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Graybar Electric Still Sucks

B

Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
They following is my opinion and also the official opinion of my company.

A couple months ago one of my institutional clients specified a particular
line of networking hardware. I had jobs already to go and needed product
now.

Graybar and Anixter were listed as the two main suppliers of the product.
Anixter I applied for an account with and after over a month they finally
condescended to let me know I had an open account. I basically nixed them
though. In the course of my conversation I found out they had a sales rep
in my area selling directly to my customers. I see no reason to make my
competition stronger by buying from them.

Graybar finally replied to me yesterday. Ok, obviously I bought what I need
from somebody else months ago and took care of the customer. (Arrow Wire and
Cable who was very responsive)

Now bear in mind. I didn't just send in an application to Graybar. I
contacted upper management. I detailed the horror story about how Graybar
just about put me out of business by lieing to me about the availabilty of a
product that had not even been released yet. I detailed how they sent stuff
that I ordered prepaid with a credit card for red label overnight delivery
down to their will call desk instead and then lied about where my product
was. I detailed how I had ordered products from prepaid with a credit card
and never received them. They said, "Oh, well let us show you how that
isn't really they way we work. Send in a credit ap and we will see what we
can do."

I did. After more than two months they finally replied that they were
declining my application. Ok. I can deal with that. That's there choice.
But more than two months to get back to me and then after I made it clear
the only reason I was contacting them was because I had an immediate need
for a product they sell.

Nope. Graybar has not improved in anyway. They still suck, and they still
don't give a flying F**K about small dealers. They showed me what they can
do alright. Nothing.

Sincerely,
Robert J La Londe - Owner
The Security Consultant
849 S Ave C
Yuma, Az 85364

(928)782-9765 ofc
(928)782-7873 fax
 
J

Jim Rojas

Jan 1, 1970
0
Graybar caters to electrcial contractors...all others must take a ticket and
wait in line... :)

Jim Rojas
 
J

Jackcsg

Jan 1, 1970
0
I agree 100%!!!!!!!!!!!! About 1 year ago I signed on as a "Comdial" Dealer
and they recommended Graybar. This was not the first time I have been
steered this way. I thought shit, these people sucked when I dealt with them
in Baltimore, but was willing to give them another shot because it was a few
years ago. I am no longer a "Comdial" Dealer because of my dealing's with
Graybar, and Comdial's Corporate views with regards to their service.
Graybar suck's for anything you need, and especially if you need it in a
timely Fashion. I'm in St. Louis, which is their Headquarters. If your not a
"Union" Electrician, they couldn't give a shit less about you. I spoke to
the local BBB, and they have received hundreds of complaints about how Gray
bar does business. I have an email address for one of their dick-heads in
their senior management, and I will forward this response, and thread to
both Graybar, and the other idiots at Comdial. They will love to hear it,
but little will come of it. I'm with you on this one, and would advise
anyone to NOT do business with Graybar.

Jack
 
J

Jackcsg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jack,

Graybar is a premier partner of Comdial, with a very long standing history
of outstanding performance in customer service!

We desire to resolve any of the occasional matters that may arise. Please
contact either Terry Slade at GBE or myself or BOTH on how we can best
resolve this!

We value you as a partner with Graybar and equally with Comdial. It is our
sincere hope you will consider giving us the opportunity to better serve
you!

Brian
816-215-3915

-----Original Message-----
From: Jack LePrevost [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 10:13 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Distribution


Brian,
Is there any way you, or Comdial could look into the possibility of
Distributing your product line through ADI (Ademco Distribution)? Graybar
here in St. Louis frankly is not cutting it with me. I have never received
good service from them, and I am through dealing with them. I have had to
change equipment on two installs, from Comdial to Vodavi just in the past
two weeks. We have a 15 year track record with ADI, and they have over 100
locations Nationwide. Please let me know if this might be possible, as no
further Comdial systems with be quoted, or sold unless I get this method of
receiving your products ironed out. If you need contact information with
regards to ADI, I would be glad to help out.

Jack LePrevost, P.S.E.
Vice President, Operations
Instalink, Inc.
 
B

Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jackcsg said:
Jack,

Graybar is a premier partner of Comdial, with a very long standing history
of outstanding performance in customer service!

We desire to resolve any of the occasional matters that may arise. Please
contact either Terry Slade at GBE or myself or BOTH on how we can best
resolve this!

We value you as a partner with Graybar and equally with Comdial. It is our
sincere hope you will consider giving us the opportunity to better serve
you!

Brian
816-215-3915


Brian? Are you the one that said give us another chance a couple months ago
when I contacted you. LOL. Same old garbage.

Why should anybody GIVE YOU another chance to waste their time and money.
If you want another chance go out and earn it.



