Hey folks
Some unfortunate news. As of a few weeks back, we are no longer a Stern dealer. It was quite the journey from becoming one in April of '24. When I was first brought on, there wasn't a guide or anything so I asked some questions. Mainly, where I can sell and was told no restrictions. I was however, warned when getting onboard that the Canadian distribution scene is very competitive. No problem. Should be plenty of room for one more. Pretty well within a week of opening, I heard from my sales rep of a complaint from a fellow Canadian distributor. So it begins! We started off selling online, but as sales picked up and trades started coming in, we started to look for a standalone location.
I would hear regularly of complaints from, get this, never a customer, but rather other Canadian distributors. Why they care about other distributor complaints is beyond me. If I ran the company, I would care what customers thought, to which I heard overwhelming positive feedback (and a breath of fresh air compared to the competitors). These complaints continued. I would get numerous calls from my reps saying they're getting complaints about me breaking rules, despite having any proof. As I was going down to pick up my X-Men machines in October, I was 30 minutes from Chicago (of my 7h drive) when I get a call from my rep and I'm told I'm not allowed to get them because of complaints from other distributors. I was told I can't have them until theirs are ready to be shipped, so I had to leave Chicago empty handed and come back the following week to get them once I get the word, even though I had numerous launch parties depending on me. After a long week of driving and many, many, deliveries we got through it and got everyone their machines with smiles. No apology, compensation or otherwise for the inconvenience.
Before committing to my lease and standalone location, I asked my sales rep how things we're going. I was told I'm doing exceptionally well for a new dealer, am doing amazing things for the pinball community and Stern is behind me 100%. Awesome. let's do this. We had an amazing grand opening with over 225 people coming out. I heard it resonated through Stern and they were all very excited about it.
Complaints continued and escalated once a competitor learned of me shipping machines all over Canada and being able to do it more competitively while still following Stern's pricing guidelines. I then get the call from the head of sales that they brought me on too soon and it started affecting the market, and that I'm no longer an authorized dealer. Would have been nice to know this before getting a dedicated place and spending many tens of thousands of dollars.
I believe I was a victim of my own success and ruffled too many feathers of the old boys club. I was told that my sales reps 'defended me' numerous times in higher up meetings. Defended me against what you ask? good question. Likely more absurd, unfounded complaints.
I sold ~110 new machines in ~10 months. My rough, back of the napkin math suggests that's 20-25% of the Canadian market share, but I can't be certain. It was a very fun 10 months! I met a lot of cool people. Thank you all for the experiences and support along the way!
As of now, I still have some new product in stock and quite a few good quality used machines. If anyone is looking at a larger buy, let me know and we can work something out.
There's plenty more I could share, but I'll leave it at that for now.
Thanks to you all.
Jeff
Some unfortunate news. As of a few weeks back, we are no longer a Stern dealer. It was quite the journey from becoming one in April of '24. When I was first brought on, there wasn't a guide or anything so I asked some questions. Mainly, where I can sell and was told no restrictions. I was however, warned when getting onboard that the Canadian distribution scene is very competitive. No problem. Should be plenty of room for one more. Pretty well within a week of opening, I heard from my sales rep of a complaint from a fellow Canadian distributor. So it begins! We started off selling online, but as sales picked up and trades started coming in, we started to look for a standalone location.
I would hear regularly of complaints from, get this, never a customer, but rather other Canadian distributors. Why they care about other distributor complaints is beyond me. If I ran the company, I would care what customers thought, to which I heard overwhelming positive feedback (and a breath of fresh air compared to the competitors). These complaints continued. I would get numerous calls from my reps saying they're getting complaints about me breaking rules, despite having any proof. As I was going down to pick up my X-Men machines in October, I was 30 minutes from Chicago (of my 7h drive) when I get a call from my rep and I'm told I'm not allowed to get them because of complaints from other distributors. I was told I can't have them until theirs are ready to be shipped, so I had to leave Chicago empty handed and come back the following week to get them once I get the word, even though I had numerous launch parties depending on me. After a long week of driving and many, many, deliveries we got through it and got everyone their machines with smiles. No apology, compensation or otherwise for the inconvenience.
Before committing to my lease and standalone location, I asked my sales rep how things we're going. I was told I'm doing exceptionally well for a new dealer, am doing amazing things for the pinball community and Stern is behind me 100%. Awesome. let's do this. We had an amazing grand opening with over 225 people coming out. I heard it resonated through Stern and they were all very excited about it.
Complaints continued and escalated once a competitor learned of me shipping machines all over Canada and being able to do it more competitively while still following Stern's pricing guidelines. I then get the call from the head of sales that they brought me on too soon and it started affecting the market, and that I'm no longer an authorized dealer. Would have been nice to know this before getting a dedicated place and spending many tens of thousands of dollars.
I believe I was a victim of my own success and ruffled too many feathers of the old boys club. I was told that my sales reps 'defended me' numerous times in higher up meetings. Defended me against what you ask? good question. Likely more absurd, unfounded complaints.
I sold ~110 new machines in ~10 months. My rough, back of the napkin math suggests that's 20-25% of the Canadian market share, but I can't be certain. It was a very fun 10 months! I met a lot of cool people. Thank you all for the experiences and support along the way!
As of now, I still have some new product in stock and quite a few good quality used machines. If anyone is looking at a larger buy, let me know and we can work something out.
There's plenty more I could share, but I'll leave it at that for now.
Thanks to you all.
Jeff
