Electrical wholesalers and discounts

[Andy Burns]

I wanted a T5 300mm tube which Been and Queued didn't have, so I popped into CEF and bought one as a cash sale (used to have a company account, maybe it still exists, but this wasn't for work) I've bought the odd thing or two over the counter and know they sling on a reasonable discount without really being asked.

Price for the tube was £1.46+VAT, which was fair enough, when I glanced at the invoice the base price was £18.22+VAT, I thought perhaps he'd split a 10-pack or something, but no, he'd given 92% discount. Why *do* they have list prices that are so far adrift from the price they actually charge?

[Nightjar]

Because the list price is what you put on the customer's itemised quote and you make the profit on the job from the discounts.

Colin Bignell

[Jethro]

Because then they can bargain with it.

Many years ago, one of the sales directors when I worked insisted in writing FREE on invoices to show the training delivered with the software license was no charged for.

Consequently, the clients never took training seriously, causing no end of problems for the support desk. And you couldn't tell the client it was their fault because the training was visibly "worthless"

Finally, after one of the other directors gave him a business 101 talk, he started putting "Training: £5,000" against the invoice, with "Introductory discount £5,000" at the bottom. No change in bottom line, but now, the client could see (and be told) that training was a valuable commodity. And it really worked.

[Andy Burns]

But it didn't take *any* bargaining to get it to within a few pence of the the cheapest online prices I can find (afterwards).

For qty=1 I wouldn't expect to get it much cheaper, maybe I should have helped myself to a slice of bread for the toaster parked on the counter ...

[H. Neary]

CEF have afunny pricing policy. I never know what to expect when I visit their trade counters.

Newey & Eyre are a lot more consistent, they produce a catologue of their main product range with a price list that is dicounted by around

60-80%

CEF sometimes have a job to deliver at a lower price than Focus used to try to screw their customers for.

HN

[ARWadsworth]

Toast! Free bacon and sausage sandwiches in my local wholesalers on a Wednewsday morning.