Happens with ADI all the time.

Guys at the counter don't even open a box to see what's inside. Back when I did lots of intercoms, I found several room station boxes on the shelf that had stuff that was at least 20 years old, covered in cobwebs and other filth.

Just recently bought a Extang Full Tilt tonneau cover for my truck, on Ebay. What was supposed to be new, shipped from the factory (dealers don't stock these things), I get a box that has no packing staples, no instructions, no nut and bolt package, and a badly beat up cover with holes in it.

You think anyone gives a shit?

Your anger should be at AVAD for not testing the returned item.

I have to play devils advocate here. I deal with AVAD in Mississauga Ontario and I have never received poor service. They counter guys, Mike, Frank, and Don, are friendly, know their stuff, and know me even though I'm small potatoes. Joe the Manager has helped me out personally both with issues AVAD had created and on issues I have created. The only real mistake they have made was shipping someone else's order to me, and we have the same company name, just in different cities so I can see how that mistake was made.

I have no problem dealing with them. I find a lot of experiences with wholesalers is based on their front line people. I avoid my local ADI when possible.

Craig

This thread is kind of funny to me.

I ranted & raved about both AVAD & ADI here in the southeast, over 10+ years ago - on a few forum boards. They were always screwing stuff up and then screwing the dealer on it. Haven't done business with either one in that 10+ years and haven't missed them one bit.

Advise: If you are in the southeast USA, do NOT do business with AVAD or ADI. At some point you will regret it. There is nothing these places carry, that you can't get somewhere else.
Even if it is an exclusive, usually you can get it somewhere else for just a little more. If it is truly something you can't get anywhere else, it probably is something you shouldn't sell anyway.

why are you selling a product with no margin. At least with a margin product you don't completely loose your a$$ when it is a repack

I never understood dealers that claim you cant make money with Ubquiti! Thats just simply NOT the case. If that is ones case, they eed to rethink their business model. And that business model is to make a profit. Its no harder to make a profit with Ubiquiti than it is ANY other IT products. That's a FACT. PERIOD. Good grief folks.

(unrelated to OP!)

Tuck, I had clients that wanted to keep boxes.
Why? I don't know. Maybe they wanted to check model numbers against Amazon.

I've had clients that checked model numbers on back of xyz.

The packaged price only goes so far on small installs where client knows that I charge $85/hr and I was there for x hours.

This is thread drift now, but anything bought from us is value added. We chose it cause it works, or it's supported or why ever we like it. Not because some keyboard warrior gave it 5 thumbs up on Amazon. Those reviews are meaningless. A customer gets more comfort in knowing that what they bought is the right product when it comes from us. Sure they could Amazon every single bit in the install but there's no way they would have come to the decision of all that product on their own. Not without likely buying a bunch of crap that didn't work first. I have no problem explaining this and charging list price or at least retail price. Plus when I provide it, I will re/re it and bring it for service for 1 year as part of my warranty. Provided equipment gets no such service. I spell it all out in a handy spreadsheet in my final delivery package that each customer gets, every single thing in the system, who it was provided by, what the warranty period is, what's covered, and how to go about getting that done. That's a value add as well. Just sell it, and if they don't see the value then they can get the stuff on eBay and be happy that they saved 10$. When it fails I make it up on T&M during the re/re.


Back on track here, I'm fortunate to live close enough that I visit most of my suppliers in person. I'm going to start checking boxes. Should have a long time ago.

Craig

I would strongly warn you against this, in this day & age.

Back when we made margin on products, everyone could do this. Plus we used brands that were reliable to begin with. If something went bad, it was covered. There was enough margin in the product, that no one was sweating it.

Now a days = Everything under the sun seems to have problems now & then. No matter what brand it is. And because of manufactures and the internet, we make very little margin on anything.
Are the manufacture paying you to warranty their crap? Hell no! And they have taken away margin on us to do so, even if we wanted.

Policy has been for awhile now - Time & Materials. Even if we supply it. If they want to buy it themselves, fine. They are responsible for making sure a working product is there when we come to install. If something's missing or screwed up, they are still paying for our time. If we provide it, we at least take care of that part (that is what the "small" markup is for). But even 20 days after we put it in, if it fails (even if we provided it), they still are paying a service fee.

To do work for free for greedy manufactures, is a quick way to put yourself out of business these days.

That sounds like good advice from someone with experience in the matter. I have been fortunate up to now I guess that I havn't had to waste a lot of time on it.

Is anyone else interested in weighing in? Does anyone offer something like I do? Even for a month? Or am I behind the times completely?

Craig

Just to clarify for you.
I don't always enforce the charging the customer for every trip rule. If the customer spent a lot of money with me and something I sold did have a problem 20 days (or even 40 days) afterwards, I would most likely take care of them. But you always send an invoice with how much it was and then zero out the balance for them. This shows the customer that your time is worth money.

It also always you however to give that invoice to that a-hole that beat you up on price in the beginning and made the job difficult. That $ per hour keeps adding up :)

I like it. I'll admit I treat my customers differently from one to another as well. Some people are awesome and you want to really help them. Others not so much. . Some I answer the phone, others I screen via voice mail first, haha.

I've had that happen to me at A*ad on a TV I purchased as "new". It had clearly been opened once I noticed the bag with the power cable had been torn open and returned as new.

I don't really mind stuff that has been opened or returned as new. As long as it is just that.
When I get something that has been clearly well used, then I have an issue. Either they are taking it back on their dime or giving me a significant discount (if it all checks out OK).