How does this guy stay in business?

[binki]

I need toner for my laser printer and decide to give a local guy in my city a shot at it. He claims to have ink and toner for every printer out there and he is local. He has come by the shop a lot and is right down the street.

I call during his business hours shortly before his closing and he says he is just leaving, can I call him back tomorrow. This would be Strike one but I understand he may have something that came up and he needs to leave.

I call him back and give him the model number and he gives me a price. I say great, give me a call when you have it.

He calls me back the next day and asks for the model again. I guess he didn't write it down. He says he will have it the next day.

He calls back 2 days later and says the price was not correct, it was triple his quote. Hmmm. Then he says there is no inventory anywhere in the country.

Then he trys to sell me on buying an HP laser because he has lots of inventory on that toner.

I tell him, ok, I will buy an HP and let him go.

I go to my old standby for toner that dropships and there is my toner at my door 1 day later.

So, after nearly a week I didn't have toner, I had a job to print, I gave this guy all kinds of chances and in the end he wants me to buy something I don't need and cannot use.

How does a place like this stay around?

 

[James Burke]

Believe it or not, I've also had similar experiences with local business owners. Most of their "inventory" is next day, or is only available by special order...which I can understand due to the expense of carrying costs.

But....if they want to survive, they'd better be offering something more, namely (very) excellent customer service, or else they stand to lose business to online shopping or those big box stores.

I still cringe at the suggestion of one business owner who suggested I download a cracked verison of one Adobe application I was willing to purchase from him. I ended up ordering directly from Adobe. Bummer....he could have made a few bucks on the sale, along with establishing a customer relationship...but he blew it, and I've never gone back since.

 

[threeputt]

How long has he been in business? He may not "stay around" at all.


Or....he get's by giving marginal service because he's doing something else right. Maybe his prices are rock bottom, I don't know.


Or....he' not in the copier business at all. It's a front for an illegal enterprise, with most of the "business" being done at the back door.

Had a florist right next to me years ago that did that. Task force eventually busted the owner. Then the IRS padlocked the front door.

 

[john1]

Who knows, i would stay away from him.

I know in my little town, There are dozens of places who have these little shops doing whatever and they are already wealthy, having a business is something to keep them busy whether they make any money or not. Maybe that's his case too.

 

[rcook99]

I have to say I just looked at buying ink for my old Oki laser and found it cheaper to just buy a new Xerox Phaser with duplexing for about $50 more than the toner for the old one.

It kills me new OEM toners are $480.00 the new duplexing Xerox was $346.00 delivered and people wonder why our counrty is going down the ****.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I call during his business hours shortly before his closing and he says he is just leaving, can I call him back tomorrow. This would be Strike one but I understand he may have something that came up and he needs to leave.

That alone would have turned me off. That would have been strike 1, 2 and 3. Small business really have to pick it up with regard to service to compete against the bigger stores that have the same thing or to keep people from going to the internet and shopping there.

As to the rest, I have no idea what he was thinking.

 

[jiarby]

I just bought a new-in-box cartridge for my HPLaserjet printer on craigslist.... $10
Same one is $100 at staples!

Shop around! Lotsa people dump their old consumables super cheap when they no longer have the printer.

 

[iSign]

Had a florist right next to me years ago that did that. Task force eventually busted the owner. Then the IRS padlocked the front door.

we see a lot of illegal flower sales around here too!!

umm.. I mean, we see 'em in the papers, after the fact....

 

[binki]

That alone would have turned me off. That would have been strike 1, 2 and 3. Small business really have to pick it up with regard to service to compete against the bigger stores that have the same thing or to keep people from going to the internet and shopping there.

As to the rest, I have no idea what he was thinking.

I thought about that but gave him another chance but I was pretty much done with him when I called the next day, gave him all the info and he called back and asked me to give it to him again. WTF, didn't have a pencil when I called the last time?

 

[Mosh]

I bet he does not make much off toner refills and could care less. I have local yocals always wanting some piddly little thing and when I blow them off they ask how I can stay in bussiness. Well I am in to make money, not messing around with piddly little crap I make $5 off (like a toner refill) Just go to a big box and forget it.

 

[klemgraphics]

I bet he does not make much off toner refills and could care less. I have local yocals always wanting some piddly little thing and when I blow them off they ask how I can stay in bussiness. Well I am in to make money, not messing around with piddly little crap I make $5 off (like a toner refill) Just go to a big box and forget it.

+1 and they always act like they are doing you some great favor by letting you make it for them.
Had a guy that used to send all his buddies to me for all kinds of small junk that I could care less about, then whenever he wanted something done he would make sure to note that he sent all these people to me like he should get a discount...little did he know that made the price go up.

I can't believe he wanted you to call back tomorrow though, really how long does it take to make a note of what you wanted?

 

[binki]

The guy came into my store and wanted to sell me ink and toner. I don't think $165 retail for a single toner cart is chump change. I don't know his margin but he came to me and I thought it was a simple request to purchase from him.

This is on the front page of his website in giant letters:

"INK AND TONER FOR ALL YOUR PRINTERS, COPIERS AND FAX MACHINES, AND NOW CABLES, AT HUGE SAVINGS!"

This is all he sells. Nothing else. Just ink and toner.

After 7 days I didn't have the toner and he was telling me to purchase an HP printer so he could sell me toner for it.