City Electrical Factors

[rocker]

Just had a new customer of mine of the phone...... I went to see him on Saturday to price up a board change and he proudly showed me the '17th edition' board he got for less than 60 quid from City. Somebody he knew had advised him to get a 17th board which I was quite impressed by.

Imagine my suprise when he showed me a Proteus 8 way board with NO split and NO DP isolation, just an RCD. This board also had removable top and bottom pieces to 'stack' into other similar boards.
Basically I told him that I wouldn't be able to fit the board, that what they have sold him is not what is known as a '17th' board, and to return it and use my own supplied board. He was happy with this.

So he rings me up this morning saying he's in City, they are saying it is what he asked for and can someone from Proteus ring me up (?). I say that's OK but I don't know what it will accomplish, is there anybody there in the shop I can speak to? On comes on a sales assistant who tells me that Proteus say this complies with regs because it has 30mA protection..... after explaining that RCD protection isn't the beginning and end of regulations, I proceed to tell him that regardless of regulations and whether this board would scrape through, this is not what is universally known as a 17th edition board and that whoever sold this board to the customer knows damn well that it isn't! He said that he sold the board, and that he's not an electrician and didn't know. A small, arkward pause before I suggest that this may be the problem. Fair do's, I tell him what needs to happen is the customer needs a full refund and as City can't even get close to my prices on real 17th boards, this refund needs to be in cash - he hastily agrees.

Problem solved, for now, but I really think either electrical products such as these should be restricted from public sale or, maybe even better, people working in electrical wholesalers should have to go on a short course to familiarise them with the products and some key regulations.

AND my motor's on an MOT today and there's no way it's getting through first time, even if my brother's the mechanic

RANT OVER

 

[andyb]

City are terrible for this, they just want to make a sale.

I had a customer a couple of years ago who wanted a 60 amp 3 phase supply run to a shop. He asked for a breakdown of my quote and said that he would supply the armoured cable because City were a lot cheaper than my price.
When I looked into this he had asked for 60 amp armoured and was quoted for 10mm, this was an 80m run buried in the ground.

Good luck with your mot

 

[SirKit Breaker]

Just remember that CEF and most other desk monkeys are just that MONKEYS. I recently had to second fix an intruder alarm which was supplied as a kit from CEF. Monkey gave him all the bits, bell box, PIR's, door contacts, control panel, remote panel etc etc and also the cable.

Mate installed it all on my advice told him to run cables from detectors etc back to control panel, so we end up with a handful of cables back at the panel along with the mains supply cable. He calls me to second fix after all plastering etc done and i find anus from CEF has supplied him 4 core cable for his alarm. NICE

We did get it sorted but no thanks to prat on desk at CEF.

Good luck with MOT also. Its my turn on wednesday.

 

[Phil]

city, i have a name for them that rhymes with city. i got ripped off up in peterlee when we were doing a pub re-wire. 12 and a half quid for a box of 100 penny washers. on a bank holiday so i had no option. i wont use them i don`t mind paying a bit more but a tenner on top of a £2.50 bit is ott

 

[Mark_Burgess]

They wanted to charge me £156 for 4 x 36w recessed modular with EM pack, without diffuser and tubes, so I drove 8 miles in principle to Edmundson for £140 with diffuser tubes and 2 x EM Bulkheads!!

 

[ghost]

Makes me wonder who does actually use citys, as I have never used them and none of the companies I have worked for have used them.

 

[Mark_Burgess]

I am re-wiring offices and and 75metres of factory, CEF is 50 foot away, I prefer to drive 8 miles out of my way to not use them!

 

[ghost]

lol!!!!!!!!!!

 

[cbw]

Thats just strange, I am the complete reverse!!!!!!

Edmundsons are rude, arrogant rip of merchants and CEF are friendly and almost competetive!!!

Must vary from town to town!

 

[Phil]

all depends on the counter staff. they have different prices for everyone who goes in. so if you have a decent guy behind the counter it make a massive difference.

 

[DurhamSparky]

i used city once and it was GAY!!! i stick to bemco as the lads are great and im slowely starting to build up a good rapport with them... also noticed my invoices are slowly reducing as more discount is applied...!

 

[Mark_Burgess]

Problem with the CEF by me is the teenage counter lad, if you don't have an account like myself he has to keep going out back to get a price. I think his brains are up his back side, as I always get a blank look when asking for anything in the past.

 

[mnmwill]

Only used CEF once and found them really pricey, i'll stick with Total, my local wholesalers, helpful, friendly and pretty good on price (tho they cant match bnq for boards at the mo!!)

