Jasper
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 10:05 AM |
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Do suppliers want our business?????
I sent a big list for an order of silicone and connectors to three companies on Tuesday and not one has come back to me - even to say 'give us a
few days and we'll come back to you'.
I own a retail business and do loads of web/mail-order, and I wouldn't dream of ignoring a cusotmer who wants to spend a couple of hundred quid
for 4 days.
Is it me - or is this normal in this business?
I shan't name names as this post isn't to have a dig at them, just to express my dissapointment yet again in companies who deal in this
industry.
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Deckman001
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 10:08 AM |
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I reply same day mostly, but mainly to u2u's 
Jason
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ecosse
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 10:17 AM |
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I continue to be amazed by the way some suppliers in this industry deal with customers, if I ran my business like that I would be out of business very
quickly 
Cheers
Alex
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stevebubs
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 10:32 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Jasper
I sent a big list for an order of silicone and connectors to three companies on Tuesday and not one has come back to me - even to say 'give us a
few days and we'll come back to you'.
I own a retail business and do loads of web/mail-order, and I wouldn't dream of ignoring a cusotmer who wants to spend a couple of hundred quid
for 4 days.
Is it me - or is this normal in this business?
I shan't name names as this post isn't to have a dig at them, just to express my dissapointment yet again in companies who deal in this
industry.
In my experience, this is perfectly normal - some kit manufacturers even fall into this category for multi-thousand pound orders....
End of the day "It's good to talk" and you'll normally get the opposite experience by picking up the phone.
Bear in mind that most of these outlets are only small (couple of people) but with a highly regarded presence....I'm guessing, in some cases,
that the volume of e-mail questions to firm order conversions may be so low they just don't bother any more.
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omega0684
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 10:45 AM |
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jason as you are a registered trader wot do you sell?
Alex
I love Pinto's, even if i did get mine from P&O!
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smart51
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 10:47 AM |
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Most companies, no matter how good, cannot be relied upon to call you back. If you want something more than they do, you ring them. It saves
dissapointment.
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Jasper
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 10:47 AM |
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quote:
Originally posted by hicost
Jasp,
You need to tell them what you want, ie read it off the page in the catalogue. Then they will ship it same day.
You are asking people to think and make decisions for you.
Just pick the phone up and order it...
I'm not asking anybody to make my decisions - just tell me the price of their products.
It's a bit hard when the comanies in question don't have them listed - they just say - 'I can get them for you'.
I gave them a very complete and specific list - all they needed to do was look up their (unpublished) prices and email me back.
The idea of emailing three different companies is to try and get the best price - not just order it from the first company I contact.
If they don't want to sell the items, they don't tell me they can
[Edited on 17/2/06 by Jasper]
[Edited on 17/2/06 by Jasper]
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David Jenkins
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 10:52 AM |
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As people have said - a lot of these companies have flashy catalogues and/or websites, but in reality they're often tiny companies running their
business from garages, grotty commercial units, backs of shops, or whatever.
If you want reliability, big productions and top-notch service you have to pay for it (see 'Westfield' ). And, even then, things go wrong
- there are humans involved, after all...
I'm not making excuses for bad service - just telling it the way I see it, in realistic terms.
David
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bob
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 11:01 AM |
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I prefer to order by phone or go direct if possible,as david said some companies have an ordering or quotation system on there flash websites but may
only look at there post on a sunday morning at home.
[Edited on 17/2/06 by bob]
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zxrlocost
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 11:01 AM |
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hasnt anyone learnt yet in life that if you treat people like shite they respect you and come back for more!!!!
I havent quite got my head round it yet
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PLEASE NOTE: This user is a trader who has not signed up for the LocostBuilders registration scheme. If this post is advertising a commercial product or service, please report it by clicking here.
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Jumpy Guy
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 11:03 AM |
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Jasper,
i think you hit the nail on the head- you have asked three companies to quote for you.
At best, this means that two of them will be wasting their time compiling the quote.
It sounds brutal, but our small company will sometimes get 20 or 30 requests for quotation a day. We know that in 60% of cases we wont get any
money.
It very hard to get motivated to keep compiling quotes and then getting no sale, especially if the quote is a huge list of different items, whihch are
probably on different price lists.
As has been mentioned above- phone.
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nick205
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 11:24 AM |
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Always pick up the phone is my approach.
As a sales engineer for my company I get countless emails asking for pricing and datasheets - half of them don't appear to bear any relation to
what the company does?
I do however try and contact everyone within 48 hours to check who they are and what they want - even if it's an out of office reply when
I'm on the road.
Jasper - I'm sure your requests were perfectly reasonable. Look at it this way - I'm sure there are others who are keen to supply to you
and if nothing else you can eliminate the 3 companies you contacted as worthwhile suppliers.
Good luck!
Nick
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Jasper
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 12:04 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Jumpy Guy
Jasper,
i think you hit the nail on the head- you have asked three companies to quote for you.
At best, this means that two of them will be wasting their time compiling the quote.
It sounds brutal, but our small company will sometimes get 20 or 30 requests for quotation a day. We know that in 60% of cases we wont get any
money.
It very hard to get motivated to keep compiling quotes and then getting no sale, especially if the quote is a huge list of different items, whihch are
probably on different price lists.
As has been mentioned above- phone.
You guys seem to be missing the point. I DID phone at least 2 of the three companies, my list is very long - over 30 items, the items were not listed
on their web sites, so my only option was to send them my complete list and for them to work out the price for me and come back to me.
If it were a case of looking up the prices on their sites, or phoning and getting a price for 3 or 4 bits, then I would have done that - I'm not
stupid.
These companies specifically said, either on the phone or on their web site, that they would happily quote for supply of silicone hose.
If they don't want to be bothered telling me their prices then don't tell me to send a list in and waste my time 
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tadltd
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 01:21 PM |
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We'd like to have your business. But we're not allowed to tell you that!
Best Regards,
Steve.
www.turnerautosport.com
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nick205
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 01:53 PM |
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Steve,
How come you haven't registered as a trader on here?
Then you "could" tell Jasper that you're happy to supply him
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Jasper
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 02:09 PM |
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I'm sure if I called him now he wouldn't be very happy to supply a quote at all
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Jasper
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 04:13 PM |
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That's more like it, called another company, sent the list, they emailed it back in an hour with all the prices on it - it really wasn't
that hard .... now lets see it any of the other come back .....
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marcyboy
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 04:29 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Jumpy Guy
It sounds brutal, but our small company will sometimes get 20 or 30 requests for quotation a day. We know that in 60% of cases we wont get any
money.
It very hard to get motivated to keep compiling quotes and then getting no sale, especially if the quote is a huge list of different items, whihch are
probably on different price lists.
As has been mentioned above- phone.
well surely if you managed to give 100 quotes to people by your reckoning you might get 40 sales on those quotes,
surely thats not bad, i wonder what the sales ratio is in other sectors.
what about the lack of word of mouth spreading about quality of service and quick quotations. or even worse the fact a bad word can spread about a
firm twice as fast as a good one.
afterall thats just the first contact let alone delivery, customer care,
and after sale contact regarding future orders and possible discounts or special rates.
i'd name and shame jasper
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Jumpy Guy
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 05:12 PM |
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The problem here is Catch 22...
If youre doing well, you're busy. Sometimes too busy to do quotes, because you're doing actual work.
This might ring bells with certain kit manufacturers!!
likewise, when business is a bit quiet, we have tons of time to do quotes. So our quoting time is very fast.
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Deckman001
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| posted on 17/2/06 at 05:35 PM |
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I've u2u'd people who asked
Jason
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