Will the building industry ever stop LARPing as Masons?

[YodhrinForge]

I have to say that so far in life, I've enountered few experiences more mindlessly, needlessly frustrating than trying to give the building industry my money. It always seems that you need to put on the fez hat and give the special secret handshake to prove you're One Of Us before any sod will even tell you how much something costs. Something as basic as a webstore with a simple per-unit pricetag is apparently beyond ~95% of suppliers, even the ones who ostensibly sell to the public - like, why even bother pretending? Just say "trade only, DIYers bog off", don't waste my time submitting requests to perhaps maybe be considered for the possibility of buying something, only to turn around and refuse to even give a price unless I provide complete structural plans for the project - I want to know the rough price *before* I get to that point or how else am I supposed to sodding well cost the different options against each other. Computer building, car and bike mechanics, even other trade-esque areas like furniture carpentry and small boatbuilding are at least *somewhat* open to laypersons who want to do things themselves and just need access to buy materials - hell I've never had better customer service than from a local-ish sawmill where I get hardwood and the first time I went there I was completely clueless - but heaven bloody forefend I try and find out how much anything that isn't bog-standard DIY store CLS from a construction materials supplier is going to set me back.

 

Everyone in this crappy country seems to want to pretend they live in the Victorian era for some reason.

Edited 3 hours ago by YodhrinForge

[JohnMo]

Used Travis and Perkins a few times and prices came from a random number generator. No rhyme or reason for for some if the prices. Started to use mkm after that - zero issues, consistent prices, nice friendly.

 

Plenty of websites selling to self builders.

[nod]

7 minutes ago, JohnMo said:

Used Travis and Perkins a few times and prices came from a random number generator. No rhyme or reason for for some if the prices. Started to use mkm after that - zero issues, consistent prices, nice friendly.

 

Plenty of websites selling to self builders.

When you get a quote from TP

At least you know it won’t be anymore expensive elsewhere 

[Oz07]

Don't brick manufacturers still have ancient deals where the first merchant to submit an enquiry with your plot gets a % of the sale regardless if you go elsewhere?

 

I've also had it where you get a quote off truss or floor beam or lintel company direct. Tell a merchant and they say we get x% off that and they split it with me for the order.

 

You're right its a minefield