Percival P. Cassidy wrote:
The "true pros" (with registered business names and tax IDs) *may* do
better at a tile (or electrical, or plumbing) supply company. But those
of us who are simply trying to fix our own homes will likely pay "List
Price" at these institutions: i.e, waaay more than we would at the borgs.

Perhaps some of the stuff the borgs sell is inferior, but perhaps some
of it came off the same production line as the stuff at Joe's Tile
Supplies but simply got packaged and labeled differently (and priced
lower because the borgs buy in such huge quantities).

Even if Joe's Tile Supplies and the borgs have identical brand-name
items, it's possible that JTS pays more for them than the borgs sell
them for, so JTS can't help but sell them for a higher price still. (But
the "true pros" may not care about the higher price if the service is
better, because they're going to pass the higher price on to their
customers anyway.)

Perce

Well, if money is the only determining factor in your world,
then go for the best price. But we as professionals know that
if the tile is not there when it is supposed to be, then the
tile guy will have to reschedule and it may not be when the
tile comes in, it may be when he can get back to your job.
Then you have to reschedule the appliances, the shower door
people, the plumbers,... In fact you will have to reshuffle
everyone a few days down the line a bit. They may have others
scheduled after the time they have alloted for your job so
they may not get there as quickly as you need them. Since the
appliances have arrived and cannot be installed because the
tile is not in, there is a greater chance of them being stolen
which leads to an insurance claim and further delays.

And since I can get tile more inexpensively at the tile place,
the few pennies extra that I would have had to pay at the borg
ends up costing me hundreds of dollars because they don't have
their act together.

--
Robert Allison
Rimshot, Inc.
Georgetown, TX


On 05/14/05 12:50 am Robert Allison tossed the following ingredients
into the ever-growing pot of cybersoup:

I'm realizing a key difference between pros and amateurs. Pros
expect the
merchants to screw up royally, and plan accordingly I guess.


Incorrect assumption. Pros don't buy their tile at borgs. We buy our
tile at tile suppliers and if the order gets screwed up, we get
royally ****ed because we expect that they will do what they say.

Then we apologize for getting royally ****ed when we discover that the
error was on our side and they really gave us what we ordered.