Wholesaler prices lately.

[ipf]

45 in stock for next day delivery. Seems they also cater to those who prefer online wholesalers.

6 Way Triple Pole and Neutral Distribution Board with 125 Amp 4 Pole Incoming Isolator Solid Door

4 Pole 125A incomer included

www.cef.co.uk

Has that taken over from their own Proteus cr*p?
Looks just as flimsy.

 

[nicebutdim]

Has that taken over from their own Proteus cr*p?
Looks just as flimsy.

Fitted a couple for site supplies. Not the worst, but certainly not the best.

They still sell Proteus.

 

[oscar21]

Has that taken over from their own Proteus cr*p?
Looks just as flimsy.

I think they still do proteus as well. We are kitting out a brand new industrial unit but it only had a 4 way 3ph board in it and two of the ways were taken up by the roller shutter door and an SPD so that only left 6 single phase ways for lights, heaters, sockets etc and it simply wasn't big enough.
After all the talk on here about wholesalers selling bread and butter stuff I thought a leading wholesaler situated right in the middle of one of the biggest industrial sites in europe might have had one of their own make board in stock but when I inquired they looked at me like I was stupid for thinking they would. It was "nah mate, we wouldn't have one of them, you will have to get it on line"

 

[nicebutdim]

I think they still do proteus as well. We are kitting out a brand new industrial unit but it only had a 4 way 3ph board in it and two of the ways were taken up by the roller shutter door and an SPD so that only left 6 single phase ways for lights, heaters, sockets etc and it simply wasn't big enough.
After all the talk on here about wholesalers selling bread and butter stuff I thought a leading wholesaler situated right in the middle of one of the biggest industrial sites in europe might have had one of their own make board in stock but when I inquired they looked at me like I was stupid for thinking they would. It was "nah mate, we wouldn't have one of them, you will have to get it on line"

I'll bet they'd have had an alternative - possibly Schneider IKQE.

While not a fan of CEF pricing, their website is decent and stock levels shown for each store are exactly what that store's staff see on their own system. Other than occasional inaccuracies, I find this to be generally very reliable - saves a wasted journey.

 

[oscar21]

I'll bet they'd have had an alternative - possibly Schneider IKQE.

While not a fan of CEF pricing, their website is decent and stock levels shown for each store are exactly what that store's staff see on their own system. Other than occasional inaccuracies, I find this to be generally very reliable - saves a wasted journey.

Alternative was no good though, the original board already had a main switch and several RCBO's in it which could have gone into the new board. If it meant a different make panel then I would have got the whole lot from somewhere else anyway.
Don't you need to be logged into the CEF web page to see the stock etc.

 

[nicebutdim]

Alternative was no good though, the original board already had a main switch and several RCBO's in it which could have gone into the new board. If it meant a different make panel then I would have got the whole lot from somewhere else anyway.
Don't you need to be logged into the CEF web page to see the stock etc.

One of those days when things don't go quite as well as they could.

I find the bulk of stock in CEF branches is very much tailored to the market served. My local branch stocks quite a bit of stuff that other nearby branches don't carry. Conversely, I've often found that items not stocked locally are always available elsewhere - sometimes this applies to an entire range of goods. I guess this is one knock on effect of fewer people buying from local wholesalers and instead seeking out savings online.

No need to log in to view CEF stock in branches. I can't remember the last time I logged in and just type in the nearest town name on individual product pages. Perhaps the website automatically shows local branch stock if logged in.

 

[pc1966]

Don't you need to be logged into the CEF web page to see the stock etc.

No.

But if you are logged in you can't sort by price!!!

 

[nicebutdim]

No.

But if you are logged in you can't sort by price!!!

That answers a pertinent question. I remember on some occasions being unable to sort by price, but other times it was no problem. Never understood why.

 

[123]

Don't use online much for materials, I find wholesalers better and generally cheaper!
My nearest wholesalers are over 20 miles away, so I'm dependant upon delivery. But they'll phone me on route and deliver it to where I want, rather than an address I specified a day or two ago. With my main wholesaler I can get same day delivery 5 days a week if ordered before 10AM and if I'm stuck and in a pickle they'll sort me out in the afternoon.

