Ahh now we’re back to somehow crediting your business woes with some kind of sinister aspect of America and the wrongdoings of many others.
So, let’s review:
your competition, who is beating you on price, are idiots
your vendor is a liar, acts unfairly
the American way to to lie and be unfair
outside vendors who are competitive are killing the US economy deliberately
You are quite the helpless victim, subject to so much abuse from the rest of the world and your own country. And yet, you make no mention of what you might do or change to better your situation.
Sagewing is absolutely correct here so I won’t add much more other than to stop assuming what you don’t know to be how you want it to be.
Right now you’re assuming your supplier is telling you everything, that they are the top of the chain and some exclusive distributor, that your competition operations under the exact same method and thefore takes a loss and that you need to play in this price-only market that is eBay. It’s not someone far smarter beating you, it’s someone taking the time to find their own advantages while you wait for “fair” to kick in.
What did I do to you guys? I came on here to learn. You don’t like ebay sellers or what? I can take your abuse and am not afraid to admitting fault. Never said I knew everything - apparently I know very little about business?
It’s not that we don’t like ebay sellers or that you ‘did something’. But, you didn’t really come with a question that anyone could constructively answer. Instead, you came with a rant about how you were being screwed by some idiots, you should bring it up to NAFTA (?), etc. Then you accused them of intentionally screwing up the US economy. Then you characterized the US as a ‘stabbing each other in the back’ place.
You didn’t exactly come in with a friendly, answerable question
There’s no one who doesn’t like you, or at least nothing I can see here that would indicate any such opinion. In fact, the response to your thread indicates a lot of interest in discussing what you’ve brought up
That said, you seem to be fishing for an easy out solution that allows you to continue as you’ve worked in the past but that’s unlikely to happen. Markets change, competition gets smarter and you’re stuck in a fixed game. While I still encourage you to dig in to the facts to understand how you are getting beaten [it is not a perpetual loss by a competitor], it’s time to find your next evolution to get out of the lowest bidder war, or move into a part of the market where you can actually play that game.
I tried to leave this alone, we should be discussing it elsewhere, I like sitepoint and prefer not to ruin it for myself but here goes…
Admittedly I know very little about politics, I know what I see and read which is probably less than half of the story. I don’t agree with you at all Sagewing, from what I am told by people I know that go to Germany on a regular basis either for military or business reasons, tell me that Germany has a strong economy and they do very little outsourcing. Again this is what I am told and I could very well be wrong even though the info comes from multiple reputable sources. One fact I do know is that without a middle class NO economy will survive and that is proved time and time again all across the world.
3rd world might not be the correct definition I couldn’t think of a good word at the time which is why the post was written the way it was. Can you tell me what exactly a country that is populated by either rich or poor people with no in between or middle class is called?
I am adding this link because it had 5k responses in less than an hour filled with people that would agree with me and disagree with you.
Your points really relate to economics more than politics, but certainly this thread has gone off topic. Still, I think that some anecdotal observations in Germany and a series of comments on a news article aren’t a strong rebuttal to my comments, which basically make the points that outsourcing is not the primary cause for the economic woes in the US, and even a financial default would not put the US in a third world condition.
And yes, there are many, many, many, many countries in the world with both rich and poor but no middle class. You can get that information from a variety of sources, and the divide between rich and poor in the US isn’t anything remarkable unless you only compare it to other top tier economies in the world.
Hello All.
Sorry - I started the whole thread off wrong. I was trying to be as clear as possible and explain things as we went along. But I got caught up in reacting to what I perceived as growing dislike. That’s not me.
I did learn a lot though. It has changed my thoughts on my business and what the true competition really is. I understand what the other sellers and our supplier are doing.
As one of you indirectly suggested I did confront my supplier rep. She assures me that no one is getting any greater credit incentives than me. She also gave me some information I did not expect. She said the other sellers are trying to bring buyers back who left for Amazon and other marketplaces. As you have said I can’t trust her but, that is all I have.
If I believe her and being I know what the lowest bottom price is for every item then the NON-US seller is using his incentive to lower his prices to below break even. I know all the fees, product costs, flat shipping (which is the same for everybody) and credits. Therefore I can and have calculated that he is selling below cost. Unless there is some other unknown that I don't know about.
My original question is that under FTC laws or NAFTA is this legal? :confused:
Good to see you back. Sounds like your supplier gave some good intel but that doesn’t answer where they sit in the value chain…
Are you certain they are buying from your supplier and selling the same way? Have you ever made a test purchase or do you want to stake your decisions on an assumption? Unless your products are tens of thousands of dollars I don’t see the negative in finding out…
You may learn that they’re a funded venture and willing to take a loss to build a base or a knockoff seller [which could be illegal]. Who knows.
I’m not an attorney. Don’t play one on TV and as this thread shows, was already wrong once but I don’t see how any government entity would be involved a company taking a small hit, if they’re even doing that.
With the information you’ve provided there’s no attack on the economy or monopolistic deals… it’s just an aggressive move to own a market and something which you can’t understand fully or beat with the facts you seem to have… and I don’t see that being the least bit illegal.
But if you really want to know, talk to a lawyer who you can share all of what you know, since we’re clearly just getting a piece, with and who knows the appropriate laws.
