www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Someone-else,, you've hit the nail on the head there about Screwfix trade centres. Joe Public goes in then holds everyone up by asking to see and touch the product they are buying. One time I went there was this chap buying a light fitting. Before committing himself to paying for it, he wanted to "Have a look" at it, to make sure it was suitable for his needs. FFS there's a bloody picture in the catalogue,, but no, joe wants to measure the light fitting and feel how heavy it is. The staff are only too happy to oblige him and the queue is building up.

Local screwfix is getting a Trade plus counter for electrifix and plumbfix members.....
suits me as frequently I'm in to pick up sockets etc and I end spending an age behind either joe public or some trader's wife who is on the phone to "her man" asking what it is he wanted.

Though b&q tradepoint are signing up the public locally....why......toolstation have just opened across the road from them as well as johnstones and yessss electrical...

I find tradepoints "you pick" completely stupid....let me order online (like click and collect) and give me a time it will be ready from......I don't have time to wander around looking for stuff that frequently is nowhere near where it should be....

CEF once printed me an invoice for earth sleeving......3mm earth sleeving 100 metres......RRP £33....Trade discount ~92% Total £4 odd....who in their right mind would pay £33???

The moral of this post was to highlight the FACT that most merchants ''pretend'' to give you a discount when in truth they are not giving you any discount you can't get (or better) if you are prepared to go online and search.
Had my local merchant given me the 35% discount as my invoice claimed, then I would have kept 20% and passed on 15% to my customer. So had the discount been 'genuine', the customer would have made a saving.
As far as I am concerned, it is unreasonable for anyone to expect me to source for materials, then charge the customer the exact price I paid? It takes time and effort to ensure that the right materials are sourced.
The customer is allowed to get the materials if they prefer, but in the event where they bought the wrong materials/fittings, I will still charge for the extra time taken to replace the materials. This will likely cost the customer more. If I had bough the faulty product, then it would have been replaced at no extra cost to the customer.
There are also those customers who want you to take them to the shop so they can pay for the materials. I did that once and will never ever again take another customer to a shop to buy materials. If they are not happy with my quotes, then all they have to do is use another trades person, simples.