Topps Tiles -Love it or hate it?

[TilersTilingTiles]

Recently priced a job in a loft conversion. One bathroom and one ensuit shower room About 50m2 total with porceline floor tiles and ceramic wall tiles. The client asked me to provide a labour only quote and a seperate quote detailing the materials needed and how much I could supply it all for. Apparently topps tiles is doing a discount on materials if you buy your tiles through them too. Anyway it turned out that I could get the materials for just under half of what topps quoted even with the discount.

Topps tiles used to be our main supplier when i was an apprentice and when they used to have their own brands of adhesive were very reasonably priced.

Now some of my clients are paying £50 a bag for Bal rapid set flexi. How do they justify that!

Topps Tiles -Love it or hate it? for more...

Tile Forums @ tilerstilingtiles.co.uk

 

[JAMES MCK]

I use my local Topps Tiles, brilliant service, nice and friendly very helpful. There was one night I had run out of tub adhesive and one of the chaps even stayed back half an hour until I got there. Contacted my local CTD at Byker, Newcastle to ask their trade prices as I was working in that area and was told they could not give me the prices over the telephone. They then contacted me through an advert I have in yellow pages asking if they could send me out some paperwork to fill in to open up an account. Filled paperwork in and heard nothing. Contacted them awhile after this, explained to them I was on the tiling forum and they had been reccommended to me. I was sent some more paperwork to fill in and have never received any correspondance at all from them to this day yet. They obviously do not need my business.

 

[DHTiling]

If you phone them up..your account will be active........they do not always contact you.....

I find the service in CTD second to none compared to my local topps.....Just depends upon each store....IMO...

 

[MTiler]

I dont have a CTD near me and avoid Topps (although I use BALs black grout) so use local independants (plus N&C) that sell decent stuff ie.Ardex, Mapei & tons of other stuff and i dont get treated like an idiot.

missT

 

[AndyD]

I've found Topps in Northampton to be really helpful and service is good, they aren't always the best price though depending upon what you buy eg their solid oak wood flooring was great quality at a really good price though their adhesive was 3 times the price I paid elsewhere for a tub. In recent years their focus seems to be more on the retail rather than trade which perhaps explains their higher pricing. Someone mentioned Tile Clearing house earlier, I was told that they were owned by Topps and was their method of getting rid of obsolete tiles.

Personally if you're in the midlands I would have a look at Cash & Carry tile warehouse. I use their Northampton branch and the guys are great and prices pretty competitive

 

[Leatherface]

Would drive 10 miles the other way to avoid any Topps Tile shops, never mind walk through the door. Over priced adhesives, poor quality tools, ropey tiles, the B & Q of the Tile World :incazzato:

 

[LJB Tiling]

Would help if they actually had prices on their addy and grout or is it just my local Topps that you have to ask the price for everything?

 

[dentyboy]

James
I am sorry to hear you have had no responce from CTD if you can ring on Monday and ask for Lynn I will make sure we send you some thing out sraight awawy!

 

[FreeD]

Not a fan...everytime i go in there and try for a product...they don't have it and try to sell me an alternative...today went in looking for latex based slc for ply...guy said didn't have one but suggested i rip up the ply, buy hardibackers from them and pack out the boards with cement based adhesives and use longer and longer screws as i go to adjust to new levels...make sense to anyone? lose £120 worth of ply £30 worth of no nails, 1 days labour, look like a complete novice to the customer etc etc then faulk out on a new system which is even worse :mad2: Also asked for 10mm trims this morning didn't have any suggested 12.5mm hmmm thans gonna look good on a 8.8mm tile!

Anyway at least the new manager of my local store is friendlier than the last...got to be honest though none of my local tile shops are any good for advice...even the guy i went to to buy mapei fibre plan today 25 years time served sold me fibre plan ans said no need for primer just a good hover...phoned mapei and they said it was essential and that i'd been given incorrect advice...not trying to sell there products, they recommended i used the SBR i had to hand.

 

[Mrs Tiler]

I use Hampshire tile warehouse (also known as The Tile Source), great discounts, free delivery to site and nice service - so never go to Topps

 

[Mrs Tiler]

No, not just your local topps, the one in Southwick is just the same.. How are doing with your jobs?

 

[Thespanishtiler]

hate it

 

[obobsmith]

Just starting out, guys in TOPPS could not have been more helpful, Business card and ID five min and I've got a trade account, brill.
Time will tell obviousley but when your at the start of a journey all help is welcomed.
The guys told me exactly what I needed to set it up and when I came back to them they remembered me set it up and made me feel welcome.

Jobs a good'un time and experiance will tell in the long run, but hey I'm new to this and happy with prices I was given.

Thanks to Darren at NETT for giving me an idea of what to expect.

 

[Wetroom 1]

Heres a thing of interest im on the approved scheme for topps, but the staff in tops wanted me to tank the whole room including walls on a job, i went and viewed the job and explained that there was no reason to tank the whole room, they shunned what i said and informed me to sell it to the customer. In the morning i will be telling topps to shove all there work from now on, i will say this is only one store. The other thing is im a approved impey installer, but why do topps sell a wet deck thats 30mm thick? nothing to do with hardy backer board by any chance.:ban:

 

[mikethetile]

ive had to change my tune on topps

every time ive tried them in the past ive regreted it

overpriced

poor product knowledge

idiot staff

working out of town and needed hardi backer, went to topps prepared for a nightmare

was pleasantly surprised

helpfull staff

full product knowledge

opened trade account and got reasonable prices ( non of this two topps reciept nonsence, just had to prove i was trade)

this has come just right as there is no ctd anywhere near me and my usual independant is going from bad to just about impossible to deal with

i shall carry on using topps while they give me this level of service

 

[obobsmith]

I've no complaints with Hillington branch looking for my first trade account could not have been easier, that means good cust service to me, so far that is the most important thing to me.

If they continue to impress ( I like to think i'm not an idiot:drool5: ) then I will be happy to use them, it seems that as with all things its not the company but the staff in store that make the difference and I am well chuffed with the TOPPS guys at Hillington.:8::8::8: