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Showroom Procedures with Clients

We are primarily a Wholesale to-the-trade-only showroom. This means that we sell only to registered trade at wholesale prices for the purpose of re-sale. We do not sell to retail customers at wholesale pricing. We do not assist your clients with their interior design questions, unless you are present with them. For these reasons we suggest the following:

Please don’t send your clients to the showroom unescorted.

If you have already selected their fixtures and they are making final approval, 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 your client comes into the showroom, unescorted, we cannot assist them with their design questions without you present, as we need you for the proper design quidence on their project.

We can not give them design advice, without being their designer.

We can only quote suggested retail prices.

And please, by all means, keep your client out of the ordering/status loop. Please advise your clients that they are not to contact the showroom directly. They must go through you as their designer. Clients feel they can check status on their orders without you. This is Not Possible. They get more than annoyed when we refuse to give them any information. Remember, we treat your order with us as confidential. You are the only person who can check anything on your order. It is our professional policy to never discuss your order with your clients.

Shipping Damages

When you receive your order, you should have the boxes and their contents checked and accounted for before delivering to your client. Any discrepancies from the packing list need to be reported within three days of receipt to validate claims. If boxes are stored without checking, you may forfeit any claim to shortages later. If boxes are moved and stored for more than a week, the freight company may assume that any damages may have the opportunity to occur after delivery to the site. This holds true as well if the order is drop shipped to your client. You agree with each sale, to advise your clients or your 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 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, not to throw anything away. Without the packaging, there can be no evidence, thus no claim or replacement, resulting in additional costs for new parts or product.

No one should return or send anything back to the shipper or us 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 their best to assure that your choices will technically perform for you in your projects. The final design decision and responsibility, however, lies with you as designer and purchaser.

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 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 35% of your net cost.

These re-stocking fees 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, be prepared to pay the 35% fee.

Occasionally, a vendor will reduce their fees to freight only charges 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 want to be the best.

For questions regarding Policies and Procedures please e-mail Paul Policelli.