Stock Levels and Lead Times
When purchasing electric supplies from an electrical wholesaler, you should expect the dealer to have a healthy stock holding. Furthermore, even if the goods you need for your project are not in stock when you place your order, the lead time for getting them ordered in should not be too long. A reputable wholesaler will have good relationships with leading manufacturers as well as distributors, and as such will be able to source even hard-to-find products for customers.
Competitive Pricing
Although price is definitely not everything, buying electric supplies from an electrical wholesaler should save you money. This is because wholesalers tend to buy in bulk direct from the manufacturer, or in some case from larger distributions partners, and will therefore benefit from bulk discounts or rebate programmes. Most wholesalers, in turn, price their goods to allow their trade customers room to make a profit from the end user, so buying direct from the wholesaler, even as an individual private buyer, should still result in a decent cost saving when compared to buying from a high street or online retailer.
Delivery Options
Another way to spot a good supplier of electric goods is by taking note of the delivery options they offer. As well as offering free delivery for qualifying orders, reputable suppliers should give a few different delivery options, allowing customers to choose the speed of delivery according to how urgent the requirement is and how much they are willing to spend. As a bare minimum, good suppliers should offer one- or two-day deliveries and timed ones (pre-noon or before 6am) as standard, with other flexible options on request.
No-Quibble Returns
A consumer’s right to return damaged or “not as described” products to the supplier is protected by law, and when goods are bought online the non-trade customer automatically gets 14 days to return the goods under rules that came into force in 2014. A reputable supplier will make it easy for customers to exercise these rights by not only accepting and processing returns efficiently, but also detailing clearly on their website exactly how the buyer should go about returning unwanted goods.
The Human Touch
Finally, every good electric supplies dealer will have the “human touch”. Online-only dealers should ensure that they leverage any opportunity to engage with their customers by having a telephone number on the website, responding quickly and politely to emails and having an easily accessible “contact us” form on the site.
Whether your requirement is simple or complex, buying from an established and respected dealer will remove at least one headache and leave you free to deal with anything else your project might decide to throw at you.