Thread: No more "Special Orders" for Triton or GMC at the BigB!..

Out of curiousity, what type of spares are people trying to buy?

Hi Ron,

The hose attachment that attaches to the blade cover , the lugs have broken off and the hose won't stay attached. Also a couple of protractor slides to make up some jigs.

Regards
-Gavin

This response crosses over with the thread discussing whether the match minus 10% deal is worth it if it drives others out of business.

Getting Triton parts through Bunnies was frustrating for me. The process was bizarre and the results, patchy at best. Also,the pay first and get your goods whenever approach made me uncomfortable.

So I asked a local specialist hardware store (not a chain - Pauls in central Sydney). The head guy there got on the blower with my order, told me what it would cost, followed it up, rang me when it arrived and if it wasn't complete, let me either wait till it all was or pay for and take away the parts that has come in. Why would I go elsewhere?

As far as I can see, Triton/GMC will send a parts order to anyone who is a retailer they know of. The trick is to find someone at the retailer level who can see the benefit they will get by picking up the phone and putting in the order. FOr many it is a case of "anything is too much trouble". Others know that thesee little successes get customers coming back.

Pauls have sold me a lot of stuff.....

Hi Jeremy,

I entirely agree, I would never consider the match - 10% approach that Bunnings had, its clearly a tactic to damage competition. I make a point of buying as little as possible for that reason from Bunnings. Being a small business owner myself, I understand what its like to be squeezed by the chains in uncompetitive sales strategies. I choose to support local business owners, not shareholders where ever possible.

That being said, on the three previous occasions that I put special orders in for Triton with Bunnings, I always received my order with in a week of placing the order, so I felt that service wasn't too bad.

The only reason I bought parts and Triton gear from Bunnings, was the local independently owned hardware store that I do most of my purchasing with, told me if I wanted Triton then I'd have to go to Bunnings as they weren't able to purchase from them.

I droppped in there on the way to work this morning, to see if he could order the parts and he said he'll call and see. His response was one of bemusement also, he said while Triton/GMC had the relationship with Bunnings they treated the smaller hardware stores like poor cousins and now their expecting the poor cousins to feed them. From his persepective he won't be supporting them, their are plenty of other brands that have earned his business.

Regards
-Gavin

Originally Posted by scorpio_oz

Hi Jeremy,



I droppped in there on the way to work this morning, to see if he could order the parts and he said he'll call and see. His response was one of bemusement also, he said while Triton/GMC had the relationship with Bunnings they treated the smaller hardware stores like poor cousins and now their expecting the poor cousins to feed them. From his persepective he won't be supporting them, their are plenty of other brands that have earned his business.

Regards
-Gavin

Gavin

I think that the guy at your local hardware needs to think a little more about his customers - they have and like Triton (some even have and like GMC). If he meets their need for service of their tools they will come to him rather than Bunnies and then they are likely to buy more stuff. they are also less likely to rat on him on the price match - 10% basis.

I know that he might prefer to be vindictive to Triton/GMC, but the fact is that they are now free from Bunnies and he has the chance to get more customers as a result, if he is smart. If he isn't prepared to do that then he is being a dinosaur and is likely to go out of business - he is exactly the kind of businessperson that gets picked off by the tactics that Bunnies use.

Originally Posted by jmk89

This response crosses over with the thread discussing whether the match minus 10% deal is worth it if it drives others out of business.

Getting Triton parts through Bunnies was frustrating for me... So I asked a local specialist hardware store. The head guy there got on the blower with my order, told me what it would cost, followed it up... Why would I go elsewhere?

As far as I can see, Triton/GMC will send a parts order to anyone who is a retailer they know of. The trick is to find someone at the retailer level who can see the benefit they will get by picking up the phone and putting in the order. For many it is a case of "anything is too much trouble". Others know that these little successes get customers coming back.

Pauls have sold me a lot of stuff.....

There are several lessons from your story:
a) don't shop at Bunnings unless you can't avoid it
b) support your small local hardware store. (I will now plug the fabulous Simmers in Williamstown!) A shop with smaller turnover will care much more about servicing their customers than a huge warehouse. There isn't a time I walk in the door (the bell rings), and someone isn't asking to help me within 30 seconds.
c) Like the 4c/litre fuel offer, I have always considered the 10% off a huge con. It is horribly predatory. If someone else is already willing to sell it for less, then I will reward them, not Bunnings.
d) don't shop at Bunnings unless you can't avoid it. Support your independent retailer.
e) the 10% off con has also resulted in a huge diversification of the product space. i.e in order to avoid any claims, Bunnings introduces custom brands such as Ozito. If no-one else stocks them, you can never make a claim. I don't think innumerable different brands, all with unique parts such as batteries, chucks etc is a good thing.
f) don't shop at Bunnings unless you can't avoid it. There are usually alternatives. Even I shop at Bunnings if it is something I need urgently and no-one else stocks. e.g. if it is a plumbing part on a Sunday afternoon.
But if it is something I am planning to do, there is always the local plumbing supplier (Western Plumbing Supplies), the local timber yard (Newport Timber), local nursery (Wiltona Nursery), or the local hardware store (Simmers), or the internet (everything else).

