Why do businesses turn away custom?

chattychappy

Moneymaker wrote: »

5. A person who quibbles about a relatively small charge is, in my experience, someone who will cause trouble and we don't want to deal with him. Life's too short to get involved with energy sinks.

Yes, exactly my experience.

It amazes me the way people think because they are a customer in an industry, then they know how that industry should be run.

Norfolk_Jim

chattychappy wrote: »

Yes, exactly my experience.

It amazes me the way people think because they are a customer in an industry, then they know how that industry should be run.

Somewhat bizzare final comment

I guess when the customer is already in the shop, the chances of them walking out are small, they'll usually just pay with an alternative method. It seems strange to me that a MSE minded customer is seen as too much trouble - what about repeat business?

But how many businesses have really worked out how many potential customer never come in and choose to go to where their favourit payment method will be accepted and not be charged an extra fee into the bargain? I value the section 75 protection.
It could equally, maybe more so, apply to those businesses that don't take cards at all.

Practical example - online train ticketing company wants not only a booking fee but applies an extra charge if paying by credit card. As a result, I just buy them direct from the companies and dont pay the fee. More trouble for me, but I'm economising and minding every penny. Maybe in good times people wont mind these fees but in hard times how much business does it cost you?

I'm not telling anyone how to run their business - I'm just looking to understand it. Some answers have been very informative in this respect which gives me a better understanding of retail issues.

Fiddlestick

Moneymaker wrote: »

4. The price has to include sufficient profit to cover an anticipated 1 in 100 (say) warranty claim.*

Will your supplier not indemnify you in turn?

chattychappy

Fiddlestick wrote: »

Will your supplier not indemnify you in turn?

In my case, this varied immensely. Sometimes it wasn't practical to return to the supplier because the shipping cost overseas for small quantities would be greater than the product cost (and take too long). In other situations the warranty offered by the supplier was much shorter than what we'd want to offer our customer. What a UK consumer considers a fault is not always what a supplier (particularly an overseas supplier) considers a fault. Increasingly though, consumers would simply change their minds and return stuff saying it was faulty when it wasn't and generally credit card companies would just side with the consumer - so it wasn't worth the hassle to battle it out with them. Of course now distance selling regs allows them to return stuff - and generally this can't then be resold at full price.

lisyloo

Any business that cant be bothered to get out of bed for 375.00 has no business being uppity about a few percent charge

I don't agree with that comment at all. You are not taking into account what has to be done for that money.
It's not £375 for a few minutes work.

They have to order in the cars, store them, keep them clean, spend time with people talking about them, go out for test rides (which includes petrol and insurance), if they are held for long enough they'll need to be serviced. Demos will have to sold at a discount becuase they've been used, then there is the after sales service.

Everyone has a bottom line, beyond which it is simply not worth their while being in business or getting up for work in the morning.
We all have this limit.
You probably would not clean toilet for £1000 per annum but you probably would for £100K per anuum.
In between those two is a bottom line.

It doesn't matter what goods or amount you are talking, there will be a bottom line for everyone.

I am very suprised the OP does not grasp this concept, that they aren't just being silly, it simply isn't worth their while at a certain point.

Of course we know that the card charges vary depending on the size of business and it's also the case that some companies will make a blanket policy and the employee has no wiggle room.

But at the end of the day if it isn't worth their while then they can decline the deal.
It's a little bit arrogant to assume that people will be desperate for your business whatever the cost.
Also ultimately it isn't good business to drive businesses down to their absolute bottom line. The consequence of this is that they won't be around long term and able to offer you service.
Now for an individual making a one-off purchase they might not care, but certinaly business-to-business they understand this that long term you don't want to drive someone you have a long term relationship with to their bottom line all the time. Eventually they won't be around and that's not ggod business.

I would say in this case it's the OP who is being cut-throat and not the businesses. If they don't have money to invest then they won't be around in future.
Of course whether you care might depend on whether you are buying a car or a pair of socks and you might not care less, but if you don't then you entitled to the "cut-throat" tag.

