there are always 2 sides to every story, i had a more recent situation where i was also involved like this with one of my trade only wholesalers, they really got mad ( actually started yelling and cursing at me, my father hasn't yelled at me like that in over 20 years lol) when i asked if i can get better pricing then $2.67 per square on a print and cut job ---wait as it seems like an ok price to start-------( i knew what my competitor was charging so i knew where i had to be at, and i been doing this for 14 years), i had to give them the whole print job as they switched to cheaper aftermarket inks on there larger machine, so some of the pieces had to be run on there machine because of the print size and even though same brand machine the aftermarket inks would not match, total job was 1400 square feet ( without nesting the pc's so in reality i calculated anywhere from 800 - 1100 max square feet depending how they good they nested the pc's, ( so i also upset the other shop with the bigger machine and once again got yelled and cursed at like a mut that did pee-pee on his new couch -lol- when i asked if had to pay for the full 1400 square feet that my client just had boxed out dimensions or do i pay wholesale / trade only for what we actually used) i guess it stinks having a smaller machine as i paid full $2.67 per square for the 1400 sq feet , for house brand $0.18 cents a square foot material and cheaper aftermarket inks, so i accepted the pricing as it actually fluctuated from initialy $2.25 up to $3.00 wish i would have stayed at the $2.25) so i closed the deal with the client, and immediately called my my vendor / printer only to find out that knowing the deadline in advance he took on other jobs and now he couldn't guarentee the deadline due to some formula( but he finished 2 days ahead of time whitch was great because 150 square feet were loaded with head strikes and needed to be reprinted, ( pulled out by me as i had to unroll 13 rolls and weed the contour cut and mask because of the cheap material had no stiffness for applying opposed to the name brand stuff that is $0.17 cents more, so most of my profit now had to go to labor and masking) i also had to make sure i counted everything as the shop assumed they were all there ( last job they were actually short 18 boards on a job i was getting ready to deliver) i feel that you should trust that your closest vendor whom you have spend over $50,000 in past 2 years should work with you on a couple jobs when we know the pricing to beat, the only thing different than your situation is since he doesnt install, he would often send me some of his installations, in which he always dictated the price to me, and i never was able to get what i would usually charge, and if i tried to get a little more, i wouldnt get the job, hey if he wants to mark it up the install thats fine as long as i am able to get what i charge considring my pricing structure is not his business, even if he let me quote it and not quote my business for me--------only a fool doesnt question pricing-------- you have to be smart in an economy like this, when you ask a question or a price decrease you should never be screamed at or cursed at i have another vendor who does this all the time, wholesalers should just remember how loyal there customers are , will i still use these vendors of coarse i am loyal and they do a pretty good job and we always help each other in a bind, maybe this economy and owning a business is bringing out the worst in everyone, don't you think? , but i had to ask my dr to up my xanax for all the stress to make a lousy couple hundred after time arguing, labor weeding / peeling unnecessary masking cutting pieces individually and pulling out bad pc's, then had to deliver cause about time done masking a courier was over $400 so another $50 - $100 in gas tolls and parking
so always remember that there are wholesale customers who i feel have the right to ask for better pricing, as far as the end user the customer that we did all this work for who cares about how much we take from them, as long as they keep coming back
