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Beware – The Buyers Guide
Hi All,
I’m not sure I am right about this, but thought in any event it was worth mentioning to fellow signmakers, just in case my instincts are correct, having previously been caught up in a “holiday scam” I am now very wary and tend to research “offers” more carefully.
We were approached, by telephone, the other day by a company called “The Buyers Guide”. To cut a long story short, this Company is offfering to put us on a central list, from which local authorities/the Govenment and all public sectors source their suppliers and in particular will be used for sourcing for the forthcoming Olympics.
Sounds good you might think – so did we at first.
The website does exist – http://www.buyersguide.co.uk
The Cost – £500 per annum
I was somewhat sceptical as my partner works in an insurance department of a Construction Company who regularly carries out work for Local Authorities and knows that each authority keeps it’s own List of Approved Contractors. I put this to the Buyers Guide who told me that this is no longer the case and that thiers is the only list in the Country!!
I therefore phoned the purchasing departments of a couple of local authorities – NONE of them had heard of the Buyers Guide or the intention to move towards a centralised list instead of having their own. Bearing in mind the Buyers Guide has been established since 1996 I thought it somewhat “strange” that the Councils I phoned hadnt heard of them.
Today I was phoned for our decision, which was “no thank you” but expressed my concerns over the phone, I must say, these people are very good at what they do, its hard sell, but reminded me too much of the experience we had on Marbella front 2 years ago, and anyone unsuspecting could fall for it. What really annoyed me was, he offered to substantially reduce the cost from £500 when he realised the decision I’d made was not what he wanted to hear.
Because of my partner’s experience in Insurance, I told him that Local Authorities generally require a minimum of cover of £10m EL and £5m PL, the latter we don’t have (£2m), he then tried to tell me, that IT WOULDN’T BE CHECKED – YEAH RIGHT OF COURSE IT WOULDN’T (!) 🙄
Now, as I said, I may be wrong and we could have missed out on a great opportunity, but every bone in my body is telling me otherwise.
I would be interested to hear if anyone else has been approached or even better “signed up” and have secured worked from it, but the reason for my post here is to alert people to the findings I made in my research with the Councils – just in case.
I look forward to hearing from anyone’s experiences on this.
Thanks
Steve
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5 Replies
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Hi Steve
We get this every year……….from the same people……….also one for schools………we just say NO
Regards
Lee -
I’ve had them trying It with me.. its a load of crap, my council is listed, but i know for a fact that they use another company to out source all there work, from printers to tarmacers
Simon
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I’ve come across similar before. Sometimes it’s directories for local authorities and health boards. You pay to be listed in their directory which they supposedly send out to local authorities.
It’s when they tell you that you will be an “approved supplier” that gives the game away. Since when did a third party like that get to decide who should be an approved supplier to local councils. Only local councils can decide who they use as approved contractors. 🙄
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Hi guys not been around much of late been a really busy time…..
On the subject of the buyers guide……..I have been approached as well, and felt the same, in my opinion its a con, I work for local authorities and government departments on a daily basis and have never been aware that we should be on this list, funny thing is all the buyers i deal with are not aware of it either.
I didn’t even get to find out how much it cost but as soon as I told them I was an approved supplier of many of these departments all ready they put the phone down, makes you wonder.
Not saying that I know its a con, I don’t know, may even be genuine, but I just find it strange that no one I know are aware of them, and their sharp exit from our brief telephone conversation makes me think it may be.
That’s my tuppence worth…….
Andy
Hope u all been OK and keeping busy
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Well thats just confirmed my thoughts,
THANX GUYS
Steve 😀
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