Specialty Merchandise Corporation deceptive, most services not availble in Canada, staff uninformed, outrageous shipping charges, poor quality merchandise Chatsworth California
SMC promises of 200-300% returns are false, particularly in Canada. I have been dealing with them for 10 years or more. We must pay exchange at the border which has gone from about 26% to about 56% on the dollar, which is the fault of the weak Canadian dollar, not the company.
The shipping cost is outrageous--20% of the cost of the merchandise (which should have nothing to do with shipping cost as that depends on size & weight). That gets the goods to the border where we pay duty sometimes and not other times. There is no broker as there used to be with UPS and so Canada Customs usually grossly overcharges us & it is a real hassle to get it back. Then we pay Canada Post $5.00/box to deliver it to our home.
The cost listed in the pricelist is now more than double by the time we get it, causing us to put our prices higher or take less profit. We now sell only the copper musicals because most of the other things we can buy at a trade show cheaper. We have also been buying other items at Canadian trade shows and selling them as well. Some items come from Vancouver, which is just as far from us as California, and they only charged about 7% for shipping. We pay as low as 1%.
We used to order on a Monday & we would have the goods on Friday--now it takes 2 or 3 weeks and we can only order once a week.
Because we cannot sell the goods at the U.S. retail prices, all of the catalogues that are included in our annual renewal fee for which we also pay an extra 56% or more, are totally useless because they all list the U.S. prices.
The same goes for all the programs that they have--none have Canadian retail prices and sub-wholesaling would be impossible because the merchandise costs too much.
Drop-shipping is a feature that would have greatly improved our sales, but they can't do that in Canada either because the name of the company would have to be written on the boxes since the cross the border.
The musicals have proven to be a good seller for us at craft shows and big events, otherwise we would not sell them because so many of them arrive broken, missing parts, rusty or the musical parts do not work.
SMC says that it is so easy to return damaged merchandise. I have tried to return it several times. Once they only replaced the things that were in stock, another time the lady I talked to told me I had to return it to the shipping company even though the items were obviously packed already damaged or broken. I never saw those items again nor did I get credit for them.
I finally gave up trying to replace them. My husband fixes the ones that he can and we absorb the cost. I was actually about to write this letter to SMC when I came across this web site.
I think SMC has lost most of their Canadian customers because of the high costs for us to get the merchandise. Therefore, they rarely have any news for Canadians in their newsletter nor do they make any attempt to make it cheaper for us. They do give us any additional 5% off the wholesale price which amounts to zip when we pay $1.56 plus Visa charges.
Thanks for listening. I would like to hear from other Canadians that are presently or have been associated with SMC.
Judy
Stratford, Ontario
Canada
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Helen
Toronto,Ontario,
Canada
SMC and Canadian Small Business Owners
#2Consumer Comment
Thu, January 13, 2005
When I joined SMC a few months back, I admit to having big dreams of making money. Although, I know that the successful business owner is only successful through hard work, determination and constant market research, company exposure, and of course, sales, along with many other things. I started my own business with a partner and I am not happy with the amount of sales that I have acheived so far. I expected more. The one thing that makes my response unique is that I am not blaming SMC for this. How is me running my business have anything to do with them. I understand the membership fee which I paid more for because I live in Canada. When you pay the full fee you receive a 15% discount on each item, not bad. Also, after you have bought $5000 worth of product you get your membership fee credited back. No, they are not like other suppliers because they make you pay, and they don't ask for your tax ID# but who cares.
The whole idea behind running a business is not just selling things from one catalogue, its supposed to be about a theme for your business and variety, not just SMC. I am currently looking for other suppliers where I can find items that my potential clients are asking for that SMC does not carry. I never expected to get rich from SMC, I just expected to have a wide selection of items to choose from.
I admit the quality of some of those items is really bad. I am somewhat dissapointed in the quality of some of their items, but have found that a picture in a catalogue cannot properly describe the item. you have to purchase it to see the product for what it really is. I charge more that catalogue price for some items I carry and people think that its a good deal. I show my catalogue (only sometimes-because prices are in US right) and make a point of saying the prices are in US and not my price.
The key is to get the best products out of SMC that you want to carry, things that will sell and that are good quality. Because I live in Canada, I have to purchase a bunch of items at the same time (they don't dropship here)so the more you buy, the less your frieght cost will be, just divide your frieght cost after you've converted it, into the amount of products and this will give you the amount per item for freight, that you can charge into the markup of the item.
Once you have your SMC stuff organized (you actually have to buy the item and see for yourself what it is your selling, some things are cheap and become discontinued) get another supplier or two, this adds individutality and variety to your business. Keep building from there, I know I'm going to and will become successful, but it has nothing to do with SMC, but everything to do with me and my knowledge, intellect and hardwork.
It does bother me that SMC discontinues a lot of really nice items that I like to sell and I have received a few things that have been broken, but I suppose when you are moving from one carrier to another and going through customs, there is a higher chance of items breaking. They have always happily replaced any item and have shipped them out within 2 weeks.
I have always received good service from SMC, always a returned phone call, even as I was signing up, the person was extremely helpful, answered all my questions, and I threw a lot of them out there, and made a point of telling me that I need to research and find out a lot of information before I can just spend the money and buy. It seemed to me that they made sure that I was interested before I spent the money. I do believe that they sucker stupid people in, but stupid people get suckered in a lot of things. I know that the website thing they have going on with the ecommerce site and all is a scam, waste of money.
I found a site builder and host that I will only spend $5.00 Canadian on for the next year. I am smart because I did my research before I spent thousands of dollars on something I knew nothing about. You have to become educated and learn about your future business or you will never succeed.
I wish all of those out there good luck and just know that one thing cannot determine your success. Research and learn before you spend. Lots of people own small businesses and are not millionares, but they work for themselves. I think a lot of people lose track fo what it's all about when they have this big dream. It won't happen, nothing will make you a millionaire over night, unless you marry one!