Those parts distributors have us coming and going..

[KE4AVB]

I had a good go around with Gardner last week. I was trying to order 5 seats which they decided to drop ship and would not tell me the shipping costs as not part the normal rate. I canceled the order Thursday last week and yet the order shows up yesterday (Wednesday this week). I declined the shipment as I was already working on ordering them from Sears.

Well ordering thru Sears was a headache too as they refused my tax exemption for online orders. They wanted me to call the order in and pay an extra 10%. Fought with customer service about this and got no where. Then I remember my Capital One coupon hunter app and turned it on. It found a 10% discount coupon and applied it to the order of two seats. So basically I went from paying 106.86 over the phone to paying only 87.18 each for the seats plus taxes and shipping. A savings of 18.4%. Now of course I got to do some creative bookkeeping to recover those taxes paid so I don't pay them twice but is easily done via crediting a customer account.

Very unusual for me get something from Sears for less than the distributor but in this case I did. But the trouble I had cost the vendors the sale of 3 extra seats.

According to my price file I just updated last week those seats retails for $211.99 and I was able to sale them at $149.99 saving the customer around $62 each and I still making $62.81 each myself. Not bad for profit.

[bgsengine]

I. Now of course I got to do some creative bookkeeping to recover those taxes paid so I don't pay them twice but is easily done via crediting a customer account..

Dunno about TN, but in P.A. you could have filed for a Use Tax refund - If you are charged tax on something that should be tax exempt you can get refund credit from the state. However for me it was too much hassle, so I just did a markup based on landed cost of the item (Shipping & tax included in my cost, divided by the number of pieces purchased) - So the customers would actually be paying sales tax on sales tax, technically, but bottom line was all that mattered.

[KE4AVB]

Yes it is a hassle to do it. Much easier to just do journal entries that offset the gross income by the amount that creates the sales tax paid on parts so when I file the sales report the tax is deleted. Basically I just report $214.34 less in sales. That way I recover the $20.36 in sales tax. This way when I sale the parts I only owe the additional tax on the gross profit above the $214.34 which in this case is $85.64 which results in addition tax of $8.14 to state and county. They still actually get the full amount due, just in two payments. One from Sears and one from me.

Now if I can manage to get to Sears to credit it then I can undo the journal entries. However they don't then it is a little bit of hassle to even do it the way I did it yesterday on every order for resale that is taxed but possible.

This way the customers pay the regular sales tax on the gross sales amount and not double taxed. There is always one than one way to skin a cat. Just like I got Sears to actually pay most the tax in one sense without them knowing it.

[KE4AVB]

Well I am about to give up on Gardner. They just keep giving the run around. They got an shipping pricing problem as they want to drop ship things but will not give me any idea the those costs are. Just had to cancel a 5 seat ($500) order because they refuse to me the costs. I lost the sale of two of those seats. Orders once on back order are taking over 2 month to get filled. And now when I go online I supposedly unpaid invoices going all the way back to March. Just sent in double payments and they are not even showing up. Microsoft has really screw them up. Gardner switch to the Microsoft system back in December and that system is still screwed today. Eight months and counting.

And Damn (yes I cussed) Sears Parts Direct is a bunch of liars too. Just canceled a carburetor that was on a two month back order with Gardner as they said they had it in stock and would be here in two days. Well on the day it was to show up checked the tracking and they now got it on back order. I sent an email to Sears and they have so far refused to reply.

How in the heck you run a repair shop when you can't get the parts. I right on the verge of just shutting down. It causing me to just hate going to shop. I deal the customers but when vendors are the problem it is a whole different story.

Sorry just had to vent some of my angry at those stupid vendors.

[KE4AVB]

Boy this been a great week with Gardner. Last Friday a week ago I ordered a new transaxle that supposedly was in stock. Well it wasn't. Emailed sales Friday morning. He said he sent an email saying it should ship on the 15th or 16th. Never received it. Online estimated ship was 8/30. Well it didn't get shipped and this morning online check show it is now estimated to ship 9/30. I proceeded to email CS and canceled all of my back orders. I don't like being lied to. I also email the salesman and said "Problem Resolved". Boy they could have sold over $6000 in parts to me this year so far and they lost nearly all them because of the stupidity.

I found a vendor out of Atlanta, GA that has it for $150 more with free shipping in it is in stock. They promising 2-3 day delivery. So basically end up selling the transaxle right at cost but at least the customer is getting his fixed. I can't afford to lose a customer that spends several thousand with me each year.