Supply Issues

Status
Not open for further replies.
J

jmellc

Senior Member
Location
Durham, NC
Occupation
Facility Maintenance Tech. Licensed Electrician
Does anyone else get frustrated with supply houses?

I like the reps for the most part & most counter people try to be helpful. Very few people problems but I have often found it hard to get what I need when I need it & errors are too common.

LED lamps. These are a great thing & I like converting lights to LED. But we need a range of sizes to fit & they often don’t have them so we have to order & maybe get the right ones come in. Some lamps are carried for awhile, then dropped. One place I used to deal with had very few at any time. They kept telling me they would have a full range when they moved across town to a new store.I went there a month after the move & they still had almost none. I called the manager & fussed at him as tactfully as I could. To his credit, he did bring more in.

Arlington In Box is the best thing ever for outdoor receptacles but some houses don’t carry them at all, some only a few models. Some have no clue what they are.

I find PVC glue in terminal adaptors much better then make adaptors for most PVC boxes. Threads on male adaptor are usually too short. But many places don’t have them at all or get them confused and still send male adaptors.

I’ve seen pointed screws & tech screws get confused for several years. No matter how I term it, someone gets it wrong.

I have ordered RS receptacle covers & gotten mud rings.

A boss went to 1 place nearby recently. I asked him to get a 12x32 hacksaw blade. He came back with a 12x18, said that was all they had. An 18 would be good for something like rebar, very hard to use with EMT. A 24 would usually be the coarsest blade most electricians use.

I ordered stuff for a side job recently & customer picked it up. They gave him a 3 phase meter base instead of a single phase. They also didn’t give him the wire cuts I had ordered. That gets into another whole issue. I don’t like customers picking things up as they don’t know enough to check. But I had no choice this time.

Because of such things, I have long preferred to pick up my orders & check items as they come to the counter.

I hope it’s not just me. Am I too hard to please?
 
retirede said:
This is why big box stores and online are thriving.
Click to expand...
Yes. HD has riser attachment point clamps that most houses here don’t carry at all any more. Same with roof flanges.

I needed lots of spring type fluorescent sockets several years ago & no one had them here. I ordered them online, about 30 pairs at a time. Order Monday, receive about Friday or Monday.
 
What pi**es me off is when they lie to me. Teling me they have X-number on hand. Then I ask them to go put their eyes on them. They put me on hold for a but, then tell me they have them. I show up to get them and they somehow don't have enough.

I called once and asked for *specifically* a 100-amp meter can because I needed to repair one (POCO no longer allows 100-anp). "Yeah, we got it". Can you make absolute sure, because it has to be 100. "For sure, we have it. I just looked". Show up and they give me a 200. I asked what the heck...now it's "we don't carry 100 anymore. Don't know the last time I saw one."

I refuse to go to a supply house anymore, unless I have no other option. I shop at HD, Lowe's, etc and online
 
James L said:
What pi**es me off is when they lie to me. Teling me they have X-number on hand. Then I ask them to go put their eyes on them. They put me on hold for a but, then tell me they have them. I show up to get them and they somehow don't have enough.

I called once and asked for *specifically* a 100-amp meter can because I needed to repair one (POCO no longer allows 100-anp). "Yeah, we got it". Can you make absolute sure, because it has to be 100. "For sure, we have it. I just looked". Show up and they give me a 200. I asked what the heck...now it's "we don't carry 100 anymore. Don't know the last time I saw one."

I refuse to go to a supply house anymore, unless I have no other option. I shop at HD, Lowe's, etc and online
Click to expand...
Years back, a lot of the reps had some field experience & were more often on the same page with us. Not as much now.
 
We used to have a supply house in Atlanta, DH supply, our salesman was great, but don’t try to get anything the same day! We nicknamed it Don’t Have supply! Graybar is getting real bad at not stocking anything, they have it at the distribution center, but hardly any stock at the branches. Oh! We can have it for you tomorrow is the standard answer, which is fine for new construction, but sucks for service work because a single trip job just turned into a two trip job!
 
hillbilly1 said:
We used to have a supply house in Atlanta, DH supply, our salesman was great, but don’t try to get anything the same day! We nicknamed it Don’t Have supply! Graybar is getting real bad at not stocking anything, they have it at the distribution center, but hardly any stock at the branches. Oh! We can have it for you tomorrow is the standard answer, which is fine for new construction, but sucks for service work because a single trip job just turned into a two trip job!
Click to expand...
We have Border States Electric.
Used to be Western Extralite.
Some called them Western Extra-High because their prices. They have most common stuff in stock, but I only go there as a last resort.

