Auto Atlanta has contacted us about some of our products. They have ordered some and are going to do an evaluation on them. If we get a contract with Auto Atlanta we may not be able to sell to the public anymore do to the volume that they are talking about ordering.

For those of us who can't read minds over the internet, what the heck are you talking about?

sorry for my ignorance, but what products are you talking about?

cheers,

Jeroen

He makes the 6.5" speaker pods and the inexpensive carpet kits.

I can't tell you what to do with your business, but I know that if AA is the only company selling your products, I and many of the people here will not buy them. AA has a very bad reputation and most informed buyers won't touch them. Do a search for all the details.

I hope you choose to pass on the deal personally.

Get yer money up front whatever the hell it is....

To morphenspectra:

No offense intended, but it may behoove you to introduce who you are, what you manufacter, why it effects the 914 community, and why in the hell you'd want to deal with AA in the first place. otherwise, we don't know what the hell you're talking about!

cheers, n

This gentleman produces and markets speaker pods, carpet kits and other accessories for the 914. The quality of his products is highly regarded.

Now, as far as AA goes, well you will get an opinion for a lot of people here. For me, I've never done business with them and never will.

As far as granting them an exclusive on your products, I'm going to give you some hard earned advice. Do it only if you have a contractural guarantee for a firm quantity commitment for a firm price. Don't allow them to say, we want pricing based upon 1,000 units (or 10, or 50, or whatever quantity) but only ship us two now. You'll get screwed. I was in wholesale distribution for years and we would routinely do that to suppliers. And, get money up-front for the initial order as a way of commiting to the exclusive. I'll guarantee that they balk.

If I had a product that I was producing, no matter how limited the market, I would never commit to an exclusive distribution agreement.

Good luck.

Most of us knew who he was because of the lengthy discussions recently on speaker enclosures. I think some of you are being a bit rude.

Gosh you guys are pretty rude today!

I think Paul's advice is pretty sound business advice IMHO and if he goes with AA maybe the price will go down if the quanities are high enough.
I have dealt with AA in the past and still they do supply alot of 914 parts. Brings to mind the flares, hmmm, yes it took effin years to happen but it did and at a pretty good price compared to the OEM ones.


Geoff

thought so too

must be the full moon ...
Andy

didn't mean to be rude -- my apologies.

sarcastic tone doesn't go through the internet very well, my bad

nathan

I guess I better buy the carpet kits before AA get's their claws into them...charges more $ and then doesn't deliver all the pieces BTW has anyone tried his carpet kits, how does the carpet look/lay/etc. Thanks!

Just got a really nice beige set of carpets from Morph. Please don't do an exclusive contract with AA. Make the contract so you can sell to whomever.

.........b

I've just installed one of his carpet kits recently, and its first rate!
For a "driver" its as good as Auto's International products, and 1/3 the price. I also aint too happy with AA, they only screwed me on a $5 shipping charge, but that was AFTER I plainly told them I didn't want the item backordered, they did it anyway, charged me shipping twice- didnt offer refund.
Seems like a contract w/them would be a no brainer, and get a commitment on minimum qty they will buy for a certain discount, less than that qty price goes up.
I dunno, choose not to deal with them and they may just copy your product and undersell you off the face of the planet.
My .02 anyhow,
Robert O

I knew exactly who you were when I read your post. I like the product line you offer. There have been several posts here on your good quality and service. I would not hesitate purchasing from you. I've never purchased a thing from AA. And based on all the negitive posting I never will. There are plenty of other sources out there to choose from. I personally would never get involved with a business with there soiled reputation. Search the archives here and on the Bird board. Check the Better Business Bureau.

You'd be better off contacting the other parts houses, i.e. Pelican or Performance Products, if you want to go through dealers for sales-- don't lock yourself out of a market by going with only one distributor, it's suicide. I know one big headache for me has been how to coax resellers to join the bandwagon, and I offer volume pricing breaks for dealers, but decent discounts on one off orders too for those dealers not large enough to purchase in bulk.

