Salesman in white dodge ram pickup truck with "Tahoe Industries" logo on the door showed up at our business with a load of outdoor power equipment covered in a tarp. The equipment consisted of a 10Kw Gasoline Generator, a 6.6Kw Diesel Generator, a gasoline powered twin tank air compressor, a gasoline power washer, a gasoline trash pump, and a shop style vacuum cleaner. It was all in new condition, but already had gas in the tanks.
He stated that he had just been at a "trade show" and that his boss told him to try to sell the "demo units" on his way home because "They only sell new equipment on their website and couldn't ship these because they had fuel in them.". He had a laminated display card showing the MSRP of every piece, which totaled nearly $20,000. He said, since it was used, "his boss told him they could let it go for $6,900, but only as a package deal". Since we were in need of a gas generator and a power washer, we were interested in buying the package, but only if we could resell the items we didn't need. His response to this was "At this price you could sell the other items and easily make more than enough money to cover what you want to keep.". We didn't have $6,900 to spend though, so we offered $4,500. After a while on the phone (most likely talking to himself), he agreed and we filled out the 1 year warranty forms.
Afterward, we posted the items for sale several times, starting off at half of the MSRP and lowering the prices every few weeks. Over a year later, they still have not sold. Not a single piece. Even after lowering the prices much lower than what WE paid for them, they still are sitting in our showroom.
After searching for prices on ebay and other online selling forums, we discovered MANY other people selling the exact same items. After contacting them, we discovered they were told the exact same line about the "trade show". Some even paid the full $6,900. Few of them had been able to sell any of the items either. Some told us about problems with quality and the warranty.
The reason for not being able to sell them, as best I can tell, is because you can buy the same equipment painted different colors with different logos on them on ebay for dirt cheap. If we would have bought the same items on ebay the total would have been much less. The other problem is, nobody trusts the quality of the supposed "Honda" engines because of the proliferation of knockoff units that are such close copies that the only way to know you're buying a real Honda engine is to buy it from a reputable Honda dealer. We have not had any problems with the power washer or the trash pump engines yet, but we have not used any of the other equipment.
What's WORSE is that a few months ago another salesman stopped by AGAIN with the SAME LINE. When he saw the equipment sitting in the showroom he turned BRIGHT RED and started studdering, and immediately tried to convince us that he was from the "real" Tahoe Industries and that there was another company out there trying to slander their name. He immediately changed his story from "just left a trade show" to "better quality items made in the USA with a better warranty". He was asked to leave.
0 comments