I received a call from a "Chris Chandler" on 10/01/09. Rather than being transfered from the receptionist as would normally happen with a sales call, he rang through my direct line.
He started the conversation by telling me that he had just spoken with [my CFO's name] about a deal on office supplies, and that my CFO really liked what he was offering and had given him my name and number to go ahead on purchasing.
He said he was the owner of a small office supply company located in California, and that he was moving his office to Missouri. Do to the relocation, he was liquidating his stock at his office in California and offering supplies at cost. He listed some basic office supplies, along with very appealing pricing for the items. I thought the pricing sounded good, and believing he had in fact spoken with my CFO (having both used CFO's name and having called me direct), I decided to move forward with an order. He said he could only sell in gross (2 gross or 4 gross), and I ordered the minimum on a few different items. The whole time he was quoting me prices on items per dozen, which I continually confirmed with him after each item described on my order. At the end of the order he asked for a credit card number to bill, and I told him I needed to use a PO# instead. He said that would be fine and that I should receive the invoice shortly after receiving the supplies. My total for the order was a little under $600.00.
A few weeks later I received the supplies. The packaging was in very poor condition (on some items, it literally disintegrated in my hands while I was sorting through the boxes), and I only excused this by virtue of the deal I believed I was getting on them.
I received the invoice on 11/05/09, and was shocked to see that the bill was close to $7,000.00, as they were billing me for each item individually (rather than by the dozen, as I was quoted). I immediately called them to discuss this issue, but I got voicemail and left a message. I got a call back later in the day from a "Julie". I told her of the mix up on the bill, and she informed me that the pricing on the bill was correct. I told her I was quoted these prices for the items by the dozen, and she responded saying I had a misunderstanding with the sales rep and that the items were priced individually. She said she could cut me a deal due to the misunderstanding, and would reduce the bill by half...
I must take a moment to describe how incredibly overpriced these items were on the invoice. One of the items I normally purchase is a pen that typically sells for around $. 50 each through big name office supply stores. The price SVT invoiced me for was $1.50 each. Even cutting the bill in half, as she suggested, I would still be paying much more than usual for these items.
I refused the offer and suggested I simply return the items, as even at half the invoiced price, the items were well above my usual costs. She offered another deal, asking me to get together pricing on the items based on what I normally pay for them, and to fax it over so that she could review it and try to beat it by a little bit, "because after all, we're just trying to save you some money on these supplies". I told her I would get something together and fax it over, even though I was not pleased at the thought of paying even standard costs for the items due to the very large volumes contained in the order.
All this time I had a nagging feeling that something was off. I decided to look into the company to see if there had been any complaints about them. It was then that I found all these accounts of people with identical circumstances in dealings with this company, along with finding SVT's rating from BBB is an F. I also discovered that my CFO had never received a call from "Chris Chandler" regarding liquidation of office supplies. So the evidence suggests it never was a simple misunderstanding with the sales rep, rather it is this company's MO - name drop the boss/CFO and claim to have their approval, say they're moving their office and liquidating their stock, offer stock for price "X", send bill for price "X (12)".
After a few days of leaving messages with SVT (as far as I can tell, they screen all their calls), "Julie" finally returned my call this morning. I told her that I would not be faxing over pricing, and that the only options I would consider was to either pay the amount I was originally quoted or return the supplies. She said I would have to return the supplies. I said they would need to send me return labels, as I was not going to pay for shipping. She said I would receive them in 3-5 business days. She hung up.
Lesson learned, I will now be researching any company that gives me a sales pitch about "a great deal" before I continue the conversation past introductions.
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