Shady Buyers

[bodybagging]

Ok We have all HEARD about the BAD VENDORS, heres a question for the VENDORS out there,
What do you do about BAD BUYERS, you know the guys, the buyers that Misrepresent themeselves, to portray themselves larger than life to get Huge price breaks, Then sell your product below any reputable source, Discounts on shipping, the guys that cancel out on a order when notified its ready to ship.
How do you handle Bad Buyers.
In my eyes you really dont know they are a bad buyer until after you have sold to them. do you chalk it up to lesson learned? goes without saying not to sell to them again.
what are some of YOUR BAD BUYER HORROR STORIES?

[HEARTSTOPPERS]

Vendor Threats!

At Transworld, I purchased the a case of the BodyBagging DVD by asking "what is the wholesale price?" and offering my Business Card and RESALE NUMBER AS A VALID BUSINSS! No other qualifing questions were asked! I'm selling a copy at below full price because it's OFF-SEASON and I was using an eBay relist credit before it expired...Well I received this email today -


"What a shady little dealer you are. First you secure our product at major price break thru misrepresentation. ( BTW before you go into your speel saying you didnt, Im going to have to believe my wife over you, common sense dictates that.) Now you are undercutting the price on our product. Good luck catching a deal with Haunt vendors in the future. BTW I suggest you secure your own pics of the dvd because you are using artwork not authorized to you. I will report it as such."

********

I asked before about using Tatoo's testimonial and received this...

"Hello Roger,
Thanx for contacting me, Tattoo actually gave me a call earlier, and I was going to give you a call regarding this matter.
When Atalie approached me about selling you a case of DVDs she was under the impression that you were a Brick and mortar store, and I shot you a case at the same pricebreak we give to retailchains on the product, for large quanitys, because I personally want our Product in every single outlet I can get it in, and Im willing to cut a smaller store a break.

Although we appreciate your business, I need you to know that under no circumstances would I have cut you a wholsesale price break of that nature had I known our newly released DVD would have been on EBAY, a week after its debut.

I am now clearly Competing with my own DVD a week into its release.

Again we appreciate the business and good luck with your sales and the season. Rob Johnson"

********

AFTER THIS - THEY SOLD to ANOTHER eBay seller!

"Roger, Lessons learned each and every year, I guess Its part of doing business, I chalk up that Last year My biggest mistake was not listening to Customers, I think maybe this year will have to be Listen to the Buyers a lil closer.
As for lowering your prices to move your units faster, I suggest you do so. you Mentioned that I seemed upset because IM competing with my NEW RELEASE a week after its DEBUT.... WAS a SURPRISE, am I Pleased By it, NO... But we did sell you the product and I expect you to sell it.
But I can quarantee no one will recieve the DVDs from BBE for Retail cost again unless they are order the minimum amount of cases. Lesson learned."

*********

So now, I'm being called a liar and I'm not allowed to use stock photos to sell the product I purchased! Not very business like, however, I'm repling here both to the obvious dig about my integrity and an industry vendor's SELLER'S Remorse.

Roger / Heartstoppers

Edit, I see now why they emailed! They had one up for $19.95 already and I went $17.95. I don't check other people listings before I list, I just threw it up! Well, at least I can price match to be fair... I DID NOT UNDERCUT ON PURPOSE TO COMPETE WITH HIS CURRENT LIST, BUT UDERCUTTING DOES HAPPEN ONLINE AND IN RETAIL!

[bodybagging]

Heartstopper funny how you knew I was referring to you, and for the record no-one else would have known this.... to prevent drama.

I contacted you on ebay, Not here to prevent this from happening... and yet here we are.
and yes we are selling our DVDs on ebay to COMPETE with OUR OWN DVDs sold by YOU.

AS FOR CALLING YOU A LIAR, I ASSUME YOU FELT IT WAS OK TO CALL ATALIE A LIAR.
For the record anyone asking for wholesale was asked if they had a store.


Larry pull this thread .

[xxxdirk]

Rob, perhaps in the future have the "suggested retail price" marked on the items? But THANK YOU so much for being concerned for the brick and morter stores. I have a retail store, and the online/ebay dealers are killing the retail stores. How can a guy like me who has rent and utilities try to compete with John Doe who buys an item for $5 and sells it for $6.50?

[bodybagging]

Dirk, Everything we sell, we sell at a capped price on our website, that way we are never underselling our customers with brick and mortars. The only time prices are lower is for Events, and we would never give major pricebreaks to Ebay sellers.

