Topps Tiles -Love it or hate it?

[Tilers, Tiling & Tiles]

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

[LM Ceramics]

im in between with topps there alrite i now use tile clearing house or euxton tiles

[Grace'sDad]

Agreed - it is extortionate what they charge but if you can charge it and they the public will pay it - why not??? I charge as much as I can. I have a family to look after. They have shareholders to look after.

The whole Topps issue is very much dependant each store and it's staff and managers. Preston store is excellent in my opinion for trade and public.
Their hands are tied by Directors decisions a little too much in my opinion but I think the staff there are 1st rate.

[cornish_crofter]

Topps are Ok on the whole. They beat CTD's offer price for a Rubi TS 60 plus recently, and got it in for me in a few days. They also stock a few things that CTD in my area don't, and they have longer opening hours.

I tend to visit CTD when I go into Plymouth on Mondays, but I usually get there just before they close at 5.00. To be fair to the lads and lass at CTD they always give me damn good service, even if my turning up does stop them from going home on time.

As far as product knowledge and service goes I prefer CTD in Plymouth rather than the Topps branch. However Topps do tend to stock a larger range of materials. Topps and CTD will compete on price for a given product.

[monty]

I prefer TOPPS to CTD

[doug boardley]

my suppliers are independents,only been into topps once and was appalled at the price and the quality of the service from the sullen youth who served me.I like to pay my accounts as soon as I can,but sometimes circumstances dictate otherwise, my suppliers are always considerate and never hassle me if 30 days have lapsed,I wonder how the nationals would be in such a situation?

[whitebeam]

The staff at my local one are brilliant

[Daz]

Am I right in saying that Topps share price has plummeted and they are now planning to close at least 50 stores? Not sure what regions, but I believe they are experiencing financial difficulties.

[pjc]

i have just supplied a local tiler with bal adhesive and some tiles less than half the price topps wanted to charge him trade :Pete

[BDS]

The topps store in hull that i use are great,i have a laugh with a few of the guys in there. no other BAL stockist that i know of can come anywhere near there prices for BAL to me that is(trade),i pass a good bit of discount on to customer too,so i`m happy/customers happy/topps are happy well maybe not too much but tough...oh and just to add to that topps had some tiles sent to me via a different courier,i was needing tiles delivered there on site on the time and day i stated and i specifically said time and date (was promised by topps and courier),subsequantly they wasn`t so job stopped for day (no fault of topps) it was couriers fault,so friend,labourer and me was of job for a day which wasn`t good so i lost temper a bit with topps and courier(again wasn`t topps fault really)but long and short of it i was reinbursed for loss of earnings (all 3 of us) and a bit on top so a big thumbs up to topps for that.

[david campbell]

dont know what topps your using but glasgow(shawfield) are doing the bal rapid flexi for £24 to trade,tile prices are ok compared to other places and they will always price match other tile distributers,the staff are brand new and quite knowledgable compared to most places big xmas cheer to chick and his staff

[Oli]

I find that the a topps near me isnt very good, and the staff arent too friendly, contrast this with the nearest CTD to me, which is about half an hours drive, where the staff are very friendly, always happy to help out and have a good chat.

Im more that happy to drive for half and hour (each way) to go to the CTD where i feel welcome as apose to the topps where i dont.

[david campbell]

I find that the a topps near me isnt very good, and the staff arent too friendly, contrast this with the nearest CTD to me, which is about half an hours drive, where the staff are very friendly, always happy to help out and have a good chat.

Im more that happy to drive for half and hour (each way) to go to the CTD where i feel welcome as apose to the topps where i dont.

i think the staff at my local topps have part time jobs in your local ctd

[pjc]

but why do people put up with getting charged about 50% more than SRP ? i couldn't send a customer there knowing that they were going to get riped off anyway why don't they just send me their spare cash

[Billy Hunt]

Can't stand Topps myself,Products are good but the people selling them seem to have very little product knowledge.

Went in the other week for a bag of standard setting white wall adhesive,"we don't sell that" came the reply,"but we do sell this new on the market grey flexible fast setting adhesive"WTF.

