I am sitting specking out custom packaging this morning, and I contacted Big River Packaging to request a quote on some custom colored boxes.

I got an email back from the president saying while he would love to support my business, he was sure that 1000 boxes was too many for me and I should buy his stock brown boxes until I knew what my volume would be sometime next year....

Holy patronizing j*ck*ss, Batman. Uh....I am still the customer, not his daughter, right? If I want to spend $2500 on boxes, it's pretty dumb of him not to take it, right ?

Okay...I feel better know. Just wanted to vent a bit.

Unbelievable!!!!!

Wonder how he is SO informed to know that you WON'T do a lousy 20 cakes a week; 4 cakes a day? Obviously he sounds like one of those guys who think cakes are something that "the little woman" does for a hobby, to keep her busy between soap operas!

When you buy those boxes from his competitor, I'd be sure to let him know! And when you start using 1000 boxes a MONTH, I'd be sure to let him know THAT, too!

I hope he just had your best intentions in mind but the way he said it was very insulting.I got the same questioning reply when I wanted the 50lb tub of satin ice fondant from a local cake store. I knew they would have to order it and the charge shipping every time so even if I wasted some of it that month it would still be cheaper then the smaller tubs and if I were to run out I would be stuck with the yucky wilton kind because that is all anyone around here carries.But come on these are boxes.. they don't go bad. even if you don't get around to using them this year, unless you change your colors you will eventually get to them..... MEN sheesh.

wow..that reminds me of the movie pretty woman when julia roberts goes back to the clothing store who shooed her out, and says BIG, BIG MISTAKE!!! Ive always wanted to do that. now you have a similar opportunity to do so.

Does he not care that he just lost a customer

Wow that is insulting. Kinda like the time my mom went to buy her new car, and the sales guy wouldn't open the car to let her look in, much less let her test drive it "go home and bring your husband back" to which she replied "this is my car that I'M buying and no one will make any decisions on it but ME so you just lost yourself a sell" and walked off the lot. And that was only like 6 years ago! Go figure...

~ b

Very insulting! Hmmmm..they are not only losing you as a customer, but pretty much anyone else here on CC who will read this thread also!

money is money and its all the same no matter who it comes from, it doesn't drop in value. I dont even know what to tell you if you should order it or not. You should just reply and ask if he's going to "give you a price or not?" and thats it. He might even offer a discount if he realizes he has insulted you.

Maybe they are a subsidiary of Sugarcrafts....

There is a huge trucking company in Indy that is owned and run by a woman. When George Bush came to town, he held his speech at her facility, that's how big it is. A person who works with her told me once that she is ALWAYS being told how "nice" it is that her husband "set her up" in business. Her husband had nothing to do with it.

My husband works for a Cadillac dealership. It's in 3rd generation. It was the first dealership GM sold to a woman. You'd be amazed (well, maybe not!) on how often they hear people make comments about "....when her husband left her the business." Husband had nothing to do with it. She negotiated the purchase herself, direct with GM.

When I was shopping for a cargo van, I made it CRYSTAL CLEAR they were dealing with me. One guy tried to sell me a "pretty" mini van. I said, "I'm a caterer .... I have lots of equipment to transport. That van has less cargo space than my Jeep Cherokee!" He said, "Well as a caterer, you want a vehicle that looks nice!" (Did he just use code for "a woman needs a PRETTY van"? ). I told him, with pure arrogance and sarcasm dripping from my voice (hard to believe, I know, but I CAN pull that off! ) "Having a "Pretty" van does me no good whatsoever if I have to drive TWO of them to an event!" (dumba$$)

God, I must have been quite a sight, hiking into the back-40, crawling into the back of vans while wearing my skirt-suit, shaking built in shelves to see how sturdy they were. When he asked about price range, I said, "I can buy them everyday of the week in the classifieds in the $5000-$7000 range, so don't even show me anything over that."

It took him about 2 minutes to figure out I wasn't your average "little woman" customer!

Okay, I just got a fairly large order (in my eyes) from BRP--400 boxes if I remember correctly. And, I don't do NEAR the quantity that is being discussed here.

But, nobody ever contacted me. It was probably a good thing--we would have turned around and emailed another place. Not everyone in Iowa is like that (meaning the president of BRP)!!!

OH! OH! OH! I have another one!

I worked for the largest powercord mfg'r in the world. I was in charge of moving our warehouse from 75 miles away to Indpls AND moving the office from north of Indy to our new location about 10 miles away (so now the offices and warehouse would be in the same building). I had a budget of $100,000 that I could spend on my signature alone.

Went to a large appliance store to buy an ice machine for the breakroom. I worked in the warehouse that Sat (I also managed the warehouse) and went there after work so I was in flannel shirt and jeans. I walk in and they are very busy. I politely wait. No big deal. A salesman approaches me and asks if he can help. I said, "I'm here to buy an under the counter ice machine." (Notice I said I'm here to BUY one ... .not here to price one, or to look at one, but to BUY one.) He says in a very condensending tone, "I think those are pretty expensive."

I said, "Can we see how much they are?" As we are walking toward the price book, I add, "I also need to know if they are hard wired or plug in so I can let the contractor know how he needs to prep the space."

He flips open the book, finds it and says, with a big sigh in his voice, "We have them for $900." He practically slams the book shut and looks really bored. I said, "So are you interested in selling it to me or am I going somewhere else, where they are interested in taking my money?"

A$$hole.

if you want to order 10 million boxes that is your business...why should he care...its not like he has to deal with when and where the boxes are going to go!!!! what a dumbass!!!!!!

Its hard to believe that people are still that ignorant these days. I say place your business elsewhere and then let the moron know what he lost!!

