Buyer Beware

[RockyR]

I believe you are right on point. The manufacturer does NOT misrepresent his goods to the vendor. In more than a few instances sample goods are provided upon request, and frequently shipped un-solicited with every order. It is the merchant who takes his "goods" to the marketplace and claims them to be what they are not. ith:

However, in THIS instance, the seller in question IS the 'manufacturer' and is selling his product DIRECTLY to the people (as well as offering to wholesale them to companies like Keltoi and myself). If you, as an individual, wanted to purchase the jacket directly from him, he would sell it to you, using the picture AND description from another company's website. Is that misrepresentation?

I'm NOT SAYING that there aren't unscrupulous companies out there that sell 'authentic tartan kilts, designed in Scotland' and trying to pull the wool over the consumer's eyes... I'm simply pointing out that the unscrupulous nature goes further up the chain than just small mom and pop shops selling Pakistani kilts marketed as 'Scottish'.

[piperdbh]

My buckle brogues arrived today. I'm no expert on shoes, but they appear to be well put-together. The problem is, they're a size too big. Now I'll have to ship them back for an exchange. I hope it doesn't take another 5 months to get the right size. Mr. Ahmed promised me a free Kenmore doublet to make up for all the time he's wasted and the lies he's told me. I would rather have had honesty all along. Kudos to the sponsoring merchants here at XMTS for their integrity.

[bricelythgoe]

Honesty is the big thing here. Make up your own products and don't copy someone else. Be honest about where it comes from and how it is made. Let people decide if they want it or not.

Brice

[WClarkB]

Just before we get too xenophobic and racist, we should remember that, with the exception of a notable few, it is not the Pakistanis who are selling to us. Quite often it is our own people, our own countrymen, who source their goods worldwide.

If they don't buy it in China, then they buy it in Pakistan.

Then they sell it to us.

And then we buy it.

Hopefully, it is like our first cars. We bought any old rubbish, just to have wheels. Or just to have a hair sporran; or just to have a PC; or just to have coloured hose. In time we will buy a better car or a better sporran, a better jacket or better hose.

But for now, we should look at the people selling, not the people making.

Regards

Chas

I think I would have no objection if it were advertised, sold and shipped from elsewhere. As you say, it is the local seller who is providing the deception

[Alan H]

ugh. The guy who wanted a free jacket....scum.

As for the rest, I wouldn't patronize them for love nor money.

[sathor]

ugh. The guy who wanted a free jacket....scum.

Hey, I'd love a free jacket too, but I'd wear the blasted thing (or at least it would hang in my closet) not destroy the thing. ugh.

[sathor]

I sell hot sauce online, and I actually sell some for well under the MSRP. Is it illegitimate? Nope, I buy from a wholesaler, and I made a big order to put me in a better class to get a better price. My wholesaler doesn't do retail. My 'backup' wholesaler does, sometimes their resale prices are better than mine, usually not. Some other resellers actually are even higher still. My best seller is $6.75 by my site. Other prices I see it online in the range of 7.95~10 bottle, up to about 33% more than I do.

Comparing the most expensive place to buy and from me, if you buy from the Manufacturer, you pay more, and that money goes to them, and where they get their stuff from. Buy from me, and I get a cut, the whole-seller gets a cut, and the manufacturer gets a cut.

But the manufacturer has only their brand, which are all adult named. If a person wanted a nice dessert sauce and my best seller (it has the f word in it's name) they would have to go to a reseller vs the manufacturer.

Look at Rocky, I suspect he gets his tartan material from a few different sources. He might be getting his sporrans from a few different places. If I ordered from the same place he gets his tartan (ignoring that it doesn't come as a kilt, for sake of discussion) then I might well be fine and dandy, but I would still need to go find a sporran, and maybe a belt, and so on. Still, another site might spring up that specializes in a certain make of sporran. They might just get the quantity to stomp Rocky in the ground for sporrans. You still need the other things, but that price might be legitimate. Perhaps the lower seller got a cache of them from some going out of biz sale, or similar.

Last comment, before I say anything else dumb, but...

Have you ever had the Burger they show in the menu? In food photography, a common practice is to get a dozen (or at least a few) of the item, and they pick out the 2 best. The second best gets put under the lights for the lighting test and so forth, and the best is in the spotlight for a second, where it is eaten. Stolen pics are deceitful, (and stupid when watermarked) though one might argue the plastic sandwiches in the displays at restaurants are as well. If they are cloning the item, how will you know from the pic the real quality of the item at times? I am missing number of pics on my site. I could probably just 'take' them from my whole-seller or the manufacturers. I refuse to. I'd rather have a crappy pic on my site than a pro one that someone else took. (my $1000+ camera equipment isn't geared towards product shots, go fig.) Its all morality. And its touchy. What if the website was deluded by a third party into thinking that they were truly getting the same item. What if they were setting up shop, got the email mentioned earlier, and in talking with that group, was told the items were really the same? What if their whole-seller overseas gave them those pics to use, and told them other sites with the pics had gotten them from them as well? Do we dare even consider that these people are actually good people with bad distributors, who think that the angry emails from the © owners of the pics are just angry competitors who don't like someone selling the same thing for huge amounts less? Sure, it's not likely, but I know people that are that stupid. My mom just got a banner for her restaurant being open 10 years. She was quoted locally @ over $300, and she found it online for $45. I am not sure which she ordered from (knowing her, the $45 place) I pointed out to her that the cheap one might be a lower quality plastic that might melt over her grill, might have the ink smear if it gets wet, etc, but in the end $$$ is all she ever really sees....

[dfmacliam]

Thank you for passing on the word... I do find humor in the fact that some are too lazy to even put the effort into their own business ventures. We can talk till we are blue in the face about those who do what they do...

When good people pass the word, and we avoid those business... I see it played out time and time again... Poor quality products, usually give you poor customer service.. While you tend to get quality products with quality customer service..

Thankfully, I have found this site, and have made some big purchases from quality vendors...

I agree with what Chas posted above, it's not the manufacturers.. It's the middle man.. Look at Stillwater Kilts... Jerry let's you know up front, what you are buying.. a Pakistani made kilt.. not a bad made kilt, for the money.. what seperates Jerry from the rest... quality customer service.. he cares.. look at his website.. uniquely his own.. do not blame those not responsible for this situation... the blame solely belongs to the ones causing the problems...

[slohairt]

It is complicated issue and one I could not explain completely because of the rules of this forum. In the end, it is both the middlemen and the manufacturers who are responsible for this situation.

What you may not realise, Chas, is that these factories endlessly spam those of us in the Highland wear industry. I receive at least five annoying poorly worded emails a day from these manufacturers in Pakistan. I'm sure other vendors here on the forum can testify to this. No matter how many times I block them they reappear, trying to sell me their 'goods'.

Without delving into politics too much, I will say that the issue is not so much that these products are made in Pakistan but that they are made in a country like Pakistan. While the situation may (or may not) be improving, they have a deplorable track record concerning labour laws. I, for one, do not want to contribute to this. While it is unavoidable today to buy some products from manufacturers in these countries (household goods, etc.) in the area of Highland wear we do still have a choice. For now.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

Exactly Chas,

The "factory" for Great Highland Wear is in Pakistan. The "office" listed on their site is in Indiana. I don't know who the owner is, whether he is black, white, brown, yellow, red, green or purple. And it really doesn't matter.

One should always strive to support business who maintain an honest business practice. Period.