# Ok so the resource pool just got a little smaller



## smellslike$tome (Jun 16, 2008)

I would prefer not to purchase materials online but sometimes I do, or have in the past. I had been using an online company called build.com. I set up a "pro" account and bought a few things but not a lot. Later I was informed that I was being moved to Plumbing.com, probably because plumbing items were all I ever bought. Ok, fine. Actually, although the pricing was barely better than what they offered on their regular site, they had a cool "pro" feature that was useful and helped me still get a decent markup on things. They had an online showroom to which you could send your clients an e-mail invitation. You could manage the showroom in many ways: list or don't list manufacturers, price, etc. This was cool because I could send people there, they would see my name and phone number at the top of the page, and look through hundreds of faucets, make an online list of their favorites or selections, and e-mail them back to me. I could then price everything and off we go. You could put prices if you wanted to: my price, msrp, or my price plus whatever markup I wanted or no pricing at all. Say you wanted to mark everything up 50%, the show room did it automatically. Say you hate a certain manufacturer because you think they sell crap, just delete them from your list and none of their products are included in your show room.

Ok, so I've been getting e-mails about how plumbing.com was being merged with faucet.com and my account will be there now. Alright, so I just went to faucet.com and guess what, not only are all my so called "pro" discounts gone but I can't seem to find my showroom either. So I call the toll free number, tell them who I am and ask where is the showroom. It's gone. No more show room. I explain that the showroom was pretty much the only reason that I was still doing business with them and now there is no reason to consider them for anything since now THE ENTIRE FREAKING WORLD CAN PRICE SHOP ME while watching HGTV and slurping diy smoothies and kettle corn. The response, "yeah what can I say, good luck".

Ok what about a plumbing company co-op. You cannot buy unless you are a verified plumbing company, no bulk resale, only what your company can install, all new lines unavailable anywhere else, top quality (but not indestructible, hey we gotta have something to do 20 years from now). 

Is something like that impossible? Plumbing companies buy ownership of the company primarily for the purpose of determining who can purchase, quality control, etc. If something like that could come together backed with a nice national ad campaign, ... man we could mop the floor with HD, Blowe's and every online retailer!


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## ROCKSTARPLUMBER (Dec 14, 2008)

Thanks for sharing that with the rest of us, that info could have been useful, say, like 2yrs ago!!!!!!!!


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## waldrop (Dec 18, 2009)

*good plan*

start it in memphis so can fed-ex anywhere next day


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