Tradelocks

[lockey1963]

A new uk trade supplier to the locksmith industry selling a good range of hardware , locks and tools as well as some excellent introductory offers.

[Engineer]

Yeah, but they want all your details upfront, before they will even let you look at what they are selling - That alone lost me as a customer of theirs. Shame.

[lockey1963]

Thats because they are a trade only supplier , their prices are excellent and service is good too.

[Engineer]

I am pleased they are good, but it is standard in this industry (and a great many others) to keep the prices secret until you open an account, but to not even let people know what you sell?

Say you want a cylinder lock, you should not want to have to open an account with them, only to find out they do not do the bronze finish you were looking to stock. What if you wanted lever locks, do they even do them?

Sorry.

[79commando]

By opening an account are you commited to spending any money?

[Engineer]

No, I don't think so, at least not that I saw.

You do have to give your details though. Typically a credit search will be done on your bank account when you apply for an account with someone. This affect your credit rating and/or make it difficult to open other accounts shortly after for a while.

[maintenanceguy]

I don't know anything about the above supplier because I'm in the US. But, only allowing trade professionals to view your catalog is standard in the US for legitimate locksmith suppliers. Most won't send you a catalog or allow access to the online catalog until they verify that you are in fact a locksmith, insitution, or other legitimate purchaser.

I suspect that is for 3 reasons: 1) So your customers can't go on line and check your costs. 2) To keep the field of locksmithing secret from the public, and 3) Because they don't want to waste their time with home owners or hobbiest who want to order one lock cylinder or one set of lock picks. They prefer to spend their time and energy on locksmiths that will order hundreds of dollars of supplies at least monthly.

[Engineer]

Actually, in the US and UK I seem to find most catalogues online - The prices are secret as I said, until you open an account. But they all seemed to have catalogues available to anyone for download when I looked (for example):

http://www.bilock.com/doorlocks.html

http://www.medeco.com/products/products.php

http://www.yalelock.co.za/Yale/Template ... _2507.aspx

and so on.

I don't know anything about the above supplier because I'm in the US. But, only allowing trade professionals to view your catalog is standard in the US for legitimate locksmith suppliers. Most won't send you a catalog or allow access to the online catalog until they verify that you are in fact a locksmith, insitution, or other legitimate purchaser.

I suspect that is for 3 reasons: 1) So your customers can't go on line and check your costs. 2) To keep the field of locksmithing secret from the public, and 3) Because they don't want to waste their time with home owners or hobbiest who want to order one lock cylinder or one set of lock picks. They prefer to spend their time and energy on locksmiths that will order hundreds of dollars of supplies at least monthly.

[lockey1963]

just had their latest prices, full 23 piece lishi pick sets £299.99, inner groove picks £17 , tibbe pick/decoders £14 same as the one sold at a wholesalers for £54, their tool and lock prices are at least 25% to 40% cheaper than anywhere else online and any other wholesaler, well worth having to register to view the products.

[lockey1963]

just an update for anyone with an interest, tradelocks can be found here http://www.tradelocks.co.uk/ and they are offering free delivery and an extra £15 discount on all orders of £100 or more using the promotionial cod february