VendorPro, anyone?

Hi,
Did anyone hear about VendorPro? Do you have any sort of experience
with these guys?
I recently received a mail from them offering a marketing program for
$340 a year. The offer sounds interesting so I checked their site
http://www.vendorpro.com. The problem is that You can't see any
real data unless you are a registered member.
My next step was to check them up at BBB. Surprisingly, they have a
record there and it's not at all negative. Here is the report I got:
*"*Nature of Business:
This company's business is providing marketing solutions connecting
wholesale vendors with retail buyers.
* Bureau File Experience:
Based on BBB files, this company has a satisfactory record with the
Bureau.
To be rated satisfactory, we must first have company background
information. The company must also have been established long enough
for us to gain a clear understanding of the nature of its business to
determine that it is not a marketplace problem. Finally, the company
must have given proper consideration to any matters we may have
referred to it.
Our complaint history for this company shows that any customer
complaints brought to the company's attention have been properly
addressed.
A Better Business Bureau report is based on our file information and
experience with an individual company over the past three years."

Although the sum they ask for is reasonable, I wouldn't like to throw
it away for nothing. I am not sure why but something doesn't smell too
good here.
I'd highly appreciate your comments.
TIA,
Sarit.

Sarit Wolfus - Silver, Gold and Gemstones, handcrafted jewelry
http://sarit-jewelry.com

On Sun, 31 Oct 2004 16:06:20 GMT, (Sarit
Wolfus) wrote:

Hi,
Did anyone hear about VendorPro? Do you have any sort of experience
with these guys?

Our complaint history for this company shows that any customer
complaints brought to the company's attention have been properly
addressed.

This is why the BBB is pretty much useless. They consider "properly
addressed" to be answering the complainant, even if an obvious problem
isn't fixed.

--
Marilee J. Layman

G.W. Bush says "a political candidate who jumps to conclusions without knowing the
facts is not a person you want as your commander in chief."
That's why I'm voting for Kerry.

Mr. Ethan Nelson.

After carefully reviewing what we have discussed I have concluded that my
company will not be working with vendorpro.

I'm going to level with you. I don't trust you. You give me no reason to.

(Before I continue I want to express that I did not appreciate being given
lines used by pyramid schemes and weight-loss commercials. I look upon that
kind of copy paste crap as an insult to my intelligence. I'm not some
sucker, don't talk to me like one. Your testimonials are faceless. Who is
"Beth O. - Las Cruces, NM"? This person gave you a quote and you couldn't
at least put a link to them for us to see that she is a real business and
not just some B.S. you made up.)

I asked for a list of clients in the music industry to research how well
your company is working for them and to see what large name companies I
may deal with through vendorpro. You sent me the answer:

"While we have over 4000 suppliers it is against our policy to release,
sell, or disseminate the information of registered members to
non-registered users."

First off you said "Suppliers" not "Buyers". Second, it is not in the best
interest of ANY buyer OR seller for you to keep them a secret. Keeping
products secret is NOT how to make them sell. And why are you letting
members know this if it violates privicy? And doesn't this contradict your
use of the work "Exposure" all over your website?

This made me look at your company as if I was a buyer.

What reason would I have to buy from you? I have no idea what you are
selling. I cannot find any products being dealt with by your company
through any search engines. What reason would I have to pay $340 a year
just to look at your product list on your website when I can just as well
find what I'm looking for, for FREE.

When you first solicited your company to me you led me to believe that you
were a distributor. This was backed by the name of your company
(Vendor)Pro. After discussing things with you I have assessed that the sum
of what your company does is supply a web page for me to advertise (not
sell) up to three products, Plus a spot on a private spam sent out to
members for a fee of $340 a year. (When I already have this on 40 other
websites for free)

Part of your pitch was that you were going to give me a link on that web
page to my own website for free(normally $45). Truthfully I will say the
fact you would charge someone $45 to add a link is despicable. Even if
they didn't just pay you $340. My website gets thousands of hits a week
from google alone from people looking for the products I sell. Give me one
good reason why I would pay ANYONE to put a link on their site, And a
private site that no one in the general public can view at that?

