An issue has come up between some vendors that I would like anyone's feedback on. I'm in the market for product XYZ and trying to find the best deal. I'm only a couple years into the S2000 community, so I haven't dealt with any of the vendors. From what I've read, they all have positive and negative feedback (mostly positive though), and so I don't have a preference which vendor I deal with at this point.

I got a price quote from vendor 1 and showed it to vendor 2 to give them a chance to match or beat the price. Vendor 2 must have shown this to the distributor, since Vendor 1 got wind of this and gave me heck since they (V1) got in trouble from the distributor. This is the last correspondences from V1:




Is this just sour apples and someone trying to protect themselves, or was I being a douche by screenshotting the quote and giving it to V2? Please be honest, I can take the criticism lol

Thanks for any feedback

 

Originally posted in Car Talk, but I moved it here as it is more appropriate.

A couple members have suggested that I indeed make a faux pas by showing V2 the quote from V1. It was suggested to just tell V2 about the price and if they match or beat V1, then great. V2 requested to see the written quote, so I did, but apparently this is a no-no (?) I guess I was following the route of electronics shopping where the big stores will price match/beat and advertised price, but wasn't thinking about the difference for a written quote.

 

Personally, for a major purchase like that, I always shop around.

You ran into a unique problem and shot yourself in the foot, but I would've done exactly the same thing.
You had no idea this would happen and vendors shouldn't get upset when customers try to buy at the lowest price.

 

The unique problem here is that the OP showed a copy of the quote. I do purchasing as part of my job, and the tools of our trade range from $10K-$750K depending on the scope and type of equipment.

We ALWAYS shop around, but we never show other quotes. We (try to) get 3 quotes, weigh out TCO (cost of upkeep, additional stuff, support, etc.), and run with the cheapest one.

Nearly every kind of "thingee" has a small subset of vendors, re-sellers, salespeople. . . and they all talk, and so while they don't have the specific number for the item in mind, they know what their competitors can charge. Keep them guessing (and in many cases, keep them honest to their own pricing), and don't show the competitors' quote.

 

"Shopping" is okay. Shopping means you look up prices, request quotes, and compare them in the privacy of your own office. Forwarding custom quotes that have been provided specifically to you (not advertised in a flyer from Frys, for instance) is not shopping. Forwarding quotes isn't cool. Sounds like you didn't know this. Now you do.

Forwarding a copy of a quote to a competitor is an immediate red flag in my line of work. When a client (or potential client) sends me a copy of a competitor's quote and asks my opinion or requests a quote from us for the same services, I *always* decline to give a quote or my opinion on the competitor's quote. Quotes are considered proprietary for anyone in my line of work and when a client ignores this and hands it (complete with the non-disclosure verbiage there in plain ass English) to a competitor, I question the ethics of the potential client and I decline to work with them. It has been my experience that nothing good comes of doing business with a client who will not only nickel and dime me for the lowest "bid," but who will also disclose a competitor's good faith information to me.

 

Is it possible that V2 asked because the price was 'so low' - that they wanted to confirm it? V1 acknowledged they misquoted the item. If MAP was 1000 and the V1 quote was say 975, maybe not a big deal and V2 says - 'sorry we can't beat it', but if the quote was say 900, then it could be a vendor/manufacturer issue and seeing the quote lets them discuss with manufacturer unfair competitive issues between their distributors. I don't think it's unreasonable for V2 to ask in that case.

I don't think the quote should have been shown, but V1 has their own problems apparently, and that shouldn't be dropped on the OPs shoulders.

 

The way I read it, it didn't seem like they misquoted, but was trying to cover their end after being found out that they were offering lower than MAP.
I agree with RMurphy. Quotes should be dealt with as proprietary. They're made up specifically for your own case.

 

been in many deals where someone says, your full of it, no one would quote you that.. prove it... or... bring us any competitors quote and we'll match or beat their offer... happens all the time... what's the big deal..

 

Except this wasn't MAP, it was a quote and not an 'advertised price'.


Sounds to me like the other vendor was looking to report the other for quite some time and you gave them the ammo to do so. For me, shame on the manufacturer for doing what they did to the vendor. MAP is for advertised price, not selling price, there is a massive difference.

We have MAP for products we manufacture and sell, I don't care if a dealer of mine sells for under MAP, I just don't want it to be visible online or a printed ad, otherwise that's price fixing and I don't agree with that.

 

Except this wasn't MAP, it was a quote and not an 'advertised price'.


Sounds to me like the other vendor was looking to report the other for quite some time and you gave them the ammo to do so. For me, shame on the manufacturer for doing what they did to the vendor. MAP is for advertised price, not selling price, there is a massive difference.

We have MAP for products we manufacture and sell, I don't care if a dealer of mine sells for under MAP, I just don't want it to be visible online or a printed ad, otherwise that's price fixing and I don't agree with that.
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There are some manufacturers that absolutely will not let you sell below MAP, even through PMs and calls etc. I have always thought if I buy it from the manufacturer at a certain price I should be able to make what I want on it. I mean yeah advertise the price as MAP, but sell lower. Otherwise there will be no competition. It would be whoever responds to PMs fastest or has better customer service.