[Slacky]

your right Spruce they have been good for industry, doesn't mean they get a free ride though, blimin pandemic every company using it as excuse for bad service, am i the only one who thinks some are using it as excuse

Well, one of my hobbies is astrophotography. You cant get a guided telescope of any sort for love nor money these day.

I'll give you one guess why.

[Slacky]

And I had 3 sheets of 8' x 4' PVC delivered last week, for  a DIY project Im doing at home. Delivery charge - £30.00.

Shut up you old woman bleating at £6.95 delivery charge.

[Bungle]

And I had 3 sheets of 8' x 4' PVC delivered last week, for  a DIY project Im doing at home. Delivery charge - £30.00.

Shut up you old woman bleating at £6.95 delivery charge.

I can beat that, I had 2 bulk bags of chippings delivered the other week. 80 friggin quid delivery!

[AuRavelling79]

Maybe I got lazy. The delivery charge at the £60 point got me getting nearly all my stuff from Gardiner and a little from Soap National. Now I get claber reels, spares, hose, resin, clips, connectors from Soap.

My RO filters and spares I shop around for so only poles and rarely a brush - from Gardiners. But I guess that has been their plan.

Imagine you don't replace an employee and you need less storage space then you might save say 30k a year

That's a lot of turnover not needed on small and cheap items.

Also let's pluck one hundred orders a day at £5 free delivery on average. That's £500 a day. Let's say that ten go elsewhere in a huff at an average profit of £25 per order. So you lose £250, gain 90 x £6.75 - gain over £600.

And you are processing 10% orders less.

I can see why it has been done.

[Bungle]

Hi, I was just about to place an order with Gardiners for nearly £350 with the Vat, and they want to charge £6.95 for FedEx  !

I thought it was free delivery over £100  ?

Your thoughts  ?

It's tax deductible. Plus the longer Alex is in business the longer we're in business. He comes up with the best ideas to make our working life easier IMO.

Good luck to him 👍

[Perfect Windows]

"Free delivery"? No such thing.  Someone pays for it.

Much more honest to put the charge in the open.

Vin

[Ste M]

Its been happening for a while. I feel gardeners is getting worse, half the stuff is not in stock and they have also stopped selling most things now. Its on my favourites at the top of my screen but I find myself going to other suppliers more and more now, they don't even sell pumps any more. The only things I seem to buy are new poles, or pole spares and brushes.

They are a small family run business... just streamlining their range of products.....

I dont offer gutter clearing or inside window cleaning anymore....again streamlining my business

I take it you have never looked at company house then Daz? they are not a small company, they ARE getting smaller with their product line however their turnover certainly isn't that of a small company

[mark dew]

Its been happening for a while. I feel gardeners is getting worse, half the stuff is not in stock and they have also stopped selling most things now. Its on my favourites at the top of my screen but I find myself going to other suppliers more and more now, they don't even sell pumps any more. The only things I seem to buy are new poles, or pole spares and brushes.

They are a small family run business... just streamlining their range of products.....

I dont offer gutter clearing or inside window cleaning anymore....again streamlining my business

I don't clean insides or guttters either. I prefer to stick with outside windows only.
I only use gardiners every few years once i need a pole replacing so i am not upto date with how they are now.
They have without doubt been of huge benefit to the window cleaning industry - but like any business, they won't survive on past glory alone.
I have always liked their poles though i don't like the push fit connectors at the brush. I have wrapped tap around the hose now to atop it running out of the endss of the pole.
Ive been wfp for 14 years and almost never needed to swap brushes. The only time i did was when i cleaned the exterior of a house with the pole.
If i can, i will always be a loyal customer of gardiners. Alex has helped a lot over the phone back when i started.

[colin bird]

Hi, I was just about to place an order with Gardiners for nearly £350 with the Vat, and they want to charge £6.95 for FedEx  !

I thought it was free delivery over £100  ?

Your thoughts  ?

r

I'm surprised Alex hasn't replied to your post regarding delivery,and also why there product range is getting smaller,maybe he busy promoting his business elsewhere as he now has us all as. Loyal customers

[Spruce]

your right Spruce they have been good for industry, doesn't mean they get a free ride though, blimin pandemic every company using it as excuse for bad service, am i the only one who thinks some are using it as excuse

My wife works in purchasing. The problem is that there is a worldwide shortage of raw materials. China has been the worlds 'breadbasket' for many years now. Costs to get manufactured goods out of China have tripled. The recent floods in China have wiped out much industry on the river flood plains.

India is also another one of our suppliers. With 200,000 deaths a day and the nation generally in poor health due to Covid, the pool of skilled workers needed isn't there any more.  A lot of our medicines and chemicals come from India.

