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I think there was a post a while back about Holloway and the trouble some people had in dealing with them. I have to share my recent experience with you folks to see if this is a one off, or this is the way they do business.
As a background, I've been in the embroidery business for 2 1/2 years with 2 AMAYA XTs working out of a 600sf room in my house. My wife does it full time and I pitch in during evenings and weekends. We are probably doing $35K a year in sales now and growing pretty fast. We are NNEP members and deal with many suppliers but Holloway keeps refusing to sell direct to me.
Here's the details from this weekend. I need to share this story with you because I still can't believe it happened. The sales rep's name is Bill Skene. He is also my local rep for Boxercraft and Soffe.
The ISS show was in NJ this past weekend so my wife and I went there. I wanted to stop at the Holloway booth to complain about not being able to order direct from them. While waiting to speak to the head honcho (I think he was the sales manager or some other big title), I glanced over and noticed my local sales rep standing there. We had never met, but he and my wife had had several conversations over the past 18 months on the phone in which he kept telling us no storefront, no Holloway.
I finally talk to the big guy and tell him my issue. He says there is no rule at Holloway about storefronts and seemed a bit surprised. He did say that every local sales rep can run their territory as they see fit with no oversight from corporate. I told him that it sounded like a stupid way to run a company but he suggested I go talk to the rep directly.
So - I wait a few minutes and go over and introduce myself. He looks at my badge and says "Mr. Sew & Sew, I don't think I've met you before". I tell him who I am and that he has refused to deal with us. He tells me it's because we don't have a storefront. I tell him the bigwig said I didn't need one and he says, "well that's true, you don't, but it has to be your fulltime business". I tell him my wife works on it full time. Then he makes a comment about how he doesn't like selling to Mom and Pops because they usually end up divorced. I'm getting pretty steamed at this point and I see the big shot listening but not stepping in. I tell him that I have the Holloway catalog on my desk with every item marked up to show a competitors product so I can direct business away from Holloway since he won't deal with me.
He shrugs and recommends I go buy from my local competitor who is a Holloway dealer but wants to charge me full retail price. I even offer to pay halfway between wholesale and retail, but he wants no part of that. I accuse him of getting paid off by my competitor to not sell to anyone in the area. At that point he says in a very loud voice, "Go open a storefront and then I will deal with you." I tell him and the big wig that if I can grow my business to opening a storefront without using Holloway, then there is no way I will deal with them later on. He says even louder "Okay Mr. Big Shot, if you think you are so successful, I will open your account on Monday. If you don't do $10,000 in orders with me in the first year I am closing the account." At that point I tell him that I will continue to order through other people so that he doesn't get a dime of my business.
Frustrating, and I had to share it with you. I can't understand how somebody like that works in sales. I'm wondering if I should go direct to Holloway on this although I really don't want to give the company any business. Has anybody else had problems like this?
thanks
Tom
As a background, I've been in the embroidery business for 2 1/2 years with 2 AMAYA XTs working out of a 600sf room in my house. My wife does it full time and I pitch in during evenings and weekends. We are probably doing $35K a year in sales now and growing pretty fast. We are NNEP members and deal with many suppliers but Holloway keeps refusing to sell direct to me.
Here's the details from this weekend. I need to share this story with you because I still can't believe it happened. The sales rep's name is Bill Skene. He is also my local rep for Boxercraft and Soffe.
The ISS show was in NJ this past weekend so my wife and I went there. I wanted to stop at the Holloway booth to complain about not being able to order direct from them. While waiting to speak to the head honcho (I think he was the sales manager or some other big title), I glanced over and noticed my local sales rep standing there. We had never met, but he and my wife had had several conversations over the past 18 months on the phone in which he kept telling us no storefront, no Holloway.
I finally talk to the big guy and tell him my issue. He says there is no rule at Holloway about storefronts and seemed a bit surprised. He did say that every local sales rep can run their territory as they see fit with no oversight from corporate. I told him that it sounded like a stupid way to run a company but he suggested I go talk to the rep directly.
So - I wait a few minutes and go over and introduce myself. He looks at my badge and says "Mr. Sew & Sew, I don't think I've met you before". I tell him who I am and that he has refused to deal with us. He tells me it's because we don't have a storefront. I tell him the bigwig said I didn't need one and he says, "well that's true, you don't, but it has to be your fulltime business". I tell him my wife works on it full time. Then he makes a comment about how he doesn't like selling to Mom and Pops because they usually end up divorced. I'm getting pretty steamed at this point and I see the big shot listening but not stepping in. I tell him that I have the Holloway catalog on my desk with every item marked up to show a competitors product so I can direct business away from Holloway since he won't deal with me.
He shrugs and recommends I go buy from my local competitor who is a Holloway dealer but wants to charge me full retail price. I even offer to pay halfway between wholesale and retail, but he wants no part of that. I accuse him of getting paid off by my competitor to not sell to anyone in the area. At that point he says in a very loud voice, "Go open a storefront and then I will deal with you." I tell him and the big wig that if I can grow my business to opening a storefront without using Holloway, then there is no way I will deal with them later on. He says even louder "Okay Mr. Big Shot, if you think you are so successful, I will open your account on Monday. If you don't do $10,000 in orders with me in the first year I am closing the account." At that point I tell him that I will continue to order through other people so that he doesn't get a dime of my business.
Frustrating, and I had to share it with you. I can't understand how somebody like that works in sales. I'm wondering if I should go direct to Holloway on this although I really don't want to give the company any business. Has anybody else had problems like this?
thanks
Tom
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