Discuss The truth about CEF and why is it so expensive. in the UK Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

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So after reading through some of the threads on here, I think its worth mentioning why you all pay so much at CEF.....I'm a former employee who left for a career in a completely different field (just so you know I'm not a disgruntled leaver).

So first of all Proteus and MCG as we know are CEF products, along with firesafe, tamlight and many more. The problem is as a branch we're told to push the living daylights out of these "in house products" because at the end of the year we all get a huge bonus based on the sales of in house products! A few years ago as a sales advisor I received £5700 bonus in June for inhouse sales.....as a van driver!!! So you can only imagine what we then got working inside.

When someone gives you a "discount" using the price which CEF paid for the item, the price actually has a hidden 5% mark up which only certain members of the CEF food chain know about.

"You want something ordering in? Yeah we can do that.....but you'll have to pay a carriage". You pay the carriage and the branch actually just orders in enough stock to fill a carriage paid order with the company.

Have you ever received a paid invoice from CEF but you haven't used them in a few months? Maybe it was something small like batteries or a light bulb? Branches need to have as many Live Trading Accounts (LTA's) as possible monthly so if a your branch is falling behind on those figures they'll usually trade something on the account to make you look active.

If you use another branch other than the one where the account is held ( a double booking) ring your branch first and get a price quite because as soon as you enter the second branch and as them to get your quote it'll be much higher as both branches must share the profits.
 
This is business I’m afraid. Making profit is what they are there for.

They make no secret that CEF have connections to proteus, tamlight et al

All wholesalers, even places like screwfix will price things at a discount, even thought the initial price was higher than it should have been.

Supermarkets are just as bad for it.
 
Ultimately every wholesalers is in business to make as much profit as possible

CEF has a terrible reputation for sky high pricing but as I rarely buy anything for CEF these days so I have no idea if this is still actually true

I no longer buy enough stuff in bulk to bother using big wholesalers to try to haggle for an extra 1 or 2% discount , my olf company that I worked for used WF but mainly because we could ring up and get stuff delivered to sit at the drop of a hat
 
Yesss seems to have the same method of business as CEF although I believe they are owned by someone who was associated with CEF in the past
 
Yesss seems to have the same method of business as CEF although I believe they are owned by someone who was associated with CEF in the past
Likewise Yesss has an equally bad reputation in my area as CEF

Over priced
 
right next I have the "Builders depot ) Bit ---- but handy
I have a screwfix and toolstation
I have a indi whole seller

All within 5 mins from me .


This covers most of my needs . I dont have the time to worry about saving 10p


But during my current work , I have been doing loads of buying via ebay . Ive saved way over £100 on less than £580 worth of stuff from shops .That cover my coffee and lunches for a week !
 
It absolutely breaks me to buy anything from CEF and only ever use them if I’m desperate and on the rush for something.

I used to continuously get calls from my local branch manager trying sell me gear. In the end I had to tell him that I’d ring them if I needed anything.
 
I’m in the unfortunate situation where I can only use CEF or YESSS…. But a lot of the time screwfix beats both of them for prices on basic stuff.
YESSS are doing fusebox CUs and Hikvision cameras now though.
 
But during my current work , I have been doing loads of buying via ebay . Ive saved way over £100 on less than £580 worth of stuff from shops .That cover my coffee and lunches for a week !

Online prices can be excellent - not only ebay bargains. If you have sufficient time to plan ahead, it can be well worth the effort of taking a bit of time to search.
 
But how long do you wait before you can say you have never had an issue, fake product longevity is an unknown
Exactly. It’s unknown.

It might last as long… it might fail within a week.
“Real” products are tested…. To destruction in some instances so that the manufacturer, seller and end user - us - are confident in its qualities.
 
It absolutely breaks me to buy anything from CEF and only ever use them if I’m desperate and on the rush for something.

I used to continuously get calls from my local branch manager trying sell me gear. In the end I had to tell him that I’d ring them if I needed anything.
I did the same thing except I used the phrase f&@k off you robbing barst&ds at least dick Turpin wore a mask 😁

NB…they’ve not called me since 🤷‍♂️
 
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This something relatively recent? I started with Superlamp Metallic, which became Newey and Eyre. Then tried CEF who gave much better discounts than Newey. Stayed mainly with them throughout the 80s and early 90s, before following one of their staff who set up as an independent, before being bought out by Wilts, now Rexel.
Only thing I've used CEF for in recent years is for their excellent plastic conduit box lids. Manager is the YTS kid from when I regularly dealt with them.
 
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