optical buy-ins

[doglas]

so a question for all of you that purchase...do you do the buy-in thing from the optical suppliers when you need to buy 12-24 frames to open an account for that particular line, or do you purchase single frames for that frame line on-line, rather then from a rep. what i found is that within reason you can buy a frame for pretty much the same price on-line vs your sales rep & don't have to put up with their crap whereas you need to keep a certain amount of their frames on the board. eg. i ordered a couple of frames from a company that i deal with ...a little bit & after i ordered it, 2 days later the rep came in the door & told me i needed to order 18 & they won't send it to me, so he said he'll send me an rma to send it back to them. so i go look on line & i could buy it for $6 more vs the $204.00 per frame that they were charging me...& funnier yet, is the rep now say's i can't send it back unless i buy 18...after me buying the replacement on-line. & him telling me to send his back..why would anyone want to deal with a company like that. personally i like the freedom to buy whatever whenever i want & further to what bugs me about it, is that means the general public can do the same. so why would i put out this kind of cash for a product that the general public can buy. in the good 'ol days you were able to buy from any rep anything you want,.. not no more they want to...in my view...rip you off. so now that my rant is off, what do others think....
doglas

[Chris Ryser]

do you do the buy-in thing from the optical suppliers .......................

..............do you do the buy-in thing from the optical suppliers when you need to buy 12-24 frames to open an account for that particular line, or do you purchase single frames for that frame line on-line, rather then from a rep. what i found is that within reason you can buy a frame for pretty much the same price on-line vs your sales rep & don't have to put up with their crap whereas you need to keep a certain amount of their frames on the board

Sales Reps have been paid commissions on their sales forever.

When frames are returned they have to pay back the commission received when they sold it.

In the old days returns were only accepted if defective and if so, they were replaced with another same frame.

Since the early 1980s when a lot more frame manufacturers came on the market and competition got fierce, they started to give frames on consignation and you paid only what you sold.

These days with the internet the whole situation is in another change and the frame manufacturers are waiting to see what happens once the big mega merger has gone through and has become active.