is anyone else fed up with the muppets the merchants employ?

[obseen16]

Hey guys, just felt like having a rant and seeing if this is the case where you are, i have a grahams, a pts, a plumb center/ parts center, a travis perkins and a few independent merchants in my town. out of all them i only use grahams and parts center when i have to,

the people in the other places (not including the independent merchants) dont have a damn clue or they just dont care.

i went into the plumb center for a rad and some fittings. one of the fittings was a 1/2" male bsp - 15mm compression. the young lad behind the counter chucked the radiator on the counter and dented one of the side covers. i then had to draw a picture of the bsp fitting so he knew what i wanted only to get a 3/4 -22mm.

ive had the same problem with pts, travis etc, they havent got a clue what a part 1 ball cock is never mind some of the other things the best one was when i said "no i dont want yorkshire elbows i want end feed" the reply was "i dont think these are from yorkshire":mad2:,

it drives me mental that they dont have a clue, surely they get trained up. the only place worth going to round my way is grahams i no longer bother using the other places unless im in a pickle.

on the up side im becoming quite the artist, i can now draw a ballofix and a gas meter union with precision accuracy hehehe.

anyone else have this little problem/ annoyance?

 

[stevetheplumber]

same all over pay peanuts get monkies

 

[Billy Bob Bob]

yep i asked for a d.o.c in travis:whatchutalkingabout

 

[GQuigley67]

i use an independant merchants mostly, as i have a good relationship with the guys in there, never used grahams was told they were dear, i like wilsons but dont have an account with them, got an account with plumb centre but they are quite expensive.

 

[dontknowitall]

Not only do they not know what they're selling or what they can order but they can't do maths or English either.

I generalise, of course, but so many retail outlets are like this these days. Ever bought something for £11.51 and given £21.51 cash to a teenager? Totally throws some of them!!

What winds me up sometimes is the merchants don't have separate prices for trade and retail (i.e. those going in most days and those once a year). Same prices all round, well, maybe 2.5% knocked off if you're a plumber.

 

[SimonJohns]

I only have aprox 5 people I can turn to when I want something


How the rest of these people are employed is beyond me


Gas man. Where do you get your parts from ?


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[SimonG]

I'm pretty lucky, one young lad is always on the ball, one of the older guys you have to remind every 5 minutes and the manager, well only asked if you reall want to p off the customer.

Grahams in Darlington where really spot on, unfortunately closed.

An independant next door to build Center, absolutely crap, disappear from the counter as soon as you walk through the door.

Most consistent service is from Toolstation in Darlo. But can't go wrong when you've checked inventory on line and hand them an itemised list. Or is that speaking too soon! 🙂 🙂

 

[REDSAW]

nowt to do with topic really but,
went to get a cooker chain from my local and charged me £4.60+???

 

[GasmanxxxR1]

I found the guys in my plumb center absolute muppets, now ive moved to pts and im much happier with the service:stuart:

 

[gaspastemania]

Does my head in on a regular basis going into the merchants. Apart from the fact i have to hear how good they are at plumbing everytime i go in they also regular as clockwork fudge up any quotes i ask for !!!

Not to mention when i write out a list of gear i want i get a complete cock up from them ! Ask for elbows i get tee's ! ASK for tees i get clips and so on and so on , got to the pointy now i dont even moan as cant be bothered !!

 

[WHPES]

I find the best service in my independent merchants.

A lot of the independents have one price for everyone now. This is because of the way everyone uses the internet nowadays and its so competitive. Also people dont want to be bothered to wait for someone to come back with a discounted price, they (and me included) just search for the best and buy.

 

[obseen16]

just remembered another thing that REALLY winds me up, was doing a job out of my area and we had to go to a pipe center for some gear. we counted 9 staff members and just us 2 customers. it took us 40 mins to get served. they didnt even apologise when we complained about the wait, they were all just sat at computers trying to look busy, f***ing idiots. that was a pipe center in/near cambridge.

 

[SimonJohns]

Lol I just remembered a story

I was told to do a job as quick and cheap as poss

So ordered boiler with a wireless stat

Boiler turned up with hard wired stat
Asked supplier what's going on, reply was cheap as poss
In reply it would of been, but now I got to run 2 core across the house.(of which i didn't have) Pull up more floor boards and prob spend another 2 hours doin that. I'm sure the wireless stat that cost £15 more would of been the more expensive option THANKS!!!!!!!!


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