Why so much hate??

[OldPaint]

iam with PRO WRAPS........parasite is proper description. they have nothing, talent nor ability. nothing invested, and want sign shops and talented people to to sell to them, cheap....... So THEY CAN make all the money..........yea thats about it.

 

[weaselboogie]

There's only 1 broker who is being hated on.

and it's his mouth, not his profession, that bothers people.

I think most people would agree with this. Take a freakin' clue addie.

 

[Border]

Addie could have all the equipment in the world and real shop but I don't think that would change anyone's opinion of him, solely due to how he has conducted himself here and been caught in so many lies and what-not. On top of that he likes to jump on people with his opinion. He just can't seem to take the advice of laying low, reading as much info as possible and keeping his trap shut once in a while.

Yes, he must just like the attention, good or bad.

PS...I did not type the above statement. It was a worm in my system, my uncle from his home in Georgia or my ex's half-brother in the Everglades, I'm not sure....but it certainly wasn't me!

 

[Baz]

iam with PRO WRAPS........parasite is proper description. they have nothing, talent nor ability. nothing invested, and want sign shops and talented people to to sell to them, cheap....... So THEY CAN make all the money..........yea thats about it.

That's the kind of brokers i have met so far. No loyalty ... Always last minute ... Prices are never cheap enough ... No thanks!

 

[National Sign Co. - Print]

I deal with brokers every day.....and the ones I do work for are Loyal to say the least. I would rather deal with professionals over the general public anyday. You broker out work to companies like mine because you dont have the larger printers and staff we have here. As a wholesaler ONLY, we become an extension of your company...if we dont look good, you dont look good. IN that case...nobody is happy.

Bill is 110% on point. Brokers are a big part of our plants monthly revenue. The good guys are awesome and the bad brokers work with shops other than ours for a reason...

Most brokers we deal with have amazing client base with great projects.

Here are some of my brokers clients.... that we do a lot of work for each.

T mobile
AOL
Us Cellular
Metro PCS
Ebay
Jet Blue
HBO
Nautica
MTV
Timberland
Lancome
Volcom
NY Yankees
NY Jets
Boston Celtics
NE Patriots


The list goes on and on....

God bless the brokers (good, seasoned and well funded ones)... Price it right, be prepared to be the bank for up to 90+ days and it is all good!!

 

[tcorn1965]

Terry....your're right...it has nothing to do with what you own. (more like the banks own me anyway) Any one of us here has made a decision to do what we do for a reason....paint with brush or airbrush...cut vinyl lettering....put ourselves in hock to print for others. I personally love what I do and I make it a point to tell my clients and prospective clients that. The passion for what I do I think has a positive effect on other people that I interact with. Owning the equipment doesnt make me who I am.

+ 1000 I agree, let your passion guide you. We own a lot of equipment and still need to outsource when we cannot meet deadlines. Right now we are doing for Cain 47,000 hand fans, 12,000 4x8's and and 35,000 18x24's and and 20,000 2'x3'...We also are doing his TV and radio commercial ads, and the auto calls...We have outsourced the TV ads...We used to do them.
No passion in this, cut and dry...pays bills...I wish I had the creativity to do the designing parts of of sign making that I have seen here. I will just stick to the technical and leave the good parts to the people I respect on 101

Terry

 

[Gino]

• You wanna know why there's so much hate against brokers ??

Well, the majority here know my feelings and they haven't changed, yet.

I have had many experiences with 'brokers' and for the most part, they all turn sour quickly, from poor planning, to prices are too high, cut me a break, I can get this for $XX elsewhere to the customer hasn't paid me yet, you'll still have to wait for your money to the customer didn't accept it, you'll have to do it over, to threats of going elsewhere and so on and on and on.

