A tale of two suppliers

A comparative demonstration of supplier service.

Supplier A - order accepted (for small piece of 3mm brass strip), despatched after 4 days, arrived after a further 5.

Supplier B - order accepted (for 2 x 2mm second taps), arrived just over 24 hours later. Order was incomplete, so phoned to advise and "will be in the post 1st class tonight", received next morning.

Total cost, in each case, within pennies.

Supplier B was Tracy Tools, been in business a long time and deservedly so. Supplier A ... how long will they stay in business??

rgds

Bill

Used Tracy and they are good, supplier A probably will last all day in business, there a lot of good suppliers but also a lot of rubbish ones, we soon find out who to trust

Be careful out there

Mick

Hi Bill,

I have the same good experience with Tracy Tools as you and Mick, delivery to me takes a bit longer though, mainly due to our mail system.

Thor

Any mention of what the postal charges were from the two suppliers? Also was that 4 working day or ordered Friday sent Mon/Tue?

Supplier A, if a metal merchant could have to cut your piece of brass from a larger piece, time taken to do this would depend on their work load.

Tracy would just go to a tub take your bits and pop into a Jiffy bag.

Delivery time depends upon the method used ... so can't blame the supplier for that.

Jason's point is also valid ... people don't work weekends.

Dave

Don't see how you can make a comparison (a) the item/items was not the same and (b) supplier B did get your order wrong the first time !

Been a customer of Tracy Tools for over 50+ years, 'nuff said.

Used to visit and buy from Tracey Tools when they were in Isleworth! Can't say when that was but it was a long while ago. Always been a pleasure to do business with and excellent VFM.

Supplier A order was on a Thursday, early afternoon. Postage was within pennies. Taps supplied both times in a stout heavy duty jiffy bag, brass plate in a piece of bubble wrap in a thin plastic bag. The comparison was made because the purchases were, as near as dammit, concurrent, so differences were more striking.

rgds

Bill

As Harry said ... the comparison is not really valid as the products were totally different.

Item B was off the shelf ... just pick and pack .... While Item A might have to be cut from a larger piece. (With all the set up that takes)

Delivery time cannot be compared on cost as both might have used different company's

Also assuming the order methods were the same ... both via email or both by supplier order page!

Dave

I’ve used Kay’s fasteners on eBay quite a number of times. My last order arrived about 22 hours after I placed my online order! Kay’s obviously post stuff very promptly which is great but Royal Mail also deserve credit.

If I was in business and my delivery courier took 5 days to deliver I would find a courier that companies use that deliver faster, it is a competitive world after all

Mick

There are a few other factors to consider :

One seller may post your parcel before the funds have cleared the other may wait until they do clear . Your order may only be a very small one and a seller must look after larger orders first , if you were a company that say sold fasteners you wouldn’t” drop everything you were doing to pick & pack an order for two screws when you have a pile of larger orders to do would you ? Postage speeds vary depending on location as your order may have to be transferred from one mail depot to another before being loaded for delivery and can get held over for a day or two depending on how many deliveries are loaded into the mail van and sometimes they don’t complete the run so it goes back to the depot to be reloaded for the next day or day after depending on how much work is on .

Just because the metal supplier didn’t mail your order that day doesn’t mean they are a bad retailer - they may have been busy but at least the whole order turned up from them ! If you buy as much stuff off eBay as I do you soon learn to be patient ! I have had orders sent to my post office instead of my house , why I don’t know but it took 2 weeks of waiting before contacting the seller and then some searching by the seller to locate my items , not the sellers fault but tpost office fault .

I buy stuff from China from time to time,and it takes so long to get here that I tend to forget that I ordered it in the first place [grey cells degeneration] But then,out of the blue---Surprise,Surprise,my goods arrive and it,s like having another birthday. I can,t wait to open the pack to see what,s inside !

The thing is,they have never sent the wrong stuff ! Makes you wonder !

When I buy stuff from China I put a reminder in my phone. This has come in handy several times.

David.

With my fading I have a 'Orders Pending' directory on my Outlook emails, just save the order confirmation to that, then delete it when the goods arrive.

I try and forget what I have ordered, then when it turns up it's a pleasant surprise.

Then I have to figure out why I ordered it...

Neil

Hi, small orders shouldn't be brushed aside over a larger order, they all should be dealt with in order of being received. I had a small order a couple of weeks back for just four toggle switches, which came from the USA. Postage was zero as I had spent the threshold to comply for it. The order was made on a Friday morning, by afternoon I was emailed to say estimated delivery would be by 2 pm the following Monday. The tracker said that they had arrived at East Midlands Airport at 10.00 pm on the Friday and they were delivered before 11.00 am the following Monday.

Regards Nick.

Edited By Nicholas Farr on 05/10/2018 21:23:33

I quite agree Nick ! When I ran my own small business customers requests were dealt with in the order that they were received without exception . To do otherwise, as has been suggested earlier, is to show that one considers the owner of a fat wallet to be a more important person than any other customer. The big-shot/big spender may think themselves important but in the great scale of things, they are not. Deferring to one person over another will not generate a loyal customer base which is essential for long term business survival.

Trevor

Think of it this way ,

You are a steel merchant supplying materials for many industries and you are having a busy month , old mate rings up to order 10£ of brass bar and wants it posted . You have some large orders on floor to be sorted and during the day some more come in - we are not talking 10£ orders , more like 1000£ + and your customers want their materials yesterday and they are loyal customers that you have been dealing with for years . Your workers are busting their a@se to get the orders sorted and loaded , do you tell them to stop and sort out a 10£ order or put it aside until you have time to do it ? I know which one I would do ! There is a reason why many larger metal suppliers and a lot of other industries won’t do small orders - it’s simply not worth their while . I have had suppliers tell me that they will do small orders for pickup only but I will have to wait until they have time to put the order together and there us usually a cutting fee , sometimes the first cut is free but a fee for each cut after that usually cost a dollar or two . I once had a galvaniser knock back a car chassis I wanted done because to fit it in he would have to stop the production run they were doing and he won’t do that - I was more or less told to look elsewhere .