The Wholesale Forums

[Tracy]

Woah!!! We all gotta start somewhere. I have paid £350 to set up as a limited company, ive worked hard to find suppliers and gathered information. Im working on a contract for another company and im trying to start my company up along side all this.

So bringing in a VAT form in my eyes would be unfair. I wont be turning over £67k any time soon.

But on another note i was suprised to see that i did not have to give my company reg number when registering as a seller. But then where do you draw the line at the new sellers to the old school?

[hardwareheroes]

You are also right Tracy - its a fine line - a small degree over makes a big difference

[TTL]

Originally Posted by bilald

From a buyers perspective, I think there should be stricter rules for becoming an advertiser on here. I am trying to get a measly £55 back from an advertiser from here as a refund and apparently, he 'cant't afford it'.

There are some very good advertisers on here with good reputations and decent businesses - the 'one trick pony' advertisers ruin the good advertisers reputations.

This is exactly why there should be stricter controls on advertisers.

Underwriting applications should be tougher as there are too many instances like yours. There must be a way of doing this with some sort of compulsory provision of proof of trading when applying.

[uktrader]

Maybe advertisers should be simply risk assessed. Almost like haveing a Learner sign on them to show they have only just started trading, this would at least warn users from dealing with them but after a time period this would be removed, almost like an ebay score.


I am aware there is a trader feedback on here but maybe adding a icon on established traders and new traders that is visable on the forum face would be an idea. The more someone has, like VAT, Established LTD COMPANY, Biz number etc the better icon, if you like 'badge' and this would help buyers and encourage sellers to improve there standing.

[addswholesale]

I think it boils down to many people seeing long term dropshippers making plenty of sales & gaining massive intrest on the forums

the newbie non experienced try to jump on it thinking omg dtg has made 3k this month!!

Little do they know it aint that easy & takes someone with alot funds & a good head to do the turn over

Ian & many others will confirm £1000 in your backside or dropshipping from china want get you jack s**t in making a dropshipping company

[hardwareheroes]

Originally Posted by addwolves

Ian & many others will confirm £1000 in your backside or dropshipping from china want get you jack s**t in making a dropshipping company

I had an initial spend of £20k and it wasn't enough although that was partly the fault of TWF for buying so much so quickly and the time delay to get goods from China - in hindsight £40k would have been enough to provide the service and range I wanted to from the start

[Pete]

Originally Posted by bilald

From a buyers perspective, I think there should be stricter rules for becoming an advertiser on here. I am trying to get a measly £55 back from an advertiser from here as a refund and apparently, he 'cant't afford it'.

There are some very good advertisers on here with good reputations and decent businesses - the 'one trick pony' advertisers ruin the good advertisers reputations.

This is not a TWF problem. This is one of the safest places to buy on the net.

This is not even an internet problem.

From the guy who comes around to patch your driveway with used motor oil to guys like Bernie Madoff, there are always people ripping others off and no amount of checking is going to catch them all.

I rail all the time about these one-week wonders, but I get cussed as trying to capture the market for myself and stifling competition. Actually, there are fewer now than a few months ago.

It is your responsibility to vet who you purchase from, whether here or for driveway repairs. Anyone can spend a bit of time and see who gets good reviews and who is new and questionable. Anthony does way more than most forums and advertising directories by at least verifying who is who. He cannot guarantee performance.

I, as much as anyone, feel part of my presence here is to warn and teach the newbies, but the fact is that some don't want to hear, that saving a bit is far more important than paying just a bit more to an known, established trader.

Since I actually have two businesses here, I see the same in the web hosting / design business. Over the months we've seen some quite horrible examples of "designer for hire".

Deal with someone with a track record. There are some here and their names come up time after time as being good sources. Not just Vital, but several others have sprung up over the last 3 or 4 months, often with a membership kind of deal, only to end up backing off, changing "plans", going with what they hope might work a bit better for them.

Then there are others, with some previous business experience who have opened up with some no-nonsense "I've got the goods, if you have the money you can buy them" terms that haven't changed since the day they opened the doors.

Ask your potential suppliers "what business experience have you had before TWF?". For many it might be "I sold tickets to the school play."

[Anthony]

Firstly, thejunglecrew, I am extremely sorry to hear of your experiences with VitalDropship. I appreciate this may not benefit you in the short term, but I will ensure that contact is made with the advertiser immediately to see if we may put something in motion to aid this situation for you. I would invite you, as many here do, to contact us when you have a problem with an advertiser here, we are the best equipped to deal with any problems that may occur.

With regard to the other comments made about the marketplace in general. I take on board a lot of your comments, as I do feel some are valid and worthy of internal improvement. The marketplace is experiencing a high level of growth at this time, there is a great deal many more transactions taking place than there was several months ago. Admittedly some of the protocols we have in place do need revision, as they were originally adopted for a much smaller platform and we have publicly aired that in other discussions aimed at asking you what you think needs to change. These protocols cannot be drawn up overnight, but we are committed to maintaining the trust and respectability this community was founded on.

Let us for a second not forget that issues in business occur on a daily basis, whether it is here on this forum, on auction sites or private websites or indeed on the high street. Problematic transactions exist and will always exist, they are a part of the process. What we as a community and a service provider attempt to do is limit the damage these problems can cause and do everything we can to maintain a transparent and trusted environment through commitment to our members. We may not always be able to resolve issues that are reported, but of those that are brought to us swiftly, the vast majority are resolved, and that is a fact.

[hardwareheroes]

Well said Pete

[ADC]

The big problem is here is dropshipping. I really don't agree with it.

If you're selling things you don't have, you should be banned from ebay/amazon etc.

I know a lot of advertisers on here probably won't speak up because they sell a lot to these bedroom traders. So I'll probably be a lone voice on this one.

First off you are conning the customer, because (the majority of the time) the reason they buy is because they believe you are a genuine business that have it in stock. Your customer depends on you, why should they have to depend on what someone else is doing.

People need to grow some balls and invest some money in a product they think will sell. Don't rely on anyone else just depend on yourself. Especially some of the products we are talking about, normally £20 to £30 MP3 Players and stuff. If you are not willing to risk a few quid on your own instinct you shouldn't be in business.

Get back to the old fashioned way of business, after all who heard of dropshipping before the internet?