Poor customer attitude by some trade and building merchants

[JBR]

Yes, stereotypes. But Jews aren't the most tight-fisted: don't forget Yorkies!

 

[Fallingdown]

I love it when you say it's cheaper somewhere else and they say "let me see what I can do (we won't rip you off today unlike the last 10years)". W@nkers

 

[HawkEye244]

Yes, stereotypes. But Jews aren't the most tight-fisted: don't forget Yorkies!

They run a tight race though

 

[JBR]

Yes, stereotypes. But Jews aren't the most tight-fisted: don't forget Yorkies!

They run a tight race though

Not quite as bad as the Scots, though.
Remember the old TV advert: "Ye'll no be havin' a sale, will ye'?"

I'm sure I've asked this before, but who invented copper wire?


























A Scot and a Yorkshireman arguing over a penny.

 

[Mw Roofline]

With the internet now in full swing and the ease of finding businesses at the click of a button, most search results show either google reviews or yell.com reviews. I think customer service is a million times better wherever you go mostly to the fact there is more competition.
That timbers merchants was probably the only one for miles, now there will be timber at jewsons, travis, build base etc all in the local area.

 

[JBR]

With the internet now in full swing and the ease of finding businesses at the click of a button, most search results show either google reviews or yell.com reviews.

I was reading a disclosure that many of these reviews are false and posted by the sellers/manufacturers themselves. I think the one I read was specifically about Trip Advisor, but I'm sure that sort of thing happens with other review sites.

 

[EFLImpudence]

Yes, only take note of poor reviews.

 

[JBR]

That's exactly what I do: look first at the critical reviews. My first wife tells me I'm a negative, glass-half-empty sort of person, but I think you get a much more accurate view of the quality by doing it that way. Of course, I realise that there will always be a few 'bad experiences' so I discount the bad reviews if there are only one or two. If there are quite a few criticisms, though, I believe it points to a distinct problem.

 

[Dave54]

With smaller local businesses, you tend to get negative reviews that may well be from the competition, or are "personal" aimed at the owner rather than the business.
The internet is good/bad.

 

[gardener1214388]

Don't you think things are much better now, in general?
Years ago it was nigh on impossible to find a polite store man in the motor trade, these days they couldn't be more helpful.....likewise my local builders merchant (Jewson owned).
I guess it helps a lot if you are pleasant and grateful to them of course - which comes naturally to us Geordies
John

I had an off day recently and this was at the back of my mind; "Why should I as a customer who pays his wages take arrogance and rudeness from an employee in a recent visit to one of my Trade suppliers, I do agree with you that yes indeed times are better and most are OK, must be the recent medication I am on, makes one agitated at times. Overall, there are more polite people behind counters that ever before. The Timber story was absolutely true and believe it or not, that day I did not lose my temper, I never did that; always bottled it up; the polite and well mannered person I was and still am.

 

[gardener1214388]

You lost your temper, but that was 'many years ago'.

That approach might not get you to be called 'Sir' nowadays, and you may well end up with a record for knocking the man over with timber.

Agree with your main point about service, though.

No did not knock him over, he woke up to serve a customer.

 

[gardener1214388]

Troll.
Yada, yada, yada.
Blah blah blah.

Are any of your stories true?

Yep Siree, They are true and lots more, he is one story that is true, many years ago we engaged a local builder to do some work in our kitchen, we loaned him our Bridges 1.25 hp power electric drill and told him to use the extension handle bar, he knew better, working lyin down full length on the floor we left him to carry our drilling the large hole with a long 1.25 inch dia masonery bit......some minutes later there was a cry for help, he had not used the anti torque bar and had rolled himself over several times tying both his hands onto the drill trigger and could not stop the drill. We of course then pulled the plug and said......wait for it lad....."I told you so". Ah those were the days when we looked forwards to that frosty cold day climbing onto a roof; TDA trusses and no HSE. Real men those days and three Weetabix for breakfast. Another story, one of our chaps always took old skirting and architraves off leaving the nails sticking out we always told them to clench them over or remove them; not for him he knew best, so one day ripping out a shop, a loud scream was heard from the back room, rushing to him he lay on the floor with a 2,1/4 inch lost head stuck in his foot, off to hospital for him; funny he never did that again. The building trade sometimes is a comedy of errors.

 

[gardener1214388]

Just been in Travis, they had an elderly Jewish guy in there returning a 1metre piece of skirting as it was not needed, after trying to explain why they could not take it back into stock [the old boy assured them they would be able to sell it]they refunded him and threw the timber in the bin.Much to the amusement of everyone in the shop [customers and staff].

We once had a small Irishman, not a joke, but true, visit our premises for a bit of 3 x 2 timber, so politely I asked him what length, he said 3 x 2, "But Sir" I said "what is the other dimension" he looked at me in a rather agitated manner, I stepped back just in case and he said loudly, "I want some 3 x 2". So I pulled out a piece of paper and drew; not to scale of course; didn't want to blind him with science or cause an international incident; IRA I thought and slowly proceeded to show him that a piece of 3 x 2 timber needs to have another "Dimension". Finally we sorted it out and of he went; Thank God.

 

[gardener1214388]

Troll.
Yada, yada, yada.
Blah blah blah.

Are any of your stories true?

Bit harsh isn't it noseall!! ... I remember many moons ago going into a electrical wholesale depot with a mate who used to fit alarms and my mate said the guy behind the counter was a right miserable/moaning thought he knew everything asshole... anyway we went in and there was a couple of guys in front of us and the guy at the front was asking for something but did not know what it was called but he was describing it to the asshole .... the asshole tried to ridicule him in front of all the waiting customers and the guy waiting to be served just grabbed his lapels ,pulled his over the counter and give him a few short digs... but harsh I thought be all the guys in the que said he had it coming to him... weeks after he was a most helpful delightful chap[/QUOTE
I said to my wife recently, I think I will take another approach when visiting one's trade counter; something like this, "I say good man how are you, what a great day for shooting peasants and how is your wife, budgie and hamster, I have today visited your excellent store to purchase one rubber cold water washer; would you kindly show me your complete selection of rubber washers". That should do the trick keeping a straight face.

 

[gardener1214388]

In Jewsons years ago - the last time I used them.

Wanted 6 feet of 4x2, they only had longer pieces, fair enough, bought 10 feet (3m).
Asked if it could be cut at 6 feet so that I could get it in the car.

Resulted in being directed to an area where there was a hand saw.

Many years ago one of our customers wanted a 20ft one piece timber flag pole, it took a few weeks for our importer to ship it into the UK and deliver it to us where we tapered it down to size, the customer arrived on Saturday morning and was pleased to see his flagpole, he then asked us for a saw, "What for" we said, "To cut it into half". What can one say about some folk.