David,
Andy conveniently leaves a few things out of this:
1. Ballstars has no knowledge of what I can make work and can't make work. They made the decision ON THEIR OWN that the economics just couldn't work. I asked them for an additional discount to help make this work and they refused...nothing, nada, nil. I wonder why that was? The fact is that had they extended to me end quantity pricing (a reasonable assumption given the probable volume for this account), I could have met the chain's needs. They refused.
Now, it's true that I couldn't have competed with Ballstars on the pricing, but isn't that the issue?
2. Ballstars never "worked through me". We had exactly two calls...one to tell me that they thinking about quoting on this opportunity and one to tell me that they were taking the business. The last call is where I was refused any discounts, assistance or even willingness to buy back the inventory I had on hand. I was informed "we don't do that".
3. The assertion that I was offered a percentage of the sale is a lie. I was offered $0.25 per ball for "bringing the opportunity to their attention". WOW...a whole quarter. Yes, you get a "percentage of the sale" if you divide $0.25 by the sale of a ball, but when you consider that these balls have widely varying costs, the percentage is not fixed. I suspect that if he hadn't shaded the truth and told you that I would receive a shiny quarter for allowing them to steal the business, it might not have sounded so nice. I did turn it down because it was an insult.
4. If you read my previous posts, I never said they approached the chain...
The bottom line is that once Ballstars found out that one of their distributors had closed a major sale, they wanted it for themselves. They offered NO assistance to us and even when we asked if they would buy back their own inventory (which presumably they'd sell to this account), they refused. The FACTS of this are that we made a major (for us) investment, brought and sold the concept to our associates and launched the program. We deserved to keep it. Ballstars has conducted themselves in a shameful and unethical fashion, no matter what "the way of the world" has become. I stand by each letter of each previous post.
What they don't know yet is that their ability to pull this off will require my cooperation...guess how that's gonna turn out?
Mark Dickens
Precision Laser Art, LLC
www.precisionlaserart.com
866-716-0300/901-888-1019
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