I can understand it if an ID,builder,gc or trunk slammer called, however termmul is the furthest thing from a trunk slammer, he is a legitimate company that has won numerous industry awards So stop throwing him into the TS category.

They shouldn't of called the other dealer plain and simple. If they were truly this locked down they shouldn't of even accepted his call and said sorry this territory is locked down. They went as far as offering the other company a discount so they could undercut termmuls price just incase the client went with him. How can you remotely say this is/was ethical?

This is a disgusting display of favorites and I guess fortress just started a "tiered" pricing category for this dealer and territory huh?

The BS is getting more nuanced so lets all put on our Big Boy Pants. Let's get back to the crux of the issue:

We contacted Fortress for a quote. The Fortress sales person then, once he hung up with me, called the competitor, tipped them off to our request for quote and the competitor has since lowered their price.

I called Fortress back and made it very clear that I thought their actions were unethical. They are unapologetic about their action but apologetic that I should feel upset.

- The ID is the one who got the quote from the Fortress dealer then shared with the potential new dealer and long term client CI, Termul.

- Termul calls to become a dealer and get a quote on the configuration that the ID selected off a website, with further revisions on configuration and leather color. I'm sorry the original dealer went through 'several revisions,' probably nothing compared to what Termul has gone through with his existing client.

- Fortress calls existing dealer to let them know what's going on and ask approval of existing dealer to allow new dealer, existing dealer says no.

- Existing Fortress dealer responds by lowering the price.

I find it pretty weird that Fortress would call the original dealer first before doing the legwork to ascertain whether Termul was a trunk slammer or not, then on top of that asks the existing dealer if it's OK if Termul becomes a dealer.

This is in the greater Los Angeles market so I'm somewhat incredulous that Fortress would be so 'protective' of their existing dealer before considering that Termul might be a good dealer to sign up with an win over in loyalty.

Then there's the price dropping issue. I wonder where Fortress stands on somebody dropping their Big Boy Pants by wheeling and dealing on cost.

Despite the assertions of dealer loyalty it seems the wise choice would have been to call Termul back first before the existing dealer. You're not seeing the forest for the trees: the client may want to work with Termul, and Termul might be a potential loyal dealer for Fortress.

Now, I guess not.

"I still don't understand the complete 180 of opinion several of the posters in this thread have flipped compared to threads in the past. Everyone is always ranting about manufacturers not being loyal and this is an example of just how loyal Fortress was to the existing dealer"

Exactly! It's normally people complaining about s**p giving dealerships to anyone with a pulse and lately their ripoff of intellectual property with their landscape series.

Here we have an integrator that seems to have taken someone else's intellectual property and a manufacturer trying to protect their dealer and not give anyone who inquires a dealership. They seem to be doing exactly what many/most on here would want done with them if someone tried taking one of their qoutes and establishing a dealership to meet the needs of a sold job.

I think turmill is more upset over lost profit than anything to do with ethics.

Termul didn't blow a sale, Fortress blew an opportunity to make a new relationship with a credible dealer in a very large market. The ID made the mistake, and Fortress, in their wisdom and experience base, didn't handle it well. I'm sure they've been in this position before.

Either way, I know it isn't that simple to spec chairs. Which makes it even weirder that the existing dealer would drop the price after doing all that work.

You're not doing Fortress much favors, wasting all your free time wearing your Big Boy Pants on this forum.

I don't think anyone said fortress lowered the price, it was the other dealership.

If the customer had so much loyalty toward Termul how was he sold someone elses product, why couldn't the product be switched, and why would the discount be an issue?

We are not a Fortress dealer but contacted them in good faith that we could certainly fulfill any dealer commitments. The sales guy at Fortress told me he would be getting back to me with a quote and dealer paperwork. Within minutes I got a call from the ID who had been contacted by our competitor saying that they had been contacted by Fortress and could offer a discount.

Fortress offered the discount to get the original dealer the sale. The better path would have been to work this out and not play with the $.

I thought we're all professionals here.

Did you miss the point where the ID drove the product selection yet wasn't aware that Termul is a home theater dealer that offers seating?

Termul did the right thing by going to Fortress first since the ID did all that design work with the other dealer. Which they now discounted.

Maybe the other dealer should have put their big boy pants on and charged for their design work up front.

The discount could have come out of their profit, not even termil is saying fortress gave a discount. Fortress probably called the dealer and told them someone else is trying to buy their quote, how they choose to save their sale is on them.

As I said in an earlier post, if termil had thought of where the client was going to sit before seeing/hearing of a $40,000 furniture sale we wouldn't be having this conversation. If the client was so loyal to him and value hadn't been built in the fortress brand before termil was involved we wouldn't be having this conversation.

You are basing that off an ID that is looking for the best deal for their client as well as Terrmul that was denied dealer status costing him a 40k sale(I would be pissed too). We are a fortress dealer and have been contacted in the past more than once by fortress when an ID has tried to sign up as a dealer to steal our sale. Not once have we been given a discount. If there was a discount offered it was by the dealer. I know you are an experienced integrator and respect you as such but in your experience, have you never had a client or ID play price games with you such as this? "Well the other dealer said he would discount it, so what can you do?" We are friendly with many local dealers that we compete with and especially in the past few years we have talked about clients that have done this to all of us with each others bids when no discount was ever offered.

Maybe Termil can start contracting this company to design future furniture quotes, or just go to their jobs and tell the clients that he can do the same for the same price if they can text him part#s and specific colors off the quote.

If Terrmul was denied the dealer status based on Fortress' own account, why was it necessary for the current dealer to give discount?
With 'protected' territory, the existing dealer holds all the power. With no threat of competition, why lower the price? 

I will be the first here to say that after some thought, I see this differently. I just put in many hours on a commercial quote that will bring in a full week of labor AND product sales income. If the business manager took my quote and passed it on to another AV company because he was dating his the installer's sister, I would be enraged.

I think we get stuck defending our friends over a rational understanding of the actual sales process. Fortress stepped in to explain and I support them and would appreciate the same support from a direct dealer supplier.

We can all learn a lesson here to over communicate the full breadth of our services to builders and IDs.

Flame away

That's why I don't think a discount was offered. I think the ID/client are playing a price game for Terrmul to possibly offer another line at a discount or keep trying for fortress dealer status and then match the "discounted price".