-----Original Message-----
From: Jack LePrevost [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Friday, May 02, 2003 10:13 AM
To: [email protected]
Subject: RE: Distribution


Brian,
Is there any way you, or Comdial could look into the possibility of
Distributing your product line through ADI (Ademco Distribution)? Graybar
here in St. Louis frankly is not cutting it with me. I have never received
good service from them, and I am through dealing with them. I have had to
change equipment on two installs, from Comdial to Vodavi just in the past
two weeks. We have a 15 year track record with ADI, and they have over 100
locations Nationwide. Please let me know if this might be possible, as no
further Comdial systems with be quoted, or sold unless I get this method of
receiving your products ironed out. If you need contact information with
regards to ADI, I would be glad to help out.

Jack LePrevost, P.S.E.
Vice President, Operations
Instalink, Inc.

Jackcsg said:
I agree 100%!!!!!!!!!!!! About 1 year ago I signed on as a "Comdial" Dealer
and they recommended Graybar. This was not the first time I have been
steered this way. I thought shit, these people sucked when I dealt with them
in Baltimore, but was willing to give them another shot because it was a few
years ago. I am no longer a "Comdial" Dealer because of my dealing's with
Graybar, and Comdial's Corporate views with regards to their service.
Graybar suck's for anything you need, and especially if you need it in a
timely Fashion. I'm in St. Louis, which is their Headquarters. If your
not
a
"Union" Electrician, they couldn't give a shit less about you. I spoke to
the local BBB, and they have received hundreds of complaints about how Gray
bar does business. I have an email address for one of their dick-heads in
their senior management, and I will forward this response, and thread to
both Graybar, and the other idiots at Comdial. They will love to hear it,
but little will come of it. I'm with you on this one, and would advise
anyone to NOT do business with Graybar.

Jack

I
need Wire
and
availabilty
of what
we they
can
 
J

Jackcsg

Jan 1, 1970
0
It's ok thought, Brian is no longer with Comdial. He was let go. Funny, I
wonder why. When I get screwed by a distributer, they only had one chance. I
went into Graybar on a friday to pick up 6K worth of Comdial equipment, for
an install I was doing about 200 miles away which HAD to be installed over
the weekend. When I got there, now mind you I had bought equipment there
before, it was around 4 pm. They refused to take my Company Check. They told
me I had no "negative credit" with them, and no one in their accounting
department was around. I told them I needed this equipment. They told me to
get cash, or a money order. I left, and flew over to ADI, and bought a
Vodavi System. When I got out to the job site, the owner said "what's this"?
As I back peddled, and told him a little different version of the story, he
accepted it with what little choice he had. I was PISSED! That's when I
contacted Comdial, only to find that they don't really give a shit about
their dealers, just their distributors. This kind of shit only happens once
to me. Period. I had a simular experience with Surgard (DSC), but I won't
get into that...But it was the same result. Graybar has, and always will
suck.

Jack
 
J

Jackcsg

Jan 1, 1970
0
They treat their National Accounts the Same...Shitty. Your right. Don't even
bother, find the equipment elsewhere and make your life easier. There are
Companies that encourage, and actually want to business with Dealers, just
NOT Graybar.

Jack

 
T

thesatguy

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have always had good responces from Surgard and would like to know what
your experience was.
 
J

Jackcsg

Jan 1, 1970
0
In Baltimore I was using their DC-1664 Control, which I installed about 40
or so. Then they decided to make it a dealership requiring you to purchase
25 control panels at a time. I was the only dealer in Baltimore using this
control panel. I was told by Nigel, that I would still be able to buy the
controls as I needed them, and not to be concerned with their dealer
program, that they would exclude me because I was using their product
regularly. Then when I had 4 systems already sold, and went to my
distributor to pick up the equipment, I was unable to purchase them. Nigel
decided to renig on our deal, and refused to return my phone calls. Looping
back through DSC didn't help me either. I had been using DSC since 1986,
when they first hit the states. That was 96'. The year I stopped using any
DSC products, period, and started using Radionics. In 2001, I started using
DMP.

Jack
 
F

fly in the ointment

Jan 1, 1970
0
What kind of purchase commitment does DMP require?
js

Jackcsg wrote
 
B

Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
I don't recall exactly, but I think ts only 5000 per year. A lot more to
get decent pricing though.
 
J

Jackcsg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Pricing is by dealer level commitments. Dealer 1-5 typically from $0 to 10K
per month. There is an initial first order, and dealer qualifications at the
time of application.

Jack
 
J

Jackcsg

Jan 1, 1970
0
There's a credit app. First order commitment, and monthly purchase level's
from 1k a month to 10K a month. You would probably be dropped if you only
did 5k all year. The prices on most compatible equipment, depending on your
dealer level, is less than the equipment your using know, and you won't have
to stock 1/2 the inventory to support it.

