butters&beans: Bad Business Practice

Sometimes I can't believe the lack of basic business knowledge and basic business courtesy in the professional arena. It just amazes me sometimes, and I will absolutely not deal with vendors and businesses that lack common sense and common courtesy. This is a great example - I sent an email to a textile company inquiring about their organic fabrics yesterday. This is a copy of the email I sent:

Hello,
I am interested in obtaining samples and pricing on your organic fabrics, as well as lead times, min orders and information on how long you stock your fabrics.
Thank you,
Ann Evans

Ann Evans
President & Founder
butters&beans, Co.
www.buttersandbeans.com

This is a copy of the email I got back:

Ann-

Thank you for your inquiry.

First of all, we do not stock any finished production fabric. All is made to our customers orders. We run a variety of organic cottons; Bamboo and Bamboo/cotton; Hemp and Hemp organic cotton; Tencel; modal/poly; bamboo/poly; modal/acrylic; ProModal........all knits, so I don't know what you refer to as :organic". The only fibers we certify as organic are the organic cotton and Bamboo's

Our production minimums are 650 yds/color for 7 oz fabric and 1200 yds for 4 oz fabric

Tell me a little about your company. What do you make? Whats your distribution? How long are you in business?

Advise

Michael

First, all of the questions this vendor asked could have easily been answered had he clicked on the link to our website that was sent in the original email. Isn't it HIS job to do his homework considering I would be the one paying him?
Second, I clearly inquired about organic fabrics. How do you not know what I am referring to as organic? How is that confusing? Organic is organic - there is no varying definition.

Let me tell you the most amazing experience I've ever had with a vendor. To this day, it absolutely blows my mind. Some time ago, I was a buyer for a swim company. One of our sales reps for a rather large swim line was very pushy and someone I tended to avoid as we often butted heads - I normally let someone else deal with her, as I didn't liker her and didn't do well hiding it.
While at fashion week one year, I got extremely ill and had a rash covering my entire body. My skin was swollen seriously like a half-inch high, and I was starting to run a high fever. I woke up one morning feeling absolutely terrible, and had to let my business partner handle our appointments that day to view different collections. One of the appointments that day happened to be with this specific sales rep that I wasn't very fond of.
When my business partner got to this appointment with this sales rep, she asked why I wasn't there. My business partner replied to her that I was sick and couldn't make any appointments that day, and that I was at the hotel in bed. Her reply to this was that "maybe she shouldn't have been out partying all night - then she could've made her appointments today".

Wow.

Now, to those of you that know me, you know that I have been sober for several years, so this was a low blow. I had had dinner the previous night with the owner of a high profile swim company, but to say that I was out partying was a ridiculous statement. Who says things like this? And then wants you to pay them? It just amazes me.

I hate to end my posts on a bitchy note, so we'll end with some highlights of my swim career - sometimes I miss the swim industry dearly...