On 2008-04-10 11:43:15 +0100, Rod said:

Tony Bryer wrote:
On Thu, 10 Apr 2008 08:44:04 +0100 Rod wrote :
So agreed. As the plumbers merchants (and so on) already charge a
premium - by not giving a discount on an individual transaction, not
giving as big a discount, not giving a discount on the monthly
cumulative spend, not providing credit facilities, etc. - they
effectively turn away the people who pay the highest prices.

But are they - to a trade supplier (and the trade customers in the
queue g) desirable customers? You may be making 100% mark-up, but if
it takes 5 minutes to sell one £1 fitting then you're not even covering
the salesperson's wages.

That was the reason for my wording - I really don't know how desirable
we are. :-)

Clearly not as much as you might think, or the merchants have yet to
wake up to that.



But perhaps the biggest reason is actually to allow plumbers (and such)
to charge £1000 to a customer for a boiler for which they actually
paid, say, &700. They add a percentage to the price (which is
usually/often/sometimes identified in contract details). But they also
get the discounts, etc. which are not usually factored in. Certainly
the "buy three boilers and get a free fortnight holiday" offers won't
be.

That's a loyalty bonus.



Of course there is a cost involved in a tradesperson procuring the
boiler and they should be able get recompense for that. But the other
discounts and benefits should at leats be declared and the whole deal
made transparent.

That depends on what one is buying. If it's a complete solution
including removal and fitting work and the end result is a working
reliable boiler, a lot of people may not care.



Keeping us and other end customers out reduces the likelihood of people
objecting.

Some trade places have moved to different systems of controling
pricing, margin and monitoring business volume. For example, net
pricing or discounts automatically calculated. This avoids
discussions in front of others which is one issue for tradespeople.

For the end customer, one way to circumvent this is to submit an RFQ to
several suppliers, making it clear that it's a competitive request.
Again this avoids open verbal discussion and if the deal is of
sufficient value and it's close to month end, it's surprising what can
be achieved.