Another thing some of the lighting rep's do is create the lighting package for the archietect/engineer. With the job name they then know exactly what is in the package and thier competors have to find out what is specified. One rep here is well known for it. He also spec's at least one fixture that only they make is just about all of his packages. His price to the supply houses the require that you buy the complete package or pay a much higher price for each fixture actually prdered. One time I saw prices raised by 45% when the owner deleted some lights during the actual build - reason given was that since the complete package was not ordered, no price guarentee would be honored.
Another dirty trick is when some reps only stand by thier price for 30 days. Many times this means, that since 30-60 days can got past a bid date before the GC has a contract and signs a contract with the EC the price given for the bid is no longer guarenteed. They are trying to force you to order the fixtures befor the ground is even broken for a project. Hope there are no change orders affecting the lighting package.
As a rule I always try to get alternates approved and try to deal with the many companies that are honest.
Even after the distrubitor/rep has done his thing the supply house has their sliding scale markups depending on how much business you do with them. As a rule those who do not do a lot of business with a particular supply house pay more than those who do a lot of business with them.
Just another example of the NON level playing field out there.
