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do trade suppliers actually want our work?
I’ve about had enough!
I have two jobs in the "mine if i’m quick’ stages at the moment,
one.. a large tray with composite letters, I sent out 5 requests for quotes on the whole job, several from the toolbar. Only one replied with a quote – but has now since failed to respond to two or more emails requesting an alternative size etc quoted.
the other… cut acrylic letters, quote came no probs originally but, twice now i’ve contacted to ask more detail (not rocket science stuff) and have had no replies.
what is the point of being trade suppliers if they’re not gonna get back to me. even a "get lost we’re too busy" would be better than nothing. it sucks.
i’m now on the brink of losing both jobs worth around £3k in total and have to try and get more quotes in like yesterday.
cosmic.
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11 Replies
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Have you tried just a plain old-fashioned phone call?
😀
Sometimes that works better.
Yesterday I got a custom quote, a complicated one, in 5 minutes after making a single phone call.
Love….Jill -
quote Jill Marie Welsh:Have you tried just a plain old-fashioned phone call?
😀
Sometimes that works better.
Yesterday I got a custom quote, a complicated one, in 5 minutes after making a single phone call.
Love….Jillthat’s a fair point Jill but, I often do my artwork and quotes etc. at home in the evenings once the kids are all sorted, very often i’ll be sending emials at midnight… a little out of usual working hours!!
sending artwork usually eliminates any potential errors in what i’m asking for.
point taken though 😉
Hugh
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Well if you emailed me at midnight I wouldn’t reply till morning.
:lol1: -
I have had my fair share of let downs by suppliers so I’m not going to stick up for them but i think if I were a trade supplier, came in to work and had emails sent at that time of night I would look at then when I got a chance rather than as a priority. I wouldn’t expect a business to be working at that time of night unless it was someone I had dealt with before.
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quote Martin:I have had my fair share of let downs by suppliers so I’m not going to stick up for them but i think if I were a trade supplier, came in to work and had emails sent at that time of night I would look at then when I got a chance rather than as a priority. I wouldn’t expect a business to be working at that time of night unless it was someone I had dealt with before.Terrible, but true…
I have a very limited crew and handle all back office myself, mostly evenings as well, after coming back from jobs, so there isn’t much to improve on in regards to timing of the emails (lol!).
If they do not reply I let them STICK IT you know where…
Luckily I mostly work with local suppliers (face to face), they handle all CNC and printing for me and found few reliable B2B suppliers over the years for other stuff, but yes- a lot of others will not bother replying- I guess the jobs must be too small for them or they are that busy…
All good, but once the workload is not there only then they might find out it is too late to repair those relations.Robert
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Martin,
I’m not sure that timing of an email should have any bearing on the response given to it. With mobile communications and remote home offices would imagine out of hours email to be common these days.However, I’ve now decided to change my approach, I’m now gonna feed my kids at 7am before sending them to bed, when I finish my paperwork and quotes around 6pm I’ll send them to school while I fit signs all night 😉
Anyways, pretty much sorted now, those who’ve helped or replied will get the work again, those who didn’t, won’t!
Hugh
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Hugh your probably right, maybe I should have thought a bit more before posting it but the reason I did was because when I had the website I sometimes use to get silly emails late at night from people who had obviously been out for the evening and had a few drinks. Then when they got home thought it was a good idea to get some stuff done for the car.
Never actually did anything for any of these people as once the drink had worn off they had a change of mind :lol1: :lol1:Nice to hear you have it sorted though, losing work because of suppliers always leaves a bitter taste.
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I can see your point Martin, I was just messin!
It has to be said though, if a drunk sent you a watermarked, to scale PDF I’m sure you woulda taken time to reply!
Hugh
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Hugh – I’ve had a few quotes from E-Thorne for sign trays:
http://www.ethorn.co.uk/
01789 491 452Speak to Simon Carless he hasn’t let me down on delivering quotes so far, and their prices seem competitive too.
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thanks David, i’ll pop it in me bookmarks!
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I’d be interested in what you make of their prices as I have got several quotes for the same job. ranging between £200 to £600!
These always seem to have exceptionally good prices. They also do flat cut lettering if I remember rightly.
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