Also, least humble.
And, unfortunately, most delusional.
Anixter declares:
"If you call any of our suppliers and ask them, ‘What do you like about the Anixter team?’ the number one thing I think they would tell you is that they’re probably the most ethical guys in the business.... You can trust the guys from Anixter, and certainly our supplier relationships could attest to that."
Ironically, IPVM has called on both Anixter's suppliers and their customers about Anixter and the results are quite terrible.
In this note, we contrast Anixter's claims to the feedback from people 'in the business' and their new competition with their own suppliers.
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What I have experienced is getting a quick response was not easy. Also, seems to be in a hurry to get through your questions or even to get a quote. Margins are also an issue. So far my over all my experiences with distiributors Scansource has by far surpassed everyone, yet I dont hear to much about them.
Anyone else work with Scansource, comments?
Carla, Scansource was the top choice of both manufacturers and integrators in IPVM's surveys. One limitation of Scansource is that they do not have the local store / branch network of Anixter / Tri-Ed and ADI.
30, 60 or (believe it or not) 120 Days !! time for back-ordering and shipping and getting a product to their final destination here at their local branch in my country. 120 Days, are they serious ??? In this day and age of ultra-fast uber-connected e-commerce and logistics operations around the world is simply unnaceptable in my opinion... What I do is just source the equipments myself directly from any of the greater Miami area's "warehouse stores" or Amazon... if U.S. branch is not responsive, I go to any other of their competitors in Canada, why still bother with the "Anixter middleman" ???
It is easy to find people who have problems/ issues with any of the national distributors. Every large company will have unhappy "customers", same applies to manufacterers. My experience with all of distribution is if you have a relationship with them things tend to go smoother.
That is the beauty of competition. A customer has choices where to buy and customers "vote" with their purchasing dollars. If you keep doing things that make your customers unhappy eventually you will lose them to someone who is doing it right.
"It is easy to find people who have problems/ issues with any of the national distributors"
Sure, though we have survey responses from ~200 industry people, and of those, Anixter does consistently the worse, in terms of positive vs negative feedback, even compared to ADI, which is similar size in the security industry.
If some integrators wouldn't try and stick it to you both way then maybe the customers wouldn't try and buy directly from distributors. We can all appreciate that we are in business to make money, but make your money on the value you add (Integration) not shipping and receiving. Integrators call Anixter "box movers" and then charge their customers to move boxes. Riddle me that.
As I'm reading this timely article arrives in my inbox
http://www.sdmmag.com/articles/91657-anixter-tri-ed-1-year-later-an-exclusive-interview
Yes, that is where the quotes are from. We linked to the article at the top of the post.
Ethical people don't lie, so they must be telling the truth. ;)
Actually, to tell the truth, the inspiration came from noted ethicist Arthur Fonzarelli.
So many manufacturers make the mistake that once they have a distribution company give them permission to load up their intranet with their (manufacturers) part numbers, they can sit back and wait for the orders.
Very simply the manufacturers work is ONLY JUST beginning. Building up a relationship with the ANY distributor is hard work but as we all know can be very rewarding.
I have a certain way of working the distribution route and it seems to work very well, for both sides of the arrangement... Some manufacturers get it.. Some (sadly) don't, those that do, go on to reap the benifits of selling a product through the distribution channel
Anixter did the same thing in the data industry during the DOT.com rise in the 90's and early 2000's. I wouldn't expect them to change now or anytime in the near future. They try to dominate industries and will sell direct whenever they see a chance so don't give them any of your project details before you have a contract for the work yourself.
Anixter employee responds, suggest we are unethical for 'worrying about what Anixter is doing':
So Anixter is allowed to make any claims they want in a public outlet but we are not allowed to criticize them?
Anixter, if you cared as much as being ethical and effective as you do about bragging about it, your customers and partners would be much better served.
"Read my lips, no new taxes"
"I am not a crook"
"I did not have sex with that woman"
"Weapons of mass destruction..."
"Yoiu need Cat6 cable for all camera connections"
Related: Anixter: H.264 Video 'Pretty Much Unusable' With Cat 5E
That's a weird one though because the Anixter VP of Technology in that video is more likely incompetent than unethical, i.e. does he really know what he is saying is incorrect (lying) or does he just not understand something so fundamental?
'The Most Ethical Guys In The Business' is a title that must be bestowed upon an entity by others in the business.
Anyone who tells you that they are the most ethical should automatically be looked upon with extreme skepticism.
Not to mention that the statement is actually a passive/agressive reverse slam on others - i.e. if they are the most ethical, then others are less ethical.
I very much appreciate reading the comments here, but I have 1 question. Many of you talk about how much you dont like Anixter but still continue to purchase through them, why?
I use them as a backup when my distributor does not have stock
I think we're assuming that Anixter only deals with Security manufacturers and integrators. Perhaps if you asked their traditional Enterprise Cabling manufacturers such as Corning, Commscope etc or their Network Cabling integrators such as IBM, Bell etc the responses might be radically different and in favor of Anixter......
Perhaps Anixter is the best in cabling or the worst. However, this quote was from the head of their security division so, unless he was being completely deceitful, he was referring to security manufacturers and integrators.
