Can I bitch?

[AmishMike]

I wasn't going to but I am now. At the risk of sounding like my buddy Karen.........
Recently I contacted a vendor on this site, I was looking to purchase about a dozen items (or more) to give away at an event. I was also going to do a give-away for Veterans day.
They responded, but were not going to help. I wasn't looking for much, 10%, or free shipping or something. They were $20-75 small items. I mean I was going to promote their mom-and-pop business for making a great product. When I asked how do I go about ordering X number of items, they responded 'just put them in the cart and check out'.
Needless to say, it didn't happen.
No, it wasn't any vendor that I have spoke about before.

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[Sandevino]

It may also be that they’re not in a position to lose 10% on orders. Who knows…

 

[AmishMike]

Instead, they lost $200-300 worth of an order and the publicity.

 

[Hootbro]

Instead, they lost $200-300 worth of an order and the publicity.

Still does not negate what @Sandevino said that they may not be structured to take a 10% loss even for a $300 net order.

The Veterans thing is a red herring and only has meaning to you, not the business you were trying to get free shipping and/or a 10% discount.

You were trying to leverage terms that was not agreeable to them.

 

[Levi.Butler]

Instead, they lost $200-300 worth of an order and the publicity.

It's their business, not yours.

You have no clue what their profit margins are. If their profit margin is less than 10% (and it probably is if they are a mom and pop shop) and they give you a 10% discount, that 200-300 dollars in revenue ultimately results in a loss for them.

It's their decision to make about whether you (definitely a Karen) have the ability to generate the business it would take to offset whatever loss they incurred by giving you shit for free.

 

[AmishMike]

@Levi.Butler Maybe I should edit the Thread to 'I am a bitch'

Honestly, I was trying to do something nice and thought that it would benefit them as well. They ran cold on me and it bugged me. They have offered discounts before, so it is not out of their realm.
@Hootbro You are right. Just because it is important to me, doesn't mean it is to them, it is their business.

Thanks for the prospective.

 

[IslandFalconer]

As a business person myself, I often get calls like this, can you provide X or do Y. Thing is these days I’m running at about 5% margin, I had to up wages for employees, some of our contracts were for a specified period of time. So I can’t just demand more from the companies I provide services to. So if I get a call asking for a discount below my cost, I any just say yes. Also the “ free advertising “ doesn’t result in an immediate windfall. It’s not like someone doing a giveaway of my products will somehow send everyone my way. Truth is there’s just not big margins anymore to stay competitive, add internet shops with Zero overhead that drop ship to customers. It’s just a different world these days.

 

[Levi.Butler]

@Levi.Butler Maybe I should edit the Thread to 'I am a bitch'

Honestly, I was trying to do something nice and thought that it would benefit them as well. They ran cold on me and it bugged me. They have offered discounts before, so it is not out of their realm.
@Hootbro You are right. Just because it is important to me, doesn't mean it is to them, it is their business.

Thanks for the prospective.

if I am being honest (as a knuckle dragging vet), "This dude is being a little bitch." is the first thing that came to my mind... but not everyone can handle the kind of jargon we have been acclimated to! HAHA!

At the end of the day though, things like military discounts are hard for small businesses to justify. They just don't have the profit margins to be able to do it.

 

[Breaktrack]

My response to the vendor: "Hey, I understand, it's tough times. I'm still going to order a few of the items and give them away as your products are popular and will be handy. Maybe you'll get a boost as word gets out about those products and we can perhaps do some charitable stuff at some point in the future. Take care."

But that's just me.

You can't EXPECT people to jump on board, but there's no harm in asking. But ask with an open heart.

Mac

 

[MaysvilleStig]

@Levi.Butler Maybe I should edit the Thread to 'I am a bitch'

Honestly, I was trying to do something nice and thought that it would benefit them as well. They ran cold on me and it bugged me. They have offered discounts before, so it is not out of their realm.
@Hootbro You are right. Just because it is important to me, doesn't mean it is to them, it is their business.

Thanks for the prospective.

It's all good man. You built some character today.

 

[staying_tuned]

Also consider that many current e-comm platforms like Shopify, magento, wix etc. make it hard to support this kind of thing given coupon codes need to increasingly be tied to collections of SKUs. A general X% off coupon is risky from a business perspective because some agreements state that a particular product can never be listed at X under published value. You get into these scenarios where coupons are generated to groups of SKUs or at best, per vendor when promos appear. Even the act of generating a one-off coupon code could easily take a few hours by the time everything is configured and tested. Not a huge deal if you only have a few SKUs but it gets muddy pretty quick.

You’d have far better luck picking a single item in volume. At least then a vendor can truly rip off a single SKU code, set a week expiration on it and forget about it even if you decide not to order.

 

[AlxCZ]

It may also be that they’re not in a position to lose 10% on orders. Who knows…

Can you imagine if you owned a business and many/several folks reached out to you for a 10% on orders?! I probably would consider it for products that are not selling.

 

[Sandevino]

Can you imagine if you owned a business and many/several folks reached out to you for a 10% on orders?! I probably would consider it for products that are not selling.

I have never offered or entertained discounts for new customers for any products my business sells as everything is custom made to order. I am in the custom furniture business and a discount ends up becoming a labor rate discount as material and supply costs are often not negotiable with vendors. There are select few customers I offer discounts to but they are established customers that routinely place large orders for tens of thousands of dollars.

Around the holidays I’ll offer discounts on quick batch items for quick sale as they’re holiday themed, dated or I’m tired of looking at them…lol. No way in hell am I discounting a piece of furniture that I will invest 20-30 hours of my time building, finishing, shipping or delivering. Time is money and I’m not interested in discounting my time.

I have refused to do business with potential customers looking for a ridiculous deal, comparing me to IKEA or some other volume off-shore pressed board furniture retailer.

 

[AmishMike]

I have come to rather enjoy this thread.
I asked if I could bitch, I bitched, I got called out for being a bitch. Thank you.
Now other people are getting a chance to vent.

 

[Sandevino]

I have come to rather enjoy this thread.
I asked if I could bitch, I bitched, I got called out for being a bitch. Thank you.
Now other people are getting a chance to vent.

I enjoy a good discussion but could do without the name calling.

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