 

[UNG]

I only use CEF as a last resort

From past experience
If you are an account customer is it damn near impossible to get a credit note if you are overcharged and nearly every invoice has an error on it in their favour

If you pay cash the price of an item can vary on a day to day basis

There are lots of other things but a forum like this isn't the place to publish them

 

[mogga]

I got my Megger MFT 1553onsite from CEF at same price as ppl had online £630=vat guy made an arse and provided me with a nice shiney 1553 no software I asked where it was and got a blank look then after a wee trip to the ofice he said "you ordered the 1553 not the software" I told him it was a package "Onsite" and as they had taken the oreder I would like the item ordered as I didnt have enough time to get it Software was obtained from another branch
Being a wee boy at heart I went to the car opened the box only to find NOLEADS went back in and showed that no leads were there he phoned around and got me leads at a nearby branch( all beit the opposite way from my house ) as compen for me going to get the leads he gave me 3 pks of batteries (3x8 sets)
I Would never use them again unless I was realy stuck or they had one of their realy special tool deals

 

[rocker]

Only used CEF once and found them really pricey, i'll stick with Total, my local wholesalers, helpful, friendly and pretty good on price (tho they cant match bnq for boards at the mo!!)

You must be in Wales then. Total are my guys, they are definitely the best around and we're lucky to have them.

 

[mnmwill]

You must be in Wales then. Total are my guys, they are definitely the best around and we're lucky to have them.

Yeh, Llantrisant m8, I use the Bridgend branch and cant fault em!

 

[mayfair]

You want to try them here in Spain you need two days to wait then they ask you to go behind counter and help yourself LOL

 

[Sintra]

Our local branch of CEF are spot on, brilliant clued up staff and service personally can't knock them for service.

 

[Adam W]

city, i have a name for them that rhymes with city.

I call them that as well.
I don't like using them even if I'm not paying. Their trade counter always seems like a club which I'm not a member of, they've got the div kid on the counter serving all the out-of-towners who prop up the counter as if it were a bar, playing 'who can fart the loudest' while all the other staff are out the back presumably serving tea and biscuits to the VIP customers.

I prefer to use Edmundsons, or Electric Center.

 

[jeremy]

Mark B, I recognise the nipper you're referring to in your post and where I've always found him to want to be helpful I think it's the bird in the office( manager?) who dictates what's what. Sintra, if your local is in Duncrue cres, came across them last week, very helpful , friendly, charged me for 20 lock rings instead of 10 but rectified straight away. CEF in Fulham, 2 of the guys treat me like a regular, recognise me etc(prob from crimewatch!!) others seem to go out of their way to charge me extra, what's that about?

 

[Sintra]

Ravenhill Road.

 

[Sparky Ninja]

Im having to use cities at the moment as my employer doesn't have an account with the other 5 wholesalers outside myfront door

I went in this afternoon in need of a lead light, or Goliath type 2D fitting for use in the loft. The lad (and I mean, young lad) just shook his head saying they've never sold anything like that. Unbeleavable.

There a pile of goliaths at my electric centre.

 

[Spudnik]

You want to try them here in Spain you need two days to wait then they ask you to go behind counter and help yourself LOL

They are in Spain too????????????????

Cripes

 

[andyb]

others seem to go out of their way to charge me extra, what's that about?

Check
Every
Figure

 

[ian]

I think they are a waste of time, they are expensive and never seem to have what I want. I nipped in today for 100m of 2.5mm and could only supply it in 50 meter drums (and we argued about the cost) and 12 pendants and they only had 2. I have a local supplier round here which is the dogs -------s.

 

[Adam W]

Yeah that's another thing - Shitty's in Bournemouth are on a main road so all the out-of-towners can find them and they seem to do fairly well, but in Poole they're tucked away on an industrial estate so nobody bothers going there, as I won't again.
I went in there once for a pad of PAT certificates, some PAT labels (which every wholesaler everywhere has on a rack), a 12v lighting transformer and some fuses; out of that lot all they had was the transformer.
Reminds me of that Monty Python cheese shop sketch.

 

[BluSparx]

I use City in my area, the staff always friendly however I get at least 60% discount on all prices - only due to opening a trade credit account (reluctantly) however due to the account guy needing figures I said the only way I would open the account would be if I was guaranteed a good rate. Before I call I check the prices online and then ring and if the price aint 60% less than the web price I push for it to be and have always got this.

Anybody know of any other trade suppliers in the Teesside area?

 

[robsparky1975]

they are not there to do cable calcs,they just sell what people ask for ,so i agree that it should only be tradesman in the shop to begin with,people just think a 10mm swa will be fine be it 10mtrs or 1000 mtrs,they dont understand why or what we do,other countries dont allow joe public to buy trade equiptment,but very difficult when B&q sell cu for £80,they think we are ripping them off.

 

[mayfair]

0ver 100 of them m8

 

[Sintra]

They are in Spain too????????????????

Cripes

I have used a branch in Dubai and also Italy.

 

[UNG]

It's interesting that some things never change and that CEF are as good as they ever were