New Showroom Procedures
As we now welcome the retail Public to our showroom, here are a few things to review and understand about our revised showroom procedures.
Selling at Retail prices
We are now selling direct to the retail clients, who come to the SFDC as invited guests.
We always check to see if these clients are, or are not working with a designer.
In order to take advantage of these extra sales, we are extending retail discounts up to and slightly better than, the e-commerce sites on the internet. If we do not do this, retail clients will simply utilize the showroom display for confirming what they want, and then purchasing from our internet competitors via their home computors.
We do not sell to retail customers at wholesale pricing.
If we discover they are attempting a large project, we normally ask if they have considered consulting with a designer, and can recommend one, if they realize they may need the professional assistance. We do not become a designer for the retail clients, without appropriate and calculated Design Fees.
Selling at Wholesale prices
In the past, you know we have been a "Wholesale to-the-trade-only" showroom.
We will continue to service the Trade Community as we have in the past.
We will continue to sell to registered designers at wholesale costs.
This means that we only sell at wholesale prices to registered trade professionals, for the purpose of re-sale. We do not quote nor sell to retail customers at wholesale pricing.
Escorting your clients
We highly recommend that you escort your clients to the showroom, especially on the first visit.
If your client comes into the showroom, unescorted, we won't be able to assist them with their design questions, as we need you present for the proper design guidance on their project. Please don’t send your clients to the showroom unescorted, without notifying us in advance.
At that time you should instruct us as to your working arrangement with your client.
If you have already selected their fixtures and your clients are making final review, please give them your card and a list of items that you want them to see.
We will be happy to show them what you have chosen or have in mind.
If you are not Purchasing Agent for your clients
As many business plans have changed, we find many designers requesting that we sell directly to their clients, instead of running the sales through their own business.
We have an excellent plan. It involves you as the designer, to confirm everything which your client will order directly. The order will not go through your business. Client will pay directly, including all normal handling and sales taxes. Best of all, with no contractor markups, a huge savings will be the results for your client. Everyone wins!
If this is your position, please contact Paul Policelli for a detailed plan of how this direct purchase plan works. We can accomodate you in this procedure with certain restrictions. Custom Designs still require a designer. Paul can explain the details to you via telephone or in person.
Checking on orders
For wholesale orders which you place, please advise your clients that they should contact you, and not the showroom directly. They must go through you as their designer.
It is our professional courtesy policy to never discuss your order with your clients.
For orders purchased by your clients, using the direct purchase plan, they may check on their own orders.
For orders purchased by retail clients, they may check on their own orders.
Shipping Damages (applies to all purchasers)
When you receive your order, you should have the boxes and their contents checked and counted immediately. Any damages or discrepancies from the packing list
need to be reported within three days of receipt to validate claims.
If boxes are stored without checking contents, you may forfeit any claim to shortages later.
If boxes are moved and stored for more than a week, the original freight company may assume that any damages may have the opportunity to occur after delivery to the site, and you may forfeit any claim to shortages later.
This holds true as well if the order is drop shipped to your client or a third party reciever.
With each sale, purchaser agrees to advise their clients or their reciever, to examine the shipment immediately upon receipt for damages or shortages and report these to you, as well as saving all packaging.
If your client or reciever calls you regarding breakage in shipping, there is one thing everyone wants…a quick replacement of the order or the broken or missing parts. To save days of processing there are some things you can do to expedite the claim.
You must tell your client to:
- Keep all packaging, do not throw anything away.
- Without the packaging, there can be no evidence of carrier damage, thus no claim or replacement, resulting in additional costs for new parts or product.
- Do not transport damaged package away from delivery location.
- Call the showroom with original order paperwork handy.
DO NOT return or send anything back to the shipper or showroom without what is called a Return Goods Authorization Number. Without this RGA# on the box, the item is sure to be either refused at the Showroom, the warehouse or lost at the sole responsibility of the sender.
Then you must fax or call us, giving us all information possible starting with your order invoice number, client name, when it was received, what is broken, condition of the boxes, if it has been moved from point of delivery, if it was only the glass which was damaged or a metal part.
If the box is to be picked up or inspected by the carrier for a claim, it needs to be at the original delivery address.
DO NOT RETURN DAMAGED ITEMS TO THE SHOWROOM UNLESS INSTRUCTED.
If it was sent onward from the original shipping address, it usually voids any claim to replacement by the original carrier. Your claim would then need to be placed with the 2nd carrier by you.
We can always get this information from you in phone calls that may take 2-4 days, but that’s the point. This all takes time. The more info we get, the faster the resolution to the problem for you and your client and your showroom.
This is Very Important! It is your responsibility to convey this information to your client. Together we can solve any freight claim issue.
Cancellations & Returns
The showroom will always do its best to assure that your choices will technically perform for you in your project. The final design decision and responsibility, however, lies with you as designer and/or purchaser.
Please let us know if you have any doubts, or need further alternatives to your decisions.
Always be sure to review everything on the invoice we present to you before you sign it in Confirmation. If you discover that your selection was not right for the job, or that you or the client changed their mind, there are costs involved to return goods to vendors.
Every vendor has their rules and they vary slightly. In general, returning goods, un-opened and un-used in a timely manner, and if authorized, will cost you 25 - 35% of your net purchase price.
These are re-stocking fees. They are not simply a penalty for a mistake.
It involves a number of reasons, such as:
The necessary paper processing to get authorization for the return, the return freight and tracking, on the part of the showroom and the vendor office.
Upon receiving returned goods, they are opened and inspected by the factory warehouse.
The returned goods must be perfect and then re-packed and re-sealed so they are ready to re-stock onto the shelves and ship out for the next new order.
It is after inspection that the showroom finds out if there was damage in the return, and if not, there is a credit on account issued. The showroom does not get a refund.
If there was damage or evidence of use, the factory refuses the credit and sends it back to the showroom. The showroom is just that…a showroom. We do not have a warehouse to keep un-needed inventory.
Every situation has its own particular circumstances, but in general, unless you are purchasing alnernate lighting, be prepared to pay the 35% fee.
Occasionally, a vendor will reduce their fees or charge freight costs only back and forth, if the reselection is with another of their products, but it is their call. We will always try to convince them in your favor.
The balance is then issued as a Credit on account. The credit cannot be issued, however, until the vendor has issued the showroom a credit on account, so a re-selection will have to be paid for in advance, if you do not want to wait for the credit. In the later situations, the credit can be issued as a refund once the return process is completed.
Additional Assistance
Please feel free to call or e-mail us at anytime to clarify any of the above information, or ask for assistance in other areas of business procedures with our showroom.
The more information we share with each other, the smoother our transactions. We always want to be a part of your team to access products for your clients, and we strive to be the best.
For questions regarding Policies and Procedures please e-mail Paul Policelli.
Thank you
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It's a new age for the business of interior design. Computor and internet technology has changed our traditional design business as we knew it.
Clients as well as the public have more knowledge and information than ever before, and they have been exposed to
e-commerce in all of its glory.
SFDC welcoming the public to the showrooms and preparing us for multi-level price structures, have caused changes to our showroom procedures and policies.
Showrooms are positioning themselves to take their rightful share in the economy by evolving into dual purpose showrooms, in order to stay successful.
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We believe designers should have a total understanding of these changes and workings of all of their showroom resources. We hope we can simplify what has become a complex strategy of selling to both the Trade and the Public.
Please do not hesitate to contact us, or stop by during one of your SFDC visits, and get a personal explanation of how we are protecting our Trade clients, and at the same time, expanding into the retail experience at the SFDC.
Celebrating
1983 30 2013
Years of Excellence