I've got to give 'brokers' credit for one thing. They are truly the people which have taught me the most about evil in the business world.... anyway, my business world. They are the very leeches from where I learned to be stern about deposits and balances when a job is picked up or finished. They taught me to be leery of too good to be true projections. They are the very bottom-suckers from where I learned how a person will lie to you and look you right in the eye and tell you he's your friend and potential business partner.

Here I won't use the term we or us..... in MY shop, I decide if we'll do work for these scumbags. They either pay upfront or I'll scalp their butts and if they don't like it.... take a frickin' hike cause I don't have time for your kind.


Now, in post #4, Addie had to open his pie hole and generalize things by saying 'THEY' when he meant a certain few, but he's too afraid to point fingers or name names. There's not a sole in this place that knows there's no love lost between Addie and myself. In fact, I told Addie this many times and he gave me all kinds of kudos and how he understood my views and said he could accept it from me. However, he can't. He forgets from day to day or hour to hour what the heck he lied about in another thread. He can't keep his lies and stories straight because he has nothing from which to pull. It's a shame, he seems like under normal circumstances he could get along with anyone, but he lies..... all the time. That shows no integrity, no morals, dishonesty...... just an all around insincere person.

Can I say these things and get away with it. You bet I can. I've been the brunt of many of his hoaxes and accusations. I have a ton of PM's and some e-mails from him going off on me..... and he has some of mine going right back at him. He's taken a perfectly good way of doing business 'brokering' and has managed to prove ALL the things I originally said about him and he has proved me right not 100%, but about 22,511% right.

I've done my share of rattling his cage, but I told him many times over, if he kept these gross lies and false witnessing on people, I'd come after him. I was approached recently to let go of Addie, and I did.... but I have to admit, when I see his outright boldness in lies and misinformation.... I get right back into immediately. I'm sucked in. I've been trying to stop it and have talked to some very good friends about it and I was just starting to see a way around it..... special thanks to you know who and Mr Broker veers his ugly frickin' head again.... and now this thread.

I'm sorry to the whole community for my part in blowing the whistle on Addie and y'all had to watch the fireworks and drama, but to Addie..... I can't imagine after he said he doesn't keep guns around the house or his wife will shoot him.... I honestly believe that was one of his first true statements. So, maybe there is hope for him as Addie the person, but Addie the 'broker'.... he's a goner. Between his wretched and useless knowledge vs. his continual lies.... he's worse than a bad little kid at the table and ya just wanna send him off to his room without supper, lock the door and throw away the key.

Finito.............. Gino​

 

[MikePro]

another new thread for a dead horse? didn't see that one coming.

 

[johnnysigns]

Gino get a therapist already man... OOFAH!

I deal with brokers all day long and we've done quite well running a business that's based largely on that model. I don't know what your volumes are like, who your market is or if you're clients even like dealing with you Gino, but we do just fine and have for roughly 40yrs. We've got a core group of clients that know how to use our capabilities to offer their clients the things we do best.

 

[Sticky Signs]

Some of my best clients are brokers - or, something like that - Some call it Project Management. Either way, they send me lots of work and I get paid. Plus I get to do really cool stuff for high profile companies that I wouldn't normally get to do work for. No hate here for brokers.

What I do have a hate-on for is all the freakin' drama that's going on here lately. I can't seem to find an interesting thread that doesn't get railroaded by "you know who".
Now both of you, go kneel down in separate corners and take a serious time out.

Your regularly scheduled program will resume in 5...4...3...2...

 

[Jillbeans]

Why is it still here?

 

[Gene@mpls]

brokers walk the line between symbiote and parasite. most of which tend to lean toward the latter.

French, from Greek symbiōtēs companion, from symbioun to live together

I love when I get to look up a new word. Thanks Pro

 

[MatthewTimothy]

Why is it still here?

im sorry??

