Escaping from Prosource

[sdaniels7114]

I just spent the last week trying to talk a customer off the ledge because the tiles for his commercial kitchen that he took offline last Thursday just arrived today. This has been the 3rd time in a row that Prosource has done this to me and I'm about done with them.

To speed up the delivery process they were willing to let me pick up the tile from Dal, which is about two hundred yards from them. While I was there I tried to talk about dealing direct with them. I'm not a huge business, its not like I wrote a book about tiling or anything; but I did see a couple of trucks from rather smallish-looking building companies. My guess is that I probably buy more tile on average than them. I'm certain that I buy more flooring in general.

Anyway Dal was totally unwilling to even talk to me. Its like I had "property of Prosource" written on my forehead. This is not a guess on my part. They told me that they were afraid of geting calls from Prosource's national office over little old me.

Just how much do you need to spend in a year to deal direct with them and do I need to change the name of my business to shake off the Prosource stigma? This is less about getting a better price, even though I wouldn't turn it down, and more about getting a straight answer that I can give to my customers.

[jd77]

Originally Posted by sdaniels7114

This is less about getting a better price, even though I wouldn't turn it down, and more about getting a straight answer that I can give to my customers.

A straight answer -- from Dal Tile ?

[sdaniels7114]

It has to better to cut out an unnecessary middleman. Dal may or not be bad, but the other two orders I placed with Prosource that got snarled have been for wall to wall carpet and Vinal tile respectively.

[opiethetileman]

steve well i have an account with dal. I live in jax florida and i started the account in port saint lucie. check this out i get my pricing out of that region which mean i save almost 65% fromt he boys here what a deal. who can buy mega flex for a little over 20 a bag???

[John Bridge]

Steve, I think Dal is different everywhere you go. I've had an account there for years that I seldom use. Last year I happened to have two little jobs using Dal tile, and they cut my credit off becuase I exceeded my $2,000 limit. Had to call corporate to raise my limit to five grand, and I haven't bought a thing from them since.

Several guys have tried to talk me into Prosource around here. I've resisted because I would rather dance my customers around to several sources of my own. Also, Prosource reminds me a lot of Home Depot Expo and the Great Indoors. Never been able to get anything from either of those places on time.