Jack
 
B

Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
Tech support is ok. The service and sales is mediocre at best.
 
B

Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
Robert L. Bass said:
You have lots of options.

I've found Napco decent to work with. Their tech support is pretty good and
the company tries to do the right thing. Their hardware is really good --
arguably the most configurable panels in the industry. You really ought to
give them a try someday, Bob.

Ether yer being fascitous or yer starting to suffer from senile memory loss.
Napco is my panel of choice, although I am starting to use almost
exclusively Caddx for my larger jobs.
Caddx support has improved and the communications problems seem to be
resolved now that they've mostly finished the GE mandated conversion. Their
Networx panels are way better than the old Ranger series.

With them being under the same wings as Sentrol I can'tr see anything but
good from Caddx. They were always decent, and Sentrol whiel being higher
priced has alwasy been top notch in every service aspect. They even handled
their recalls with class.
I'm still getting my feet wet with Paradox but so far they seem responsible.

Isn't Paradox sold in the states by Bass Sales or soemthing like that out of
California? Any relation? My experience is they are in the same class as
DMP.
BTW, I used to order phones from North Supply and later Graybar many moons
ago when I did a bit of interconnect work. While Graybar was always
recalcitrant at best, North Supply made them look like a dream come true by
comparison.

You are scaring me. I tried to deal with Sprint North Supply twice. It was
a pain both times. I'm quite happy that the finally quit sending me sales
information.

If ever there was a distributor in the alarm trade that should
be flat out avoided, it was North Supply.

Now we are talking. North Supply should be avoided, but they are better
than Graybar. What a glowing testimonial for Graybar.
I had an open account with them
for years. Once in a while they'd ship the wrong item on an order and it
would take forever to get credited. They'd send monthly "reminders" asking
for payment for goods which had already been returned.

One time North sent my order to a competitor and his to me. When I saw the
paperwork with the name of the buyer I realized who it was and called. We
both notified North of the error and that we were going to swap parcels. We
did and all was fine, right? Wrong! The idiots kept billing me for the
much larger order that was supposed to go to my competitor. Arrrgh!

A few more stupid mistakes followed by flat refusal to do anything to
correct them and they were history. In those days I didn't spend much --
maybe $20-25K per year. I guess my account wasn't important enough to
matter. Years later when I was spending over $200K per year they tried to
win my account back.

I feel that way about Graybar, Sprint North Supply, Northern Video, Cobra
Electronics, and West Penn Wire and Cable. My sales doubled this year. Not
one dime went to any of those companies.
I saw no reason then to go back and I wouldn't now if
they asked. However, given the manner* in which I rejected their ...er,
advances I doubt they'll come around any time soon.

I explained in great detail what a pain they had been and that they
shouldn't expect to see any of my business during the next few millennia.
This was at the ISC show and there were lots of people listening as I
recited the list of miserable experiences I'd had with them. I doubt that
was one of their better trade show moments. It felt almost as good as
telling that knucklehead from the ECLB to "perform the impossible act" at
the EH Expo. :^)

Hmmm..... I had thought about that. Maybe I have a reason to go to ISC
after all.
 
B

Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jack, I'm a servicing dealer for DMP. Only because I bought a company that
had a lot of DMP already installed. DMP is a big pain in the dearie air to
deal with. They tried to railroad me. I just got all the documentation and
software elsewhere. They decided they would sell me parts after all. As a
servicing dealer I have to buy everything COD or credit card. After they
sent me manuals I didn't order and charged me for them they pretty much shot
any chance I would ever make them a main line. On the flip side their tech
support seems to be competant.
 
J

Jackcsg

Jan 1, 1970
0
Bob,
You'd have the same response from Radionic's. These Manufacturer's (DMP,
Radionics) are a different breed than the typical over-the-counter
Manufacturer's. Yeah, you have to buy and use their products, but they will
support you when you do. I have never had a problem with either purchasing
their products. If you do large commercial security systems, nothing even
comes close to DMP. I would encourage you not to get discouraged, and look
better at their product line. I have a little pull at DMP, let me know, if
you want to look further at DMP. I can turn some wheels.

Jack
 
B

Bob La Londe

Jan 1, 1970
0
Jack,

Thanks. I'm pretty familiar with the smaller DMP panels and to be
realisitic they are not features to price better than Napco or Caddx. As to
the larger panels, they look like they are similar to the DSC Maxsys or
Caddx NX8e in features and expandability. I have not done more than skim
through the manual for the bigger panels. They may be wonderful, but I have
limits.