 

[Locals Find!]

she means me...Hi Jill

 

[SightLine]

I see both sides of the argument myself but as a personal preference from a customer point of view I feel that dealing with a broker sometimes leaves me hanging. Who better knows what the printer is capable of? The printer or some middle man? A feel the same way about drop ship model retailers. If you do not have it why are you selling it? I had that exact scenario just in the past couple of days - needed a part, found an online retailer who had it at a good price and they have good reviews. Shows it in stock. I order. 2 days later I get a call - "sorry our supplier is out of that".

I make a point to our clients that if we have a problem or damage a print or something during intall (while rare it can happen) that we can simply print another one immediatley. We let them know very clearly that many shops in the area offer the same services and products as we do but they actually do not even have the ability to produce these products. I tell them what if the color is off some - we can make an adjustment right now. Want a proof - no problem. If you are dealing with a broker an adjustment or new proof might take days.

Thin line though..... we do sell some products we do not make here in house too. Business cards, some promo stuff like pens, etc. We do clearly let our customers know this though. So the thin line is that many of us, myself included are to an extent also brokers.

 

[Arlo Kalon 2.0]

The last broker I ever (or will ever) deal with is in his grave now. I don't believe in speaking ill of the dead, but I am going to relate what he did to me. One time when I was hospitalized, he went to my landlord who was next door and persuaded them that I needed him to open and run my shop. With free reign, he promptly dug into my customer files and paid invoices and did himself some extensive research. Armed with his new inside info, he began calling on my established customers while I was still in the hospital. He told them he could give them a better price than I was gouging them with. I learned of this when a few of them called and told me after I got out. He strolled into the shop one day soon thereafter for a few quotes. I asked him how many shops he got quotes from. He said "just you Arlo". I asked him how he was going to beat my prices then as he had been promising people. He played dumb - which came very naturally to him. I told him about my loyal customers who ratted him out. I said I was considering calling the police because he was trespassing in my shop. He said "you mean when you were in the hospital and I ran the place for you?". I said no, right now. Get the hell out of here. I called nearly every shop in town and warned them about him. He lost a lot of income because I did do a lot for him, to the extent of loaning him money until jobs had been paid for. That's my experience with brokers.

 

[Gino]

Gino get a therapist already man... OOFAH!

I deal with brokers all day long and we've done quite well running a business that's based largely on that model. I don't know what your volumes are like, who your market is or if you're clients even like dealing with you Gino, but we do just fine and have for roughly 40yrs. We've got a core group of clients that know how to use our capabilities to offer their clients the things we do best.

No, there's no need for a therapist or anything of the likes. If you, along with some others would take a moment to really see what's going on, it's not 'brokers' in the realm of which you are speaking that is the problem.

It's the self-proclaimed/ordained 'brokers'... who as Old Paint put it so beautifully..... have absolutely no talent, no knowledge, no ability and tend to weasel their way through a rather nice industry raping it while they go.

We do business with quite a few agencies which act as 'brokers' in the sense I believe many of you are confusing. Around here, we have ad agencies, among other names they go by. Their main goal in business is to meet their clients' needs such as marketing, advertising and handling most everything for their clients, so their clients don't have to waste the time doing it. These kind of 'brokers' do it all. Novelties and promotional items are just a small part of their overall duties. They mainly take care of radio, newspaper, internet, television, signs and branding.

These so-called 'brokers' doing yard signs, business cards, some brochures and other novelty stuff are a dime a dozen and that's the category the 'brokers' in this place fall under. They aren't 'brokers' in any true sense of the word or in the industry.

Just about every 'broker' I've been in contact with has nothing in common with advertising other than they have a gift for gab and lie like the dickens. It's the only way they can gt business.

Addie, himself admitted, why get the equipment, why get the overhead, why do anything other than sub work to a legitimate vendor and take all the credit ?? That's the attitude and business plan of either a lazy bastard or a sneaky lying bastard. I can tell you for a fact, when Addie's customers or 'brokers' such as Addie talk to their customers, for the most part, don't let on that they are subbing the work out. They'll lose the customer because why would anyone in their right mind do business with a known middleman for a set of business cards or a few yard signs....when you can go to the horse's mouth ?? Because on a larger scale, the customer doesn't want to be bothered and the markup and profit margins are far greater.

