THE
BLUE BOX (Recycled Ideas)
by Don Cox
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Last summer I did some roofing work you may recall, and
had the Swami up from California to supervise the work,
since the local roofers were not willing to do it my way.
The installation was largely a happy event, but getting
the material wasn't. I decided to spare you the agony of
dealing with the suppliers, and simply remember the lesson
for when I did the final half of the work this year. Unfortunately
this year has been even worse. I have an agreement with
my editor, kindly old Mr. Ennis, that I am entitled to one
rant per year. The last one was about my experience with
Rogers Cantel, and that was well over a year ago. Now it's
time for another.
Last year I shopped around for quotes for roofing and
got different prices per square foot. I decided to go with
Bonhomme Materials, not because their price was best, but
because their customer service appeared better. How wrong
I was! The roofing was delivered with no one to unload it,
with items missing, and wrong ones included. Since there
was no delivery for the next two days I had to go to their
Ottawa supplier myself to pick up the missing parts and
take back the wrong ones. A month later they discovered
an error in their addition and asked me to pay extra. They
appeared upset when I politely declined.
This year I vowed it would be different. I went to the
two other suppliers in town, BMR Materials and BSRB Materials
and asked for quotes. I was surprised when both of them
declined to give a price per square foot, but would only
give me a price on the complete order. I was even more surprised
when the prices were identical. Not just close, but precisely
the same, to the very penny! This is not competition, this
is price fixing.
I got a somewhat better reception at BMR so I waited endlessly
while the man on the desk, Alain Lepage, wrote it all down.
Alain is a self indulged and self important gentleman without
whom the world would grind to a stop. He dominates the scene
with what he considers force of personality, but is in reality
only shear bulk. I tried to be patient as he took my order,
while intermittently answering the phone, or shouting advice
to other customers. I finally got the quote and went home
to wait for the fax from BSRB giving their price, and when
it came, voila! The prices were identical.
I considered going to both places to challenge their pricing
policy but finally just sighed in resignation and went back
to BMR, which appeared to be the lesser of the two evils.
It was now after lunch and M. Lepage was considerably louder
and somewhat less coherent. He got my address wrong and
disputed it when I corrected him. There's delusions of grandeur
for you. It must have been a good lunch. That was Monday,
and delivery was promised on Tuesday afternoon. When I called
on Tuesday after lunch Alain was somewhat short with me
and said the the truck wouldn't be delivering to them until
Wednesday morning. It was out of his hands, he let me know,
but Wednesday morning was firm. By Wednesday noon I sent
my crew home, and turned the phone lines a dark shade of
blue in my polite remonstrations with BMR. They would work
late I was told and get it to me by six PM that day for
certain, or failing that, eight oclock Thursday morning.
Of course nothing arrived that evening, ask me if I was
surprised.
On Thursday morning I was told that delivery was now 1:30
in the afternoon. However, I had learned my lesson at this
point, so I called the crew and told them to stay home.
That was a wise move, the roofing didn't finally arrive
until 3:45.
What's the message in this long and melancholy saga? The
message to me is that American takeover can't come soon
enough. We need more respect for the consumer, and some
true competitive marketing. Since we are evidently not able
to handle this ourselves, I guess we need a few capable
outsiders to show us how. Canadian suppliers should be confronted
with the fact that they can be replaced, and that they should
be if they don't give comsumers the service and consideration
they deserve. Alain Lepage might well consider the same
message.
Bluebox ©2001 Don Cox
Website ©2001 OttawaWEB