For the likes of T&E CEF have always been cheaper than Toolstation & Screwfix for me. Click, Wago's, Consumer units etc...all cheaper at wholesalers than I can see online. There are some things that will be cheaper online, but the biggest plus for me is when something goes faulty and needs replaced, they send me down the item, I go and replace it, and then I send back the faulty one for credit. No chance you get that with an online supplier.

 

[mattg4321]

I doubt you’ll beat toolstation for t&e at the moment. They’re 15-20% cheaper than all the wholesalers last I looked

 

[123]

I doubt you’ll beat toolstation for t&e at the moment. They’re 15-20% cheaper than all the wholesalers last I looked

I got some through the week from wholesalers and was cheaper than Toolstation. Not by much, about 60p a coil, but also another 2.5% off that again for settlement payment when I pay the bill.

 

[nicebutdim]

I doubt you’ll beat toolstation for t&e at the moment. They’re 15-20% cheaper than all the wholesalers last I looked

A few months back, Tradepoint was cheaper than Screwfix & Toolstation. It's like a competition to find who can sell T&E at the lowest profit and I'm content to see prices driven downwards again.

 

[Lister1987]

A few months back, Tradepoint was cheaper than Screwfix & Toolstation. It's like a competition to find who can sell T&E at the lowest profit and I'm content to see prices driven downwards again.

Someone needs to make an app there was diodeelectrical but it seems to have let the url lapse

 

[oscar21]

A few months back, Tradepoint was cheaper than Screwfix & Toolstation. It's like a competition to find who can sell T&E at the lowest profit and I'm content to see prices driven downwards again.

There is T&E and T&E though, our wholesalers cable is awful, all of it, you cant strip the SWA for love nor money and the T&E is jst as bad, its like stripping LSF using their stuff. The Prysmian that Screwfix sell is the best but the coils are naff, the cardboard ends keep falling off unless you keep it in the box with is another impossibility. Toolstations Doncaster cable is ok if they have any in stock.

 

[SJD]

There is T&E and T&E though, our wholesalers cable is awful, all of it, you cant strip the SWA for love nor money and the T&E is jst as bad, its like stripping LSF using their stuff. The Prysmian that Screwfix sell is the best but the coils are naff, the cardboard ends keep falling off unless you keep it in the box with is another impossibility. Toolstations Doncaster cable is ok if they have any in stock.

I agree about the naff Prysmian reels in cardboard that falls apart. So much so that I pay a bit more sometimes somewhere else to avoid buying the stuff.

 

[Lister1987]

I agree about the naff Prysmian reels in cardboard that falls apart. So much so that I pay a bit more sometimes somewhere else to avoid buying the stuff.

Take a leaf out the milkman of old; plastic reels that you return for credit and get reused.

 

[nicebutdim]

There is T&E and T&E though, our wholesalers cable is awful, all of it, you cant strip the SWA for love nor money and the T&E is jst as bad, its like stripping LSF using their stuff. The Prysmian that Screwfix sell is the best but the coils are naff, the cardboard ends keep falling off unless you keep it in the box with is another impossibility. Toolstations Doncaster cable is ok if they have any in stock.

It was Prysmian that was cheapest in Tradepoint, although I'm never in a great hurry to buy the stuff.

As you rightly point out some T&E can be a pain to strip and I've experienced this with Prysmian on a couple of occasions. Seemed as though the sheath was almost stuck to the insulation and no chalk was present between these layers.

I'd rate Doncaster above all others, but it's not widely available over here and I only occasionally buy it from Toolstation. Pitacs, which I think it a Toolstation brand (probably from one of the Turkish manufacturers), has never caused me any problems and nor have the likes of Pamukale or PX which many wholesalers stock here.

Come to think of it, Prysmian is the only brand of 6242Y that I've had problems stripping.

