Sponsor Alert - online merchants

[Dotty]

Think they're on their backs 🙂

Is how I read that!

 

[zeebeedee]

Is how I read that!

Now that's no typo!

 

[CES]

I'd like a blonde buxom beauty mopping my fevered brow as i'm placing an order - That possible Ray?

How about Bjorn & Olaf. The Scandinavian all in wrestler tag team?

 

[zeebeedee]

Could you get in touch with mr rust buster please ray and stock his dosing vessels. Seriously gutted about losing that!

 

[Dannypipe]

I've used BES, Plumb nation, BHL a fair times, and Mr Central heating once.

Never had an issue with one of them. Though the last boiler I had from BHL looked as though someone had dropped the box, it was fairly mashed up. Boiler was for my house, so it went in!!

I've always used them for the cost saving or if I was working away from home and it was easier to have someone deliver an item than me drive it all the way there. Mr Central Heating I was forced to use as the customer specified I get the radiators from them. Pillar rads. All good, and a fair price.

BES have such a broad range that sometimes you have to go to them. No one in Tunbridge Wells stocks Armaflex for example. I don't use much of it, so I get it from them when I do.

 

[Ray Stafford]

I'd like a blonde buxom beauty mopping my fevered brow as i'm placing an order - That possible Ray?

Yep, but the pricetag might even put your bar tab in the shade 🙂

 

[Ray Stafford]

When you hoping to be up and running ray

Sometime in 2013, but we won't be rushing it. More important to get it right than to get it quick. I would like to be piloting by easter - possibly with a limited stock range - reformatting all that data is quite a task. If it takes a year of even two years to get it how I want it, then thats what it takes. We have a few bricks and mortar branches to open in 2013 as well, although its a different team working on that.

 

[Ray Stafford]

Though the last boiler I had from BHL looked as though someone had dropped the box, it was fairly mashed up.

Thats one of the issues I have been looking at.

Delivery in the South East is easy - we have our own vans covering that. Entrusting high value, breakable items to carriers is another issue altogether. Do they add any additional packaging to things like boilers and particularly flue kits?

 

[Mike Jackson]

I use BES for the odd stuff that I can't get locally but the big problem for me is delivery. There's no one at home during the day so I have to have stuff delivered to my parents or to site. With such large delivery time slots it ties you down too much for me to use mail order except when absolutely necessary. Especially with things like boilers when I like to check that the new one is correct and in good nick before I start ripping out the old still working one. If I used mail order I could be sitting on my backside most of the day. Plumb center or SPS will normally drop off my boilers first drop if I ask them nicely.

 

[Ray Stafford]

We have a few bricks and mortar branches to open in 2013 as well, although its a different team working on that.

... but the big problem for me is delivery. There's no one at home during the day so I have to have stuff delivered to my parents or to site. With such large delivery time slots it ties you down too much for me to use mail order except when absolutely necessary.

We are creeping closer to you Mike. I expect to have a physical branch in Hastings at some point in the next 15 months. 🙂

 

[kay-jay]

We are creeping closer to you Mike. I expect to have a physical branch in Hastings at some point in the next 15 months. 🙂

you could open a mobile branch in the back of his new van!

 

[Dannypipe]

Thats one of the issues I have been looking at.

Delivery in the South East is easy - we have our own vans covering that. Entrusting high value, breakable items to carriers is another issue altogether. Do they add any additional packaging to things like boilers and particularly flue kits?

No they don't Ray. It's OK with larger items, as they're heavy and normally well packaged by the manufacturer.... but things like Amptec electric boilers only weigh about 6KG but still cost over £500. I'm sure they get chucked around in the van.

Co-incidently, I was stuck in traffic today, and there was a van parked with the rear doors open. The bloke in the Brown uniform (though it was a transit van not one of their vans) was kneeling/standing on top of all the boxes, obviously trying to find the correct package in the van. I noticed he was right on top of Hewlett Packard box. So obviously a PC or laptop inside. Glad it wasn't mine.