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J

Jaycee

Gents

I am involved in the electrical wholesale industry, our particular branch got involved with the whole fit deadline rush, supplying our own stocks and also sourcing from other suppliers.

Can I ask how you put up with the following issues?

1. Credit limits slashed overnight with no warning
2. Cash or card payments up front before any supply is even thought about
3. Not knowing if any kit let alone all of it is going to turn up at all
4. Absolutely no service from sales staff.....send us a email and we may get back to you sometime next week!!!!!

I ask this because I am completely shocked that a service industry can function like this, if we did this we would be out of business very quickly!
 
and it got passed down to customers too,like paying over £8k before a ball was kicked.Thats the 1st rule out of the window "never pay up front " infact i think it broke MCS rules from what i can gather.
 
My installer wouldnt even order without full material payment.Thanks to the deadline we rushed everything and i feel have been lucky to get away with it .I have no doubt that most installers are great but people havnt been given time to find them and the choice of system too was rushed.I initially had Caymax panels then had to change to ET both which i later found out are decent panels so in the end well pleased.But i can imagine that this past 6 weeks has done untold damage to the industries image which in the end people like yourselves are effected by and not us the public.
 
accounts all stopped! cash up front! kits went up! never deliverd on time ! then major bits missing! had to manufacture parts to get kit on roofs! men waiting on site (promised deliveries) didnt turn up!! when they did 3 broken panels ! 1 day job turned into 3 day job plus day still to go back and ADJUST due to damaged panels (job 2hr drive away) oh yeh 1 x canceld kit cause i new it would turn up wih parts missing so i would of lost money!! NOW CANT GET MONEY BACK!!!!!!!!! so in the madness when i should of made seious money!!! i broke EVEN but prob took 5 yrs offff my life !!!funny thing is they are all just starting to contact me again:) NOOOO CHANCE!!!
 
Gents

I am involved in the electrical wholesale industry, our particular branch got involved with the whole fit deadline rush, supplying our own stocks and also sourcing from other suppliers.

Can I ask how you put up with the following issues?

1. Credit limits slashed overnight with no warning
2. Cash or card payments up front before any supply is even thought about
3. Not knowing if any kit let alone all of it is going to turn up at all
4. Absolutely no service from sales staff.....send us a email and we may get back to you sometime next week!!!!!

We always hold a decent fund for cash flow so we were able to fund the materials ourselves.
We had a good relationship with our wholesalers and a reputation for paying within a couple of days of delivery and not shouting when mistakes were made.
Didn't have the last problem - we did have to be a bit more patient than normal but most wholesalers we dealt with still got back to us within 24 hrs

None of this was passed onto the customers, they all had deposits registered, we only took 3 out of 19 interim payments that we could have and that was only because we paid for everything in the first fortnight which left us bit tight.

But we have been doing this since Aug 2010 and had a full book of customers - I guess it might be different for installers who have just got their MCS.
 
as SRE said new mcs like us can only purchase kits!! till u buid up bit of stock ie the bits u coudnt get brackets/mid/end clamps rails! lol cant move in garage now for brackets/bits of rails/4mm double ins/ fixings! should just way them in to scrap man ! then atleast when summer comes i wont have to shift them to get bke out:) we were at MERCY of suppliers who took the pee!!
 
Cashflow was a nightmare but we coped. Credit limit was cut from £7500 to £2500. Took deposit and stage payments and made it through. Has some really good customers that understood the pressure, had a few bad ones that didn't.

I use SEGEN and have to say was really happy with them, I couldn't get through to them on the phone a lot of the time but that Portal is dam handy. Any problems with my orders on their side I always got a phone call.

The suppliers were caught with their pants down as were we.
 
We sure were caught on the hop!

We now have plenty of stock, with over 1 million pounds worth of enquirys in the last few days, there still is a future in solar
 
You may find that the enquires were to get an idea on prices post 12th December. I cant imagine anyone ordering...well not until the government pull there finger out !!

My experience with our suppliers is mixed, Senate/Rexel were crap, but they always have been, prices changing from one order to the next. Segen have been great WYSWIG. If anyone can recommend anyone on par with them I'll be interested as we will not be using the for-mentioned for PV going forward.
 
Finchy: I am a big believer in Alternergy, they are very competitive in pricing and will give you design/tech support for free. If they don't know an answer, they can usually point you in the right direction as well. During the crunch they always got me my kit and stock without any problems!
 
It is worth noting that of the total capacity installed since april 2010 50% was since the announcement was made, just 6 weeks.
That level of upscale is an extraordinary achievement which few industries could achieve and I think we all deserve a pat on the back
 

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