The Kerching business method

Talk Electrician Forum

Help Support Talk Electrician Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Yep Definitely a page from my Customer Relations training manual

long story short

been dealing with a supplier for years. Spend a few k per month

called in for some 4x4 plastic trunk and fittings

took it back to,site

cut trunk

fitted

fitted bends

installed cable

went to fit lids

wrong size/type/make

went back for correct lid

"we don't stock it, not ours, don't know what make it is "

but i I only bought it from you yesterday!

after two weeksof arguing I closed the account and was told I was being unreasonable!!

never spent a penny with them since

not sure how much they have lost in sales to me!

 
Yep Definitely a page from my Customer Relations training manual
Yep !   A snip @ £25    from Kerching Publishing @upyours.com     

There are also  videos  available ,  podcasts ,    lectures  or take the  City & Guilds  , purchase our tool catalogue ,  buy our branded workwear   and ...erm ..  Oh  ..I'm getting mixed up  with someone else  here   :C  

 
I had a similar escapade trying to get a 37 core 0.75mm SY cable.

It was for a project on a gantry robot. I said money was no object, but time was critical.

They told me it was special stock had to be ordered from Germany. Unavailable in Ireland or the UK. It arrived on the 5th week of waiting. Bear in mind I was continually being told, it has just hit Belfast, you'll have it tomorrow, being sent out by special courier.

So on the day of reckoning what turns up. A 4 core 35mm. That's a £500 cable the supplier could stick up their back side.

I ended up going with an alternative supplier... oh that's a special order, it has to come from Germany.....😡

£22 a metre. My alternative supplier was baulking at the price. Just get the f@#&ing thing.

It came 5 days later. 50 core 1mm, it'll do rightly.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I had a similar escapade trying to get a 37 core 0.75mm SY cable.

It was for a project on a gantry robot. I said money was no object, but time was critical.

They told me it was special stock had to be ordered from Germany. Unavailable in Ireland or the UK. It arrived on the 5th week of waiting. Bear in mind I was continually being told, it has just hit Belfast, you'll have it tomorrow, being sent out by special courier.

So on the day of reckoning what turns up. A 4 core 35mm. That's a £500 cable the supplier could stick up their back side.

I ended up going with an alternative supplier... oh that's a special order, it has to come from Germany.....😡

£22 a metre. My alternative supplier was baulking at the price. Just get the f@#&ing thing.

It came 5 days later. 50 core 1mm, it'll do rightly.


id be wrapping 37 tri in some duct tape

 
It's one of those strange things isn't it, I remember going into a plumbing supplier down the road from me, I needed a certain spanner and they were the only place who had one in stock, and I needed it now.The reason I knew they had one was because I'd rang them earlier, I also knew it was going to cost me £15, I went in and asked for the spanner, the guy looked at me, "you sure it's what you want?" he asked, "yes positive" I replied, "you know they're not cheap?" he asked, "yes I rang earlier, that's how I know you have one in stock, and it's fifteen quid" I replied, he looked at me and shook his head, "most people don't want to pay that much" he said, feeling somewhat irritated now I responded by dropping the cash on the counter, " look mate, I need the tool to do a job, just give it me will you!"

Obviously, different peoples idea of needing something varies, at the end of the day if there's only one thing that will do the job, be it a type of cable, or a particular tool, you have to have it, no matter what the price.

 
I have a customer whereby they have paid over £180 in "man in a van" carriage to get some NH fuses, nobody local stocked them, RS had them and we could get them in < 6 hours to site.

The fuses were like £5 ish each, so dwarfed by the carriage cost, but the cost of having the machinery on stop was much more than £180, if we could have got them in an hour for twice that it would have been worth it!

I used to work a lot in Tier 1 & OEM automotive and I still do some manufacturing plants, and like raparee suggests, sometimes the cost and carriage of the material pales into insignificance.

I was involved in a job going back to 1998 where the line stoppage back charge alone from the customer to the supplier I was working at was over £100k per hour, so paying a £few hundred to ship things around via a man in a van is small change in comparison to stopping a line for an hour.

 
Top