I know this won't be a popular opinion but I will still support them mostly because, as others have pointed out, they do have a good product and they have grown, which is great. Not every company makes it and I don't want to contribute to that when I still like the product. I'm sure even the DIS or Dreams has made discussions that seem odd and people don't like, like most companies out there.
I know this won't be a popular opinion but I will still support them mostly because, as others have pointed out, they do have a good product and they have grown, which is great. Not every company makes it and I don't want to contribute to that when I still like the product.
I don't really understand your point here. Do you think it is okay to alienate a great customer who has resulted in you getting thousands of dollars of business and wishes to continue to foster that relationship? I don't care if they hit the "big time" and got a national retailer on board. That's great for them, but it's still no reason to turn away their existing customers. If not for those existing customers, they wouldn't be where they are today.
My point isn't that it's ok to alienate your customer, but it is ok to make deals and grow your business. Unfortunately, sometimes this might happen. I guess I was being a bit of a devil's advocate.
Others are allowed to say that they are no longer giving them their business, I am allowed to say I will still do so. I thought I could give my opinion on the matter from a different point of view. I don't agree with no longer giving them business, in this case, just because they won't deal with the DIS.
My point isn't that it's ok to alienate your customer, but it is ok to make deals and grow your business. Unfortunately, sometimes this might happen. I guess I was being a bit of a devil's advocate.
Others are allowed to say that they are no longer giving them their business, I am allowed to say I will still do so. I thought I could give my opinion on the matter from a different point of view. I don't agree with no longer giving them business, in this case, just because they won't deal with the DIS.
I'm surprised they didn't just say, "Sorry, you can't buy direct from us now, but let us put you in contact with our distributor and work from there...".
I agree. I realize it is not a popular decision for the former supporters here, but from a business standpoint they did what they felt was in their best interest. At some point, manufacturers' are better served by using distributors -not exactly sure if that is the case here, but it's not a new model. It becomes almost unmanageable to try supporting a high level of "direct" sales for a national/international company. Why handle sales(and all its potential problems; defects, shipping issues, etc.) for 1,000,000 individual customers when you can hire a number of Representatives to manage that portion of business for you. Then you can concentrate on what you may be best at -manufacturing, marketing, etc. It stinks, and they should have tried to assist their larger users -probably something they should have thought about ahead of time.
I know how I feel about it. Let him know what you think
After the first sentence, this just sounds like a nice way of saying that they got too big for their britches.
We are just talking about a water bottle, right?
Don't sweat the small stuff.
That's what I think.
And probably for them, many of those passionate, good customers were NOT members of our group -meaning they still have hundreds/thousands of customers that weren't affected by this decision at all. I don't know the numbers, but how many tens/hundreds of thousands of these bottles have they sold in the past year or so? The fact is, they have a darn good product with possibly thousands who have yet to discover. It is our right as a group to just stop buying from them. I think the passion shown in this thread shows just how good the product is ...and it's frustrating!On the surface, it is just a water bottle but we are a pretty passionate group with strong opinions. You may not want to say anything because it's just a water bottle but to me, it's a company who grew on the back of consumers that were willing to give them free advertising before they had contracts w/ the likes of LL Bean and now they thumb their noses at those same customers. It's a principle, not just a water bottle. But that's just what I think.
Hydro Flask customized the bottles at out expense.
No one has ever suggested that we buy them through another outlet. We have just been told that we can't buy them.
As for buying them from another retailer...try ordering 1000 of anything from LL Bean.