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I recentley asked for a price for a underground gate motor from CEF and was told the price and £27 shipping. As I always get the minumum of 3 quotes for purches'es I had a quote from ERD 5% cheaper & £5.80 shipping.

Now the motor company will ship at the same cost to whoever buys as they have contacts with carriers.

So dearer for the item and excessive mark-up on shipping???
 
I remember going into a branch of Cef once with a request for a Merlin gerin 3 phase mcb.
"3 phase ?" Repeated the guy behind counter.
"yes" I said " you know, triple pole"
"triple pole ?"
After a behind counter discussion with another mystified drone, a third member of staff finally twigged what I wanted. And no they didn't have any.

I try to go in as little as possible after that.
 
My best CEF encounter was when I had an account with my local branch, I bought a hank of 6mm earth sleeving, fine. At the end of the month I got my statement and the price for said sleeving was £38 after discount but no vat. A visit to the branch to find out why only to told that was the price!. Now at that time a coil of 6mm 6491X earth cable was about £28. I argued unsucessfully with the counter staff and left with a message for the manager to contact me. After 6 months of tooing and frowing they finally agreed they had put the wrong code in and charged me for 10mm earth wire & not sleeving
 
And there was me thinking advertising like that was discouraged on here. But saying tbat paul church....thank you - you have just confirmed why i no longer trade with cef.

Yes Mark, this is usually considered SPAM and the post and author deleted however reading some of the replies, i'm not sure this thread could be considered an advertisement:38::biggrin:
 
That was also my line of thinking so I've left it standing in its entirety for now. As for the replies, they seem genuine and I think Paul Church opened the door with some bold claims.
 
In greek mythology Proteus was a god of the sea - which is where all the products should be ----ed :)

There's also Proteus syndrome is highly variable, and is named after the Greek sea-god Proteus, who could change his shape. That's about right for the moving bus bars and shape shifting fittings inside the board.
 
I personally think Proteus 3 phase boards should be banned, absolute trash and the amount of different kit you need to install one is laughable, lugs as well required on some isolator kits and IMO it looks dangerous as well, looks crap, installs crap and is a lot of graft to get on the wall, total pants IMO, but IMO city elec in Glos is pretty okay to buy from, agreed with some comments Ive seen about the invoicing side though, today for example I was charged a tenner plus vat for some wagos, when I asked how much they were when I picked them up a week or two ago I was told £8 something. Also agree about the spamming, not fair on the sponsors here, ban him !!!! haha
 
I've never been one to jump on the band waggon but I'll never forget needing 60 Contactum RCBO's, I spoke to Contactum directly as I was passing their head office everyday but they said I had to buy them through a wholesaler, so I asked CEF for a quote, £54+VAT per RCBO!! Even the head of sales at Contactum said she was shocked, luckily TLC had them all in stock and delivered them to me free of charge at a cost of £17.99+VAT per RCBO, that was a total saving of £2160.60, I now only use CEF if I really have.

p.s. I used to find the Proteus dual RCD domestic consumer unit OK.
 
I just don't use them full stop as the think of a number prices but if I need a Proteus mcb I just have to bite it
 
What we have to think about is that YESSS Electrical and the staff throughout the company are all ex CEF staff so are they going to change their working mentality?????? Also, YESSS have been paying most of these employees for the last 18months before any trade counter was opened so who is going to cover the cost of this huge bill????? I would be a little cautious when being bombarded with what would seem to be an great "introductory" low price. . . . . .will it last. There is a reason i haven't used CEF in so long.
 
good points - although the "family" behind YESSSare mega rich so can afford it - kind of wonder what the calibre of the CEFchaps left behind is as well…
 
I know this is a old thread, but we have been using YESSS for a few months now, they are all we use now, price, service, invoicing all 100%. They also do branded products, and seem to be able to get almost anything. After having my reservations, what with the CEF connection, they are coming up trumps. Try them, you will not be dissapointed. Seems to me its the kick up the bum the wholesale market needed.
 
probably like evrything else as it just likely depends on who is working at your local branch - i'm sure CEF still have some good people somewhere (never met one though!)
 
I know this is a old thread, but we have been using YESSS for a few months now, they are all we use now, price, service, invoicing all 100%. They also do branded products, and seem to be able to get almost anything. After having my reservations, what with the CEF connection, they are coming up trumps. Try them, you will not be dissapointed. Seems to me its the kick up the bum the wholesale market needed.

