ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Suppliers

I've about had it with suppliers. It took 2 weeks for an order of decora recp's , switches etc to get to my door. This time the excuse was that they shipped it to Sharon VT, about 40 miles north of me.
{i lost it a tad..}
I am in Chester i explained, my company is Chester Electric....so how does something marked 'CHESTER' not get to it???

reply; blahbalhcomputerinventoryfullmoonblahbalh....

My GC is having a hard time with the fact that i cannot get a receptacle in a weeks time...

reply;
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Home Depot (going in sooon)will have all the receptacles & switches anyone would desire...

reply;
%$#@&^%*&@@##

It's a game we are forced to pay. Lost orders, manufacturer goof ups, computer says we got 2000 of em but I didn't see em in the back. I raise h*ll with my supply houses all the time. It's pretty simple to me. You stock it, I buy it, I pay for it on time. You don't stock, I buy some where else, I pay them on time. I have been forced to use two supply houses for the last six months. I had a guy at my favorite supply house who would track down anything from 1000 amp switch gear to a ground clip for a vent fan. He and the owner had some problems (owner was ex father inlaw). Lost that guy and I have had trouble ever since. It has forced me to play the pricing game and buy in bulk. Some times I have more inventory than the supply house.

[This message has been edited by arseegee (edited 05-31-2002).]

I think it's a universal problem.

The supply house I use most is pretty good most of time, and the best priced around here. But sometimes I go in and they're out of stock of some garden-variety item, such as 4mm T&E cable (imagine your place had no stock of 10-2 Romex).

Sometimes it can take two weeks to get something sent up from their main depot in London, about 125 miles away, so I have to resort to visiting B&Q (like Home Depot).

My supplier is great. There are occasional screwups of course but I have been using one main supplier for about seven years now with no regrets. If I need something unusual I will search the web and get as much info as possible before I go to the supply house. I use CLS here in Massachusetts.

Have knowen this problem very well now I use a rough in card to know how many devices I need ahead of time and get my orders in early and if the gc or homeowner wants to change any thing he has to wait.
:wayne

Two weeks ago I ordered a motor. It never showed up but I did get a post card from UPS telling me they had a package for me but didn't have my address. The post card was sent to me at my address through the mail.

I've had the chance to experience another perspective:

I used to own a small country "convenience" store. Starting out, I spent nearly all my savings in stock for the store, trying my best guess of what customers wanted and how many.

First ten customers want something I didn't think of... so I make notes and promise to stock them.

I buy a case (minimum amount) of the items in question.

They never return for those items, in their minds, I don't carry this or that...

Not to mention that I have to sell 80% of a case to break even at a 25% mark-up...

And 25% is horribly priced compared to Wal-mart, etc...

So they sit until I decide to have a clearance sale. Marked at a loss, with an attention grabbing sign, they sell like hotcakes... "I didn't know you carried these!"

So you buy another case, with the 25% markup. "Boy that's just too expensive"

ad infinitum...

It only lasted the longest two and a half years of my life!

There are much better and more fun ways to lose $40K...

As far as my supplier, they'd bend over backwards to keep my happy, all the rest is really beyond their control.

boy, you think that you have problems in the U S of A, our comopany ( me in fact ) ordered some circuit breakers for a 1000A three phase board,
the supplier said; one week
one week comes and goes;
our office calls supplier;
supplier says; be here in about a week, fault with manufacturer.
week comes and goes;
office calls suppliers again,
they say its at another branch in another parrt of the country,
by this time the client is trying to open his production plant, not a happy bunny.!!
after another week we found the parts at another supplier off the shelf and finished the job,
low and behold, three weeks after we finished the job the circuit breakers arrived at our stores!!!
what did the soreman do?? yep you guessed it,
they went back to the suppliers,
as for getting a credit note, that is a different story!!!

have fun out there.

welcome j a harrison.
some of my supliers have told me that the manufacturer's will not stock, or start production until there is a minimum call.
probably why i cannot get a Milbank 2-G or better meter bank for 4-5 weeks.

Virgil;
I understand the supply & demand end of it, as contractors we would not keep slow moving inventory to simply be taxed again & again.
However, the problem is more than this, many suppliers have a poor idea of what they're selling.
Few can be relied on to , for instance, send everything for a 100A service drop, 40'total SEU, 20 cir panel w/main.
They cannot add up all the widgets inbettween here.
Well i for one am not big on monopolies, but the big orange place is comming to the sticks, with thier cast of burnt out, lazy tradesmen who can do this.
(after coffee break, join the seminar..)
So sharpen your pencils my prima-dona supplier friends, cause many local trades are looking forward to rubbin' yer nose in it

Hello J A & welcome!

Two of us Limeys in here now -- They'll all be yelling "The British are coming!" again soon...

Which supplier were you having trouble with? The one I mentioned above is BDC/Bridisco, Norwich branch.

Apart from the problems with some common items being out of stock and a long delay in getting them, another problem is that any items not selling well enough get dropped from the next catalog. (Apparently this is a centralized decision.) They've just dropped 25mm steel conduit, for example, although they still have the boxes and other fittings!

Other than that, the local branch is pretty good to deal with, generally friendly and I never have any problems if I need to return anything.