dpd1 - 3:22 am on Dec 14, 2011 (gmt 0)

As I said earlier, big is often not better. I was recently searching for a material I use in our manufacturing. I had ordered it for a good price that I was happy with, from a pretty big chain the last few times. I think it was a privately owned outlet for that chain. Anyway... I went to their site this time and saw it had gone up in price to being more than in stores. I emailed them and politely asked if I could get the old price, if I purchased a certain quantity, since I had purchased hundreds of them in the past from them, and would continue. I got a cryptic email reply today from them, that listed the price on the site and what shipping would be. I have no idea why they would give me that info, since I obviously already knew what it costs on the site. They never addressed my question.

So I used the Google shopping results to try and find a good deal from somebody new. I found most of them either had prices higher than in stores, or prices equal to stores, but bent you over with excessive shipping costs. On the few that were a good price, I found the sites to be sketchy at best. Half of them had terrible reviews. Out of all those, I found one who seemed pretty decent, but the shipping quote was way too low. I had a feeling that their cart system was not calculating for dimensions properly, as these were long items. I emailed them asking if they were sure that was the right shipping fee, because I wanted to avoid a shipping fee surprise. I also said I purchase a lot of this product and would in the future if it works out. No reply. So I guess they don't want my money.

So there's a typical shopping spree for an average person. The results? Terrible. Is there room for a business to improve on what the majority of sellers are doing out there, big or small? Abso-freakin-lutely.

I get people throwing out great recommendations (unsolicited) for my stuff all the time. Probably because I actually answer their emails (without cryptic non answers), have reasonable prices, great products, and I don;t try to screw them with some sort of scam. So if there's ever a time that the public decides they don't want to have anything to do with those qualities, I guess I'll hang it up.