I pit the makers of this toy for special needs children

The BBQ Pit
41

Wow.

This thread reminded me of a weighted vest we got for Dweezil when he was in preschool. These are frequently used in kids with sensory issues - same concept as the weighted blanket. His teacher had one we could imitate, but had no idea where to buy one and we couldn’t find one online (this was 13+ years ago).

So we borrowed the one from the school as a sample, bought some fabric, and took the lot to a seamstress to duplicate. Total cost, something less than 50 dollars, probably less.

I just googled this and found that Amazon sells such things targeted at exercisers - prices ranging from 35-55 dollars. Then I looked at a link listing them specifically for kids with issues - a different style, to be sure (looks more like a clothing vest)… for 77 dollars. I can’t tell whether that includes a set of weights, or whether the weights must be purchased separately at 36 dollars a set.

Either way: it’s significantly pricier than the adult-targeted one!

For our homemade one, the weights were the biggest problem. We solved that by going to a sporting goods store, spending about 3 dollars on a 5-pound box of BBs, and measuing that into individual zip-locs. That’s the one part where the cheap option was NOT as good; had there been younger kids involved that would have been a safety problem.

42

No, my misunderstanding =)

43

And they are scamming their little asses off … the company that cranks out the same thing and sells it for $20 seems to make a profit just fine, and I doubt they have any less over head, taxes, etc than the scammers. Hell, I could see the scammers buying them from the exact same manufacturers and just slapping their own branding on the toys.

Hell, makes me feel like getting into the weighted blanket business because I know I can make and sell them for less than that website is selling them for.

44

A am somewhat of an expert on switches actually. You’re taking stock toys and modifying them with tactile switches more sensitive that special needs children can activate, I understand that part. That is no excuse for cold soldered joints or using the soldering iron as a paint brush instead of actual proper solder technique, and inadequate gauge wire.

I take Super Nintendo systems, add multiple chips and new hardware to them to allow them to be used in arcade cabinets and close them up, I know exactly how hard doing what your company does is, I do the same thing-except with a level of soldering skill and care to build quality. My systems are about 100x more complicated than your mostly empty toy your company swapped a few switches on:

^See that MAZE of wires? Easily 20x more complex than that toy. Here is what the final product looks like:

http://toptiertronic.com/pics/jammasnes1.jpg

Because I actually care about the kids and their likely financially strapped families, I will list what your company needs to do to improve your product quality in order of importance:

  1. Either retrain your tech or hire someone who actually knows how to solder. This level of quality soldering will not last long before the cold solder joints do not conduct electrically anymore.

  2. Invest in better wire. The gauge you are using is inadequate, cheap wire with barely any copper.

  3. If you are making your own products in low batches by hand, use through-hole PCB soldering instead of soldering to the surface of the PCB. It will be much more secure.

  4. Use heat shrink tubing on broken re-soldered wires.

45

[Moderating]
Techman50, out of respect for our users privacy, please do not post their real names or contact info without prior permission from the user. I’ve edited your post to this thread (and deleted the duplicate) to remove references to rogerbox’s real name.
[/Moderating]

46

That toy is supposed to look like a snail…?

47

O/T: How good is special needs education in Taiwan? I know that until recently, provisions for the visually impaired were terrible and I have no idea about the autistic.

I haven’t tried the toy, but it is respectable that you address it so publically.

48

Seriously. Today I mailed out product to a wholesaler, with the corresponding 45% discount, for a grand total of four (4) items. Four. That’s their yearly business with our company, four $7 items. ($7 is the retail price.) On Tuesday, I mailed out a single $13 piece to a single wholesaler at the full discount. Honestly, retail prices are one of the biggest jokes around. If you can’t do better, you need to hire better purchasing staff.

49

(Bolding, of course, is mine.)

You may have the intent to ‘offer affordable and reliable toys’, Techman50 and it appears that your company is dismally failing to actually provide this.

And as for claiming you have no jurisdiction over others’ pricing, a quick Google of your product reveals no less than 4 substantially different costs: $AU478, $US182,TWO HUNDRED & FORTY POUNDS, and $US214.

As the provider of this toy, I am curious to know how you view this disparity in the sale price. Your company is being as equally ripped off as the unfortunate (and very well intended) consumer.

I would need some convincing to believe your company had no idea this unscrupulous pricing existed; and that it does not have a negative impact on your business.

It seems to me that you have at least three options:

  1. You can refuse to deal with retailers marking up your RRP of $129.00;
  2. You can choose to be a wholesaler, not a retailer; or
  3. You can choose to be the exclusive, and direct distributor of your own product.

How do you now solve the perception of your product as a shamelessly inferior construction that enables the highly unethical to profit, by scandalously misleading the vulnerable and disabled?

50

Nice cherry picking.

  1. You include items being sold overseas, which means they will necessarily be higher because of the overseas shipping.
  2. You’ve apparently never dealt with niche items/niche markets

Plus, the one you list as “$214” is really “$178”. That’s a standard sales technique on websites like this. They’ll post “Our cost: $214 on sale: $178” even though they’ve never sold one at $214. They do it so people think they’re really getting a deal.

