Author: Pissedoffdealer
Date: 03-11-03 18:13
I got a nastygram from TUSA today(every dealer got one) telling dealers of their attempts to control the gray market. This paragraph is the "meat" of the letter:
"Since June 2002, we have been recording all serial numbers of regulators and BC's shipped out of TUSA. We will now commence a campaign of purchasing TUSA product from "gray" Internet sites and ebay and tracking the serial numbers to the point of purchase. Any dealer that is found trans-shipping TUSA product to non-authorized dealers or selling it on ebay will be automatically removed as a TUSA dealer."
While I have never sold to gray market I have discounted in the past and sold on ebay. Guess all that will come to an end.
Sorry.
Cute, and not entirely-unexpected response.
If you're a TUSA dealer and got one of these, PM me with a phone number. I've got a response for 'ya that might wake Steve Ashmore, President of TUSA up from his loud snoring and even more outrageous threats, and I'll call 'ya on my dime.
Oh, Aqualung called me the other day and was originally going to ask me to stop sending them the petitions. I told them I'd be happy to comply with that, but the effect of their doing so was that everyone who signed from that point on would get an email back with their President's name and phone number, along with a nice explanation of the fact that they had refused to listen to consumers and perhaps the signatory might want to express their opinion of that decision personally.
They expressed shock that I would do such a horrid thing - imagine that, informing the public of their decision to plug their ears! It was a hilarious discussion, actually - wish I had taped it.
Aqualung's decision ultimately was to continue receiving the petitions. They understood CLEARLY the possible implication (for their perception in the market) of people getting an email back from the system telling them that Aqualung had refused to hear from them......
We're having an impact folks - what we REALLY need to do is get about 10x the signature rate on that petition that we have now, and it will REALLY hit the fan.