Vendors posting sales price
 

I noticed this on another forum I was on, and I noticed a few people on this forum that feel the same way I do about it.... When a vendor puts up an Ad, can it be required that they post a price, instead of "Call or PM me for price quote"?

I think if they are advertising a product that is currently available, they should post up the price too.


That is all!

|-Goku-|

i agree! :thumbup:

prices should be posted as a general rule!

Yes i agree as well. It's annoying when they dont

We've always preferred this too. Plus, in keeping with the Scion philosophy, it should be a posted price for everyone. Pure Aftermarket. :)

Here, here!

Generally I agree, but there really are situations where a reseller cannot post prices below a certain level, as was explained in another thread. That is why, for example, some sites require you to add an item to your cart before they show you the sale price, because its below a minimum advertised level.

Hm... we don't actually have any policy on classified section... YET

Mods & Admins will talk it over and see on this concern.

Sounds good :)

True but I think you can post retail and give a discount % for the first 5,000 buyers :P

Works for me.

One thing that they ran into on another forum was that the vendors were giving better prices to members they liked. And upping the prices for members that they didn't. Which is very unfair and dishonest.

That's business... If I bring my local tire kingdom 100 sets of tires to mount a year for the race car and he gives me a discount on my personal tires, should the guy who brings in 1 set of tires for him to mount every two years be mad about that?

In the end it's up to the business what to charge consumers, and up to consumers to make a smart choice on who they buy from. Just because someone gets a better price because they have dealt with the seller for years, or are buying a ton of stuff, etc doesn't mean it's wrong and should be prohibited IMO.

I find I might be the one of a few who posts prices. Considering the majority do not, I am tempted to do the same. Granted, while I set my prices up in a group buy format which is appropriate, future postings may follow the board trend.

I do feel as though I need to follow the group. I guess I will cross that path when I get there. I am though of the thought pattern that not posting prices is not fair to members of this board. Shops do not pay to post here, and not posting prices for a competitive edge on the back end doesn't seem fair to anyone.

Just my 2 cents...

What if we posted MSRP or our website pricing, and said "PM for special price"?

This is what we do on a couple other forums, because that's their rules. As someone above mentioned, there are times when we are not allowed to post the actual sales price of an item. Many manufacturers have a Minimum Advertised Price policy aka MAP policy.

Manufacturers who prefer not to see their brand equity diluted by pricing wars specify MAP pricing and will terminate your re-seller agreement if you are "caught" selling beneath it, e.g Cobb Tuning. Several forums we're apart of now mandate that the advertising vendor must post their "price" or the thread will be closed and removed. Many vendors complain about this and it is more than apparent why. The industry is changing and as companies fight to sell parts at 5% above cost to "earn" business, vendors will continue to go out of business. A 5% margin will not even touch the overhead of having a physical location, staff for sales and order support, etc.

I suppose the morale of the story is you will always get what you pay for and the guy with the cheapest price is not necessarily the "ideal" place to purchase from.

Regards,
Alex

It's not dishonest, but it is slightly unfair. But life isn't fair. To give a brick-and-mortar example, I am a "wholesaler" of auto parts for various shops in my area. The company I work for has pricing tiers based upon how much a commercial customer buys from us. The more they buy the higher the tier they will move to. This is the same as having preferred pricing, but more structured.

Commerce has *always* been about the person with the item charging what he feels he can get from the person with the money. If someone buys from you a lot, you might charge them less because you know in the long run they'll spend more money with you. Conversely, if someone rarely buys or is a giant PITA, you'll want to charge them more to get the margin you require or to cover the headaches (a.k.a. @$$hole tax).

There's nothing stopping someone from selling their product to a customer for one dollar or a million dollars except their wish to see them come back. What a customer has to do is ask themselves, "Am I someone this business wants to come back?"

I don't really think it needs to be a rule, but it seems like bad business. I won't consider buying something if there's no price posted, plain and simple.

