ssgumby - 6:28 pm on Dec 23, 2010 (gmt 0)

What happened to good old-fashion customer service? The warm fuzzy you get from a one on one conversation with a sales pro that knows the product.

This sums it up ... eCommerce is thriving BECAUSE this isnt as important as it use to be. People may have use to like that back in the Leave it to Beaver days, but now people are in such a rush they want in and out and they want eCommerce so they can click and shop from home and have it sitting on their doorstep in 5 days.

As for MAP, it is a joke .. MAP is used to force certain retailer out of the market while letting the bigger good ole boys price as they wish.

Kind of funny you mention copyright images. We got a letter from a manufacturer lawyer saying we were selling below MAP and needed to cease retail sales. I checked and found we were below MAP but well above other etailers AND brick and mortar stores. I wrote back and explained this and said I couldnt raise to MAP or I would be out of the market for this one product unless EVERYONE listed at MAP. Lawyer then fires back and says we are in copyright infringement as we have their product images on our site. Ok, so I fire back and explain I got the images FROM the manufacturer on disk. They respond with I need to stop selling, as only authorized retailers can sale this product. I respond that if they would go to their own site, use the handy search tool they would find my business under the list of authorized retailers. Lawyer comes back with apology saying they must not have gotten the full list of authorized retailers but I still need to get to MAP. I response back with I do not want to work with the manufacturer and they seem to be a wreck, I tell them I want my site removed from their authorized retailer list and in fact they have my copyrighted logo on THEIR sight illegally and they have 30 days to remove it. Bottom line is I dont sell that product anymore, it hasnt hurt me and in fact I sell a more competitive version of it and make way more on it.