Ok, people… Want to give everyone a heads up about a supplier… A few months ago, I was approached by a wholesaler named "Indo Crafts" out of North Carolina – the owner’s name is Chris Glover. He saw my websites and was all excited about wanting me to carry his peasant/poet shirts. They looked primitive and simple but were really low priced. So I told him if he wanted to send me a sample, I’d take a look – no promises.

A few days later, I get 4 shirts in the mail. Four different styles. They were just as I expected: thin material, very generic, cheap costume shirts.  figured, well… They’re cheap… But I still don’t think I can get anyone to buy them…. Even if they were half the price of our regular line….

Well, maybe when Halloween comes around….
A week goes by, things are hectic, Chris Glover from "Indo" emails me and says they’d like me to "either pay for the samples or return them" …… Um….. Ok…… Don’t know many makers that CHARGE for samples but he claims I agreed before he sent them that I would pay for them or return them. I wasn’t going to argue. It’s fine, he’s a smaller biz and can’t afford to be shelling out product for nothing, I can understand that…..

I told him I hadn’t decided what I wanted to do and didn’t have a chance to really look them over well. They were still sitting in the shipping box they came in. I told him I’d get to them as soon as I could. (they were not a priority)

He told me no big rush, he’d send me out an invoice and I could send them a check or return them.

Well, time goes by as time does. The samples got buried under other crap
and I’d almost forgot about them.

Now it’s a couple months later. I’ve heard nothing from Indo. Then three weeks ago, I get an invoice in the mail. I think to myself, "crap, forgot to send those shirts back… Gotta figure out where they are….". If you’ve seen my shop, you’d understand. Sometimes things get buried…. Then just last week, I get a random email from a guy who says he saw my website and is in need of larger quantities of shirts. He has a pirate-themed cruise ship and needs 40-50 shirts to outfit his crew. He liked the shirts I had, but said they were "just too expensive for a crew that rarely last more than one season" and since he makes his crew buy their own outfits "at $8 and hour, they can’t afford much…."

So, I think, "hmmmm…. What about those cheap shirts from that Indo guy….?"

I send Indo an email. Chris Glover again replies. I ask him if he has a shirts in stock ready to ship. He tells me he does and just to let him know what I needed. So, I go back to the customer, tell him I have a separate supplier that has the shirts he needs. Customer is happy, Mr. Glover is happy, I’m happy. Easy for everyone….

The next day, Glover emails me back with a very rude and terse letter telling me he’s irritated I never paid him for the shirts samples he sent accusing me of starving his kid because I did not pay (I have the email). I told him I was sorry they didn’t get paid, I hadn’t heard from him and my computer had crashed and lost his direct contact info and I had honestly forgotten all about it until then. (If getting paid was so important to him, why did he wait over 2 months and still never contact me?) I had to actually go looking for the box as I wasn’t sure where it had gone… But I’d send them right back to him or give him a credit card to charge for payment or send through Paypal. He wasn’t interested in a solution, but just continued with his accusations.

So, to make a long story…… Longer……

Mr. Glover, after telling me the night before they had shirts ready to ship for my customer, then informs me he thinks I’m not honest, accuses me of selling the samples and keeping the money. After a few more unkind comments, he tells me "we have a few of the same friends" and makes a veiled threat saying "I’ll see you in July".

When I asked, "why, what happens in July?" – he replied, "…or maybe it’s August…?". …which still didn’t tell me what he was referring to. Again, I told him I was sorry. Business was really rough, RV breaking down, lots of ‘life issues’ came into play. I told him there was no point in having an attitude with me, I have a good customer that has this cruise ship and needs a lot of his shirts, we’ll both make money. He didn’t care and remained hostile.

The next day, I packed his samples and shipped them back Priority Mail. He got them two days later.

That brings us to today – a week later. A couple days of searching and I find another cheaper shirt maker so at least I can keep THIS customer happy.  After waiting to hear back from the customer as to what sizes they needed for a couple days, I drop him a short email.

The customer replies. It seems he got a call out of the blue from some company called "Indo" that said they’d sell the shirts directly to him at lower than their wholesale price………..

yes…. it pays to do your research…..

So, for all those that wondered why I’ve been so loyal to Phil and Annie of Faire Play as my suppliers of shirts…… now you know…… it’s not always the profit margin that matters…. it’s the friendship…………

Robert "the Hair" Wesner
Leather Mystics
Old World Industries
http://www.leathermystics.com
http://www.poetshirts.com