BTW - I'm not saying that being cut-throat is a bad thing. It's not a criticism. In some qurters on MSE it might be considered admirable.
I would personally take a longer term view because I want the restaurants and dealers around me to stay in business to offer me service and for the people to keep their jobs. So if I like a restaurant I'll give them a tip. They tend to give me good service in return. What goes aroudn comes around peeps.

WhiteHorse

chattychappy wrote: »

Ditto British consumers?

No. Most British consumers are doormats. I wish they would show a bit more aggression!

Glad to hear you can "do a deal with the Far East".

As in 'do business', rather than the usual British attitude, which is normally along the lines of 'my grandfather did it that way, so I'll never change', 'take it or leave it', and 'I've gone bust, it's everyone else's fault'.

It's quite an eye-opener to see how sales staff in the "Far East" are really treated and how the business is really done.

Hmmm. Not worked for Comet then!

I'm not convinced it's a superior way of doing business.

Westerners don't have the Total War mentality, that's true. The main problem though is that British businesses still think that they have some sort of entitlement.

Sure whilst you're in a good bargaining position you will be treated like a king. Position reversed, you're totally screwed.

It was ever thus, everywhere.

With all the bribery and corruption that goes on, the extraterritorial effects of the Bribery Act 2010 (if it ever comes into force) will be an interesting challenge for UK businessmen doing business here.

Hmmm. Saudi Arabian arms exports anyone? If the risks increase, the bribes will just get bigger, that's all.

chattychappy

Have you ever lived in "the Far East"?
Have you ever worked for a "Far Eastern company"?
Do you speak any "Far Eastern" languages?
Anyone in your family from the "Far East"?

Sorry, even your very use of the term "Far East" suggests over-generalisation and stereotyping. Hence I'm using quotes. Doing business in China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan are all very different. Even more different if you include SE Asia - Thailand, Vietnam etc, where I have also "done the business".

I'm sure you've "done deals" in the "Far East" - visited some shows and been very pleased with the way you are treated. I've even sold to people like you who profess great admiration for the Asian way of doing business and a peculiar distaste for their own country. Great stuff - whatever - just T/T your money and we're happy.

As for the BA2010, I think you just missed my point. Never mind. Trust you're ready with your "adequate procedures".

Norfolk_Jim

I can understand not being interested in 375 of business if in the same time and for the same effort I can get say, 500 elsewhere, but why turn away 375 as too triffling a sum to be bothered with? 375 Vs Nothing, is it me being silly? If I can only sell something once, an antique or a custom made item I could understand setting a certain value on my efforts. If I have one and the next one is a mouse click away, why nothing over something?
The toilet cleaning example is a bit of a straw man isn't it? If it was that or nothing, I might have to choose to do it as my alternative would be to get nothing while waiting for a better option to come along. Surely better to do it and also look for a better return elsewhere at the same time.

baby_fuzz

I wonder what the OP was buying? If they were buying a stick of gum, I could very much undertsand why the retailer had to pop a cc charge on top - as minimum charges would be greater than the cost of the gum all together. Factoring the cc charge into the costs of such a product would be absurd.

Norfolk_Jim

Its all hypothetical baby_fuzz, there was no specific purchase in mind. As it happens though, you could buy a stick of gum at Tesco and pay with a credit card. I bought a 19p tin of beans there and did that. I suppose they have a special arrangement with the card companies but even so, they'd rather take the loss than lose a customer - swings and roundabouts - I'd not expect an independant to do that, not at 2.5 or 5% off.
What I think might be hard on the seller is that presumably the card takes a % of the whole sale, but the whole sale will be almost 20% VAT, so the shop ends up paying for collecting VAT for the Vat man. Is that correct.

Maybe it would be more understandable if we had some idea of the kind of margins on sales that are typical. Whats the margin in white goods for example, or TV's, or Discount flights?