You also said you would throw in a free posting on the "Look what's new"
page (normally $85). Again, I just paid you $340 to give me exposure and
you would charge me AGAIN to put me on a "What's new" list.

As I mentioned, I have looked at your BBB record and well.....And of
coarse there's no problem. what can anyone do when their merchandise
doesn't sell? Unless they personally investigate your company to see if
you are lifting a finger to help them your ass is covered by your (in
between the lines) "while other products don't move at all. That's just
the nature of business."

Bottom line. I strongly feel that I would pay you $340 and be lucky to
make it back because If I were to advertise my products on a national
scale how would anyone even know they can buy it from you?

I'm going to take that $340 and place adds in national magazines such as
Metal Maniacs and Terrorizer that will give my artist true exposure and
drive my sales without a middle man.

Thank you for your time.

-Roy Addams, www.dark-valley-records.com

Mr. Ethan Nelson.

After carefully reviewing what we have discussed I have concluded that my
company will not be working with vendorpro.

I'm going to level with you. I don't trust you. You give me no reason to.

(Before I continue I want to express that I did not appreciate being given
lines used by pyramid schemes and weight-loss commercials. I look upon that
kind of copy paste crap as an insult to my intelligence. I'm not some
sucker, don't talk to me like one. Your testimonials are faceless. Who is
"Beth O. - Las Cruces, NM"? This person gave you a quote and you couldn't
at least put a link to them for us to see that she is a real business and
not just some B.S. you made up.)

I asked for a list of clients in the music industry to research how well
your company is working for them and to see what large name companies I
may deal with through vendorpro. You sent me the answer:

"While we have over 4000 suppliers it is against our policy to release,
sell, or disseminate the information of registered members to
non-registered users."

First off you said "Suppliers" not "Buyers". Second, it is not in the best
interest of ANY buyer OR seller for you to keep them a secret. Keeping
products secret is NOT how to make them sell. And why are you letting
members know this if it violates privicy? And doesn't this contradict your
use of the work "Exposure" all over your website?

This made me look at your company as if I was a buyer.

What reason would I have to buy from you? I have no idea what you are
selling. I cannot find any products being dealt with by your company
through any search engines. What reason would I have to pay $340 a year
just to look at your product list on your website when I can just as well
find what I'm looking for, for FREE.

When you first solicited your company to me you led me to believe that you
were a distributor. This was backed by the name of your company
(Vendor)Pro. After discussing things with you I have assessed that the sum
of what your company does is supply a web page for me to advertise (not
sell) up to three products, Plus a spot on a private spam sent out to
members for a fee of $340 a year. (When I already have this on 40 other
websites for free)

Part of your pitch was that you were going to give me a link on that web
page to my own website for free(normally $45). Truthfully I will say the
fact you would charge someone $45 to add a link is despicable. Even if
they didn't just pay you $340. My website gets thousands of hits a week
from google alone from people looking for the products I sell. Give me one
good reason why I would pay ANYONE to put a link on their site, And a
private site that no one in the general public can view at that?

You also said you would throw in a free posting on the "Look what's new"
page (normally $85). Again, I just paid you $340 to give me exposure and
you would charge me AGAIN to put me on a "What's new" list.

As I mentioned, I have looked at your BBB record and well.....And of
coarse there's no problem. what can anyone do when their merchandise
doesn't sell? Unless they personally investigate your company to see if
you are lifting a finger to help them your ass is covered by your (in
between the lines) "while other products don't move at all. That's just
the nature of business."

Bottom line. I strongly feel that I would pay you $340 and be lucky to
make it back because If I were to advertise my products on a national
scale how would anyone even know they can buy it from you?

I'm going to take that $340 and place adds in national magazines such as
Metal Maniacs and Terrorizer that will give my artist true exposure and
drive my sales without a middle man.

