AAARGH - Suppliers (warning contains a rant).

[Deleted member 158328]

I'm going to have a bit of a whinge, but wondered if any eCommerce businesses selling other products have the same problems as I do.

I've got a relatively successful business that's been running profitably since it started. My core suppliers are based in the US and Europe who I pay on pro-forma and have no issues with.

I've been looking to expand my business (we specialise in vintage and retro bicycle clothing and parts) and have been contacting a few of the major distributors in the UK. One or two have been ok and we have a good relationship with them and expect to spend several thousand pounds with them this year. However the majority either don't respond when we e-mail them to ask to open an account or say they are not interested because we do not operate a retail business (we do trade out of a business centre).

The worse potential supplier we had we sent an e-mail asking them if we could open an account. The rep rang me back six weeks later and asked if she could come and see us. She turned up wearing jeans a hoody and a rucksack (I kid you not) and then made out they would be doing me a big favour if I dealt with them. A fortnight later they sent me a trade price list and said the rep would be back in touch. That was two months ago !

Is this attitude unique to the sector that I'm dealing with or am I just unlucky.

(Sorry for the whinge but I feel like I'm getting bogged down !)

 

[TheGeekestLink]

That does seem rather unusual and very different to my personal experiences (I have a whole other set of rants regarding suppliers). Mind you, I find an awful lot of retailers don't seem to care very much about the small businesses. I have been treated abysmally by lots of large companies and I find I only start to get a decent relationship going when I'm spending 20+k a year...

 

[OhSoCherished]

Over the years we have had heaps of problems with suppliers. Many like you have experienced, many because we are a small business and an online business, they don't seem to take us seriously or don't want our business. I have placed orders at trade shows and never hear from the suppliers again, they wont respond to email etc, it's baffling!!

We now spend a lot of money with many of our suppliers but still the big suppliers treat us very poorly, awful customer service and we never see reps and they really are not fussed about our business. But I think that's just big businesses in general not just suppliers.

I recently did a lot of cutting off my nose and thought I am going to only work with suppliers that our business means something to them. I got rid of about 3-4 of our worst suppliers, it felt great!!

 

[TheGeekestLink]

Agreed. I've had so many problems this past year that I've made the decision that I won't be treated so badly by them any more and I've changed my entire company inventory to cut them out.

The worst thing by FAR is the outrageous and often disgraceful delays on stock. I've just got some items this week that were supposed to be here in September, and the worst thing is they get so cross when you tell them you want to cancel (as the last thing you want to be doing is spending a huge amount of cash on stock that's just going to sit and do nothing until Xmas). And they can't fathom why you're cross about the huge delays...

I've got far too much stock sitting around doing nothing because of cock-ups like that and it's never going to happen again!

So say NO to bad suppliers! (not that it matters because they have Amazon.co.uk which is the magic wand that makes everything better).

 

[Stephen Davies]

You think that's bad? Try working with one of the major sports shoe suppliers.

We had a rep we nicknamed "slippery nick" because he was a smooth talking ******* who never delivered anything.

You just ended up placing massive orders with him and begging for them to be delivered a month after the deadline.

Meanwhile we swear he spent his life on a beach somewhere...

 

[TheGeekestLink]

You think that's bad? Try working with one of the major sports shoe suppliers.

You just ended up placing massive orders with him and begging for them to be delivered a month after the deadline.

I don't get it! In this age of everyone struggling, how can they treat customers so lightly? A deadline should be just that. It shouldn't be a guideline for a product...

You never get that with blu ray releases, so why do I have to wait six months for my stuff!?

 

[bds]

Try dealing with Italian suppliers and watch your blood pressure go skywards. Their products are fantastic but they do everything as slowly as possible then take August off (the busiest time of our year)

 

[scm5436]

and expect to spend several thousand pounds with them this year.

woah, several thousand pounds a year? To be honest that's peanuts, and for a lot of companies that's probably more trouble than it's worth. If you think about all the time and effort it takes to open an account, check the references, pay for a credit check, and then deal with yet another company (people calling with questions, placing orders, chasing orders, phoning up to check stock, chase payments every month etc etc). If your were a supplier would you rather deal with 10 big accounts or 100 small accounts (assume the same turnover)?

However the majority either don't respond when we e-mail them to ask to open an account or say they are not interested because we do not operate a retail business (we do trade out of a business centre).

We've worked in several different sectors and have had similar problems in many of them but for different reasons. In certain sectors for example the products are best sold in a retail environment, rather than online (or at least as far as the manufacturer is concerned) so in a lot of cases the manufacturers will simply refuse to sell to anyone that doesn't have a physical store. In our latest venture every time we opened an account they first sent a salesperson to our store to check we did actually have a shop. One big supplier even asked for photo's of the interior and exterior before they'd even send us the account forms to fill in!

But to be fair I do tend to agree with them. Too many internet firms just completely trash the price and physical stores can't compete. Some people may say that the dinosaur physical stores should just go out of business then and let the internet companies do all the selling. But the manufacturers might disagree - so they refuse to sell to internet companies, and only sell to 'real' shops. That way everyone can maintain a decent price (call it price fixing if you want, but companies have to make a profit or there's no point). A big store employing several people can't compete with some kitchin table or bedroom based internet trader on price, and 'showrooming' just adds insult to injury.

The worse potential supplier we had we sent an e-mail asking them if we could open an account. The rep rang me back six weeks later and asked if she could come and see us. She turned up wearing jeans a hoody and a rucksack (I kid you not) and then made out they would be doing me a big favour if I dealt with them. A fortnight later they sent me a trade price list and said the rep would be back in touch. That was two months ago !

I was talking to one of our new suppliers about why it was so hard to actually open accounts these days and she said they get lots of requests to open accounts every day. So I guess it's like applying for a job and never getting a reply - it's not just that they don't necessarily care, it's just they get so many applications they just don't have the time to reply to them all - they just pick what they think is the best.

Is this attitude unique to the sector that I'm dealing with or am I just unlucky.

A lot of sectors, for different reasons. Some because they only want to sell through a specific type of outlet, some because they'd rather deal with fewer large companies and lots of small companies only spending a few thousand a year, some because they get some many companies wanting to resell their stuff they just have to pick and choose.

The one problem we're having at the moment is that some suppliers simply refuse to deal with us because we have a competitor nearby that also sells their goods. This is a problem because these are the only suppliers of these goods so we're effectively frozen out of entire brands in our sector.

So, no, you are not alone...

 

[alwaysinamess]

Try dealing with Italian suppliers and watch your blood pressure go skywards. Their products are fantastic but they do everything as slowly as possible then take August off (the busiest time of our year)

Your missing something, we should all take August off, then there would be no problem.