The other issue smaller companies are facing is workspace. Now you can't have a lot of people working together in a confined space due to distancing rules. This is especially true in my wife's office environment. The staff have been moved around and separated and the process to keep employees safe isn't always conducive with better efficiency.

In times like these many companies have had to furlough staff. To remain trading fewer people have more work to do. I don't believe that the premises Alex has is very big. He did once say how many staff members, both part and full time, he employed. I was surprised at the number tbh.

[Arnold Palmer]

your right Spruce they have been good for industry, doesn't mean they get a free ride though, blimin pandemic every company using it as excuse for bad service, am i the only one who thinks some are using it as excuse

My wife works in purchasing. The problem is that there is a worldwide shortage of raw materials. China has been the worlds 'breadbasket' for many years now. Costs to get manufactured goods out of China have tripled. The recent floods in China have wiped out much industry on the river flood plains.

India is also another one of our suppliers. With 200,000 deaths a day and the nation generally in poor health due to Covid, the pool of skilled workers needed isn't there any more.  A lot of our medicines and chemicals come from India.

Err....

[Arnold Palmer]

I just went to checkout £113 worth of clamps and levers (medium jiffy bag would do it).

£20 delivery.

I think I'll get them from Daqua.

[Smudger]

Nice post spruce

I see no no problem streamlining and concentrating on what gardeners do best and that’s poles and brushes why waste warehouse space,time and resources on peripheral items that many others sell

Darran

[Spruce]

your right Spruce they have been good for industry, doesn't mean they get a free ride though, blimin pandemic every company using it as excuse for bad service, am i the only one who thinks some are using it as excuse

My wife works in purchasing. The problem is that there is a worldwide shortage of raw materials. China has been the worlds 'breadbasket' for many years now. Costs to get manufactured goods out of China have tripled. The recent floods in China have wiped out much industry on the river flood plains.

India is also another one of our suppliers. With 200,000 deaths a day and the nation generally in poor health due to Covid, the pool of skilled workers needed isn't there any more.  A lot of our medicines and chemicals come from India.

Err....

My mistake. Thanks. Nearly 200,000 deaths and 15.6 million affected.

[robbo333]

I don't mind paying for delivery. We had it free for so long, that you can't really complain.

And £6.99 is not terrible.

What is terrible, is Deliveroo want £2.99 delivery (plus 50p service charge) for a pizza and that's just round the f***ing corner!

[AuRavelling79]

I just went to checkout £113 worth of clamps and levers (medium jiffy bag would do it).

£20 delivery.

I think I'll get them from Daqua.

Is that because you live on North Uist? Rockall?

Three ferries, a helicopter and a Landrover tend to put the price up. 

[NBwcs]

I don't think anyone could deny Gardiners have been brilliant on customer service over the years, arguably the best in our trade, but equally, if you start charging for delivery when it was free over a certain amount, will no longer talk to your customers directly without having to effectivly email for an appointment, and drastically reduce your range then things clearly are no where near as good as they were.

[robbo333]

I don't think anyone could deny Gardiners have been brilliant on customer service over the years, arguably the best in our trade, but equally, if you start charging for delivery when it was free over a certain amount, will no longer talk to your customers directly without having to effectivly email for an appointment, and drastically reduce your range then things clearly are no where near as good as they were.

For me:
I think Gardiners provide excellent customer service and great products. The free delivery is nice but £6.99 is still cheaper than me going to get it. I know sometimes, the delivery charge is disproportionate to the item that i've purchased but that's life!
I haven't tried the email thing, I used to call them and leave a message for them to call me back. They have always called me back within a reasonable time AND with an answer to my query. My pet hate is being stuck in a f*cing 'queue' being told my call is important to them!  For me, I'm happy with the 'call me back thing'.
I've noticed that Gardiners have reduced their range, but it was stuff you can buy elsewhere anyway. The irony is, we all bought it from Gardiners because their service is so good.
For me the important thing is Gardiners make very good poles, brushes and accessories. This is what they do.
I am hoping that the money they can save with these 'changes to the business' will go into more R&D for the introduction of new poles, new brushes and accessories that will continue to help make me money.

[Smudger]

I don't think anyone could deny Gardiners have been brilliant on customer service over the years, arguably the best in our trade, but equally, if you start charging for delivery when it was free over a certain amount, will no longer talk to your customers directly without having to effectivly email for an appointment, and drastically reduce your range then things clearly are no where near as good as they were.

I don't agree - you can't really expect them to stay the same - buisness needs to move forward - it's like saying rolls royces are not very good because they used to have 6 blokes build them by  hand and now they roll out of a factory production line.....

The world has changed drastically over 12 months 

Darran

[dazmond]

Some of you need a check up from the neck up....moaning over £7!😄

Imagine if we had to physically drive to a shop to buy our equipment?that would be inconvenient these days....👍

Hope you guys are enjoying the dry weather!🌞