On 7 Jul 2005 07:45:30 -0700, wrote:

Secrets to getting a catalog:

Say you have 25 or more employees
Say you are in manufacturing or steelfab, not a hobbyist
Do not say you are an engineer or purchasing agent, say you are
maintenance
Be angry on your second call, or at least say it's your second call,
and ask for a supervisor.

They have (or had, while I was there) this attitude that they only send
catalogs to those they "want" to do business with and meet certain
criteria. Credit doesn't have anything to do with it, and if you wait
for them to notice how much you order it may be a year before they do.

I think Ned has it right: some threshold of total
orders. I know they sent catalogs to me even when
I told them I was somewhere between a one-man shop
and a hobbyist. I later began ordering quite a high
volume from them, but the catalogs began arriving
while it was quite low, but long term and consistent.

BTW, I don't think that a couple of years is too
long for them to decide if you are "their kind"
of customer.
--
--Pete
"Peter W. Meek"
http://www.msen.com/~pwmeek/