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Fun & games with some suppliers. comes good in the end
Been having ‘load of fun’ for a few days sourcing people to machine amongst the run of the mill flat cut acrylic letters an 8×4 PVC oval and some 25mm letters.
In the end – used a small laser engraving guy that give an excellent service for the 25mm stuff as nobody else would take it. http://www.sjslaser.co.uk/ – couple of days usually.
A local company with a flo-jet for the 10mm thick 8×4 http://www.reekiesteeltec.com/ as nobody (bar Brimark & Stockline) would ship it.
And my usual excellent trusted supplier http://www.accentsignsltd.co.uk/ for the other acrylics and smaller 10mm PVC shapes as I can’t fault their service, quality or price.
I was a bit disappointed though with Brimark – their prices were in some cases double that of Accent for the same product and for the life of me I can’t see why.
Stockline Glasgow – sorry guys, but apparently needing a fully incrementally dimensioned drawing for a natural oval when I could send an EPS is incomprehensible. You’ll still get the blank sheet sale…just lost confidence in your ability to cut an oval.
Dave
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22 Replies
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Seems you’re still having fun by giving them a little wake u call Dave, nothing wrong with that, makes you feel better and hopefully will make them sit up and listen to benefit of all…
Ian :lol1:
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quote David Rogers:I was a bit disappointed though with Brimark – their prices were in some cases double that of Accent for the same product and for the life of me I can’t see why.not sure if this is the reason but I had a few choice words and have posted this before quiet a while back as I see it as wrong. They quote for letters at the caps height of the letter even though there are no capital letters on the job, I needed some letters that were all lowercase and Brimarks quote was much higher than the others (which is not normal) I called to find out why and this was the explanation. It’s just my opinion and way of thinking that you don’t charge for a size bigger than what you need, it’s like a signmaker always charging out every fascia at 8×4 size because the sheet material comes in 8×4’s.
Yes I agree (as pointed out to me in the old thread) they can charge whatever they like and it’s up to me to use them or not so I decided not to use them 😕
Like I said it might not be the reason for your price difference but thought I would suggest it in case.
cheers
Warren
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I don’t think it’ll be that specifically Warren as every supplier of flat-cut or moulded letters I’ve used charges at the CAPS height regardless of if you order O, o, or even .
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The sjlaser site specifically says that they charge at the caps height.
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I now know most if not all do charge this way so not sure why they are sometimes much more expensive and other times competitive. What got me at the time when asking them why they charge a larger area then is required he could not give me a reason other than "it’s just the way we do it"
Just because everybody does it does not make it right 😕 Am I the only person that thinks it’s wrong to charge for a larger area than is required 😕
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Wont a lower case p be the same height as an upper care P or am I wrong?
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yes it is Jason but a lower case P and an uppercase P together will be larger than either of those 2. If you take a word like "mini" it is smaller than "Mini" as it has no caps, why should you pay for the large size if you only want the small size.
and yes I know they can charge whatever they want but I don’t understand the logic and why we allow them to do it 🙄
As I said before we quote according to a size (this usually includes waste etc as I’m sure their prices do) but we don’t just decide to quote to a larger size because "it’s just the way we do it"
come on really (!)
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I guess they can start arguing that the letter I takes more machine time to cut then the letter w etc etc.
I understand what you are saying.
We base all our pricing on material usage so in your case we’d be right on the money.
Down here all CNC suppliers I’ve dealt with don’t know their stuff. It seems like anyone just buys a CNC machine and is now a supplier without any knowledge that comes with tool paths, correct tools and all the associated knowledge you would need.
My last CNC job came back to me at 1/10th the size. I was gob smacked when I provided the dxf files at the correct size. Don’t know why you would alter it.
Thats like someone supplying me artwork at 100% size and me sending it off at the wrong size. You’d think these people have processes in place to check their work. Obviously not.
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Hi David, did you know brimark offer a price promise, they will beat any like for like quote, so you cannot get much better than that. I would definately question such a large difference, there could be something they misunderstood.
I had a similar occurance with a sheet stockist when buying a clear sheet of acrylic, I did not realise you can get extruded sheet and cast sheet, the extruded being half the price but very brittle., maybe thats your answer.
Whilst on the subject of letters, I ordered some 6 " black acrylic from brimark the other day and they came with black cups, I was very pleased indeed as the client was a funny hairdresser type and the job looked very good, its amazing how the black cups basically disappeared and get this, they come with a lifetime guarantee!!, no more returning to jobs 3 years later to re-new the cups. 🙂
Warren, all companies price on the cap, from what I gather the physical price is actually worked out on lowercase and the cap bit is for free as most orders are lower case, but to make quoting easier they base it on the cap rather than the case, it makes sense to me.
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quote gordgeko:Warren, all companies price on the cap, from what I gather the physical price is actually worked out on lowercase and the cap bit is for free as most orders are lower case, but to make quoting easier they base it on the cap rather than the case, it makes sense to me.
