I was perusing another thread and saw all the complaints about a company's frame return policy. It caused me to reflect on the past, and how things have changed since I entered the industry. I probably won't make a lot of friends with my position but I would like to open an honest dialog about this subject. It will NOT be necessary to name names in fact, please do not.
I maintain that Frame Returns is bad business. It rewards the buyer for making a mistake and takes the incentive out of selling. It is costly. It penalizes the Frame company and rep who has acted in good faith, and now suffer a loss, not only from the frame revenue but the cost of the paperwork and the scramble to get shopworn frames resold. This is ludicrous and I would applaud the frame company with enough sand to put a stop to it.
Most of you have grown up with the "frame return" idiocy in place, but to put some perspective on it you need some background. Historically there was a time when American manufacturers owned the frame business. Companies like AO,B&L, Art Craft, Shuron, Zyloware,Universal, Liberty, Tura (I know I am forgetting many but you get the drift) who manufactured and sold their products. Very few direct sales, mostly through wholesalers, because there were very few chains in those days to volume buy.
In the late 50's we began to hear from foreign manufacturers, Safilo and Lux de Paris were the first I remember with any clarity. Well anyway, they were trying very hard to break into what was essentially an American dominated market, so they began to find different ways to compete. One of these ways was to offer to buy back any frame that didn't sell. That was the birth of the "return" business. Now if you were a buyer, and knew that you weren't really taking much of a chance, why wouldn't you buy from the "new kids on the block". Here we are some 50 or so years later with the "return' policy still in effect, and the American manufacturers largely in shambles.
In the old days if you bought it, you owned it. My question is why should a frame company take returns on frames that were purchased and did not move well? Why is it their responsibility?
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