He stated that they sell the product for $129. That’s to whoever wants to buy from them. If I, as an individual, buy one for little Billy who needs it, then I’ve paid $129 for it. However, if I’m buying it to carry in my store to resell, then I’ve paid… $129 for it. I’ll have to mark it up some, or I’m a really lousy businessman.

This is no different than what approximately every other manufacturer of any item ever does. I just ordered a specialized piece of equipment the other day. Shopping around, I found it for the best price from, surprise surprise, the manufacturer. It just so happened that the manufacturer’s price was approximately 30% less than pretty much everyone else who carried it. While some businesses will have agreements with their resellers that they will only sell an item at specific MSRP, not all do. I like it when I can get directly from the manufacturer for a price close to what the resellers pay, rather than paying a markup.

At the same time, I have no problem paying the markup when I can’t get from the manufacturer directly, or if doing so would take more labor on my part than I felt it was worth. As an example of this, I am a collector of a merchandise line that can sometimes be obtained from the manufacturer less than what it costs at a retailer, but then the shipping puts it up to at or above what the retail would be. And the retail can be all over the board. The average MSRP for an individual piece is $6.99, but depending on where the actual item is found, it can be running anywhere from $5.99 to $13.99. Finding the best price is on me, not on the manufacturer.

Once the manufacturer has sold the item, it is not their right to tell the reseller how to sell it, unless that has been worked into the sales contract. Such a clause in a contract can be quit limiting to sales, so is usually not done, at least in niche markets. The volume is low enough, the manufacturer wants/needs every sale it can get.

51

The AU$478 is most scandalous, the australian dollar is at parity with the US dollar

52

With the internet this is getting to be more and more the choice - even if the parent has no internet access, they tend to be members of support groups and someone in the support group will have internet access and if you make a reasonable costing excellent quality product, word of mouth advertising, and magazine ads will get the product sold.

53

Hardly cherry picking, markm - the instances I listed were the first ones I found.

The AU$428 price quoted converts to $US437; the GBP240 is equivalent to $US374.

All for an item manufactured at $US129.

Arguably, this may be acceptable to some if it were a quality product. But as rogerbox has shown, it is rather far from it.

I have dealt with niche markets and written agent/distributor contracts stipulating the items be sold at the RRP; so no, you’re wrong there. RRP pricing can easily be set by the manufacturer; offering exclusivity to the reseller is the win-win there.

As for the shipping costs, just to put it into perspective for you, to airmail 20kg from Australia to the US costs $53.25 - so your necessary added costs are negligible, assuming the reverse delivery carries a similar fee.

A 20% mark-up would not make a “really lousy businessman” and the price would then be an acceptable $155.00. I don’t know that it makes a difference to you that these particular toys are for special needs children; but it seems that distributors could off-set this as a low profit item with the higher turnover, higher profit merchandise they also carry.

That the manufacturer wants wider distribution is an obvious part of being in business. Any advantages in this, are far outweighed when you take into account an unrestrained pricing policy on an inferior product. Consumer expectations will not be met, and overall the manufacturer suffers: people remember the brand, they don’t really care where they bought it.

I know, Namkcalb. Outrageous. Even if it cost $120 to UPS it.

I couldn’t agree more, aruvqan. And word of mouth is the best advertising that money can’t buy.

I’m beginning to think that** Techman50** belongs to a company that came up with a great idea for a product, but maintaining quality production, and the marketing of it is beyond its scope.

Curiously, it seems Techman50 has not returned. I only hope it’s because he’s busy with a no-cost replacement for rogerbox’s flatmates.

54

To answer some of your questions.

One yes I work for the company and we felt it necessary to reply to this post as Rogerbox email us directly telling us he posted about his problem with one of our toys. We contacted him via email and publicly here in this forum to help him with this issue, because we do care about the children who use or toys. We have not heard back from him and we have no other way to contact him. We have made an effort to help him out. We have not heard a reply.

As the old saying goes your dammed if you do and dammed if you don’t. We always try to do the right thing by our customers, because without them we are nothing. The bottom line no mater what we say here or try to do to someone will always find our company a fault that is the nature of the beast. The saddest thing from all this is the child that gets enjoyment from this toy is no longer getting that.

55

Techman I have not gotten an email from your company as far as I know.

56

Hi Rogerbox:

I just resent the email sent on 12-1-2011

57

Okay you did, I must have missed it the first time. It was just the original post you posted here, so my point still stands that I do something more complicated as a side business and IMO my quality is better while producing even less units than your company does.

I hope you apply my suggestions which shouldn’t increase your cost significantly while increasing the quality of your product.

58

We offerd to fix the toy for you please contact me via email so we can help.

59

You said:

I am sure the toy is out of warranty, nothing in this statement to me is an outright offer to fix the toy out of warranty to me, just a statement of your warranty policy.

60

We had no way of knowing how old the toy is, and did note about the warranty period the toy has, we also stated this:

If you would like to discuss any problems not addressed please call Dr. Steven Kanor Ph.D at Enabling Devices/Toys for Special Children.

If you would like us to fix the toy please contact me via email or at the contact number given in my email to you.