Should I name the deadbeat gun dealers?

[txgho1911]

can you share your whole black list?

Maybe a listing of shop names with a brief explanation.
You could sell subscriptions to it!

 

[Monkeyleg]

Thanks again for all the replies.

There's too much downside and too little upside in "outing" them, as others have pointed out.

What I'll need to do, and as I said what consumes too much time, is to find a quality replacement store in the immediate area.

Once the new store is established and getting responses from my site, I can then remind the owner of the shop that I "zapped" from my site that those are customers who may have bought from him.

As someone on an earlier thread about my site said, the owners need to see a loss before they recognize the value of what I offer.

The difficulty lies in trying to show that the "zapped" owner has lost business.

Some will understand, while others won't. One of the most common reactions to loss of sales is to cut back on advertising, which is absolutely the wrong thing to do. Yet I've seen major companies adopt that stance.

One of the most ironic situations I've had concerns a gun shop in the Northeast. I contacted them back in September or so, and they said they weren't interested. Then, a couple of months ago, they contacted me to get their shop on the site.

Why? I don't know, except that AccuSport is really pushing their dealers to try out the site. And this week a major gun industry newsletter has published an article about my site, and has quoted three gun shop owners who have all seen increased sales and customers from the site. I gave the writer more owners to contact, but he felt that three was enough.

The desire for revenge is a strong emotion, but it's also one that drains energy that could be directed more positively. I need to keep that in mind.

Here's an email that I sent out to a shop in Ogden, UT the other day after the owner said he wouldn't spend a dime on any type of advertising:

"Hello, Jeff. Per our phone conversation this afternoon, we have removed the page on Gunshopfinder.com for Kent Shooters Supply from our site.

As I mentioned in our conversation, we've been getting a very good response from the majority of the shops on our site. I know that Impact Guns in Ogden has definitely received new customers from the site.

We'll keep the information about your store in our database. Should you decide in the future that you'd like to be on our site again, we can quickly restore that information. You can reach us by the email address above, or by phone at 414-543-XXXX.

Thank you for your time, and for trying out the trial subscription to our service.

Yours truly,
Dick Baker
Gunshopfinder.com"

I'm hoping that a polite but to-the-point email like that will leave the door open for the owner to reconsider down the line.

And I'm obviously hoping that, with enough time and effort on my part, being listed on my site will become almost as necessary as having a listing in the phone book.

I'm a patient man. Perhaps a stupid man, but patient. And I think this will all come together in time.

In the meantime, I really want to thank all of the THR members who've been helping me in this effort. It never ceases to amaze me that, when one of our members needs help, so many rise to the challenge.

As for the shops who've stiffed me on the invoices: I just may post their names here in a week or so. The entire world doesn't need to know that they're people of questionable ethics, but I think THR members would like to know.

 

[iiibdsiil]

You definitely handled that well. I wish more companies were like you.

 

[Black Majik]

I'm curious to see the list od dealers that are skimping out...