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I am interested in everyones thoughts about SIGN SUPPLIERS In which order do you feel is MORE important to you as a customer? PRICE? QUALITY? SERVICE? Mine would be...3,2,1 How bout you?
Thanks
-------------------- PKing is Pat King The Professor of SIGNOLOGY Posts: 3113 | From: Pompano Beach, FL. USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Service is definately #1 for 2 reasons. I don't have a lot of room so I keep basic supplies but order a lot of stuff when I need it. I have had suppliers tell me it is on stock when it isn't, tell me it will be shipped that day and it wasn't. These suppliers aren't on my call list anymore. It is very important for me to speak to a human being, especially one that speaks english as a first language. Phone conversations are harder to understand than speaking with a person in person. I find calling any customer service number and attempting to talk to someone who speaks broken english or has such a thick foreign accent that they are impossible to understand very UNcustomer-servicy. (If anyone takes offense or has a problem with this, I will give you the # to call about my student loan...you'll understand after 1 phone call)
Quality is important, as I don't want damaged stuff showing up at my shop, but I usually know what brand I want and go to the supplier that carries it.
Price is the least important, but is a consideration. I don't mind spending a few $ more for something if the service is there, nor would I want to save a couple $ if it meant I was talking to a machine or risking long delivery times and damaged murchandise.
-------------------- Chris Welker Wildfire Signs Indiana, Pa Posts: 4254 | From: Indiana, PA | Registered: Mar 2001
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Hey Pat... great post! Has any dealt with Gemini Letters for a supplier? Back "in the day" when I was making stuff that required thier products I was always amazed with the standard of service. Follow up phone calls to make sure I was happy, free how to videos and mostly, knowledgable sales folks that didn' make me jump through hoops to buy THIER STUFF! If I only spent $300 a year with them I still felt like they cared and were eager to help me.
I wish that was true for the rest of the bums in the New England area, thankfully I no longer live or die by the vinyl and foil suppliers! Hey how about M.D.O. ?? remember Simpson Signal 7 ply void free???? ARRGGGGHHHH don't get me started LOL
-------------------- "No excuses!.... No regrets!..."
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Relax "Geet" your suppliers are just amatures...we have the "professional" B.S. artists here.
321 would be my choice too and this is all I've ever heard from anyone...so my question is why do all suppliers have it in their heads the most important thing they can do is offer us the cheapest crap they can lay their hands on and then force it on us because they have replaced the good stuff with the crap?
Inquiring minds want to know.
-------------------- "Werks fer me...it'll werk fer you"
Service is something I have to deal with, but quality gets passed on to my customer . IMHO that is part of the "service" to "MY CUSTOMER" which can not fall behind anything.
Stephen mentioned Gemini, and I would like to mention N. Glantz & Sons. These are 2 of my favorite suppliers, where I get the best quality, the best service, and a reasonable price. Sure is nice when you can have all 3.
[ March 31, 2003, 09:08 AM: Message edited by: Don Hulsey ]
-------------------- Don Hulsey Strokes by DON signs Utica, KY 270-275-9552 sbdsigns@aol.com
I've always been crazy... but it's kept me from going insane. Posts: 2277 | From: Utica, KY U.S.A. | Registered: Jan 1999
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Geet, who do you deal with downeast? I get good service from Nepco and stick with them for about everything; what they don't carry I generally get from Garston (they tend to provide free headaches with most orders). We must be a rare bunch cause I see other shops that will chase their tails all day to save 10% on an order... 'corse, they also stay "competitive" with 1970's pricing. Whatever...
-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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Service and price are directly controlled by the suppliers, they can't do much about product quality. Given that, I will choose service over price, unless the price difference is absolutely rediculous.
When it comes to quality, I can control that. If a supplier doesnt carry a product brand I want or they switch to something else, I find another supplier that *does* carry it.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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i side with the rest-- service, quality and price. i suspect that -- as a group -- we're "service oriented" and so that's what we'll want from our suppliers. i'm guessing that there are lots of "high volume" shops that are more price-driven, and so maybe that's what drives our suppliers.
i'd LOVE to hear from the suppliers side of things.