Well said.

Posting a price should be mandatory. You're not selling, you're fishing without it and it comes off as shady.

The big issue is people want instant gratification,

even after very clear explanations, people are telling the vendors,

"I'd rather pay more and not have to send a PM, Than get a hookup for below MAP because you are trying to support the community"

yeah, super, those are the customers no one wants to deal with anyway. Idiots, the guys that call 50 times and then buy nothing, or get a knock off off of E-bay, or buy a simple part and need 3 hours of Tech support because they have no mechanical aptitude and/or friends.

Not gonna say that I agree on that last paragraph, but the first part is pretty much the vibe I'm getting from this thread.

I would prefer seeing the price also. I don't recall buying anything where I have to PM the vendor for the price.

Wow dude, 28 years in the military a decent college education and you jump immediately to insults? I look at prices to see what fits my budget for a purchase. I am not a zit popping 16 year old scratching coins from the couch, nor am I likely to purchase a set of Fikse for my BRZ (when received). Although I am a person of reasonable means. I own and have owned a number of new sports cars including Porsches, Lotus and Italian bikes and have a Mooney to comute in. I'm not interested in games! Be polite,look the guy in the eye and tell him what you will or will not do! A lot of questions could be minimized by not saying PM me. I am not a merchant, but I am a customer of 49 years, if you want to alienate your customer base game him or let him think you're gaming him and yeah, I think PM'ing for a price may convey that.

^^This. I work in eCommerce and a lot of times we can't advertise a %off or price. So we have to do MAP busters where you see the "add to cart to see price" or "see price at checkout." I would discourage having vendors post prices because then they have to meet MAP or IMAP pricing rules.

you guys are campaigning to not get good pricing.

what makes an idiot an idiot is when you explain something, in clear language, and they deny the obvious,

Bottom line it has been laid out for people, PM'ing someone doesn't mean you commit to purchase, if you are too lazy to save money, that's your deal but don't campaign for higher pricing on the forum, I'd prefer if the collective ignorance didn't affect everyone.

Zoomie, Thank you for your service, for our freedom.

Please read and understand what has been posted, do you really want the mods to effectively lock vendors into selling all products at or above MSRP/Minimum Advertised Price, the vendors are trying to cut people breaks to encourage new customers, why would you want to screw that up, you don't have to buy or even PM the guy if you don't want to,

So Skullworks. Are you saying that I am an idiot because I would rather not have to PM the vendor to get the price?

I understand completely why the vendor would rather not, but if a vendor wants MY business(not lumping anyone else in with this) then I need to see a price in the post.

To sell a part. You have to sign a contract stating you will stay within the MAP rules per that company.

An example:
If I went and posted the MAP pricing at $590 a wheel. You would say oh that costs to much. And move on to something cheaper. If you pm'ed me. You would have found that I was willing to sell it for much less but could not post the price on the thread.

I find it hard to think that you would rather spend 25% more on parts then send a simple PM to a vendor.

You guys are circling the wagons for higher pricing. I don't mind. Just means I make more money since I do not have to give a discount. I would now have to sell at the posted price. :(

I want to give out deals. Not sell at msrp or map. :party0030:

I guess the people that can PM will get the better pricing. :happy0180:

Like I said, I completely understand why you guys do this.:) I'm just saying, that for me personally, if I don't see a price in the post, then I just move on.

All I ask is, post a price. You can discount for whatever reason you choose (everybody but Zoomie & |-Goku-| discount!) The problem is folks attempt to use a MAP type enviroment as a reason for not ever posting prices in any ad they place. It appears to be a business approach some have chosen to follow and with that I heartily disagree. Lastly, if a business chooses to sell at a higher price than other firms, because of the PM thing then discerning customers will likely vote with their currency.

Sorry Goku, kinda kicked you to the curb on the discount thing!:bonk: Sometimes I'm all velocity, no heading control...:slap:

hahaha, It's all good :D

Good to know.

