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Difficult customers just need more advice

Internet retailers – the scurge of the kitchen industry.

That’s what we are led to believe, if we listen to the major wholesalers, in particular, complaining about how even they are affected by the prolific number of cheap appliances available to retailers on the internet.

For retailers, fair enough. Margins are pressed and customers are savvy enough to do their homework and establish what a fair price is for their chosen appliance.

I became somewhat perplexed, recently, when through our kitchen and bedroom retail division, Katherine Cavendish Fitted Interiors Limited, we tried to deal with a well known trade supplier of appliances.

Fair enough, they wouldn’t open an account and we didn’t expect them to. However, a particular customer wanted a particular appliance, so we needed to source it from said wholesaler.

Would they take a cheque? No

Would they take a credit card? No

So, what did they want – cash? No, they don’t accept it !

They wanted a company debit card – we don’t have one.

We offered to electronically transfer £1000 as a bond, so that we could order up to that limit and replenish monthly – they couldn’t accept that either.

The “Sales Prevention Department”, sorry “Credit Control Department”, seemed to put every possible obstacle in the way of bringing money in, alienating us every step of the way.

This is, I stress, a MAJOR supplier, currently expressing regular concerns about their financial woes, both in the UK and the USA, continually “bleating on” about how their retailer business is affected by manufacturers flooding the internet.

I now have, I’m afraid, no sympathy whatsoever. Nor, I believe, should anybody else.

What did I do?
I bought off the internet, of course.

Peter Saunders
Director
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Rubicon Developments Limited
(www.rubicon-developments.co.uk) are a training and installation company, with a retail division, in kitchens and bedrooms (Katherine Cavendish Fitted Interiors Limited – www.katherinecavendish.co.uk)