City Electric (CES) is almost a complete joke. Bunch of junk crap items mixed in with good stuff. And they're almost never able to complete an order in one trip.

There are quite a few others in between those two.

Amazon has better selection, and I'm able to put my eyes on it before I buy it - usually
 
James L said:
What pi**es me off is when they lie to me. Teling me they have X-number on hand. Then I ask them to go put their eyes on them. They put me on hold for a but, then tell me they have them. I show up to get them and they somehow don't have enough.
............
I refuse to go to a supply house anymore, unless I have no other option. I shop at HD, Lowe's, etc and online
Click to expand...
Our local HD and Lowes never have stock enough for contractor level work. (Even before COVID.) Web says they have x in stock and get there where it says they are and no sign of any, get an associate and they do just what you already did pull it up on their little handheld device and it says they have x but it's not there, and they have no idea where it might be. They can't order any because order is computer generated and computer says they have plenty on hand based on sales, (none sold in last 3 months,) probably because they have none.
Had a case customer wanted materials from Lowes (he had an account) placed order at pro desk. Got call saying order ready get there and missing stuff, needed 30 stick of 1/2" emt got 22 that was all they had, needed 20 led troughers got 6 and shortage on other items as well. Ended up going to 4 different lowes to get all the troughers. Every store showed they had more than they really did.
 
Fred B said:
Our local HD and Lowes never have stock enough for contractor level work. (Even before COVID.) Web says they have x in stock and get there where it says they are and no sign of any, get an associate and they do just what you already did pull it up on their little handheld device and it says they have x but it's not there, and they have no idea where it might be. They can't order any because order is computer generated and computer says they have plenty on hand based on sales, (none sold in last 3 months,) probably because they have none.
Had a case customer wanted materials from Lowes (he had an account) placed order at pro desk. Got call saying order ready get there and missing stuff, needed 30 stick of 1/2" emt got 22 that was all they had, needed 20 led troughers got 6 and shortage on other items as well. Ended up going to 4 different lowes to get all the troughers. Every store showed they had more than they really did.
Click to expand...

My experience with the local HD is just the opposite. I use their app when I shop and it tells me how many they have and the aisle & bin location. I occasionally see an it flagged as “low stock - check in store”, but I’ve never not been able to get what I needed if the app showed they had it.

I’m sure inventory accuracy varies by how well managed a particular store is.
 
Oh, I see now, RS is a Steel City part number prefix. Never heard that, even when I worked in a supply house (admittedly 40 years ago!). I just call them 4" square (single or double) receptacle covers. Yes, takes longer to say., but eliminates slang terms, like Madison clips and 1900 boxes....

One Lowes I used to shop at had inventory problems. Due to SHRINKAGE! o_O

I also use the Arlington In Box, just take cover off to wire, then reinstall.
 
It's a logistics/inventory issue, not knowing what you have on-hand or when more WILL arrive.
Walmart is not a products company, it's a logistics company, they get boxes of things in the pipeline and then track it to the register checkout.

Lingo jargon is usually manipulated by the trade folks and varies region to region. Like drywall vs sheetrock, same stuff different lingo. Some workers never catch on to the lingo their buyers are used to, which then causes grief often.

I usually order by manufacturer model/part #, this way I don't care what they call it.

Ask a big box place "where's your selection of NEMA 5-15's", see the funny eyes looking back at you.
 
The orange big box store has some sort of ESP or mind reader system in use... If I need 3 fuses, they have 2. If I need 12 breakers, they have 11, if I need... At least at my local store, they don’t send me to the plumbing department... 😂
 
dpcarls1598 said:
....... At least at my local store, they don’t send me to the plumbing department... 😂
Click to expand...
Been at big orange, needed riged they didn't have it and they suggested plumbing dept. Was there another time when another customer was looking for riged, (but didn't know that's what he was asking for), and the associate told him to get it from plumbing "because it's cheaper, and they sell it in shorter peices". I spoke up and said plumbing pipe is not usable for electrical installation.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top