Addie, recently sent me another PM asking why so many turn the threads into 'Anti-Addie' threads. I don't feel the necessity to answer him, because so many posts have already told him and he doesn't take advice well. How many people besides myself have asked him to quite down... take a deep breath.... think about what he posts and so on ?? Many from the threads I've read. Many times myself in PM's also.

I've said it before.... I could care less how Addie runs his business or life. He wants the title 'broker'.... let him have it and abuse it. For me, it's the terrible answers and advice he gives here that concerns me. I know this is Fred's place, but something that has been drilled into me by him, Doug and many others.... what are future newbies and others going to think after the smoke has settled and reads some of these old threads using the 'Search' button and take his stupidity at face value ??

My only concern here on s101, besides doing a rather lucrative wholesaling business with many of the members, is to answer whatever questions I can help out with, have fun with the community and as many others have done... warn people of viruses, bad software, codes problems and other problem areas in our industry and unfortunately, Addie falls under that last umbrella.

I don't think he needs to be banned, that's never been my intention. Besides, my intentions don't really matter. He isn't doing any of this purposely, other than purposely answering wrong, but he needs to know when others are truly trying to help him and he doesn't seem to care. There are so many loopholes and snags in every one of his job transactions, stories and procedures, but he just keeps on going on like the Energizer Bunny.

Anyway johnny, hope that answers your questions as pertaining to 'brokers' and Addie. As for our volume and type of business, as I mentioned, we too do a lot of wholesaling, so we do work with a vast amount of middle-people, but other than the little schmucks like I've talked about... it's all very good. We're in our 40th year as of November 4th, so even though you think people might not like dealing with us.... or ME, not so. Quite the contraire. I still have some of my earliest customers as customers. In fact, my very first customer is still with me. The majority of our customers are 20 to 25 years with us and then some.​

 

[royster13]

Arlo that was not because he was a "broker" it was because he was a "bandit".....

At the end of the day some businesses can survive without broker clients and others can not....So one has to do what works for them....There is no shortage of suppliers to buy from, so no skin off my back if you do not want my business...

 

[OldPaint]

to merritt graphics....YOUR DESCRIPTION of a "broker" is a CLIENT..........to most of us who arent wholesalers. sorry those you listed are not BROKERS.
SIGN BROKER.........someone who has no loyalty to either you or any large company, no talent, no equipment, and are little more then a CON-MAN running a CON...so they can make or take money that they had no part in production or design of end product.
that is not any.............of the large companies you listed.
you call them brokers, but ill bet dollars to dognuts, who you consider a broker have some ties to those large companies, either thur family or past employment.

 

[National Sign Co. - Print]

to merritt graphics....YOUR DESCRIPTION of a "broker" is a CLIENT..........to most of us who arent wholesalers. sorry those you listed are not BROKERS.
SIGN BROKER.........someone who has no loyalty to either you or any large company, no talent, no equipment, and are little more then a CON-MAN running a CON...so they can make or take money that they had no part in production or design of end product.
that is not any.............of the large companies you listed.

The companies listed come from brokers. I do not work with those companies directly. I work for brokers whom have that client base. You should really read the posts before you fire out ignorance in a world you clearly know nothing about. This is not spray paint on bark or clay pots.

A broker is a glorified salesman that works independently and not for our company.

Thanks for the little lesson.. but I believe I do know how this works. The only thing shady about a broker or any client for that matter is when they are slow pay or no pay... Without prior heads up..

We know what we get involved with when dealing with brokers and the shady ones have been weeded out. You do not get big clients like these brokers have by being a con man. I am talking 2-3 million in annual revenue from our brokers.

Not some clown looking for letterhead, bumper stickers and business cards. You guys can pick and choose your battles over them...