[AW]

price breaks and dealers

We do small amounts of retail at our locations so we have resell certs and tax id's out the ass, but not normally for what we need to buy at the show . A lot of the guys give us breaks just for the quanity of product we need to buy and some will not sell directly to a haunt at wholesale because thay don't want to piss off the mom and pop party stores. We need gallons (I'm streatching a point) of medical adhehisve & remover and the kryolan rep refused to sell to us becase we had no store front but yet still told me the amount we needed excede (kinda rymes ) what they normally sell to all the stores in our area combined - so let with the choice of buying all the mom& pops out at twice the amount or changing products we lucked out and found an ok product to take the Kryolan products place. We use what we buy and don't try to cut the guys out that give us a break ,
but if any store owner wants to buy wholesale and sell for less than cost it should be on them and judgeing( spelling sucks) by the amoutn of crap on ebay it is rampant
Aven
www.frightfactory.tv

[AW]

price breaks and dealers

Ran out of steam - but I would also expect that if some one is doing it as a routine that sooner or later it is going to catch up with them and the vendors are going to black ball them and cut off the supply
Aw Frightfactory

[HEARTSTOPPERS]

Just to clairify, I was listing for a DVD for $17.95 (now price matched to $19.95) on a
$24.95 SRP item OFF-SEASON. Don't B&Ms have to run clearance sales for seasonal
merchandise? Or use low pricing as a loss leader? Competitive pricing is a standard in retail.


I was told "good luck with your sales and the season. Rob Johnson"
Then a month later - called a liar and told I'm being reported to eBay!

BodyBag actually STILL sells more DVDs through auctions and usually gets more
money because thay allow auctions and take other forms of payment, where I only
take immediate purchase and Paypal Only…

"Good luck catching a deal with Haunt vendors in the future"
I've been selling online, mainly on eBay, for over TEN YEARS and now
someone wants to threaten my business because THEY made a mistake!

It not like I’m selling burned or stolen copies, but now I deserve to be
blackballed from the industry for using standard retail practices?

What would you all here suggest I do?

[AW]

shady buyers

Give me a free one - Just kidding I already bought one-I wasn't saying to black ball you I was saying shit happens but if someone is making a run of undercutting then that would make bad for the rest of us that buy under resale for our own use or to sell in stores - I don't think you did anything wrong what is the diffrence if you offer it at a buck less on e-bay or in your store I don't think you are hitting as many people as Rob does that go to him specifically for that purpose -
but I'm am always up for a good witch dunking so lets get a pole and some rope and throw you in the lake
AW www.frightfactory.tv

[Nightmaretony]

I had promised myself not to jump in but I need to.

I will vouch for Heartstoppers as an honest seller and distributor. I have known Roger for many years and have always thought highly of him as both a person and as a business.

I am offended by the mud being thrown because of him practicing honest business.

I have a product myself being sold through various online venues, both brick and mortar and internet only. They have varying prices as their markup. I have no problem with that, for that is the nature of business. The same applies to closeout pricing. Unless a manufacturer has given you a strict MSRP guideline, they do not have a lot to go on.

Roger, I highly suggest, simply ship back the Boddybagging product and close out all accountables with them. You do not need this kind of abuse whatsoever and it does not need to go into a long drawn out match. You have other manufacturers who have product you represent and know of your integrity over years.

[bodybagging]

personally I suggest you drop it, because again you brought this to the public attention of one of the buyers I was referring to....
And once again the only mistake we made was taking a buyers word for it when asked if they had a store.

On that note, thank you for raising the price on your DVDs, and you said that you did not intentionally undercut our pricing, then I apologize for the negative email.

[bodybagging]

Nightmare tony, I did not post this post about Heartstoppers in general, If he hadnt jumped in, no-one would have ever know I had a issue with him.
I Didnt throw Mud at him for practicing honest business, in fact i didnt throw mud at him at all....
If you say hes a honest vendor, hes got alot of EBAY positives and I can take that at what its worth.
I have stated from the beginning that I feel he misrepresented himself, That I did have a problem with that, and do.

did i contact him on ebay, and express my displeasure yes.
Did i want for the whole hauntworld to jump in on this NO.

again larry pull this thread.

[Grimley]

When we go to shows like Transworld to make purchases we do so with the assumption that we can resell the product through any distribution method we have. I have never had a vendor say that we can't have wholesale prices if we sell on an auction site. As a matter of fact if any vendor ever even considered telling me this I would never even visit there booth again. I am at a wholesale show buying products to resell. So yes the people you are selling to will in effect be your competition to a certain degree. The benefit you have is the pricing which you can undercut. If you are selling at a wholesale show don't ever tell me where I can or can't resell it. You will see your client list shrink real fast.

[Grimley]

And yes many retailers will take a loss on an item to get new customers in the door which he was probably trying to do.

[graystone]

Rob...

My friend all I can say is looks like we just need to remain quiet and turn the other cheek as long as its not Ben,Larry,Keith and the other couple of love boat riders its ok. Dont beat a dead horse whatever you do. Give him time, hell give him 10 years and he will make it right with you. Karma is a b*^#h and what goes around comes around. Your products are great and your company is honest and hard working, Your in good company with many great vendors out there. Dont do as I did let one bad experiance get you down. You cant win here. But in time the Titanic will sink and and a new bigger ship will sail. And thats more than my 2 cents worth. Thats a fact. Hang in there man if it gets bad pull a self pitty card and tell the world your going away. You will sell one million DVD's. And if your really lucky you will get a call begging you to change your mind. Honestly man your awsome in my book. Shane