I hate businesses that don't want to sell their product

[dullard]

I'm doing R&D on a machine that will go on the market by the end of the year. It will likely be a good success, but as a high ticket specialized item I only expect a couple thousand will be sold. However it uses some expensive parts and you'd think companies would want my business. If I order 3000 parts where each part is $100, it is a nice chunk of business. But every week I hit another wall of a company that could care less about selling any of their products. They won't answer their phones or emails but instead want me to deal with their inept representatives that cannot possibly answer my questions. So I call the representative and ask the questions. He/she has no clue. Then they take a week or two to ask the actual manufacturer, who needs more information and the representative comes back to me. I fill in all the information and wait another week or two. This process repeats indefinately until I find another company willing to answer my questions and sell me their products.

Just today I needed an urgent supply of 2"x4"x12" balsa blocks for a test. Of course no store in town has them and I don't want to go online to order them and wait a week for the shipment. I happened to see a hobby part wholeseller for the whole midwest in the phone book and call them up. I didn't know they existed. But oh darn, they refuse to (A) sell me their balsa blocks and (B) tell me the name of a store that they sell to locally so I can get them to buy the blocks. Arg it is just so frustrating. Sure the balsa is not going to be a major profit for them, but I still don't see the point of a business model that refuses to sell the products.

Or last month I needed to find a relay and I didn't know exactly what kind would do the job or how to hook it up (I later found out all I needed to do was to create a short circuit in the relay with a switch). I looked everywhere and couldn't find exactly what I needed. So I phoned and emailed companies. Finally one responded and gave me their representative number. I called that number and the guy said he could get me what I needed. A few days later I got an email telling me the price ($96 and remember I may be buying thousands of these). So I ask to buy it. He refused and instead wanted to sell me something for $500. After several calls and emails I got nowhere - he eventually said he didn't have my product and never heard of them. But remember he quoted me a price earlier... How could he have quoted me a price and not have the products? I eventually found another source for ~$35.

Why do companies not want business?

Rant over, I'm going home now. Have a good evening.

 

[StageLeft]

Apparently most car dealers are not interested in selling cars either. Last time I wanted help with something and contacted 4 or so I recall getting back exactly 0 responses.

 

[Toasthead]

Its not the businesses that dont want business.

Its the salespeople who SUCKS a$$ that were hired by them

 

[xirtam]

I blame the economy, and thereby George Bush. And maybe Bill Gates too, he's a popular scapegoat.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Toasthead
Its not the businesses that dont want business.

Its the salespeople who SUCKS a$$ that were hired by them

Ok I'll give you that. But it is the business model that says the company cannot talk directly to customers, and must use salesmen, but then the company doesn't pay the money for good salesmen. So indirectly it is the business model's fault...