Of course, I understand not everyone is financially able to ignore the 10% off. And I understand for many, Bunnings is the closest retailer.

Originally Posted by jmk89

Gavin

I think that the guy at your local hardware needs to think a little more about his customers - they have and like Triton (some even have and like GMC). If he meets their need for service of their tools they will come to him rather than Bunnies and then they are likely to buy more stuff. they are also less likely to rat on him on the price match - 10% basis.

Yeh well I always use 10% price match when possible because quite frankly most small business after sales support is absymal. H

It's like it's too bloody hard to move a finger if the item they are selling and having to order isn't at least $1000 worth. Amazingly the store is pretty empty but it looks like they always have something better to do With attitudes like that why would I bother to give a damn about any particular HW store/chain. A store like that can disappear for all I care and frankly over the years it's every HW store within 20km that I have ever tried. H/W retailers really are the worst shop experience in the country.

Take the advantage where you can. Small business owners don't give a ???? about weekend renovators who don't bring in megabucks and usually they treat you like you aren't even there or not worth the effort. At least at bunnings you can walk around and the stuff is in stock when you need it unlike at small HW chain stores.

Don't blame Bunnings -10% discount, blame poor attitudes in the HW retail business for anyone but tradies. Small business owners in this thread will disagee of course but that's been my experience. The one off shining example quoted here and there is in all likelyhood because you bought a million parts from them before (or are a tradie) and they know you or it's a miracle.

It all boils down to bang for your buck,Triton were taking up square metreage on the floor without return(usually in the region of 9%)so thats why they went,If it doesn't move why stock it?

Originally Posted by Pheonix

It all boils down to bang for your buck,Triton were taking up square metreage on the floor without return(usually in the region of 9%)so thats why they went,If it doesn't move why stock it?

Well triton used to bang for buck or extremely innovative in the early days. They haven't really been either for a number of years. Plenty of plastic bits inside as well now. This and sourcing parts/repair centre location for the brand make it a dead loss unless you are in melbourne as I found to my dismay unless you know how to repair it yourself. These days I learnt my lesson and stick to makita or bosch as a general rule of thumb. Everyone stocks parts, everyone repairs them and nearly everyone sells them so prices can be competitive. For cheapies I just go to ozito or gmc. I'm kind of sad that Bunnings have dropped GMC gear. I think it's a bad move on their part. I'm not a huge fan of ryobi and at that price point I'd rather buy the cheaper GMC because it's not any worse in most cases. I understand the triton move though.

The public got what they wanted I think. They voted with their feet and their wallets. They gave Bunnings supreme control of the market by using the 10% deal to give Bunnings near monopolistic control, which discouraged other outlets from competing on the same brands.

Now, for whatever reason (and I'm saying that simply not to turn this into 3 pages of type analysing all the possible reasons, causes and effects) Bunnings decides not to stock items from a specific manufacturer, the public are left out in a cold place between a supplier who won't supply, and other suppliers who won't supply for different reasons.

So the public bought it - they might not have seen all the small print when making their decision, but there is also a non-return policy so now they are stuck with it.

Stuart makes a good point about the 10%. I've seen many posts in this forum about Triton gear bought using this method. Perhaps other retailers just got tired of being used and abused.

Just an interesting observation to consider in the conversation that I thought about.

When I spoke to the independent HW store, they spoke about being treated as poor cousins whilst Bunnings had Triton. He said they weren't a good supplier to deal with.

I suppose one factor to consider is the independent HW store is a customer of Tritons/GMC. If Tritons customers service or the way they have treated the smaller HW stores isn't up to scratch, just as many of us chose to shop where we receive an acceptable level of customer service, then the same thing would also apply to the smaller HW store I guess.

Why should he buy from a supplier that is difficult to deal with, in the end, from his customers perspective, if the smaller HW store can't provide good service because of a bad supplier, his customer will blame him not Triton in many cases.

Though I have no idea of the real reasons behind Bunnings decision, though I expect a lot of it is influenced by the Ryobi deal, Bunnings did terminate the relationship with Triton, not the other way around. Maybe even for Bunnings Triton wasn't the easiet to deal with, and this might have contributed to the relationship breakdown. All this is pure speculation, but an interesting angle of thought.

-G

Just an update to an earlier post to let people know the outcome.

Finally found a Mitre 10 store on the other side of Brisbane that will order Triton parts.

I suppose we needed to expect with the changes, prices would differ also.

Between last friday when I placed the orders with Bunnings (who rang back and cancelled) and this friday with Mitre 10, the cost of my spares order has gone up over 50%.

And this doesn't take into consideration the freight costs.
Now instead of being 10 minutes down the road, its the other side of Brisbane,

-G

Which Mitre 10?