If Toolstation can do it why can't others?

I just had a minor problem with a Toolstation delivery, 90% my fault as the goods were delivered to the address I requested but I wasn't there (they were a bit earlier than predicted) and though there was someone in they didn't accept the delivery.

So I phoned Toolstation to sort it out. What a revelation, it was almost a pleasant experience! The phone was answered promptly by a real person (no menus to navigate at all) who was easy to understand and dealt with the problem promptly and effectively.

Toolstation sell at very competitive prices so they surely have all the same issues as phone companies, power companies, banks, etc. but they really do customer service right as well!

Reply to
cl
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In general, how do Toolstation's prices compare to Amazon? - which is where I buy most things online.

Reply to
pamela

I'd say Toolstation probably deliver from your local branch where the same staff deal with phone calls as serve on the counter and make up the order for delivery.

So rather different from a mail order only place with a central warehouse.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

Simply looking up the price of an item on both Amazon and Toolstation isn't going to tell me if one of them is sell one sort of item more cheaply than the rest of their range of goods perhaps as a loss leader. Nor if they are offering seasonal discounts nor if one is cheaper but only when buying multiples.

By comparison, you can't tell if Radio Spare (RS Components) is cheaper than Farnell (Element 14) just by looking up the price of a resistor on each web site. Nor would you be able to allow for delivery costs as readily as someone who deals them.

Similarly, I buy a lot of online health supplements and deal with companies with vastly different pricing structures. If someone ask me if company A is cheaper than company B then it takes only a few moments to explain that one company is cheaper for a certain brand but not the other and that postage is very significant in one case but base price is significant for the other. It took me dozens of orders to know that but only a few seconds to summarise my experiences.

I'm hoping somebody had carefully compared prices for several items on both Amazon and Toolstation over a period of time and could simply say what their experiences with price are.

The OP suggested Toolstation is worth looking into and that's what I am doing. How hard is that to do?

I half-expected some smart Alec, and in this case it is you, would post a jibe and I thought I had taken the trouble to word my query carefully. I see I wasn't careful enough when it is you. Perhaps you could refrain from making further unhelpful comments although that may be asking too much of you because when when I look at your posts over the last few weeks you haven't posted a single helpful comment.

Reply to
pamela

Y'know, it's easier to just ignore and if necessary KF.

Toolstation have always been ok to deal with IME. If I was looking for something in their remit (DIY related) I'd check there as well as screwfix, with toolstation being preferred. I might look at amazon later just for a sanity check.

Reply to
Clive George

Stow it, Jim. In your mouth preferably.

Reply to
pamela

Thanks for the info, Clive. That's the sort of thing I'm looking for. And how do you find the prices differ?

Reply to
pamela

Haven't looked that hard TBH, but I have bought stuff from both and might not have done if Amazon were notably cheaper. Though it might be more what they sell rather than price which sent me there, ie Amazon not selling it.

Reply to
Clive George

He wants attention. Deprive him of it.

Reply to
S Viemeister

That's true.

Reply to
pamela

Pretty sure they don't deliver out from ours - no vans, no loading bay for starters, I would have seen or heard the few staff doing /discussing it I'm sure.

If the branch is oos on am item it will be ordered next day delivery to the store (or elsewhere your choice). Store gets priority deliveries first thing it seems, no doubt tied in to an up-to-date inventory system that reorders drip by drip.

I spose it's cos they sell lots of small items and hardly any bigger ones that this can work.

Jim K

Reply to
JimK

Right. I was basing it on the one delivery I've had from them when an item was out of stock but arrived the day following the main delivery. Which suggested to me it wasn't coming from a central warehouse. Unless they have more than one of those.

But going back to the original point - decent service from what is really a trade supplier isn't unusual. I'd expect (and get the same) from the likes of Rapid, CPC and RS. Retail mail order seems pretty variable. I bought a TV from John Lewis which had a 10 day delivery, unless I paid extra.

Reply to
Dave Plowman (News)

The thing that impressed me about their logistics was when Nook e-readers were reduced to 29 quid a go on clearance, suddenly they turned up at TS for the staff to use as electronic picking lists. Evidently somebody in IT at TS had noticed the special offer, bought a boatload, and written an app (they run Android) or webpage to integrate them into the till system, and them rolled them out on the shop floor. I though that was nice proof they were on the ball.

The one issue I did have was their system not realising what sensible quantities were. For instance, it was stuck having 3 shelf brackets in stock for a long time and didn't resupply. I had to goad it by buying all the brackets, waiting for it restock, and then going in to buy some more. At one point they came from slightly different manufacturers so I bought the ones in stock, waited for it to restock, bought all of the new stock and in the same transaction returned the old ones.

Theo

Reply to
Theo

Hey Jim, I looked again at what you wrote to me. You were being a bit negative but I can see I read more into your reply than was there.

I hate it when that happens to me and you might be pissed off too. So I owe you an apology.

Reply to
pamela

Blimey, Pam, you don't apologise on here! It just encourages them :-)

Reply to
stuart noble

Had to phone Lloyds yesterday, paid some money into wrong account, fair play it was my fault, needed to shift it. 29 minutes on the phone.

Conrad Controls take a week to respond to an email.

Reply to
R D S

I know what you mean but if I overreacted and upset someone then I feel I should apologise.

Reply to
pamela

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