Unreasonable Expectations of customers

[ArabianNights]

Hello to all here!!

I haven't been on this forum for quite sometime, so I thought I'd check in. Also, I feel this place is the best place to get some advice from others in businesses.

I have had some customers who are based outside of the UK, who are requesting from us samples of big brand name fragrances (which we supply on wholesale basis) and are niche brands, quite expensive. We have said that we can provide 3 of 1ml vial samples for free, as long as they provide cost of postage and packing. Wholesalers of perfumes do not usually supply free samples, since shops stocking them are not buying for personal use, but according to customer demand and the market and they would know what to buy, according to what sells. Samples are usually sold as a stand alone product. Now, this potential customer is based on one of the Islands off Africa who is opening a shop and wants to stock perfumes. The postage and packing for 3 x 1ml samples is only £9.75 or US$11-12.

He is saying that this is too expensive and he expects me to send whole bottles as a 'sample' to him for free. I obviously said no way - no perfume business sends out whole bottles as samples, for free they are usually 1ml vials, as a cost + postage and packing.

Just so I can get this right in my head - am I being unreasonable? I have noticed this a LOT and it seems that customers expect things for virtually free these days :/

What do you do in this situation?

Thanks so much

 

[John Blakeman]

I agree with your stand point and someone on an island off Africa should understand that delivery comes at a premium. Sounds like they're chancers or fraudsters.

 

[Clinton]

Customer pays for it and you take that cost off of their first order. If they don't agree to that they aren't serious about buying.

 

[KateCB]

I agree with Clinton; a sample is not a salable product therefore a full bottle is not necessary - if they want a full size sample they have to pay a full size price, plus of course the additional shipping cost that the weight of a full size bottle will attract - the 3 x 1ml sample plus shipping you could stand to refund him once he places a large enough 'wholesale' order afterwards

I have customers who want a sample of our embroidery - I will send out a 6 inch sample for £1 + P+P or they can look at our photographs online. If they are not prepared to pay, then I simply don't send it - I have to MAKE my samples, any fool can work for free!

 

[myfairworld]

My response would be to wonder about supplying them at all. Are they going to pay up if they are already so unreasonable at this stage?

As a retailer my experience has been that wholesalers do sometimes supply samples for free - and with no postage - but this is generally when they are launching something new. So a chocolate company may send you a leaflet about the new flavour of bar along with a bar of that chocolate hoping that you and you staff will sample a square or two each and this will encourage you to buy the new flavour. But these are UK based companies sending within the UK. But it isn't the retailer asking for a sample, it is the wholesaler trying to get the word out about their new product.

Some wholesalers offer samples you can order (along with a normal full size order for their products) and the samples are charged for but are actually intended for sale to customers. For example an incense supplier would sell us sample packs containing several aromas to sell to customers who wanted to try out various aromas without committing to full size packages. The same wholesaler would offer that if you were about to do something really special - such as going to a fair or having week long promotion of their goods at your shop - they'd let you have samples at half the normal price so that you could actually give them away to customers as part of the event. But all this is a far cry from what you are being asked for.

 

[MOIC]

Don't waste your time on them.

 

[Mark T Jones]

Not really a matter of 'these days'. Different cultures and individuals have different ways of negotiating

In this case the customer might be a complete chance for might be just opening negotiation. Your response is simply to state your position and stay with it.

 

[deniser]

These are either:
1. people who are totally clueless and will never be opening a shop so are wasting your time or
2. fraudsters who email companies all around the world asking for samples and then sell everything they get sent

We used to wholesale a particular fashion item and the genuine shops were always willing to pay for samples. The only ones who expected them for free were the bored housewives toying with the idea of starting a business. The latter accounted for about 95% of enquiries.

So don't bother with them.

 

[ArabianNights]

Thank you so so much ladies and gentlemen for your replies! Phew!!! I thought maybe I was being unreasonable, but seems I am not Clinton is absolutely spot on - that is an excellent idea to charge for samples and then get it refunded off the next order. At the moment I ask for payment towards postage and packing, and I find the genuine ones are absolutely fine with that - albeit, a small percentage, and others complain about the 'high postage' rates. Thank you so much for allowing me to bounce my thoughts off with you all

 

[The Byre]

An island off Africa???

Ignore! Now!

 

[ArabianNights]

Hahaha! Yes Mauritius. He does live there, he is on my facebook. They cant get a huge variety of perfumes there

 

[SEO ProjectSuite]

Are you serious ? If they want to open a shop (wherever), they need to have capital for a stock.

Ignore them, as it smells like a fraud.

BTW this is not a customer but a prospect !

 

[ArabianNights]

True! Completely agree!

 

[Root 66 Woodshop]

Personally I'd tell them the cost is their commitment to you as a supplier. As @Clinton has stated previously, offer to take the £9.75 off their first order if their genuine they'll go for it.

Payment terms will need to be agreed with them, i.e. their first 2-3 orders should be upfront before you consider offering them a 30 day account (unless you don't do this of course).

 

[Ashley_Price]

This is being unreasonable.

I have sent a few samples to prospective customers but not at this sort of price of course, and only then if I have felt there is a good chance of getting a sale further down the line.