Rational Price Fixing?

[Robert Clark]

Hi Guys

 

Looking to buy approx 50 Rationel Ali clad windows for fitting in Sussex in March.

 

Had a quote (via Rationel) from a dealer near me (not the closest one)

The dealer made a mistake on the quote by missing off some openers and says I now need to pay extra as Rationel won’t let them sell for less than their regular price.

This smells like price fixing to me.

 

I am therefore wondering if anyone has ever contacted multiple Rationel dealers for pricing?

 

Thanks 

[Mr Punter]

I will shortly be doing just that, when the window schedule is finalised.

 

Was your quote from Mole Valley Windows?

[ProDave]

Surely the issue is you have changed the spec to include more opening windows?  So the price will go up, and what they mean is they can't honour the original price and sell them at a loss?

[Robert Clark]

  On 23/12/2020 at 15:14, Mr Punter said:

I will shortly be doing just that, when the window schedule is finalised.

 

Was your quote from Mole Valley Windows?

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No 

[Robert Clark]

  On 23/12/2020 at 15:38, ProDave said:

Surely the issue is you have changed the spec to include more opening windows?  So the price will go up, and what they mean is they can't honour the original price and sell them at a loss?

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they missed the openings not me

Thankfully they have thought better of it and stood by their mistake.

 

Guess the story about not being able to lower their price was a fairy tale 

[Mr Punter]

Yes I think you are right.  I spoke to another distributor who said they have a fair amount of leeway with pricing and were happy to quote against others.  They also do windows by other manufacturers who are not part of the DOVISA UK / VKR / VELUX group.

[gcm]

Shop around.  Yet depending upon where you are in the country - the choice of reseller installers who can travel to the site my not be that wide. 

Obviously it depends upon what you are doing - a slow 6 week renovation or a rapid install new build i.e. whether a local installer/incremental project matters. 
We were doing renovation with 27 different shape windows including some big multi-section ones - rip/install/make good was 6 weeks for us. Rip/fit 3/day and slower make good

We did not find we could get much discount on the materials side for the Rationel job from a mobile SE outfit or from our two local regional resellers.  They were very disinclined to race to the bottom against each other.  So on materials it was significantly more £ than velfac etc.   Regional reselller territory model.

We had aperture technical issues which eliminated other some other cheaper profiles so ended up with Rationel. And in the end it was a good experience.  And they look better in our traditional property.

We used Rationel FORMA+ Alu 3G and the installer we picked did a good job on the renovation project - proved very adaptable to what was discovered. 
Did we overpay for the windows purely as materials - yes we did.  But with the hours that went into supply+fit + particularly into make good they went a fair way over on their guess on estimated hours in the overall fixed install price - so I don't think it was a roaring success on margin for them either. So in the end - I was happy with my one and done contract. A quality site install team was a big priority for me.

I am not sure it is the optimal brand for supply only but you may be luckier than I was with other resellers