supply houses

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rickl

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price gouging! is this just happening to me or is it a normal thing. For instance called about a Siemens 200 amp outdoor main breaker 20-40 circuit, home depot $ 99.00 they were out, local hardware store $ 129.99, 2 supply house $185.00 & 236.00. I know it hard to compete with home depot but when a retail hardware store can beat a wholesale supply store by $107 theres something wrong. I will not walk into another supply store without calling first for prices or knowing what the going price is for all items i need. Today i needed a 2" weather head ( die cast alum) HD $9.00 but there out, supply house 26.27 when i questioned the price they reduced it to 7.74 and said the computer screwed up. it funny how the supply houses computer always screws up when you walk in off the street, but never when you call for pricing. latest screw ups meter main SH $285.00 HD $79.00 when i said forget it they dropped $200.00 off the price. 60 amp ch breaker SH $75 HD &11.98. grounding pigtail once they tried to charge me $25 for a bag of 50 ( thats 50 cents for a green screw and 6" of #12 wire). 50 amp gfci breaker SH $85.00 next week same SH $164.00 but reduced it to $85.00 after telling him i just bought one the week before for 85.00
THANKS FOR LETTING ME VENT

I guess the thing that really irritates me is that i thrive on being honest & up front to my customers. And if i charge $236 plus 25% markup for a total of $295. And the next time there in HD they see the same panel for $99.00, i bet i won't get any referral or other work from that customers
 
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The supply house I deal with has as far as I know been honest and fair with pricing. I buy some things like Romex and circuit breakers from HD simply because they are cheaper. Other items like ballasts for instance are far better priced at the SH.
 
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You won't get the best pricing from your supply house until you've been around for years, and order alot of stuff. I'm almost ashamed to admit (in fact, I never will) how cheaply I can get Square D panels. Beats the home centers by a huge margin.

From reading rickl's post, it does sound like his supply house might be up to some monkey business. On the other hand, it's a free market. They're free to charge whatever they please.

[ January 30, 2006, 08:45 PM: Message edited by: mdshunk ]
 
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I know how you feel.
I try to allways deal with the same person at the same supply house so I am better known. Seems like I got a better price after I started charging orders on a account instead of paying cash even with my name in the system. Don't figure.

I must say I do like the companies that have online most of their material. I can see what the prices are, and quanity discount, if it's in stock, and number in box from a pc. I just wish my main supplier had something like that.

Just the other day I went to one box store to get 1/2" EMT. Had a good price but none in stock. So I went next to Home Depot. After making sure they had pipe I needed to go across the store to find a big cart. Go back and dig thru a pile of bent up garbage to find they only had 500' of good EMT in bundles. Drag the cart thru the store and the cluttered isles to only 1 cashier. They have the self checkout but it don't work so well for pipe. Anyways I felt like I spent 2 hours and I still did not have enough pipe. At the supply houuse if I call ahead it takes me 5-10 minuits.

It is so hit and miss at the box stores for what they stock. So many times I tried to get wire and they are out of white or black.

I told myself my time is worth money too. In the end it seems a better deal at a supply house if they stock what you need and serve you fast.

Also I shop at Home depot more then I like to admit but I can't help but to feel like they are my compitition. They are the ones selling material so low that I have to worry what the customer might think at my prices. With their at home services they would like to take over the resi service business.

Makes me a bit angery when they push the home standby generators. Selling them not much over my dealer cost. They are only concidered a retailer with the manufacter. Home depot does not need to provide warenty service. So when HD sub contractor (unlicenced in some cases) installed a generator I am saposed to provide warrenty service for it.

I herd from other trades they will pay their at home services a going out of business wage for labor. I don't want to help big corporations like that.

Tom
 
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Just me opinion but, it seems as if you're new to the supply houses, they will try to take advantage of you. Once you set up an account and pay your bills on time, they ease up and give you a better price, provided you kiss up to the clerks! Home Depot is just horrible overall, would still rather deal with the local supply house and not feed a corporate giant. Just my opinion.
 
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Originally posted by active1:
Also I shop at Home depot more then I like to admit but I can't help but to feel like they are my compitition. They are the ones selling material so low that I have to worry what the customer might think at my prices.
Click to expand...
That's one I don't worry about. I tell customers that markup covers the cost of buying time. If they don't like the markup, I'm more than happy to charge my hourly rate for shopping time instead.

This problem lasted exactly 10 minutes with one customer, until I explained what I just said above. I'm also happy to charge for labor only if a customer wants to supply materials. Waiting for materials is on the clock, too.
 
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"it does sound like his supply house might be up to some monkey business
I agree. When I ask about a high price, they said the computer has to have your discount reloaded, or you should talk to me, or ....
 
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I had a similar experience at a supply house today. I went in to buy the stuff I need to trim out a kitchen remodel, and they said they were out of one of the things I needed. Several times I've come up short at the supply houses when they were out of some of the ordinary things I needed, yet I was able to get them easily at a box store. I probably would have bought everything at the box store today, but I needed some Pushmatic breakers.