Charles Navarro
LN Engineering
http://www.LNengineering.com
Aircooled Precision Performance

i posted this thread to hear youre thoughts out there in the 914 world,and to be honest i have heard the good the bad ,and the ugly about AA. and to make a long story long our company came to be due to fate.My wife has been a ebayer for a few months buying small things.she heard me one day bitching about not bieng able to find a part i needed.she looked it up on ebay and found it.i looked at the parts there and said "i got four of those,i got ten of those,we listed 20 parts the next day.
we sold everything we posted for three months.our first month was aug/03 after costs we made 1000.00
every month since them we have doubled(you do the math )we only sell products we mfg now.For those who dont know our products here is a link to our store http://stores.ebay.com/914appearanceandper...ept0/index.html
i also custom make metal parts (batt tray and most rust replacement parts ) but i do not ship these parts you need to come and get them i also dont advertize this either.(well i guess i just did)i also have many prototypes of items that will be realesed in 2004.i started selling parts to pay for some parts i wanted for my 914s.and my wants where simple i just wanted some IDFs for my 73,and a sport console for my 71.i wasnt trying to build a company.it just happened.and on a lighter note my wants are alittle bigger i was looking for two 2.0L not looking to spend alot im still a cheap bastard we are also looking for a race car on the west coast to test some carbon fiber,kevlar,and lexan racing parts. seroius proven race cars only.we are not looking to buy just someone who is willing to test our body parts for data.Now back to our parts we are not intrested in a AA exclusive i simply wanted to state that if we start making parts in a large volume we may not have time to take orders directly for a few months.MAY NOT BE ABLE TO.key words there,so we where only tring to warn people of what to expect. i also need a list of the admin of this web site.so if you are a admin of 914world.com please email me. good customer service,a fair price,and a quality product.when i go to buy anything thats what i expect.so why shouldnt you get that from me when i sell you something. well that was alittle about our company,and what where about.and to be honest im proud of the fact that a big company took the time and effort to find me and call me and tell me "i like some of youre products"thought ,comments, ideas,bitches,moans,bad storys about AA,good storys about AA,you wont hurt my feelings,im open to any comments out there

i forgot the most important part
[FONT=Arial]appearance & performance
that is the name of our company
hiedi hogue/admin
nathan (james) hogue/914 guy

here is the list of Admins:


 

Brad
Novato, Calif

Gint

Denver CO.

Jeroen

The Netherlands

Lawrence
Baghdad, Iraq


olav
All Forums
Los Gatos, CA. USA

seanery
All Forums
Indy

SirAndy
All Forums
Oakland, California

Thanks for the list

i have his speaker pods...and they are first rate!

id say keep selling them on ebay.....or contact places like Pelican, HPH< etc...
lots of people have had bad experiences with AA....

I just ordered some speaker ports and speakers, before anything changes the deal. I must admit I've had dealings with AA in the past, long before I knew anything about this board. Sometimes orders went okay and sometimes not; it was always an adventure and a learning experience! Overall, more positive than negative outcomes. With the limited supply of some of the parts for these cars, sometimes you just have to ante up and pay the price.

Damn, I'm just 6 Lottery numbers away from being THAT person!

nah..its more like "bend over and pay the price"

Hey Morph...

Sorry if my first post was rude (was it?)
Anyway, since Geoff just blew my cover... yes I'm one of the admins here
Feel free to e-mail or PM me at any time

cheers,

Jeroen

hell, if the dough is right go for it. BUT, you might want to make sure there is some language for proprietary rights. i would hate to see them claim the housings are from THEIR precise molds 3 months down the line. lay in 100 sets and reserve the right to sell those as remaining inventory. it would be interesting to deal with george directly. not sean or bill or bob in shipping or cust serv. i wish good fortune in your business growth. you are close to gary emory. were you present when he talked about his feelings with regard to selling the "lost wherehouse" to g.h. when we were at jamies last summer?

kevin

I heard that story from Gary too, Kevin. I hope your sales with AA go good.

Geoff

Curious to me that we are reading all about this at the 914world.com.
CCL

I didn't think they were rude, some of us can't be here every day and read every thread. I had to read 1/2 way down the page to find out what the heck he was talking about.
All could have been saved if his web address was included in the first post.

Good luck in the new bussiness venture no matter which way you go. It's people like you that keep these cars on the road at the prices we like to pay. Thanks.

Doug

I have bought many things from AA on ebay including a virgin set on ATS wheels for a good price. they have been fair and preformed as expected.

Bernie

Morph,

Disclaimer: I have my vendor prefferences but I'm not discussing those here. When I say "they" I mean a contracting vendor "in general". This is not a shot against AA or any others.