How long you been working for them LOL
 
Gentlemen,
Thank you all for your input, let me clear up for you that Yesss electrical is absoultely nothing to do with City Electrical Facxtors. Tom Mackie's son and two grand children are the driving force behind Yesss. City Electrical has been, and always will be owned by the Mackie family, Thomas H Mackie now heads the company and under him we have two managing directors, and seven general (regional) managers.
CEF always has, and will continue to offer it's existing customers, and any new customers the best possible service we can give, at a fair price. We never claim to be the cheapest wholesaler, this is something we step away from. Let other suppliers butcher the market place, de-value the product and publish rock bottom prices to not only you, but your customers also. Could you imagine the uproar if CEF posted priced catalougues through your customers doors, thus eliminating your opportunity to make money on materials? It doesn't bare thinking about.
Agreed, you may pay a few percent more to use City Electrical Factors Ltd in some cases, but let me give you a few reasons why.
24HR 7 days a week Delivery, a 400 branch network that can be used by all account users, access to £200k of stocks at most branches, deliveries within 20minutes in managers cars if the situation calls, Free of charge lighting design, free of charge heating design, free of charge fire alarm design, Free Tea and coffee, technical advice from staff with over 50years experience between them in branches. Trade shows and breakfast mornings. 30 days credit, settlement discount, incentive reward schemes..... I could go on all day.
The bottom line is this, we offer a service and we employ quality people. People deal with people.
If for any reason you feel you have been over charged and you don't hold an account, it's because we try to protect the trade, YOUR WELL BEING. Feel free to go and speak with your local account manager or pop into your local branch, i guarantee you won't be dissapointed.
Good luck in your new venture.
Paul Church

All well and good Paul, but as someone who has experience of just about every wholesaler in the land and several across Europe I have to say that CEF are not a patch on what they were 20 years ago, when you employed knowledgeable people who had respect for customers, not a bunch of spotty gob-****es (not all staff I would add). The CEF I knew as an apprentice stopped existing when Mackie Senior went to the states to start up over there and left the Sons in charge, that was when we started seeing toasters, gardens lights and all that tom foolery.

I have been into CEF branches in the sticks and found a member of staff who did not know what 25mm Galv conduit was because he had never sold any!!

I agree that Newey and Eyre and WF are not what they used to be, the only wholesaler I regularly specify or use myself is Edmundson's, I do this because of customer service and i know if they don't have it they will get it, and in an emergency they will put stuff on bikes, like contactors and other small stuff.

I feel it is a shame to see the tribulations of the Mackie family, I met the old man once when I was an apprentice when he visited the Cricklewood Branch (The one on Cricklewood Broadway), seemed like a decent chap to me, but more importantly I feel it is a shame to see a once decent wholesaler turned into a poor man's B&Q...save for the bathroom fittings of course. I sincerely hope that CEF gets back to basics, back to it's roots and returns to being a true wholesaler, dump some of this home brand tat, Proteus really is rubbish (Although all the wholesalers can have this leveled at them for their home brand tat).

Lets get back to proper wholesalers who do not deal with Joe public, employ professionals behind trade counters (I recall many retired/former sparks working for all of them when I was an apprentice) and move away from the wide boy reps who talk rubbish, promise the Earth and deliver asteroids....and normally the wrong bloody ones!!
 
Got to agree here although ive got a cracking CEF branch small local good set of lads that go the extra mile but as soon as i step in say another branch its clear they are not all the same had some right idiots serve me ... poor manners looking like they're hung over from the night before and you can tell they strong point at school was been absent.

My local rep dropped me off 2k of gear other week and chiiped in helping me getting a cable in for a few hours ... he won't take anything in return and just asked for good loyalty now thats the extra mile in my opinion.

Think all wholesaler are the same ... hit or miss but the smaller branches tend to have a better team and get to know the locals.... the big city branches seem to trade with too many people to establish a good customer relationship.
 
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Got to agree here although ive got a cracking CEF branch small local good set of lads that go the extra mile but as soon as i step in say another branch its clear they are not all the same had some right idiots serve me ... poor manners looking like they're hung over from the night before and you can tell they strong point at school was been absent.

My local rep dropped me off 2k of gear other week and chiiped in helping me getting a cable in for a few hours ... he won't take anything in return and just asked for good loyalty now thats the extra mile in my opinion.

Think all wholesaler are the same ... hit or miss but the smaller branches tend to have a better team and get to know the locals.... the big city branches seem to trade with too many people to establish a good customer relationship.

Up to a point I would agree that the larger branches of all wholesalers have this problem, but the good staff do make a point of getting to know people, even if it is limited due to time and scale, but this is a problem will all areas of business to a point, not just the wholesalers.
 
Close but not far off it all started with the grandfather Thomas Mackie and his two grandsons the grand father who is no longer with us had the two sons manage some branches in UK and Canada and etc but the but the grand sons had other ideas of spending money and messing around so the grandfather told em off but they did not listen so they got fired decided to run there own buissness yess and that's the story
 

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