Well if that’s the case then good on them but that’s not what they said to me when I called to find out. I didn’t phone to blast them but it was more out of curiosity and thought maybe they had made a mistake so was giving them the chance to correct it, but the guy on the phone came across to arrogantly telling me that’s just the way it done and never mentioned a price beating option.
If they took the time to explain then it would be a different story, unfortunately it pushed me away and I found other suitable suppliers 🙄
but good to know if that is indeed true.
edit:
gordgeko, why don’t you use your real name and put up a pic, I hate "debating" with strangers 😉 😛 maybe I’ll even be nice to you :lol1:
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Sorry Warren, its my nickname I will sort the photo soon, been up the wall. don’t use my real name on the net, got my ID stolen last year, police told me not a good idea, scammers can get your name, company name, address, build up a whole profile of you, your whereabouts etc by simply reading forums
The price promise thingy is all over their adverts, I must admit you shock me with the ‘arrogant’ comment as they have always seemed to fall over backwards for me, particularly Nancy in the office, very nice lady indeed. 🙂
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it was just the one occasion and don’t know who I spoke to but I’m sure it was a guy. I have spoken to Nancy a few times too and yes she is nice. Maybe I should just clear up my situation.
I used to use Brimark and Tradesigns for various jobs, had one or 2 small niggles with both of them but nothing major or upsetting. After the incident with Brimark I decided to try somebody else for a comparative quote and Fabricut were on the ball. I don’t think I did ever criticise any of the other suppliers just expressed my complete satisfaction with Fabricut. All 3 of them in my opinion supply good service, quality and price, my experience has found Fabricut just that little bit better.
cheers
Warren
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everyone to their own Warren, I tend to stick to my suppliers and discuss issues, its a two way thing, they need us, we need them, I’m not a big fan of moving around as its hard to remember were you bought certain items at my age :-), also saving the odd couple of quid doesn’t interest me, its all relative in the long run.
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I agree, this was done in my early days of trading while still feeling around the market, maybe that’s why I have a good relationship with Fabricut and it works well for me, it’s like anything in business, it takes days/months/years to win a customer and only a few seconds to lose them.
Like I said I tried to discuss my issue with them but got a cold response otherwise I might never have gone looking elsewhere.
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quote gordgeko:Hi David, did you know brimark offer a price promise, they will beat any like for like quote, so you cannot get much better than that. I would definately question such a large difference, there could be something they misunderstood.
Didn’t know they did that…it’s all been ordered elsewhere, but will bear in mind for future.
quote :I had a similar occurance with a sheet stockist when buying a clear sheet of acrylic, I did not realise you can get extruded sheet and cast sheet, the extruded being half the price but very brittle., maybe thats your answer.No, it will only be CAST that both companies are using. To be honest, I’ve never seen coloured extruded acrylics, just clear…and I never use it ‘cos it’s rubbish!
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Just like to back up Brimark, they have produced many many jobs for me, always on time or before, all jobs correct and I have found some of the most helpful trade suppliers I have used, sent a file for quote today fantastic price and above all I know the jobs going to be ready on time and correct.
Rich -
I’m not doubting their quality or service. They have a VERY good reputation amongst people here.
My only ‘note’ was the huge price disparity when compared to another mainstream supplier on a like-for-like job.
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quote gordgeko:Hi David, did you know brimark offer a price promise, they will beat any like for like quote, so you cannot get much better than that. I would definately question such a large difference, there could be something they misunderstood.I had a similar occurance with a sheet stockist when buying a clear sheet of acrylic, I did not realise you can get extruded sheet and cast sheet, the extruded being half the price but very brittle., maybe thats your answer.
Whilst on the subject of letters, I ordered some 6 ” black acrylic from brimark the other day and they came with black cups, I was very pleased indeed as the client was a funny hairdresser type and the job looked very good, its amazing how the black cups basically disappeared and get this, they come with a lifetime guarantee!!, no more returning to jobs 3 years later to re-new the cups. 🙂
Warren, all companies price on the cap, from what I gather the physical price is actually worked out on lowercase and the cap bit is for free as most orders are lower case, but to make quoting easier they base it on the cap rather than the case, it makes sense to me.
Brimark do not have a price promise. the state they will ATTEMP to beat any like fore like quote, so not quite a promise.
Anyway can’t see what you guys are arguing about, they quote a price structure the same as you would for you cut vinyl or print,
you have the choice to buy it or not.Peter
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Dave I know you were very fair, it just had the look of one of those posts starting where a supplier started to get bad press so just my honest opinion.
Rich -
Peter well said !
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Yup…having a choice is a good thing…
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Good point Peter,
I just asked them about the "price promise" as they are doing another quote for me, was told by Nancy in the brimark office that they use the word "attempt" so it gives them room to turn down work that is either an obvious attempt to deceive them or a quoting error by a competitor, but she said 99% of the time they are able to beat any quote, she said the market is very competitive at the moment with anybody with a router suddenly becoming a trade supplier.
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