As a previous National Sales Manager for a Fortune 500 Company, I would strongly recommend against putting all your eggs in one basket. If they want you to sign an exclusive... don't. If your products are as good as everybody says, they'll buy them regardless.

I constantly had a national chain store attempting to get us to pull from their competitors, offering larger orders etc. Don't be fooled, once they have you, they have you. Sign the contract, get the money up front and increase your staff if need be to handle all the orders. That's a position most companies strive to be in. It's a fine balance, backorders can help drive sales (implied demand), backorders that take too long can annoy customers and lose sales. Be as accurate and as honest as possible with both vendors and direct/end consumers regarding your lead time. If they're expecting a month and it takes two... well, you know the drill. (hope the guys in Eaton Rapids are reading this... I didn't mention your company by name.)

I agree with other posts as well... send samples to all vendors. Serve a well rounded segment of the community. Sell here (and other places) at your retail prices so your other vendors can't complain about you going direct to the market. This also allows you to maintain a level of self-sufficiency in case they want to demand concessions beyond your abilities. Allow them to discount slightly however, set a MAP (minimum advertised price) and make all vendors adhear to it. If they don't, cut them off. They can only devalue your products by getting into wars with their competitors and discounting your goods into oblivion. They'll be happier in the end. They can all sell at a pre-set price and they'll make a decent margin selling "your" products.

Hope that helps the decision making process...

I have a lot of respect for gary emory. He runs a great business and is a hell of a guy. I will be sure to call him or stop by and speak with him about his business dealings with AA.

We would never sign "exclusive" contracts with anyone, but from listening from all the responses we will probably be contacting other retailers. Listening to everyones input was VERY useful. We are not new to the business world, we just have never had any dealings with AA. Part of the reason we posted this thread was to hear everyones thoughts.

Don't sign ANY paperwork with those clowns!!

Oh, how come you don't sell your engine services thru them Jake?

You are fairly local to them and they are the Worldwide 914 Headquarters!


Geoff

I think it depends more on your business goals than anything else, on how to to take your products to market.

If you are more interested in saturating the market and gaining market exposure, have the capacity to effectively service the orders and maintain an acceptable customer service level, then you might want as many locations as possible distrubuting your wares. McDonalds Hamburgers has a different business model than does a local mom-and pop burger joint, but both can be successful, and both can easily fail.

Regardless of what any one person, or even a small group may think of any one business enterprise, there are others who believe differently. This 914world.com website represents only a small fraction of the total 914 ownership, its by no means the overwhelming majority of 914 owners. Maybe someday it will be, but its not there yet...

I am quite certain that George has many happy and dedicated 914 parts customers. We always hear of the bad transactions and only a few brave souls mention their good experiences. I'm not stating my opinion of AA, just trying to get you guys to think before being so quick to publically tar-and-feather AA, PP or anyone else where you are not satisfied. If you are not satisfied with a certain company, dont go back, public crucifixions are not appropriate. We should encourage or at least not discourage, the efforts of any enterprise that supports the 914...especially as emphatically as George has over the years. What would life be like if AA was not an available resource for those NLA 914 parts that no one else has???

Jeff

Folks,

I was just chatting with Nathan about the contact from AA.

He is not talking any kind of "Exclusive" deal with them (thankfully). If they order the number of items they are talking about, they will use up his production capacity for a while, and during those times he will not be advertising items for sale. He wanted us to have a 'heads up' about that.

So we can relax (a little). I do hope that AA will actually pay him for his products - but that is outside of this dicussion.

Marc...

Is he informing us that we had better buy his products before he sells his currnet stock to AA.
CCL

Hey, look at it from the bright side... at least AA will now be selling some quality stuff

cheers,

Jeroen

they've been -selling- quality stuff for a long time; -delivery- is a different matter ...

ALL914/HPH would like to sell your product (you will be able to sell it here also when the Ecomm is buttoned up).


B

we can work something out

I was under the impression that the speaker enclosures were a quality item.

You mean to tell me that they are not bent, broken, rusty, full of holes, worn out, or otherwise unusable? Then how on earth could AA even consider selling them?

In my opinion, you would probably do better distributing through other sources. Have you considered Panorama?

Yes, we will be contacting other distributors. We are a small business and we are working on making prototypes of dashes and door panels as well as eventually making other custom sound components.

If you make a well made fair priced dash you should sell quite a few.