Tim S wrote:
The Medway Handyman coughed up some electrons that declared:

PeterC wrote:
On Sat, 13 Jun 09 19:12:38 GMT, dmc wrote:

And just one reason Toolstation gets most of my trade instead
of Screwfix now (who appear to be stocking less and less for higher
and higher prices now!)
I wish that there were a Toolstation near me. SF is sort of OK but
getting a bit like BbQ.
Agreed. My nearest is Dartford, I'd love them to open in the Mrdway
Towns.



Mine's Orpington.

SF are pretty helpful in T Wells (100% good customer service).

TS's website tells you the stock level in the local stores, but at the same
time is actually nearly useless without the paper catalogue.

Try searching for Speedfit. You get some flexi connectors.

Now search for push fit. You get waste pipes.

Now search for pushfit. You get amongst a few things, one elbow. Now you
notice that the category up top is Plumbing - Pushfit.

Select that.

Now you get every make of pushfit, but, helpfully, no confirmation in the
description that it's JG, Polyplumb, maybe tectite or whatever,

Mostly the pics are good enough, but sometimes, you have to rely on the
catalogue page number being the same as another item where the picture is
clearer.

Or use the paper catalogue.

It's actually pretty awful. Or is it me?

SF have a much more descriptive website IMHO.

But TS's prices do see better.

I do wonder what thee companies are doing though.

All they have to do is look at each other and replicate the obviously good
bits, add their own sugar and hey presto.

To an extent we are just seeing two different stages of evolution of a
similar species. TS is after all run by the people who created SF. Over
time the catalogue is grown, which means the trade counters tend to get
ever less complete coverage of the product range, and what they do cover
they hold only in small stock quantities in order to save space for the
rest of the large inventory.

It will be interesting to see if TS learn when to stop adding stuff!

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/