splinter collector
New member
tomf":cuoiyb11 said:When you have an account, you have to negotiate a price. This price is then available to you what ever site you visit. An account which offers a credit facility are more expensive. I just have a cash account which means I don't have credit. I kept trying to use my fathers account and it was about a third more expensive than with my cash account.
You do have you know your prices before hand though, I've got packs of blocks for £45 when they first gave me a price of £80. From what I heard you can get a max discount of 40% on most stuff.
The other day I phoned TP and they gave me a price for £60 for BB birch ply and I wanted 10 sheets....
as someone who deals with suppliers each and every day this is all most spot one try this way at working it.
a bigger firm normally buys bigger lots and there fore cheaper buying and selling prices. smaller people do not get that offer on small purchases from their suppliers, try the larger firms for cost and smaller people for quality of service and normally better chosen stock.
builders merchants work like this
lets say for instance a block is £1 retail book price.
as a trade account holder and user we would ask for and negotiate a set or what's called preferential rates, ie timber 20% discounted, bricks and blocks 30%, fixings 6% etc. the more you buy the bigger the discounts
as a private sale for an account holder without pref rates he is paying full price because they have to wait so long for their money
as a cash sales and there fore cash in the bank all most straight away you can get close to the rates I have
plus add to that mates rates discount for knowing the staff etc our brick can go any where from £1 to 50pence
I use my contacts to get hold of cheaper stuff, I needed to hire in a digger at home, the plant firm we use would not discount so I called another supplier we use, no deposit needed and card payment sorted it all for 50% discount.
for timber I use two people, for general pine etc I use a small supplier as he gets his stock and turns it over by hand and as such, more expensive but the quality he gets is unreal, for every thing else I use a timber supplier, and normally I am in his waste scrap bins etc and I pay cash ten pound notes to do so.
and to tell you the truth I prefer to pay a little extra for the better service.