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Sales to Schools
Sales to Schools are an important part of any pottery and ceramic distributor's business. In fact sales of equipment and supplies to schools, colleges and universities often account for the majority Dogwood Ceramic Supply's sales each year. Obviously schools are important part of our business and as such we believe in providing the best price and service to our school accounts. Price and Service are important goals. An even more important goal is being fair. In attempt to meet that goal of being fair, Dogwood Ceramic Supply publishes all of our prices and discount schedules on this website for review by teachers and facility as well as purchasing officers. While printing prices in important, what is more important is the prices and discounts on this website are available to ALL schools, colleges and universities, large and small, public or private. In other words everybody is treated as equals, with the same opportunity to purchase products at the identical prices.
We mention being FAIR as a business goal because not all of our competitors are particular fair to school customers. Oh some of them claim to be very fair, but historically this issue of being or not being fair been hanging around since the first catalog company was formed. The internet has just amplified the problem. The basic problem to this fair issue starts with how freight companies handle school deliveries. There is a huge difference between a delivery to a 30,000 student population state university and a delivery to a 300 student population elementary school. Most large universities have central receiving warehouses with loading docks and dedicated staff while small elementary schools are usually off loaded at the side of the road or parking lot by the school maintenance staff whom have dozens of other more urgent tasks to perform. But to a freight company, a school is a school, and since elementary schools far out number all other schools combined, the vast majority of the freight companies charge extra for delivery to a school just as they would charge extra for delivery to a prison or gated military facility. The extra charge in freight company lingo is the "Restrictive Access Delivery Fee". This fee varies from freight company to freight company with fees of $40 to $90 quite common. Some of our competitors have been taking advantage of this "Restrictive Access Delivery Fee" by offering low ball prices in catalogs with offers of "Free Freight" to attract school customers seeking the lowest price. The vast majority of dedicated internet companies have joined in the singing of "free freight" as well. But often buried on the vendors website or in mouse print in the catalog will be a stipulation that the "free freight" offer only applies to customers that do not incur any extra fees for the freight delivery. The "Restrictive Access Deliver Fee" voids the offer of "Free Freight" and the vendor is then authorized to add an "appropriate" freight charge to the invoice for the school. And sorry to say, the word "appropriate" may not be the best word as some vendors have been downright abusive with the added freight charges that more than make up for the low ball prices that were initially offered. Deceptive? Yes. Legal? Yes. Ethical? No. Will the school pay the freight charges? Yes.
To compound this problem are schools that overestimate and add freight allowances to all purchase orders. In a manner of speaking these added freight allowances are helpful, especially when the purchase order is for a wide variety of products that can be packed and shipped in a single shipment and the freight amount could vary over a modest range. But these overestimated freight allowances also allow the less the scrupulous vendor an opportunity to gouge the school.
Dogwood Ceramic Supply's position on this matter is that we disclose our prices and policies without exception. No mouse print. No hidden policy pages. Take the popular Paragon TnF 27-3. It is a hugely popular kiln with schools and colleges. We have extracted key information from the product page:
Notice several strange things about the information posted above? For starters there is a price valid date. Paragon's distributor agreement with Dogwood Ceramic Supply states that the retail price of their kilns are valid for one year. Therefore Dogwood Ceramic Supply knows that the price that we offer to the public is good for the entire year. If we know the price is valid for the year, why not state that the price will be valid for the entire year? Secondly there is the MSRP (manufacturer's suggested retail price) which is listed. That MSRP listing is so that WE (both the customer and Dogwood Ceramic Supply) can verify with the manufacturer that the current model year price is posted. Then there is the Dogwood's Discounted Price. The price is not different for different people. We don't charge her $1630 and you $1650. Instead everybody gets to purchase at the $1640 price every day of the year. Wow, being FAIR to all customers. Freight Group D is the weight class of the kiln.
In the paragraph below the kiln pricing is a statement:
The kiln specified is a Freight Group D. Following the link will reveal the freight costs for that particular kiln.
