Would you not sell a pen to someone

[wolf creek knives]

I was talking with my son a couple of weeks back about upgrading my website to include photo's of pens etc. I also wanted to include a "No Buy" list of names of people I would never sell a pen, or any other item, to. Does anyone else have a list of individuals who they would never consider selling or giving a pen too? I was just curious.

 

[tomtedesco]

I have a few people that I would not give or sell a pen to but this list is in my head. I would never make a list for everyone to see.

 

[Terredax]

If you are trying to sell pens, why would you have a list of "no buy" names?

 

[MikeinSC]

What would the benefits be to your business and the buying public to have a section of your page dedicated to the people you won't do business with?

Do you have any examples of other successful businesses that also do the same thing? Or instances that it would be acceptable?

This would appear to be a narcissistic and petty direction to go down. If you really want an honest answer, don't ask other makers that might agree with this idea. Ask your customer base how they would feel.

I very rarely acknowledge who my exact customers are because I let them self identify if they want to. But I would never publicly shame even the worst customer.

You have to remember, that pen people talk and share information through social media, pen shows and meetups. And they don't forget either.

 

[TonyL]

Not related to pen sales, but I was a co-founder of a business that we later sold for $15 million. We didn't do business with law firms or NYC hospital systems. 80% of them that were our customers did not pay our invoices or paid after 6 months and always held something back. I am not saying that this is a good strategy for anyone, but for it saved us a lot of grief. I sell 1 of 5 pens that I make purely as a hobby, there are some friends that I do not offer my services to, but remember, I am not looking to make a living out of this.

 

[mredburn]

There are a couple of people that are scam artists or know to be problematic, that are known in the pen world. Their names have been circulated in prior years.

 

[PatrickR]

The first thing that comes to mind are the recent court battles in regards to refusing services to a person. There are groups/people that you may not want to knowingly do work for, but in no way would you want to make it public knowledge. Asking for trouble.

 

[edicehouse]

There have been a couple people I do not make pens for. He stated names, not group of people.

The few I will not have ordered, with stuff I had on hand, so I made it, and then not gotten paid. Of course they didn't get the pen. Or I am making an order and they want a pen "like that one" on my facebook page. And again, not gotten paid.

The way around it is, now full payment up front, they pick the blanks, and no refunds. (That is for "those" customers). Generally they have declined.

Related story to being a commission employee at Circuit City. There were people we called the renters. They would buy something and return it, raise cane about restocking fee and get it waved. The problem is with us being commission, if someone returned something on us, they took the pay back. Now these people were the ones that would eat up a lot of time to get some new tech. I had one guy who would do that, "rent" a laptop for 2 weeks and return it. A week later come in and get a different one. His argument was always, I wasn't told about the restocking fee when he returned things. So on the renters, I put a note on the receipt saying customer was read the restocking fee before purchase and he responded, I will just say you didn't tell me about it. I actually showed him that and he laughed about it.

Well computers had 2 week return policy and he came in and returned it and flipped out when they charged him the restocking fee. For some reason he refused my help any time in the store after that.

 

[mecompco]

I can see no good coming from this idea at all. I've actually seen an eCommerce site that had a page featuring the owner's diatribe over the incredible stupidity of his past customers. Needless to say, I would never consider doing business with a site displaying that sort of content.

Should by some miracle someone on your "no service" list actually order something, you can always cancel the sale.

Just my .02.

 

[Oimmuk]

I am still learning about pen crafting, I had a number of years i took off due to personal reasons, so I am back now. Personally I would sell a pen to the Devil him/herself if they paid up front and it cleared. Business is business, just my two cents....

 

[StanBrown]

I agree with Oimmuk: business is business. You are not going to sell enough pens to get rich no matter what you do so you might as well sell to anyone who has the money and pays for it. Petty personal grievances have no place in the business world and if you are going to sell pens, it is a business. If you are not going to sell pens, but only give them as gifts, that is a horse of a different color. In that case you can give them to whomever you choose.

 

[MRDucks2]

Back when we had a consignment shop and used furniture store we would post a copy of bounced checks with the owners name in sharpie underneath if they did not settle-up when contacted. This was a common business practice in the smaller, rural community we were in. It let various store workers know who not to take checks from and generally kept those folks out of the store. Of course we also would prevent people who were caught trying to steal from us from coming back in, even if they came in with others.
However, that was brick and mortar small town business. I can think of nothing beneficial to come of similar web practices and the order process for a site I recently set up places all orders in pending, can check against a blacklist of people and checks for known fraud, all in the background.


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app

 

[duncsuss]

There are a couple of people that are scam artists or know to be problematic, that are known in the pen world. Their names have been circulated in prior years.

Exactly my first thought.

There are people to whom I would never even reply, let alone get to the point of actually selling them a pen -- but they don't need to know I'm aware they are a scammer.

 

[wolf creek knives]

Thanks everyone for your honest answers to my question. It was just a question, nothing else, but I do respect all of your honest answers.

 

[Woodchipper]

I know of a store that has photos of people who wrote bad checks.

 

[wouldentu2?]

These are the kind of questions I keep in my head.

 

[mark james]

I typically don't sell pens or blanks, typically give them away. But when I see them for sale a few weeks later on ETSY, etc,... I'll make a note! Just saying...

 

[mbroberg]

I'd never make a policy to not sell to any specific group of people. However, if I know an individual to be a fraud, cheat, untrustworthy, PIA, POS than no, I won,t sell to them. I would not identify them publicly.

 

[wolf creek knives]

These are the kind of questions I keep in my head.

I wanted to know what others felt, therefore the question. I have a few names in my head...but they'll stay there.

 

[dogcatcher]

I have sold game calls for over 54 years, there have been a few that after the first time of getting burnt, I would not sell to them again. A couple of times of having an internal design copied can leave a sour taste, or the one that sent it to a mold maker and had 100's made out of plastic are some of the examples. There are more, even a threat of a lawsuit because I was copying his calls, he hadn't even born when I started making that style.

 

[sbell111]

I am still learning about pen crafting, I had a number of years i took off due to personal reasons, so I am back now. Personally I would sell a pen to the Devil him/herself if they paid up front and it cleared. Business is business, just my two cents....

The thing is, we warranty our pens pretty much unconditionally. As such, the buyer/seller relationship isn't as simple as we got paid and they got the pen so it's done. PIA customers become recurring pains.

Also, there is some people that we wouldn't ever sell to simply because we don't want our work to ever be associated with them.

I would never publish a list of these people, however.