[Tom M]

Did you get your new NES/FH Meganite brochures in the mail yet?

I’ve been doing business with solid surface distributors for as long as solid surface has been in New England. I will be gosh-danged if I’m gonna sign a personal guarantee. I’ll pay C.O.D., if I have to, but there had better be a discount for prompt payment.

Tom

[KCWOOD]

Tom, I agree with you. I will/or would never sign a personal guarantee. I countered with a company once, via my attorney for them to provide me with a personal guarantee for any damages resulting from bad product, warranty claims, product liability, late shipments. They refused, I refused, they lost a customer of 12 years that had spent a lot of money with them. Their loss, what did I care, there were many companies selling products. My suppliers (all of them) have my business debit card #, they bill, ship, done.

I never have to worry about due dates, nothing. I do get a little better pricing from some vendors for doing that.

[Doug Jagoda]

Tom, simply don’t sign it. I have NEVER signed one nor will I. The legal folks that write that in expect that X amount of folks will not sign (it’s not worth the paper it’s written on) and those that do sign, don’t have a clue but will sign anything.

[Tom M]

Dave,
I pay to be a corporation. The corporation is there to protect me. They want me to give that up, while still paying for the priveledge. I’ll go C.O.D., but I’ll expect a discount.

Thing is, what little we fabbed seemed pretty good.

Tom

[Tom M]

KC,
Hard to believe they’d rather lose a customer. There it is, though.

Tom

[Joe Corlett]

All:

Here’s a little story for all you guys using the “n” word- never.

Years ago I sold my solid surface shop to a local guy with a good reputation who also ran a cabinet business. I agreed to hold a note for a portion of the sale price as part of the deal. My lawyer insisted that he gaurantee the note personally, not the cabinet shop. He agreed to my terms.

We close the deal and he makes his payments with perfect regularity. The cabinet business goes belly-up, and I hear through the grapevine that a local hardware supplier takes about a ten thousand dollar pounding in the process. My checks came every month like clockwork until my note was paid in full. Mmmmmm.

Joe

P.S.

My buyer has expanded the business and is doing great.

[Tom M]

Joe,
If I was on the receiving end, I’d take a personal note, sure.
We’re going on fifty years in business. Never signed one before, I don’t see why I should now.

Tom

[Jon Olson]

Hey Tom. I guess its all how you look at things. We recently had a millwork shop go belly up on us. It would have been nice to have a personal guarantee. Maybe when there business grows they’ll remove that requirement.

[Tom M]

Are you guys gonna sign it, then?
Seriously, how is Charlie gonna make this work? We will be buying from him. F/H will be providing materials? Are we paying more than a direct customer to F/H will be? Inquiring minds want to know. Where is the iinventory stocked? The info I got says go to the website. It looks like the old website as far as I can tell.

Again, I’ll pay C.O.D. if I have to, but I’m going to want to see a discount.

Tom

[Andy Graves]

Corporations are designed also to protect against lawsuits not just collecting money and protecting your personal assets.

That said, I don’t have a problem signing a personal guarantee because I feel if I get the material then I should pay for it. I will work my ass off to pay it no matter what. But if you are not comfortable signing the agreement, just put it on a corporate credit card where there is no personal guarantee and then you don’t have to bother with the COD check. However you won’t get a discount from the vendor, because they will have to pay a credit card fee instead.

This should satisfy both parties.

[Tom M]

Andy,
A corporate credit card is not a bad idea. Do most distributors accept them nowadays? I don’t have one right now, but things keep moving in that direction.
We never fail to take early pay discounts, so I would expect some type of C.O.D. discount here, and may go that route anyway.

Tom

[Andy Graves]

Tom M wrote

Andy,
A corporate credit card is not a bad idea. Do most distributors accept them nowadays? I don’t have one right now, but things keep moving in that direction.
We never fail to take early pay discounts, so I would expect some type of C.O.D. discount here, and may go that route anyway.

Tom

Corporate credit cards are usually sent in the mail pre-approved. I get them all the time. I haven’t seen any personal guarantee on them, but there is a lot of legal crap so maybe I missed it.

Our vendors won’t give a discount on corporate cards because the cc processing fees are almost double over a regular cc. So the vendor won’t give the 1% net 10 discount.

[Chris Yaughn]

If 1% is all that your getting by paying COD you should be able to get that back from the CC company. Most oferr points etc… but we just take the cash. Currently we get 3% back on industry related purchases and 1% on every thing else. Amex is running an ad locally claiming 5% back, no limit, even if you use it for equipment purchases.

I haven’t read the mice type so not sure if it is legit.

(This just occured to me, I am not sure if there is a distinction between a “business” card and a “corporate” card.)

Chris

[Andy Graves]

sanitychaser wrote

(This just occured to me, I am not sure if there is a distinction between a “business” card and a “corporate” card.)

Chris

They may be the same, but if you accept cc, you will quickly see the difference in the fees that you pay to accept them.

[Jon Olson]

I cant speak for the owner of my company but i think he’ll have the same attitude Andy has.

[Author]

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