Naughty or Nice: How Does Your Supplier Price Bearings?

by | Dec 5, 2013 | Bearing Solutions, Tips and Advice, Why Choose Ritbearing

This time of year, Santa is said to be checking carefully over all the children to see how they behaved throughout the year. You could benefit by implementing a similar evaluation process when it comes to your bearing supplier.

HAVE THEY BEEN BAD OR GOOD?

A common practice in the bearing industry is for suppliers to stray from the quoted price at the time of shipment. With some bearing orders, fulfillment can take up to two years which means there is a large chance the price of raw materials will change. In other words, it’s not uncommon for an order to be more expensive at the time of shipment, leaving buyers in a limited cash flow situation.

Alternatively, Ritbearing considers itself to be a problem solver for its clients and works to provide solutions in places that the major manufacturers are neglecting. For example, smaller order quantities and orders requiring customized bearings are ideal for a company like Ritbearing.

When we provide a quote to a prospective customer, we stick to that quote throughout the entire purchasing process. Our turnaround time is much shorter than other suppliers (months, not years), which limits the volatility in pricing for raw materials.

If your product must be imported, we take those additional fees into consideration at the time the quote is given. No matter how long it takes to fulfill your order, you can rest assured that the price you’ve been given for a particular order will not change.

Some bearing suppliers act as though their customers (and Santa) are not keeping an eye on whether they are naughty or nice, especially when it comes to pricing. As the year draws to a close, take some lessons from the jolly guy in the red suit and make sure your bearing supplier has your best interest in mind when quoting and delivering your bearings needs.

 

Image credit: Wikimedia Commons