Basically the sales rep thought he had me between a rock and a hard place
because I had a bunch of stuff in the field that he didn't think I could
service without him. He tried to railroad me into making DMP my main line
overnight. I tried talking to some of the other people at DMP I knew
through this NG and other contacts. I basically got called a cheap stupid
sob for not kissing ass and begging to be accepted by the great god DMP. I
decided that was too much, so I e-mailed all my correspondence and
expereiences to the president of DMP where I finally got some results. This
is not the kind of sales support in any fashion that would induce me to go
out of my way to use DMP.

In all fairness I had contact DMP twice about becoming a dealer.

The first time I had taken over a development another contractor (now
deceased) had originally installed DMP in. The model homes had DMP panels,
and there was a preexisting agreement to use DMP with the now dead
contractor. I contact DMP to become a dealer. I figured that it would be
only fair to continue to install DMP panels in that development. They were
a huge pain in the ass then so I just jerked the panels and Napco sent me
some panels to replace them under their model home program. I have
installed about 50 systems in that developement and they have opened two
more phases to it recently. If DMP had been even a little easier to deal
with those would have all been DMP panels. Instead they have all been Napco
panels.

When I bought out the accounts from another contractor recently I acquired
several DMP accounts. Simply wanting to support the clients well I decided
to give becoming a DMP dealer another chance. After filling out paperwork
and listening to out and out extortion for over a month I went to other
sources for manuals. I also learned a couple tricks for getting into DMP
programming. I still wasn't able to get anything from DMP. I finally had
to go up the food chain as I mentioned before to get any results.

I was told I would have net terms and be opened up at better purchase level
pricing to start with. Finally. Some results. Then when I went to
actually order something Dave Sharp decided all on his own that I would not
have net terms or be at that purchse level. Instead I would be a servicing
dealer and have to pay COD at the worst price level.

I had to make an opening order to get a dealer number. I tried twice to
order some Inovonics wireless stuff from them to support a client with some
problems. Basically as a new buyer who had already spent almost two months
getting set up I still had to wait to get setup before my stuff would ship.
I bought my Inovonices stuff from ADI and called Inovonics for tech support.
Finally I decided to just order something I didn't need so I could get them
to set me up. At Dave Sharps suggestion I ordered a demo keypad. He also
sent me a set of manuals. By this time I already had two sets. He charged
me for the manuals. When I complained he promised to pick them up and
credit me for the charge. I have not heard from Dave since. I suppose I
could have called my credit card company had disputed the charge, but DMP
had already WASTED more of my time than they were worth.

Originally it had been my intention to continue to support all of my DMP
clients with DMP products. I have done about 20 new installations since
April for those DMP clients on refferrals or addtional sites for the same
clients.

If DMP had played stright with I would have installed about 70 DMP panels in
the last couple years. Instead I have installed zero. Well technically I
have installed two of the panels I jerked from those model homes just to
keep a client consistant between their multiple locations. I seriously
considered jerking the panel in their main location instead.

While their high end product may be wonderful I don't see any need to
support it. I can understand proprietary marketing, but they just tried to
screw me and waste my time at every turn. The only positive thing I can say
is that their tech support is competant, and the president of the company (I
forget his name) recognizes a screw job and tried to straighten things out
once. If he decide to handle my account personally I might consider
supporting them. As it is I'll just continue to be a servicing only dealer.

Thanks for your offer of "pull" at DMP, but I see no reason to give them a
fourth or fifth second chance to show me how wonderful they are. I've had
to many distributors who asked for a second chance (For the third or fouth
time) to only be the same old crap. DMP is not quite in the same class as
Graybar or Northern Video for poor customer service, but I definitely don't
want to make myself dependent on them.

Bob La Londe
The Security Consultant
 
J

Jackcsg

Jan 1, 1970
0
I understand Bob. Sorry to hear all that. I know DMP has had some
turn-around within the Sales Territories, and good friend of mine went from
Radionics too DMP, and has since left as well. I don't do Residential
installs, I'm strictly Commercial, but I understand what your talking about.
It's hard to covert a dealer, with as many years in the business as yours,
who purchases over-the-counter systems, to be receptive of the dealer
requirements put forth, or the reasoning for that matter. (No Pun intended)
I have had good success with DMP, but largely in part (I think) because I
have lived in the dealership driven Manufacturers world for almost 20 years,
and have managed to learn a few of the in's, and out's. It is a different
world, which most do not choose to go down, with advantages, and
disadvantages. I don't have to explain the alarm industry to you, but as you
know, alarm companies come and go, and companies like DMP, and Radionics are
only interested in dealers with longevity, and strong financials that
support them. Again, no Pun intended. You would most definitely get the same
response from Radionics, so from their perspective, why support someone
who's interests focus only around servicing their products, instead of
expanding their products. Well, anyway, despite your issues with DMP, if I
can ever help out, I'd always be glad too.

Jack
 
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