the customer. I have seen it creep into everything , even high ticket items. Even cars! Will houses be next? Only £999,999.99 for a flat in Edinburgh.
Everything is x99.99, it was a good trick to start with and I suppose we are all prone to think of 29.99 as much cheaper than 30.00. But I wish they would stop it.
Of course being Scottish I always insist on my 1p change in cash 
At least we don’t have to barter, that’s something that I could never manage when in countries where it is common place. We never like to insult the seller by too low an offer, or feel we have been duped into paying far too much. I once had to drag my wife out of a Turkish carpet shop, where the owner had all the patter, he was saying things like “what price would make you happy?”
Of course barter still seems to apply mainly to one industry here, double glazing sales. Oh and now some solar panel salesmen, who were selling double glazing last week. I had one chap who couldn’t tell me even roughly what size the solar inverter was, because he had never seen one in his life. He didn’t know if it was 3”square or 6 feet square!
Almost without exception they start with a ridiculously high quote and by the time they have finished with their, “must speak to my manager”, “special price if you sign tonight”, and all the other tricks of the trade, it is usually at least a quarter of the price they first quoted. I find that totally insulting. Even if you tell them straight away that you know all the tricks and just give me the lowest price they still do it and take up most of your evening. I once made the mistake of going to a price comparison double glazing site and found out that the 3 quotes were from the same parent company. I still get nuisance calls from them to this day.
When I ran my own business, I priced in whole numbers, basically because my mental arithmetic is not a strong point and finding change was a nuisance. Nobody ever complained that someone had the same thing a penny cheaper.
Last gripe, when something is imported it is quite common for the U.K. price in Pounds to be the same figure as the Dollar price. Funny that, but very predictable. A lot depends on whether there is any competition or not.
Cheers
David