Quote:
Originally Posted by bret
[FONT= " Courier New"]Back in the day, you had to have a brick and mortar location to become a dealer for some manufacturers. Now, you can buy Ridetech from a dude sitting at a laptop in his boxers in the comfort of his own living room just cuz he has a website. Hell, I’ve even caught manufactures selling product direct for less then what dealer cost is?? WTF is that about? That just isn’t ethical to me." [/FONT]
Jon...just trying to clarify...are you saying that you have seen RideTech sell product direct at less than retail price? Or are you saying that Some RideTech dealers may be mostly internet based?...or are you saying both?
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No Bret, its just to get the POINT across. I will however say that some dealers are mainly internet based, you and I both know that is true though.
And to be clear: I said I've even caught "manufactures" selling for less then dealer cost not you specifically. How did I do it? I called them and pretended to be a retail customer, and they priced me out at 15% back from what retail is on their website.
And how did I price match my competitors? I did the same thing. I called them, or had Justin call them from his cell phone, and pretend to be a retail customer, and got 15% off brand X without even trying.
To everyone reading my midnight thoughts, read it as this: Look for the underlying theme, and think about what the point is, and take something away from it that is constructive. Maybe the next time you go to buy a part you'll think about who your spending your money with, and what you are going to get in return from that transaction. And please, PLEASE, have some integrity and some loyalty to the guy working his arse off for you. If you spent countless hours working with him on backspace for your wheels, don't turn around and call wheels for less .com to buy them for 50 bucks cheaper. (As an example, and you can apply it as you see fit).
Todd, I did, and still do have very loyal customers. The business that was lost was to new guys, who found us on the web, or met us at a show, and then called in to price match us. We lost those bidding wars, but they didn't hesitate to take all the free tech info Justin and I could dish out until we were blue in the face.
Thanks for letting me speak my mind Lat-G. I plan to take more of the DSE route myself from here on in as NewGen.
