We have been using the same vendor for 30 or 40 years.
I notice that they are charging us retail when we buy more than most retail stores sell in a year.
I shop around and with almost no effort, I get a vendor that will charge us 20% lower. They get wind of it and they get mad at me for going behind their back. They try to make trouble for me with partners that they deal with and these partners try to get me to just let them keep buying stuff from the vendor. I ask them why we would pay more for the same thing and the matter attracts the attention of people higher up the food chain. The partners get scolded for looking out for the interests of the vendor more than our interests. The partners are now mad at me for getting them in trouble.
These are intelligent people who have convinced themselves that they owe some sort of duty to the guy that has been overcharging us for decades because he would have trouble making ends meet if he couldn’t charge us retail when we buy wholesale volumes.
Is there some sort of social contract that noone told me about?
Some people are really, really good at selling “the relationship” and making others feel special. Now you’ve gone and made some people go from “special” to “moronic”.
Unfortunately it sounds like business as usual:smack: at least in my experience.
One example: At mechanic shop I worked at, the guy who shows up late 3 days a week high or hung over, late from lunch most days, 20% of his work needs to be redone…can do no wrong.
Meanwhile, an elderly customer requests 80 psi in his tires (35psi max) so he can carry more weight, I explain that it is not safe or effective…I get sent home for arguing with a customer:rolleyes:
I think this is it. I don’t think there are any kickbacks or any nepotism. I think this guys strokes this customer’s ego and get paid for it. I think race plays into it a little bit as well, they have no trouble switching the minority owned cleaning service to save a few bucks (and hire a slightly cheaper minority owned business) but heaven forbid we pull the rug out from under the old white dude, he’s got grandkids fercrissakes.
If you’re not kidding us, that’s the stuff that can get you fired where I work. Especially if it’s your company that gets overcharged and you get to keep the 5%.
If the company gets the 5%, and your boss and the owner(s) are fine with it, never mind.
If you were whooshin’ us, then you get to do a fist pump and whisper “Yessss, I got one!”
Geez, VT, stop following me around trying to get me to knock 2-3% off a gross of used butt plugs!
You’ve “innocently” brought up butt plugs on all seven of my company’s vintage social media sites (your “Who me?” when you had your mom post on our MySpace page was too much)…
Look, you had a time out from our original site, but it’s over now, so you can post politely at www.Plugs4BothEnds.geocities.com …
There are other reasons to use particular vendors that don’t include price, is there a chance that something else is in play? You know the saying–fast, good, or cheap, pick two. Sometimes my employer will use more costly vendors because they provide better service, we can put pressure on them to deliver quicker, and we’ve worked with them long enough to trust them with a job so we don’t have to spend the time and money eyeing every little step. And yes, sometimes there is a social contract. We can’t survive unless they survive. Now, we still shop around and often get things cheaper, but we also use competitive prices as a bargaining tool, because they can’t survive unless we survive.
Well, if it’s your sole proprietorship, then you don’t have to worry about the boss finding out.
We seriously had a senior manager caught doing this. My direct supervisor, and a nice guy. He was fired. The top brass made it plain he was fired for embezzlement, and that came with stiffer penalties than just paying the money back. I ran into him a while ago, and he’s trying to build up a business in an entirely different field.
Just a word of warning in case anyone’s thinking “Whadda ed-you-ma-cational thread! Ah gots to git me a piece o’ that sweet butt plug kickback moolah.”