-------------------- :: Scooter Marriner :: :: Coyote Signs :: :: Oakland, CA :: :: still a beginner :: :: Posts: 1356 | From: Oakland (and San Francisco) | Registered: Mar 2001
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If it doesn't come UPS or Freight my nearest delivery point is 60 miles away at another sign shop. If I need it faster than that I have a 140 mile drive to my nearest suplier. For me quality of my materials is a major priority.
I'm a one man shop and do all of my work after my day job gets through with me. I don't have time to deal with supply errors or bad materials. If I have to make the long run it generaly means a vacation day being spent on something other than a trip to disney land with my kids.
As far as service, if I make a trip after being told that they have it in stock and ready and they OOOPs it. They generaly get an earful of rather colorful and descriptive variations on a familier theme. Not mention a something in writing to the owners and managers of the establishments. OOOPs it twice and they're flushed.
If I lived in a metro area or at least a real city I might have a different view on this subject.
posted
Here is my list of previous suppliers Cam, Plastic Supply- Maine and N.H. (they went through so many managers, the past 18 years I actually would go in, select my items, write my own bill and then pay them.)
New England Sign Supply - service???
Hart Supply (my favorite driver slipped in the shower and died! after that it all went down hill)
Garston(fist question every time "do you have an account with us?" followed by "we don't stock 30" punched gerber we'll have to drop ship it" the insuing screw up would cost about 3 more days!
Riech -nice fitches!
Hyatts -good effort but computer inventory glitches would **** me off every other order, J.D. Illes a good friend and awsome service related guy if paired with a well oiled machine they would kill.
At one time we had the most awsome supplier, a fully loaded delivery truck inventoried with thousands of brushes, paints so on... a rolling supply warehouse that came twice a week and made special runs always smiling, and a store in the city that was huge!.... they shot themselves in the foot after getting a distributorship for Gerber, they decided to open a sign shop of their own in the same damn building! .... 10 months later I was at the auction with my jaw on the floor.
Zimmerman , Sepp Leaf , and probably a dozen more. As times change the supplies changed the computer made it easier to have an excuse and on demand inventory made "suppliers" into marketing and money management offices. I guess we just have to conform, complain, and explain to our customers. Like I said before.... I'm glad I don't live or die by them guys no more !
-------------------- "No excuses!.... No regrets!..."
posted
An awful lot of my walk-in prospects seem to prioritize by 132. Price is preeminent, they want it fast. and if it looks crummy......it's OK. I refer them down the street to one of my competitors whos shares the same philisophy.
An attorney came in, about 2 months back, wanting a price on a sandblast sign to be mounted on her brick wall and one on her brick monument sign, that was too much so I gave her a quote on an aluminum one. I never heard from her again. About two weeks later I drove by her office and noticed that two MDO signs with "colonial style" shapes and University Roman type....way too small for the sign shape...were installed. About a week later and one is curling off the wall. It stays that way for about two weeks. In the mean time the other sign is curling off too. Then it fell off and stayed off for a couple of weeks.
Now both signs are remounted and curling off again.
Guess I could stop by, offer to fix them so they won't fall off anymore.
Definitely 231 for me.
[ April 01, 2003, 02:55 PM: Message edited by: Wayne Webb ]
-------------------- Wayne Webb Webb Signworks Chipley, FL 850.638.9329 wayne@webbsignworks.com Posts: 7404 | From: Chipley,Florida,United States | Registered: Oct 1999
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I guess its just me. I can`t call Nepco without getting a bunch of crap from them. All I want is to place an order and get it shipped. Called today to find out if a truck was coming to the Cape tomorrow.The kid wouldn`t tell me what day the truck was. I hung up and ordered from Hart. I refuse to buy from New England or Freeman. I bought expensive equipment from both of them. Just my opinion but they both SUCK! For us it is just Hart or mail order.Too bad,some company that wants to service this area could do well.
-------------------- Bob & Marcia Peach Peach Signs Inc Sandwich, MA rpeach9828@aol.com Posts: 1020 | From: Sandwich, MA | Registered: Jan 2002
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service???![[Smile]](smile.gif)
, Sepp Leaf ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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