Topps charging for TAF's

[theyomper]

Well talking to the manager of my local Topps Tiles today he told me that following a meeting at head office the following would be introduced.

Their summary was that if other companies charge for services and deliveries then they should also charge.

To that effect as from the 25th July, Topps will now charge the customer £19.99, for them to arrange a TAF to call and quantify the job.

This poses a few questions and concerns for all of us involved in the TAF scheme.

1. Do you think the customer would be put off by the charge?
2. Would it lose you work in an already difficult market?
3. Would you, as a TAF, invoice Topps for your time and fuel for making the arrangements?
4. What other concerns would you have?

Your thoughts please

 

[brian c]

What if the customer decided not to go with that particualr fitter? Would the customer have to pay Topps another £19.99 to arrange a different fitter?

probably knowing them.Do you think it would work at TG?

 

[Sean Kelly]

1. Do you think the customer would be put off by the charge?
2. Would it lose you work in an already difficult market?
3. Would you, as a TAF, invoice Topps for your time and fuel for making the arrangements?
4. What other concerns would you have?

1. I think that the majority of customers would definitely be put off by the £19.99 charge. However, there are a percentage of customers that will probably think that this is a ‘special’ service from Topps and that maybe they will be treated differently from non paying customers. Maybe the charge will be deducted from their final bill if they went ahead with the job?
2. Being a TAF does have benefits. Not only does my business card go to a TAFS customer, but it also gets handed out to nearly every customer that wants a quote from a tiler. So the answer (in my case) is no.
3. I would not invoice Topps for getting me a TAFFS lead. 90% of my quote leads come from Topps.
4. As long as my business card gets handed out I do not have any concerns with Topps decision to go down this route. I do not know the stats on how many TAFS jobs there are each week for Topps as a whole, but I do know that the Managers do get grilled every week about the low number of TAFS jobs. I have to smile at the customers receipt....the materials are listed out (at full retail price). Then there is a line saying something like ‘Topps Approved Fitting Service £0.00’.
Cheers
Sean

 

[Matt]

probably knowing them.Do you think it would work at TG?

Nope. I guarantee it wouldn't work at TG. Why would a customer pay £19.99 when they can quite easily get recommendations for free. I suppose the 1 year guarantee may make some pay the £19.99

 

[theyomper]

Some good points raised thanks to all. I will speak to my local manager about some of them.............maybe he can give feed back to his bosses.

One thing I have noticed is that when I buy goods for my own customers they always put it through the TAF scheme, I suppose to make up the numbers.

 

[LM Ceramics]

i stopped using topps when the taf scheme was introduced plus i wasnt so keen on my local store my cards rarely got dished out i think the taf scheme is a waste of time and is there just to rip customers off and as for introducing a charge for an estimate people will be daft if they are to pay it. as you can tell im not the biggest fan of topps unfortunatley the tafs will suffer because of this

 

[Sean Kelly]

I'm currently working on a TAF job. I asked the lady of the house if she would be willing to pay £19.99 for an Topps Approved fitter to come out and quote for her tiling job. She said 'Why should I pay for something when I can pick up the phone and get a tiler around to quote free of charge'.

 

[doug boardley]

I'm currently working on a TAF job. I asked the lady of the house if she would be willing to pay £19.99 for an Topps Approved fitter to come out and quote for her tiling job. She said 'Why should I pay for something when I can pick up the phone and get a tiler around to quote free of charge'.

straight from the horses mouth, (so to speak!)

 

[mart08]

I'm a Taf and was told that the charge was for the guarantee and not for going out to quote the customer! Will clarify this on my next visit to topps.

 

[Sean Kelly]

I'm a Taf and was told that the charge was for the guarantee and not for going out to quote the customer! Will clarify this on my next visit to topps.

I got told that today too. So the quote is free but when the customer goes ahead with the service and purchases their materials a fee of £19.99 will appear on their receipt. Lots of places now charge for services that used to be free. Kitchen companies, carpet companies charge customers for home visits I was told by Topps. I don't know whether that is true or not because I have not bought a kitchen or carpets for years.