Dealing with supplier disputes in your craft business

For any of you who don’t already know I own a bag making supplies store. I have come to learn that one of the trickier parts of running a retail business is dealing with suppliers. Even if the suppliers are pleasant, efficient, and reliable (they are rarely ever all three) you can still have a quite a hard time tracking them down in the first place. This is because many wholesalers and suppliers don’t seem to market themselves that well or they don’t have a presence online. Ah well, I like a challenge and I must admit I like hunting around for new lines to add to my shop (well it’s shopping around isn’t it?).

I source my products from all over the world and one of my suppliers (a factory where I have some of my purse frames and handles manufactured) has recently become inconsistent with the quality of their products - which is a complete nightmare! This is made worse by the fact that this supplier is a factory based overseas, this means that I have to order items in HUGE amounts and items are manufactured for me (rather then bought from stock) it takes on average 5 - 6 weeks to receive a delivery, oh and they require payment upfront! So if you’ve ordered 500+ of a given item and you’ve waited approx 6 weeks for it to arrive, and when you unpack the order the items are less than perfect it’s REALLY ANNOYING!!!!!

The chances are if you are a retailer or you order items in bulk to produce your craft items this sort of nonsense will happen to you at some point. So what do you do if you’ve ordered something from a supplier, paid for it in good faith, and the items are less than perfect?

• I wouldn’t go ahead and sell the item on at full price - your customers will have become accustomed to a certain quality and it’s best to be consistent and provide that quality as best as you possibly can (even if it means delaying delivery, or being out of stock).
• I wouldn’t tidy up the item - It might be tempting to salvage what you can and make repairs, but why should you have to do that if you’ve paid full price for a perfect item?
• Complain ASAP - I would take photos of the offending items and I would phone, or email the supplier as soon as possible, show them your photos and let them know that something is not right. Sometimes the problems are minor e.g items getting damaged in transit, the boxes have gotten damaged and they have sprung a leak en route, or you been sent the wrong item. Sometimes the problems are larger e.g. the quality of the items suck, the products really do not match those shown in the pictures (on the website or catalogue and there was no disclaimer), or you have been given a smaller amount of the item that you’ve paid for.
• Have a good idea of what kind of resolution you would be happy with - and let your supplier know early on rather than waiting for them to offer you something. In my experience I have found that suppliers don’t alway give as good service as retailers (maybe it’s because suppliers don’t like me, but then I’ve heard this before, so hopefully it isn’t!). When faced with a problem with a supplier order I have found that it’s best to provide the supplier options for resolving the problem to your satisfaction e.g. give me a good discount (then you can pass the discount onto your customers) on the less than perfect goods, give me a full refund, or exchange these goods for equivalents or prefect items. I have found doing this saves time (because suppliers can be slow to get back to you) and also I think it shows that you mean business!

…and not forgetting, Supplier Rage!!!!!!!