Timber yards and customer service

[Rocker]

I was all set today, now that the holidays are supposedly over, to buy some more wood for my next project. Phoned B*****n Timbers to place my order, and got no reply. No recorded message to say when the yard will be open again - nothing.

This seems to be symptomatic of timber yards' attitude to their customers, who seem to be regarded as a nuisance that interferes with the smooth running of their business. In any other business that sells goods to customers, it would not be too much to expect that the goods be laid out with the product labelled and the unit price displayed. However, most timber yards want you to phone in an order and take what you are given. If you show up at the yard wanting to see what you are getting, you tend to be treated as an eccentric idiot who must be tolerated and humoured.

I suppose the majority of their customers are builders who regard timber as just another commodity like cement.

Ah well, I have had my Pom's whinge; perhaps I should try again tomorrow, or next Monday, or perhaps February 1st - who knows.

Rocker

[knucklehead]

Rocker,
I went to the timber yard a couple of weeks ago and asked to see what i was buying. They handed me a piece of paper with the dimensions of the timber within the pack.
Eventually they did let me into see the pack. It was stacked about 3 meters off the ground. The guy points WAY up high and says "its that one up there".
I say "you can keep it".
he shrugs and says "what ever".

I then drove to Lazarides, and they could not have been more helpful.

[AlexS]

That's why I like Mathews in Sydney. It's all racked up and labelled, they leave you to select what you want.

[E. maculata]

Be nice if some of the neanderthal thinking of these morons could be changed, they give all involved a bad reputation, in my experience most of them don't even understand the material they're "selling".
Have come across some good ones and always try to feed their enthusiasm.

[bsrlee]

Rocker & Knucklehead - you have both treated these 'people' correctly, in the only way they may understand - by not buying their product.

I have a crony who is a multi-millionaire in property & that is his philosophy - if they want to be D###heads, he just walks out & buys it somewhere else, unless their act is so funny he views it as an entertainment expense - and those are truly bizare & few.

[John Saxton]

Gotta empathise with youse folk,was gettin treated the same back years ago,then decided there's got to be something better than this.

STARTED lookin' out for and going to timber auctions to "bank" timber for use down the track...only one I know's got more an me is Wild Dingo" and he's got more money than a bull can S***,Er Indoors reckon I'll never catch up on the Visa.

DONT know the frequency of timber auctions over yonder in the East but they do occur regular like here and to the point that I cannot store any more.

IF you're just buying for specific jobs then I guess a lotta legwork can be the order of the day.

Good luck guy's in finding and filling your timber needs...I mean that sincerely.

Cheers

[Clinton1]

I have had good value by going to the oldest bloke in the yard and asking him. This has worked in a lot of places. There is a timber recyclers down the road, and there is a bloke there that pulls stuff off the saw benches if it looks interesting. Rub him up the wrong way and you'll never know about "the good stuff". Seriously, it is like he is selling something illegal - sort of like "come up the back, I've got some really good stuff put away..."
The young fellas in the place generally prove my point about the younger blokes knowing very little and being scared to show that lack of knowledge.

Another place I've only had good experiences with (and this is over the telephone) is Lazarides Timber in Qld. Told them what I was looking for, had a chat about it, got a price and then was told they would have a look to see if they had any. Got a call back in an hour to say they couldn't find it but one of the blokes knew they had it and they would have a look and find it that day. The next day they rang me to say they had it. Got it sent to Melb to me. Not bad at all, and a lot of mucking around for them for a very small sale.

Britton Timbers have also been pretty good. I think they mostly deal in packs, but let me go through opened packs as long as I stack it neatly at the end. I think they find it humerous, but I don't care as I'm only getting small quantities from them. Their prices are the same Australia wide (in my experience), and very competitive, so I appreciate that as well.

I'm only getting small stuff, still putting the pennies away to get a bulk buy from Tasman. Its been taking a long time though. Mortgage is getting in the way.

[outback]

I've had a bit of both ends of the scale.
Ramiens in Dubbo are always really good. HAppy to help and suggest, but head to the better timber for woodworking, and they are just as happy to leave you alone and play with yourself. I have opened new packs of timber heaps of times, pick what I want, all I gotta do is leave it neat and tidy.

I have had a piece of timber shoved at me elswhere and told, that this is what I need. Don't worry about it being twisted warped, bowed, knotted and borer eaten. I don't go there any more.

[aussiecolector]

Try Yuleba Cypress sawmills in Miles if you are after Cypress. Run by a father and son they act as though they want your busness when you phone or drive in. Nothing is to much trouble. Right now they are drying some 40 x 200 for me which they will dress when dry enough. They keep the timber under cover after cutting and you can go and pick through it and they will help you load. If ordering random lengths the shortist they will give you will be about 8' (except end mached). Unlike an experance I had with another mill in the area where over half the lengths were 4' and 5' rubish.
And if you want a 10% discount and have cash they are happy to talk about it.

[Mulgabill]

Hardly a timber yard as such, but a quick visit to my local Bunny's to get some quad to finish a domestic job for SWMBO.
When I asked for direction to the quad dept, and that I was looking for hardwood quad, I was told that they only have Pine of TasOak no hardwood!!!!!!
You should have seen the look he gave me when I told him that TasOak was HW and that it was really a eucalypt.
I could read his mind "what would that old bast... know anyway?"