ilovefuzz.com

FuzzHugger wrote:There's a disturbing trend with mega-dealers competing at all costs (even it it harms small builders, even if it devalues the used market), slashing their profit margins down to 3% or less, then asking builders for extra discounts, breaking builders' MAP policies, and more. Well, it reached it's stupidest point this week, with a dealer threatening to sue me for not selling them my pedals. No. Joke.

FuzzHugger wrote: Thank you, everyone! YOU are who I'm building pedals for. I should say, my current dealers have always been good to me and willing to listen.

I won't be selling my pedals at dealers who don't follow my MAP, but I will keep my prices very low! The constant 15+% off has consequences I can't support:

1) Your pedal doesn't hold as much value...if everyone knows that they can buy the pedal for 15% off any time, then if you go to sell your used pedal, you have to add 15% to what you would have normally lost.

2) Small dealers can't compete...if they take 15% off their profit, then subtract their payment processing fees, then subtract free shipping, their profit margin can sink as low as 3% (before paying utilities and employees).

3) So because of #2, if you're a builder, your pedals stop selling at all dealers except the ones doing a constant 15% off. So you're dependent on that dealer, but making less money because your pedals aren't selling at other dealers. So builders--and other dealers--suffer. And builders have to RAISE prices to make up for it.

4) Then that dealer asks for an extra discount on your pedals (to help make up for them cutting their profit margin by 15%), so builders make less. And builders have no choice but to agree, because you don't bite the only hand left that's (literally) feeding you. So builders have to RAISE prices to make up for it.

So that 15% off is short-term payoff...until it leads to value dropping, used market dropping, builders' dealers dropping, and builders being forced to raise their prices. These practices might not hurt builders who are charging a few hundred times too much for their pedals...but for the small guys who keep their prices low, it's bad news.

(I would go direct-only before I raise my prices 15-20% on the people who've supported me.)

FuzzHugger wrote:Prymaxe Vintage is not a FuzzHugger dealer as they refused multiple requests to follow my MAPs (some of the lowest MAPs in the business).
We had no form of contract (beyond their owner reading my MAPs and responding, "cool. So lets do this."). This week, I received an email from their owner--or someone using his email and claiming to be him--threatening to sue me for not selling him my pedals, saying that dropping him as a dealer was "BEYOND illegal," and assuring me that he's going to "make an wonderful example" out of me. Now he's advertising his remaining FuzzHugger stock so far below MAP that (I believe) he must be losing money. I think it's dick move, and it seems to me like an attempt to harm my business and dealers. Names named.

FuzzHugger wrote:I'm not encouraging any boycott. I'm not mad at Prymaxe, and I'm not afraid of them. But I'm not going to feel bullied by a giant retailer and remain silent because of unfounded legal threats.
I happily walked away months ago, but because of these recent--I believe, aggressive--attacks on my little business, I've decided to share.

I fully stand by every quotation above and opinion I expressed, but I don't recommend anyone paraphrase me or summarize, as their owner (or someone using his email address claiming to be him) threatened to also "make an wonderful example" out of "anyone else who spreads slanderous lies" about his company. I don't want anyone getting sued for paraphrasing or exaggerating.