The table was abbreviated for this display, but as you can
see Freight Group D varies in shipping costs from $130 to $275. The
Paragon factory is in the Dallas metro market and as such the freight rates are
lowest to customers in that particular market. And if the school has staff
to pickup at the Paragon factory, the freight charges can be avoided all
together. Mississippi is closer to Dallas than Alabama and the freight
rates for Mississippi are slightly less expensive than Alabama. In the interest of being FAIR to all customers, it is best that customers pay freight charges based upon the delivery costs rather than paying a single freight rate that includes Wyoming and other lightly populated states. Notice another date? Yes the freight table is valid for all of 2008. The freight companies take their annual price increase in February or March. By now the freight rates have been set for the year and after adding an allowance for rising fuel prices the 2008 Paragon Kiln Freight Rates were established.
Lower on the freight page is:
Yes, deliveries to schools cost extra. $40 is the fee charged by ABF, the primary freight company used by Paragon, and is the amount that we (Dogwood Ceramic Supply) add to all kiln freight shipments to schools. There are other rules and exceptions as well. Live on Mackinaw Island? Is your school located in Metro New York City with the traffic, one way streets and very limited access? Can you find the DelMarVa peninsula by looking out your window? These and other specific locations cost more for delivery. We don't sugar coat the issue, we disclose the facts and state the costs when known.
Full and complete disclosure.
To the best of our knowledge, Dogwood Ceramic Supply is the only Paragon Distributor that has published prices and freight rates valid for the entire year. Our goal for 2008 is to complete the same task for all of the major product lines that we sell. If we can accomplish such a task, why can't every vendor do the same?
In the interest of full disclosure can Dogwood's price be
beat on this particular kiln? Sure, by all means. Any vendor's price
can be beat, and a local vendor could be well positioned to meet or beat
Dogwood's price. This is especially true for a school that can pickup at a
local vendor's place of business and avoid all delivery or freight charges.
And we recommend shopping local. It is good for the local economy and
besides money spent in the local community generates the taxes that support
local schools. But an "internet" or "catalog" company beating Dogwood's price? Maybe it will happen, but most likely the price will be substantially higher after the "free freight" offer is withdrawn.
Is there a way to protect schools from vendors withdrawing "free freight" offers? We have not found a way. In one instance a catalog company beat Dogwood's price on a popular large Paragon kiln by $8. We gasped, we groaned and then we looked at the school districts bid summary sheets. Dogwood Ceramic Supply and the two local vendors that had placed bids on the equipment had added freight charges to our written bids. All three companies were drop shipping the kiln from the manufacturer's location and our quoted freight rates differed by only a few dollars. The local vendors total bids after freight charges were within $40 to $70 of Dogwood's total price after freight charges. Such a small amount is well within the margin of giving the business to a local vendor over an out of state vendor. The catalog company's bid summary did not include any mention of freight charges. We asked and received a copy of the catalog companies written bid. The written bid frequently stated "free freight" and in very fine print a sentence at the bottom of the page referenced a particular catalog page for additional details. The specific catalog page stated that all purchases over a specific dollar amount would be shipped "freight free". The NEXT page in the catalog stated that kilns and other equipment items were excluded from "free freight" offers. According to the school districts published reports the catalog company billed the district for $380 in freight charges for a kiln shipped from the Paragon factory to the school districts warehouse. Dogwood's quoted freight rate was only $175. The school district paid the $380 freight charge. In another instance a school teacher requested a pottery wheel to be purchased from a particular online vendor that offers "free freight" on all pottery wheels. However, the school district requires 3 written quotes on all purchases over $100. So the school's purchasing officer contacted as many vendors selling that particular brand of pottery wheel as possible in hopes of finding 3 competitive bids. 4 bids were received. All 4 four bids included a freight charge for delivery to the school. 3 of the vendors bidding, including the vendor requested by the teacher, offer the specific pottery wheel shipped "free freight" on their websites at a price that is far less than Dogwood's published price. And Dogwood adds freight charges to our selling price. Dogwood does not offer different prices to different people buying the same products. Dogwood was the low bidder.
Bottom line, sometimes they hide the fact that they will withdraw the "free freight" offer. Sometimes they will add it to their bids. Can never be sure.
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