On May 16, 2013 at 21:23, Terrmul said...
ErikS, I agree with you on some points. Where I find their actions unethical is informing a competitor of our intent to compete having said to me on the phone that they would welcome me with open arms. If you have no intention of selling to us, say so, maintain professional confidentiality and let your dealer win the job on their merits.
They likely said they would welcome you with open arms not knowing that your first bid was going to be in direct competition with an existing dealer that had already given a proposal. Once they put two and two together is when they may have opted to inform the competing dealer as you say OR the competing dealer found out you were now bidding the chairs and called Fortress to see what was up and if you were now a dealer. After thinking a bit more about it, I am leaning towards the dealer called them. I still do not think Fortress offered a discount, I think the competing dealer offered this or the client/ID are possibly playing you and the competing dealer to undercut each other so they get a deep discount. The ID is likely how the other dealer found out you were bidding against them with the same product of which he thought you were not authorized for and in turn sparked a call to Fortress.
It is unethical to offer to make us a dealer then actively move against us to ensure we don't get the sale. I would also point out that an ID trying to get an account is one thing but we are a reputable AV dealer with no intention of signing up just for one sale. We have direct lines with most manufacturers and seating is one area we do not. This was a prime chance for them to be the company to fill that hole in our line up.
I do not think they actively moved against you to get the sale. One of their EXISTING dealers had already bid the project and you come out of nowhere to sign up as a dealer and bid against them. That dealer likely called Fortress with questions.
I also think your company is complicit in the poor practice by taking their calls. Not suggesting you are consciously being complicit but maybe you just haven't thought about it because it works in your favor.
In our situation, it has been ID's that have no intention of supporting the line ongoing and Fortress has no intention of handing out the dealer status. In most of the cases they have not only let us know but referred the ID to us as a dealer. To my knowledge this situation has not happened with a competing CI trying to obtain dealer status.
I think that Fortress may have handled it better in that they probably should have called you back to see what the situation was regarding signing up to compete with an existing dealers bid or to confirm that you were not a one sale sign up. At that point they should have confirmed you would be eligible for dealership or said that upon further review it would not be a good time to sign you on.
If it is exactly as you say and after hanging up the phone with you, immediately called competitor to inform them and gave a discount to undercut you, then yes that is unethical but I don't think that is how it happened. If they did call your competitor it was likely that after seeing what you were requesting a quote for they thought it was very familiar and called your competitor to see how much friction this would cause.
