The Wholesale Forums

[Pete]

It is with heavy heart that I must tell the nearly 100 of you who have bought from me that I have had to close the business. I hope not for good, but until I can find another supplier.

DON'T PANIC! ALL OUTSTANDING ORDERS WILL BE REFUNDED IN FULL! MOST WILL BE DONE TODAY!

I told you from the start, I was not paying ahead for the orders, so I did not lose all your funds to a fraudster. With a couple of exceptions everything is fairly cut and dried and there is no question of the status of your order.

VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING ORDERED PRIOR TO OCTOBER 21 HAS BEEN SHIPPED. There are 2 screwed up orders prior that will be refunded.

Most orders from the 21st on will be refunded today. There MAY be several that have been shipped and I have not yet been informed, but most of the orders through PayPal will receive a PayPal credit today.

Orders paid with a credit card through Mal's E-commerce may be a day or two.

IN ANY CASE, ALL UNSHIPPED ORDERS WILL BE REFUNDED IN FULL BY FRIDAY.

I have the money, I'm not going to leave anyone hanging. The orders of the last few days are no question at all. But there are a few in the 21st - 24th time frame that I need to get specifics on.

As for why?

"It isn't fun any more." Yes, that is the reason I've been given by my "partner" in China. It's more "bother" than he anticipated.

I can go on about what I've been going through with him and his staff for the last week, or so, but won't. I've alluded to what it's been like and a couple of things in the last few days were just all he could stand.

One was the fact that one of our own here on the forum found a particularly dangerous virus on a shuffle type unit he received. I've sent a notice to everyone who has ordered he shuffle types, and he's the only one who has actually seen it. Here's a link to the info on the virus. Some "household name" stores have gotten good with it installed, so it's quite a "popular" virus.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/articl.../BU47V0VOH.DTL

I think that sort of had an impact on my China guy, as did a request to start a claim on a lost order which included delivery confirmation. Seems Royal Mail did not get a signature. On top of the software problems with the MP4s, I believe he just wasn't geared for the customer support required for dealing with single units and dropship sales.

Regardless, it's over for now. Most of you will get a refund today by PayPal. Those who paid in other ways and all remaining PayPal buyers will be paid by Friday, latest.

There is no reason to contact me. If your order shows on the website as Processing you can be looking for a refund. As I said, there are a few in the 21st to 24th area I am not sure about and am trying to get updated info on. As it is now night in China I will not have that today.

If you paid by PayPal after Oct 25 and do not get a refund today, contact me tomorrow. Include your order number and PayPal receipt number. Best to forward your PayPal receipt.

Don;t do it today, I'm going to be working on them most of the day.

Again, DON"T PANIC! You will get your money back.

I am sorry for anyone who may be caught up in a Ebay feedback problem. I'd suggest contacting your buyer as soon as possible. Hopefully you can keep them happy.

Lastly, I apologize to you all. I knew my "partner" was a "big idea" man, and used to selling in volume, but I had no idea he would react as he has when confronted by the realities of day to day dealings with small orders.

Again, sorry.

[LOWRIDER]

Very sorry to hear that Pete.. things happen!!!

cheer up
David

[RWA]

Sorry to hear about that Pete.

However if your ex-partner wants to succeed in business he cannot just throw his hands up and give up when times get tough.

[JGClifton]

Well that didn't last very long...

[marklou]

new to the site and i was going to place an order for about 25 different bits off your site, never mind just my luck.
good luck with whatever next

[Pete]

Originally Posted by JGClifton

Well that didn't last very long...

No, it sure didn't. It took off like a rocket, but fizzled rather quickly.

Did nearly $ 10,000 in less than a month. I'm refunding over $ 2,500 today.

The guy has been selling container loads and large orders and just had no conception of all of the hassles you run into dealing with so many small buyers.

Ans as I said in other posts, it's been a struggle for me, dealing with people 10,000+ miles away who don't speak the same language. Again, his staff are mostly paper pushers and when it cam to packing orders there were a lot of little things that were not right.

Someone doesn't get the wall charger they ordered. It's only a dollar, not a big deal money-wise. And it will cost $ 5 or so to send that $ 1 item. So he says, give them a refund. To me, you still have the obligation to send what they ordered.

Frankly, me being "negative" by insisting that we give people what they paid for and honoring our commitment to buyers was one of the factors that made the business "no fun." Fun seems to be taking the money and everything that has to do with customer service seems to have been "no fun."

I should have never let him twist my arm and talk me into it. I turned him down a number of times, but he kept coming back. The fact that he did not require payment when placing the order was the only reason I agreed and it seems like it was a good thing, as I do have all of the money for the unshipped orders, which I am refunding at this time.

I've got to take a break now and again to catch up on the latest Obama chats on CNN. And my mouse hand is getting tired paging through several sheets of PayPal listings, but I'm about half done the refunds and will get them mostly out in another hour or so.

Now, I'm looking for a new source. The response I got was truly great. Didn't make any money. Time it's all said and done, less than $ 1 per hour for 16 hour days for over a month. My profit really was about 7%, so even at $ 10,000 that's about $ 700 for 5 weeks or so of long hours.

I know it sounds corny, but I honestly didn't go into it with profit as a motive. I truly believed we had something of value for a lot of online sellers to take advantage of.

Sorry it didn't last longer. If it were up to me we'd still be going strong.
.

[RWA]

At least now you've got the experience under your belt and you can now look at the procedures and see what worked well and what didn't and improve on them.

Hopefully it won't be too long before you find another supplier

[JayRich50]

Well Pete, why not just close it down for a while to let everything settle down. Then stop the dropshipping and just sell in small bulk or maybe in MOQ 10?

[Pete]

Good thought. I'll have to set up some contacts on my own.
.

[marklou]

Originally Posted by JayRich50

Well Pete, why not just close it down for a while to let everything settle down. Then stop the dropshipping and just sell in small bulk or maybe in MOQ 10?

hope so i would be very intrested but with it coming upto christmas i really need a supplier of these or similar products asap