Working overseas I had a lot of free time and thought that selling online would be a great way to pass some time and maybe make a little extra money. I ordered the NWC packet in May and after receiving it and looking it over, I was unimpressed and I noticed that there is a lot of fine print that you are not made aware of until you actually receive the package (Section 5 of the policies states: "Once an order is accepted by NWC, Inc., it is understood that the order will be filled within 30 days of the placement date") I remember being amazed at the high shipping rates.
I promptly put the information away and forgot about it until I got a notice a year later that my membership was about to expire and I needed to send more money to continue being a "partner", which for reasons unknown to me I promptly sent. I decided to give it a try and see what happened. I ordered the 2009 Master Catalog and Electronics Catalog and when I received them I was very disappointed. There was only one small photograph of each item and the item descriptions were very basic, some had no description at all, to include model numbers of the items.
Rather than use the poor quality photos and basic information from the catalogs, I chose to copy the photos from the NWC site (www.namebrandsatwholesale.com) as well manufacturers websites and research the items online to find a better description of the items.
I posted 15 items in my online store on Ebay. I had very low expectations because the "wholesale" price from NWC was actually higher than some sites were charging retail, in some cases a LOT more. Within 48 hours I had sold 2 flat screen televisions and thought "maybe there is something to this". Due to what I considered high "whole sale" prices, the Ebay listing fees, Ebay final value fees and the PayPal fees, I only made $13 per item which I had sold for a total of $524 including shipping. I submitted my orders to NWC and decided to really gear up and market myself and make this work by making more sales at the low profit margin.
The first order I submitted to NWC went off without a hitch. The order was submitted with payment using PayPal. After inquiring I was notified two days later that the order had shipped and they would send me a tracking number when it was made available to them. Two days later I still had not received the tracking number but had received several e-mails from the Ebay purchaser requesting the tracking number. I again requested the tracking number from NWC and shortly afterward I received it and forwarded it to the customer.
By this time I had already submitted my second order, again for a flat screen tv. The order was submitted on the Friday prior to the Memorial Day weekend and I received an email stating that the order would be "processed and shipped" the following Tuesday due to the holiday weekend. Totally understandable. On Monday I was contacted by the Ebay purchaser who was understandably nervous about buying online and he wanted information. I assured him that I had received word that his item would be shipped on Tuesday.
On Tuesday I was again contacted by the Ebay purchaser requesting the tracking number. As I had not received any shipping information from NWC I sent them numerous emails that day requesting the information and received no response from them.
I woke up Wednesday and checked my email and found that I had sold 2 more flat screen tv's. My marketing was starting to work! I had not however received any reply from NWC regarding the status of my second order. That day I sent numerous emails and made several phone calls to NWC. (Side Note: When you call NWC you get an voice directory which does not allow you to enter any extension, you are automatically directed to leave a message). I decided that I would not place the order for the two additional tv's until I received shipping confirmation on the previous order. I thought if this is not legitimate then its better to hold off on sending them any more money.
That afternoon I emailed NWC again, sending the email to numerous email accounts of the NWC employee's requesting information and again received no reply. Not being able to get a response I then sent NWC a message through the PayPal Resolution Center to request the shipping information.
Thursday morning I received an email from [email protected] stating that the order was "processed" on Wednesday and would be shipped out soon and a tracking number would be made available to me in the next 72 hours. Suzanne also said in her email that I had been told that the order would be "processed" on Tuesday, not shipped on Tuesday. I went back and read the e-mail which I had received the previous Friday from [email protected] which clearly stated that the item would be processed and shipped on Tuesday.
I also received an email from PayPal on Thursday which stated that the payment for the second order had been refunded, with a note in the memo field that the order had been canceled and my membership was suspended. I am assuming that because I used the PayPal Resolution Center after I could not get a reply from NWC for 48 hours, I was being punished. (You pay for a "Partnership" and you buy annual catalogs and your "Partnership" is canceled at their whim)
Let me say that I currently have an Ebay feedback of 301 with 100% positive feedback. As a seller your feedback score is very important. Customers want to be kept in the loop and given information so they are assured that they are not being cheated. NWC is just not set up with the option of being customer friendly. To say that their website and catalogs are amateurish is being generous and when you log in to the "My Orders" section of the website to check the order status, the status never changes, it always says "Pending" even well after the order is delivered to the purchaser. You either have to keep harassing NWC to provide you with information or you do not receive any and are unable to pass it along to your customers
In order to keep my 100% positive feedback I refunded the money to the customer and included an extra $20 and I directed him to www.walmart.com where he could buy a similar name brand flat screen of the same size for almost $70 less than he had paid me. I also immediately ended my auctions and took all of the NWC merchandise off my Ebay store since my account was suspended.
In summary, NWC merchandise will sell on online auctions at or slightly above the NWC price. After your Ebay listing fees, final value fees and your PayPal fees you can make a very small profit if you are careful what you choose to sell and you really market your items. Because of the small profit margin you will have to sell many items to call it anything more than a hobby. You would actually make a higher profit buying retail from Wal-Mart and selling on Ebay.
You dont know what a good relationship is until you have been in a bad one, and that is how I see NWC. Prior to our "falling out" I had researched drop shippers and found another supplier which seemed more reputable. Its website is much more professional in appearance, it provides updated shipping information online, the prices are much more reasonable allowing you to either charge less and get more customers or to make more of a profit and most importantly so far they have responded to my correspondence very quickly. I began using this new drop shipper in conjunction with NWC but to be honest, I am glad that NWC terminated my "Partnership" so now I can focus on dealing only with a professional organization which is more customer service oriented.
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