My husband won't even shop at Sears anymore. He went in there to buy a computer one year right after high school and picked out the one he wanted when it was time to pay he took out his check book and the employee said that there is no way they are taking his check. He knew he was young and yes it was about $1500 but he had about $50,000 in the bank so the check would clear no problem. He told the employee to call the bank and have the check cleared and the employee said that he wasn't going to waste his time calling the bank and to leave. My husband will never shop there again.

I've got a condescending guy story!

When we were building our house, a contractor came to over to give us a bid. He talked mainly to DH. The only thing he said me was that I needed to decide what kind of kitchen cabinets I wanted by such and such date. Have you noticed my screen name is I can't cook? I can't and I HATE to cook! Cake stuff is the only thing I willingly do in my kitchen, and I wasn't even doing that 9 years ago when we were building! As he was leaving (finally, before I strangled him!) he passed by our carport, and noticed a compound miter saw. He asked DH if it would be OK to use it while working on our house, something about not having to move so much equipment around. DH told him he thought it would be better liability-wise if he used his own equipment. Plus, the contractor was going to have to ask ME about using the saw, since it was MINE.

We didn't hire that contractor...

you know with a storefront you'll be using a lot of boxes.

i get em by the 100 in a case...seems like i'm always reordering...

i hate to say it, if that's the cost...for a custom color, whats that average...25 cents a box?

that's a little more than half what i pay, for 1/4 sheets.plain boxes...mine are 48.00 a case....man theres alot of money in packaging!....

i'd love some custom colors!...to bad he was such a butthead we coulda split an order....i go thru 500 in a couple months.

duh...i just reread your post...

2.50 for a freakin box???????????

geeze, i guess he thought you just fell off the turnip truck last night!

First off, I have to say thank you to Indydebi. Not only did I spit out my coffee, have to wipe it from my hubbys laptop this am but also had to mop the floor!!!! thank you soo much for the morning laugh.

I have sort of a macho, ignorant, pig-headed salesman story: We knew we needed a new family van, and I knew what I wanted, so I went to the car dealership myself, scoped out all of the vans there, and found one I wanted. Salesman (if you could call him that) came up to me and asked if he could help me. I said sure, tell me about this van right here. He tried to give me the regular crap. I asked him specific questions and he was dumbfounded. I said I have XXX dollars and I want this van. He said, will you bring your husband back to fill out the paperwork? I said excuse me, I'm here to buy a van, and you WILL deal with me not my husband. He got this weird look on his face, and excused himself. I waited and waited. I wasn't chasing this bozo down. I got up and left. (They lost that one) I went to the dealership across the street and picked out a better van, and said, get the paperwork started, I'll be back with a check. Cool deal they were awesome to deal with, and without any LIP. I brought the check back, signed on the dotted line, and drove off the lot. Right back across the street, and asked for the same salesman. I said right to his smug face, see, you just lost the easiest sale you ever could have made. and drove off in my nice NEW van.

goes to show you men are complete and utter dooie heads sometimes

Oh yeah, I have way too many stories of Sears, and even the Homer Depot but that is another rant for another time.

Oh the things this thread started in my brain!!!

I absolutely RESENT being patronized. If any business ever implies that I cannot afford something, that is unacceptable and inexcusable to me. Were it me and the box guy, I would write a very formal letter explaining how insulting the statement was, and as a result I could not ethically do business with a company that doesn't respect me as a customer.

Even worse is being treated differently as a woman. That brings the insult to a whole other level. I don't want to be treated any differently because I am a woman. If that means fighting with the big boys, I'm a rollin' up my sleeves!

Quick story. Since I was 16, I wanted a Jeep Wrangler. When I was finally in a position to buy one, oh, 12 years later at 28...I went to the local Jeep dealer by myself, checkbook in hand, to buy the one of my dreams. I could not get a single salesman to speak to me seriously. After an hour of trying to get information, I left the dealership and drove to a regular GM dealer down the road, which because of my extensive research, I already knew had 2 Jeeps on their lot. As luck would have it, one was the exact one I wanted.
I bought it there on the spot, then drove back to the Jeep dealer, and asked to see the sales manager. After a ONE HOUR wait, he came over to me and very condescendingly said, "What can I do for you, sweetheart?" (grrrrrr). I replied, "Nothing. I just wanted to tell you that because no one from your lot would assist me, I bought my Jeep at ***** down the road and I'll be following up with a formal letter of complaint to GM itself." I turned and walked out.. His jaw was on the floor and I never again in my let felt as powerful as I did at that moment.

Bottom line is. I do not and would not let that type of situation rest. A customer driven company cannot treat their customers like dirt. I have no issue reminding them of that fact.

Little cakes, It's not $2.50 a box. I needed a couple of different kinds of boxes. The 2 dozen cupcake ( 1/2 sheet with inserts) were the most expensive at a little over $1.00. It was 3000 boxes that I was looking for, or so I thought.

What I hate is when a woman clerk is snobbish and uncooperative with me, yet if my husband goes she treats him just fine. What is it with women working with women that does NOT work out?

This thread got me to thinking about rude salesmen. Last yr a car dealership here had a big sale[supposedly]. Well, my bil and a friend went in there one day and the saleman told them a price for a small truck that my dh was interested in. It was a really good price, too. The next day me and DH go the lot, and he had been working outside and didn't change clothes or anything, so he had on old jeans and t shirt.We sat down with the salesmen and talked prices on different models and stuff.We were prepared to pay cash for it, too. He comes up with a price for the same truck his db asked about the day before and it was double what they told him. My DH told him we were paying cash but he insisted on running his credit through anyway, before he gave us a price. Then he comes out with this price and my DH tells him to forget it. That man says as we were leaving, to another salesman,"I told you he ain't got no money"!!! Little did he know that we had enough to buy what ever we had wanted to. My dd said "I told you that he didn't have any education!!!"