And for folks like us, who don't have selling agreements to worry about (because we make our own stuff), we can post our prices on the forum.

Each way is good.

How about simply posting "Retail: $1,000,000.00 but pm me for special pricing" (yes talking about jdm parts obviously) ?

That would at least give people the ballpark range. The only time the pm for price has annoyed me was the wasting of my time just to find out the item costs way more than I felt it was worth.

:word:

This is why I think most people don't like the "PM for Price" thing. I'm sure a lot of people want to ballpark a price to see if there's even a possibility it'll fit in their budget. It seems to me that vendors would get more bites if they posted the MSRP and then said "PM for OUR price!" That way they know that the price will be below what they see. If the MSRP isn't anywhere near their budget, they won't bite, but they probably wouldn't have bitten in the first place. BUT if the MSRP is just outside their budget, they will be more likely to bite.

Frankly, I usually balk when I don't see a price. Usually "special pricing" isn't low enough below other vendors to bother.

I agree with Draco..

If I were advertising on the forum, I would list the MSRP, but then state that the member should PM for a "forum member specific deal" or something like that. It would come across as a "special" discount. You prime the member for the higher price, then show them a lower price and they think they are getting a great deal.

This is pretty much the same rules that some of the other forums have. We're happy to abide by that. Matter of fact, I'm going to go add pricing to all of our sales posts right now.

People are saying the MAP is why people aren't posting a price, but if its "pm for price" what keeps the people who would bust them for selling below MAP from sending them a pm and getting there lower price and taking away there contract for selling below MAP?

where I stand is closer to what Draco said. I want to know if the part is in the ballpark of something I want for the price. I get annoyed at having to ask just to find out something is out of what i consider the range of cost to return. Half of my pm box is filled with asking people for pricing. It doesn't have to do with instant gratification, it has to do with understanding if an item is obtainable.

I agree with a "pm me for possible discounts" idea. that gives both camps options, you can know about where the price of the part is, but the reseller who wants to make business by under cutting other can still get that done.

Thank you vividracing for adding prices to your posts without having to be told. thats a stand up thing to do. And I agree its the way most forums conduct there business so there is a reason for it.

And to close, you don't go to a brick and mortar store and they write "see cashier for price" on there products. It just makes me feel like the places are kinda shady when they make me ask for a price to everything.

When manufactures set map pricin this means a vendor can't ADVERTISE a price lower then the map pricin how ever they can sell it at what ever they want .

I think there are two options to make people happy 1. Post a price and make sure you say like $100 map pricing . Or 2. Have the vendor pm the customer with the price .

IMO people expect everything given to them, stop being lazy .i know that will piss someone off but get Over it. It takes a minute to pm someone and ask for pricin

I am not being lazy, its about knowing if something is even near the price range people want for a product. Sorry some of us have jobs and a life and can't spend every day asking everyone for a price on every item they sell.

Maybe you didn't read my entire post, my inbox is half full of asking people, and I wouldn't need to ask the dealers there discount price if I got the msrp upfront. And no it does not take a min to pm someone a price, sometimes it takes them a long time to respond. My record on this site is a 4 day wait, and that wasn't even over a weekend.

Consumers have to right to expect dealers to be upfront with there prices. This ask me for a price is the kind of thing you only see in online fly by night dealers. I have never been to a brick and mortar tuning store that doesn't clearly mark there prices. Hell, even most online stores at least have a msrp listed on there products. All I want to know is the ballpark the part is before I consider it, is that unreasonable?

I work very long hours , I'm in the ac industry In Arizona, don't mention not having time . You have to look at their point of view , If I see a price for something I feel that's the price the I would be paying and so with it being listed as map pricing it could lose sales for the vendor so it needs be clear that it's map pricing . I personally like to do most of my buisness locally that way I can support my local shops, but if all I see if map pricing and it's not made clear I would think they were over priced and I would go else where .