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Pros vs. Cons buying plumbing fixtures on-line?

12 years ago

So I've read some past discussions on here @ gw.com but I'd like to relight the fire a bit since we are @ this moment in our build phase.

Our local F..son's is providing some discussion points in its argument against buying plumbing parts to our builder.

Our contract with our builder does not prevent us from supplying our own parts as part of the allowance; builder has only stated that he uses F..son for ease of communication should issues arise during construction but that's it.

So F..son's arguments are:

1) Missing parts in delivery

2) Owner fails to order special parts required for installation

3) Plumber needs to make additional trips if parts are incompatible from outset.

4) F..son's has special "wholesale quality trades fit only" parts & fixtures

5) As part of builder's 1 year home warranty, builder will have to chase down missing parts which may not be same# as trades or mass vendors.

In our own situation, we spent a couple of hours w/ the F..son's designer & they essentially showed us around the store & we picked what was shown on the floor - without really sitting down for hours pouring over their different catalogs.

Some picks turned out to be the same as another of our builder's houses in this development. (not very custom if you ask me)

Ultimately, after compiling a workbook & discovering what our style really was, we were able to nail down on our choices on our own & submitted a list to F..son's for a quote.

F..son's ended up costing $1500 more & they have supposedly access to every single one on our list from their inventory.

Now, we'd rather buy local to support our economy here but @ $1500, we could also buy a home warranty to eliminate all the issues that arises out of the list above.

So, we would appreciate any debate points from the community to educate & highlight for us any PRO's & CONS because right now, with the amount of prep hours that we have poured into our research on the fixtures parts & their compatibility & knowing far more now (help from you all here btw!) than going in - I can say with confidence that:

1) There is no magical parts that a good plumber has, that can only fit F..son's bought fixtures.

2) That a good plumber is able to problem solve any component issue esp. if he's not selling the fixtures & is only fitting it to the water line

3) That the good builder/contractor/construction/inspector team we have assemble will resolve any assembly issue of our on-line components without being a $1500 or more additional cost or cause delays due to parts issues.

4) the F..son's is not selling anything of quality difference than what we are able to get from build.com sites or other reputable vendors.

5) There is no guarantee that F..son's can resolve any parts compatibility issue themselves as quickly as a reputable on-line vendor.

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