As for SWA, there is most certainly some awful stuff being sold, with bedding material that's tougher than the outer sheath.

 

[Simon47]

Move away from basic items, which DIY sheds buy in container loads, and wholesalers become your main option. 250A MCCB from Screwfix? 120mm Tri-rated cable from Toolstation? It's not simply a question of availability, they won't be attempting to assist you with anything that isn't in their catalogues.

In a previous job I'd use CEF a fair bit. Where the real wholesaler won for us was that I'd look at a job (networking) and (for example) see what trunking was already installed. If (as was normal) it wasn't something I recognised, usually the local staff could identify it from photos - and get the socket boxes in even for non-stock brands.

UK should be like certain parts of the world .where many items cannot be sold to members of the public as id has to be shown .mainly gas, water and electrical stuff.

And then you go down the slippery slope to restrictive trades. While that can have some positives, it has some negatives.
Take just yesterday. I went to our rental flat as the tenant reported that the boiler wasn't working and there was water dripping from it. It was immediately obvious that water was coming from the combustion chamber, which shouldn't happen in a non-condensing boiler ...
It did fire up for me a couple of times, but I noticed the pipes weren't getting very warm. Ah, so checked the TMV that's part of the circuit with the thermal store - and when I tried adjusting it to get the return temperature up, the boiler quickly got very hot and turned off. Then I realised that the very professional "engineers" that I have to use had refitted the TMV the wrong way round after removing it while on a wild goose chase diagnosing what should have been an easy fault to identify (scaled up heat exchanger causing kettling).
So thanks to employing "fully qualified" people to work on the boiler, it's failed again (after a while) because they took stuff apart they didn't need to, didn't reset it as it had been (had they done so, the system wouldn't have worked at all), and caused condensation that's probably taken out another control board. Going to be very hard keeping calm when I phone them tomorrow.

No because they didn't have the same pricelist for everyone. Trade places would have to sell at trade rates which would be the same as other trade places and retail outlets would have to sell at retail prices and wholesalers wouldn't be able to sell to the public, it was just a fairer way of doing things, you knew what price you would pay almost before you even walked in the door.

And it was illegal for the obvious feature of allowing the manufacturer to dictate prices and thus keep them up at the expense of the public. It's arguable that the other extreme is just as bad, especially when the big supermarkets drove* prices down so hard that suppliers (farmers) had to sell below cost, but retail price maintenance was very expensive for the public.
* Some have now realised that they need to support their supply chains and are less aggressive with their purchasing.

 

[nicebutdim]

In a previous job I'd use CEF a fair bit. Where the real wholesaler won for us was that I'd look at a job (networking) and (for example) see what trunking was already installed. If (as was normal) it wasn't something I recognised, usually the local staff could identify it from photos - and get the socket boxes in even for non-stock brands.

It would be great if manufacturers always placed their name in data trunking boxes. You'd think it would be a no-brainer, but invariably find yourself trying to get hold of something which can be shoehorned into place.

 

[oscar21]

I'm now in two minds about this buy everything on-line stuff. Its so frustrating as it should be brilliant but we are being let down again and again by shear incompetence. Should have had an order dropped off yesterday morning but it never turned up, no phone call, no text, no email, nothing. rings them up and its "oh yea sorry mate the courier didn't arrive to pick up the order, you will get it tomorrow."

Fast forward to this morning and the delivery guy turns up but only has two packages and not 3, rings them up again, "oh yea sorry mate there wasn't enough room on the van for everything." Then when we eventually opened the boxes on site a cooker switch was missing so had to go out and get one.

However on the other hand I had to go and purchase the missing bits from our wholesaler, it was 2 LED batten fittings, 2 Aico's, a cooker switch and 5 light switches. Not a massive order but on line I could have got everything for under £100, our wholesaler charged me £137, that's nearly 50% dearer than on-line.

If only the idiots that work in packing or delivery would get off facebook for two minutes whilst they picked my order everything would be hunky dorey. Why are they so blase about a customer that spends about £40k a year on bits.