Dishonest business practices

stshof

SGF, Supreme Grumble Framer
Joined
Sep 16, 2002
Posts
1,194
Loc
Ohatchee, AL
I ordered a mat from my distributor and was told it was discontinued. This was a Miller/TruVue leather that sells VERY well here so I called Crescent to check it out. They said, "oh, no, we're not discontinuing any of these. Being a trusting soul, I believed them and thanked them. Now I've discovered I was lied to; Crescent had discontinued the "woodlands" and "leather" collections but had requested the distributors keep it from us until stock could be depleted. Well, now everyone knows!
 
I once had the same thing happen to me concerning mouldings. The importer told me it was discoed, but the distributor wouldn't fess up to what he had in stock. I can see the rational on their part (not wanting to get stuck with length people feel is out of stock), but it was during Christmas, and I didn't want to get stuck selling a customer a product that is unavailable. I pulled all of their samples.

It would be better if they released a list of quantity on hand and let it be a first come first served thing. This way the buyer (us) would know the circumstances.
 
It doesn’t make sense for them to do that. Once a discontinued item is announced (moulding, mats, whatever), some of us who really like the item will scoff up every available piece, anyway, so why do it? It’s just bad public relations.

The on-line Crescent discontinued list hasn’t been updated since April, 2003.
 
Matboard manufacturers release discontinued lists to distributors about twice a year. If it is September those matboards are discontinued by the manufacturer in September with instructions to the distributor that it is "officially" discontinued in March of the following year. It sounds like your distributor, like us, typically marks the item as discontinued so it is not reordered by their computer system. The manufacturer in the meantime does not mark it discontinued in their system because distributors will continue to order boards for customers such as your self and if they have surface paper left they may periodically do short runs of a discontinued so they can continue to fill orders until the surface paper is gone. Neither company really lied, they are just protecting their inventories. Yes they ask that the distributor "keep it from you" until it is officially discontinued. Hopefully you found your boards, sold your job and then tossed the corners into the circular file.
 
I got a current discontinued list from my Crescent rep yesterday. It's too long to post here. If you need one, the reps have them.

I didn't use the Library Leathers often (although the black one was nice); the only one I'm really going to miss is the Elizabeth Dow DoubleCross.

Kit
 
Yes you are correct stshof.

I discoverd this back in December and was furious. They disc all of the special finishes like leathers etc.
I tried to cause a stink but it didn;t work. http://www.thegrumble.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=007826#000000 Crescent and the vendors did not want to get stuck with any inventory after they annouced the disc matboard so they only told the Vendors. Consequesntly if we had sold it for a order we got screwed.

I also was finnaly told that this was not going to be realsed until February 1, well its the 23rd and still have not heard the offical word form Crescent or my MatBoard Vendors


What John Richards said is correct. I almost tossed all of Crescent in the Trash.

I had made a comment on The Grumble at the time about this and not many people seemed to care what I was saying.

And I agree it is a dihonest business practice
 
I found out about a mat board being discountinued, so I looked on cresent's web site and since it had not been updated since '03. I called the customer service number 2 weeks ago and they faxed me the list, unfortunatly it was the same on that was on the web site. Can any one help me find the new list?? as I never see a mat board rep. Thanks in advance

frame farm
waynesboro, va
 
When I talked to the Crescent rep at WCAF they explained that they were discontinuing ONLY the International White versions of the TruVue products. They told me that they were NOT discontinuing any of the patterns that would continue to be available in the normal black or white cores.

Obviously, this has been the subject of much confusion, rumour, and debate!
 
Bill, I missed your posting in December - I'm going to try to keep up with this better! I could understand Crescent's business practices if the system worked but when you ask a point blank question and the reply is a cover-up, deception, and absolute LIE then people like me are going to be upset!!! Oh, and yes, John, I'm able to purchase some backup inventory for customers who will need a "match" to items I've already framed.
 
I should clarify and that is why I was vague, Bainbridge, Crescent and when Tru Vue made matboards all adheared to this practice. It's a business matter that all manufacturer's have to go through. If they did not try to deplete inventories before discontinuing these items their introductions of new products would drop because they would be sitting on so much old inventory.

Now, I just went and took a quick look, if you carry Crescent (including Miller/Tru Vue), Bainbridge and Rising that would be 2677 matboards!

Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

There has to be enough choice.
 
Oh but the cheap leather look was a nice board.

I discovered when ording on line and the item came up only available while supplies last. That is a pretty good clue to me. It's much easier for the computer to tell you.
 
Stshof, if you ask someone in December if they are married, and they say no, and then you find out in February that they are married; it does not necessarily mean that they LIED to you. They got married between December and February.
Those mats were ENGADGED to be discontinued.
 
That's a very good way of looking at it.

One of my suppliers has a monthly newsletter on which they post two lists for mouldings: Discontinued, and Discontinued & Gone. This way you know when something is on its way out. You have an opportunity to put in a final supply if you want to. You can either remove the sample immediately or, as I do, put a note on the back of it to check availability.

It would be great if the matboard companies followed this policy too. It would help us retailers and the distributors too. Of course this would require that they update their websites more than once every three or four years.

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Rick
 
What an awesome idea Rick!! Seriously, wouldn't it be great if this complaint caused your idea (or your supplier's idea) to be used industry wide? Of course, it's a very honest way to do business so it probably won't catch on!
 
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