Its not the first time either,popped in to price a tanking kit up and had to tell the assistant what a tanking kit actually was,I ended up having to show him one in the store he actually works at.

[david campbell]

why dont you tell the customer you,ll supply the whole lot,they make a huge saving and you can make a cut for using your time,both you and the customer are winners

[pjc]

why dont you tell the customer you,ll supply the whole lot,they make a huge saving and you can make a cut for using your time,both you and the customer are winners

I do but i dont get it from Topps lol

[malcolml]

used to work at topps found sat training a bore sometimes but overall their training is good but it depends on the person learning and how far they want to go in this trade!! i am now with c t d and find it a better place to work still miss some of the people i know at topps but such is life anyway topps are expensive on adhesives from bal but can be reasonable on own brand but not as cheap as here!!! PLUS FREE HOT DRINKS HERE (BONUS)

[pjc]

used to work at topps found sat training a bore sometimes but overall their training is good but it depends on the person learning and how far they want to go in this trade!! i am now with c t d and find it a better place to work still miss some of the people i know at topps but such is life anyway topps are expensive on adhesives from bal but can be reasonable on own brand but not as cheap as here!!! PLUS FREE HOT DRINKS HERE (BONUS)

Do you charge more than SRP ? i wouldent think so even to retail well you never used to when i used you :Pete

[malcolml]

since working here i,ve found that there is a big difference prices between us but every region is different depending on whats classed as social pricing i cant control what every region charges but up here we are better value in my opinion

[david campbell]

everyones a winner ha ha

[bonnietiler]

Now, when Ted Derbyshire, ran and owned it, back in the good old days, I used to sell him tiles, he managed to purloin a Direct account from Johnsons arouns the same time that Texas Homecare got one, he was a decent bloke and ran a fine company. He sold it to a couple of lads from London who had "American" ideas of how to maximise profit.
Good chap Ted was, he dressed like Arkright from Open All Hours.
BonnieT

[Fred]

Their in the credit crunch, and are trying to make ends meet. Like the yellow pages, I've just re-newed my package, instead of 10 months intrest free payments, they want the payments over 7 months and all different fees per month.....in other words they want the money in asap to keep afloat..............

[MIKE1]

I find topps staff helpful but there adhesives are getting expensive.The 1st time i used them got good discount now not so. I prefer ctd for tools . I haven't done many jobs have used either ctd or topps just because they are very easy to get to.

[Mad Hatter]

I find that the a topps near me isnt very good, and the staff arent too friendly, contrast this with the nearest CTD to me, which is about half an hours drive, where the staff are very friendly, always happy to help out and have a good chat.

Im more that happy to drive for half and hour (each way) to go to the CTD where i feel welcome as apose to the topps where i dont.

Ditto, the lads at the Manchester branch are spot on. First impressions go a long way and I've not been back to Topps since.

[mart08]

My local topps is less than 5 minutes down the road and i pop in most mornings for a brew and quick chat. The team there are spot on. I'm on their books as a fixer and along with them recommending me to customers i get about 80% of my work from them. Only been tiling for about 6 months but only had 3 days off so far!! Theres not much in it price wise with CTD but they are bit to far away from me.

[westcoast tiler]

As others have said both Topps and CTD depends on the Staff

CTD just open in Inverness with the topps manager now there
so we get the best of both worlds.


All the best from the west

[theyomper]

My local Topps is excellent not only for me but from the comments I receive from the customer...they can't fault the service. I am their number 1 TAF and i get first call on all their tiling,laminate and wood flooring work. Even if I get jobs from private customers who get their tiles from other local independants I will still buy all my addy etc from Topps. The old adage... 'You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours'.....I get fed up with people slagging them off...........Yes they are expensive on Bal products but you can swing this to your advantage if needs be.........on another point...where else can you return an individual tile and get a refund rather than a whole unopened box !

[CJ]

Topps are spot on in my area. 45min drive to nearest CTD so thats a no no

As for prices..........so so

[Daz]

.........on another point...where else can you return an individual tile and get a refund rather than a whole unopened box !

Only ever been able to return a full unopened box to Topps, you must have a "special" relationship????