I checked prices while I was at the box store completing my shopping, and in almost every case the box store was cheaper than the wholesale price I paid at the supply house. Since I'm a one-man shop, I suspect I'm not going to be buying enough volume for the supply houses to give me preferential pricing, so it's almost like they want me to shop elsewhere.
 
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I don't know if this is true for electrical construction products, but for comsumer products, you are not always getting the same product at the discount stores, even when the package has the same part number. Sometimes the quality is reduced by the manufacturer to meet the discount stores price demand.

Don
 
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I don't think that's the situation in my case. Not only are the part numbers identical, but the packaging is identical, too. I have also not detected any difference in quality, having purchased both ways.

[ January 31, 2006, 09:49 AM: Message edited by: jeff43222 ]
 
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Supply houses need to stay in bussiness. If they want to charge me high dollars for a screw it means I get to charge high dollars for the item and mark that up more! Makes me money. It bothers me when it costs me customers. To charge $300 for a panel and the customers walk, I find another supplier. Its a love hate relationship.
 
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I agree. I love being able to get specialty items at the supply houses, but I hate having to pay significantly more for the common stuff I use on a regular basis. For example, NM costs about 25% more at the supply houses than it does at the box stores. Sure, I prefer shopping at the supply houses, but I also prefer to keep my business afloat.

It's gotten to the point where I shop at the supply houses only when I need something I can't get at the box stores.
 
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I went to a supply house I usually don't go to but they were the only one who had the breaker I needed in stock. The price was $85
The very next week I needed another one just like it. Different guy behind the counter. The price was $120.
When I showed him my receipt from last week he did knock it down to $85.
The one thing I don't like about the supply houses is that I never Know how much things are going to cost me until they bill me later.
Even when I get a price in advance it always seems to be different when I receive the bill.

If I want a consistant price I have to go through the one guy that manages my account.

If you coming in off the street and they don't know you you'll pay top dollar.
 
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Hence my point regarding having to kiss up to the clerks to get a good price. If they don't like you personally, the prices skyrocket. I like dealing with small companies over big ones but just wish they were a little more fair and consistent.
 
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Yeah, the variable pricing is also an annoyance. At one supply house I go to, the counter guys all know me, and I still run into wild pricing from time to time. Once, when I asked for a dryer receptacle, the counter guy brought one out, and I just casually asked him how much it was, and he casually replied $40. Naturally, I thought he was jerking my chain, but he was serious. Seems he thought I said "most exorbitantly expensive dryer receptacle available." Turns out they also sell a $5 dryer receptacle, so I went with that one. Same guy also once tried to sell me $11.00 light bulbs for some standard recessed cans.
 
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I always knew that S.H.s gave discounts to high volume customers and rightfully so even though I'm not one.

I had a salesperson from one of the big supply houses in the Charlotte, NC area call me a couple of months back he told my wife that if I called him back and opened an account he is sure he can save my business a lot of money. I didn?t call him back because I?m still pretty new and I don?t think that I have the type of business volume that would garner huge savings. But, I guess I should have.
 
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What I'd really like from the supply houses is the ability to log into my account through the internet and order materials and see my prices.
I can fax them a material list and they can fax me back prices but I'd rather be able to just look things up through the internet, see my pricing and complete the order online.
 
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Just want to reinforce Don's post about different quality in what looks like the same package.

I was getting some stuff at home depot the other day, and realized I needed a couple of grey, commercial toggle switches (CS15's)for an upcoming project. Knowing that grey is a hit or miss itme at my supply houses, I grabbed a couple at the Depot. Luckily, one was sitting out of its box and I tried it and the toggle was loose and it hung up on itself. I tried 3 more and they were all like this. Never had a problem with the same switches from the supply house. Not sure if it's a bad lot or if they are all like this.
mike
 
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Having worked in several manufacturing plants I can tell you the product is made the same. The difference comes from the quality control. Some customers will send stuff back for even the most minor defects while others will accept it.
We made parts for Toyota. The were very stricked with what they would accept. They would send parts back if the barcode label was slightly smudged etc. Other companies weren't as picky and would hardly send anything back.

A lot of brands are manufactured with the same parts and quality. I worked in a plant that made oil filters. We made Fram & Quaker State filters.
The only thing different between the two was the color of the paint. When we wanted to make Quaker State filters we changed the color of the paint to green. All the parts and processes to make the filter were the same.
Yet Quaker State filters cost less then the Fram filters.

One filter was for a passenger car and a Case Tractor. We just printed a different model number on it and put it in a different box for the Case Tractor. I'm sure the price was more for the one in the Case Tractor box.

[ January 31, 2006, 02:09 PM: Message edited by: aline ]
 
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I used to work at a place that often included MCCs in the equipment. We would get quotes from the various MCC venders. One of the venders tended to be the lowest every time.

But now and then this vender would give us a crazy price. We would call and the $50,000 MCC would become $18,000 during a 30 second phone call (just one example). Happened many times.

Who knows why.
 
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