Thank you for your time.

-Roy Addams, www.dark-valley-records.com

darkvalleyrecords wrote:
Mr. Ethan Nelson.


Huh?!?

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 10:13:02 GMT, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:


Huh?!?

Yeah...

I approved that post only because it continued a previous thread from a few weeks aga
where a poster inquired about the wisdom of doing business with that firm. This post
apparently is the response of someone else, to a similar solicitation from vendorpro,
sent to vendorpro and copied to the group. Not terribly on topic, but given that the
group is so terribly busy tonight, I figured what the heck, and approved it. Then
forgot I'd already hit "send", and did it again. sorry for the double posting of a not
terribly on topic post...

Peter

Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:
On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 10:13:02 GMT, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:


Huh?!?


Not terribly on topic, but given that the
group is so terribly busy tonight,

You're joking, right? Unless you call 1 or 2 posts a day for the past week
"terribly busy". I was thinking about unsubscribing from this newsgroup for
just that reason. It has been just to pathetic for words. "Terribly busy" indeed.

Unless of course there is something wrong with my server. In which case I would
have to talk to my ISP, which is rather pointless, because I will be speaking
with someone in India, who sits in front of a monitor reading off preprogrammed
troubleshooting instructions, and who understands less about the workings of the
Net than I do!

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 11:08:29 -0800, in |õ Abrasha wrote:


You're joking, right? Unless you call 1 or 2 posts a day for the past week
"terribly busy".

Yeah. that was a joke. or irony, or sarcasm, or something of the sort. I've no idea
why the group has been so dead the last week or so. Hopefully, everyone is busy making
jewelry for the holidays or something. That would be a switch from my employer's
business levels, which have been decidely flat. Not much work coming in at all. We're
all hoping things pick up again after thanksgiving. No, not just hoping. Praying is
more like it... Perhaps everyone is still just so numb from the election whoop-de-do
that decorating themselves with jewelry just hasn't made it back to their radar yet.

Peter

"Abrasha" wrote in message
...

Unless of course there is something wrong with my server. In which case I
would
have to talk to my ISP, which is rather pointless, because I will be
speaking
with someone in India, who sits in front of a monitor reading off
preprogrammed
troubleshooting instructions, and who understands less about the workings
of the
Net than I do!

Have you considered a different ISP?

They're like bullion dealers, the cheap ones don't do what you want them to
do, the expensive ones do, but they're expensive...

--
William Black
------------------
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords
is no basis for a system of government

Peter W.. Rowe, Peter W.. Rowe, wrote:
Hopefully, everyone is busy making
jewelry for the holidays or something. That would be a switch from my employer's
business levels, which have been decidely flat. Not much work coming in at all. We're
all hoping things pick up again after thanksgiving. No, not just hoping. Praying is
more like it... Perhaps everyone is still just so numb from the election whoop-de-do
that decorating themselves with jewelry just hasn't made it back to their radar yet.

Not just in your part of the country, Peter. Up until election week, we
were doing better than in previous years. Then, all of a sudden, we were
all standing around wondering where all the customers were. A stone
supplier stopped by and said the same thing was happening to just about
everybody he visited -- but that their slowdowns had started earlier.
(Didn't seem to affect traffic on the roads to the nearby malls,
though.) Fortunately, today was back to normal. But it sure makes you
wonder what was/is going on. Hard to tie a cause and effect to the
election (especially for voters of both parties), but ther sure seems to
be a coincidental relationship.

I do notice that local TV personalities (news, weather, etc.) tend to be
wearing what looks like glass beads, pendants with black cords, and
other items that are a far cry from gold, diamonds, etc. See a similar
trend reflected in the magazine racks at the local Borders and Barnes
and Noble. Maybe there's a trend away from more expensive jewelry.
(Which could explain why we were doing okay before the election and the
fine jewelry stores apparently were not.) But the sudden drop? Who knows.