Frantz Ends Hold Order Policy :(
 

I got this note today, July 23:

Does anyone beside me fail to see how this will benefit Frantz economically? We pay for the glass as we go. I know I am less likely to order every week if I have to pay shipping. Yeah, I will miss out on some sales, but there will always be another sale.

I hope it works out for Frantz as they hope it will. They are a great company and I will still buy from them when they have the best price on something I want. I'm just a little surprised and puzzled.

I never even knew they did that. Guess I missed out. :(

I liked it and used it as well, a great way to minimize shipping supplies while taking advantage of multiple sales...

From a vendor's point of view---That had to be a nightmare to keep track of!

Yes, I would think in term of labor costs it was probably a lot.

I was puzzled by that too, so it's not just you. If I place 3 orders and have 2 on HOLD and then ask to ship all when the third is placed, they only have to pack a box 1 time rather than 3x. Seems more efficient to me, but maybe locating the HOLD orders was time consuming?

Whatever the reason, economic or not, it was a great, customer-friendly service that I will personally miss. Bottom line for me is that it will cause me to order less since I rarely place 'big' orders in one swoop and it's not worth it for me to place several small orders to get killed on the shipping costs. :( Maybe HOLD will come back someday. [-o<

ETA: Mike just posted in his sale thread from today that maybe they can revive this when the econonomy picks up. :)

I can't speak for Mike. But I can't imagine keeping track of thousands of boxes. Ugh.
Paula

I guess this was one of those -"You don't miss what you didnt have things" I am glad I never got into that much trouble or I would have spent A TON!! ROFL. Oh well I too see both sides to this. Mike I wish you the best!!! You are one of my favorite glass vendors and the culprit to me being a glass ho now :biggrin: (I went to website once and was hooked)

No Holding But........
 

Each time a customer places an order on hold , we have to process the order and it goes something like this:

1. Print the web order
2. Verify the information of the customer
3. Transfer the web order to a sales pick ticket
4. Have somebody verify that it was done correctly
5. Log in the order
6. Fill the order
7. Check and make sure the order was picked correctly
8. Invoice the order
9. Pack the order
10. Print the UPS label
11. Process the paper work at the end of the day

One of the great advantages of our Hold Policy was that customers could take advantage of our weekly sales, but we soon found out that when a customer just ordered highly discounted glass, the was no profit, just expense after doing all the work to make the order happen.

When we started the Hold Policy we had considered having a $50 minimum order, that might have helped, but it would have kept many from taking part. Now I will say that some of our customers did place big enough orders that we made a profit, but when you look at 6 months, it was easy to see that it was costing more to run the program than the profit it generated. And we feel the pain of our economy!

Another problem was that our system was not fool proof. And when the system failed, it cost us more money.

There were other issues that caused big problems and it was decided to just stop the program.

What we should have done was give our customers who had orders on hold the opportunity to make one more order and to have it shipped within the next 30 days. We decided to stop the program and ship everything in a few days, bad idea, but for those who still have orders on hold, an email will go to them telling them that they will have until the end of August to add one order more and then we ship.

Perhaps some time in the future we will bring it back.

The TOP 10 REASONS TO SHOP AT FRANTZ:

#10 Our everyday 35% discount on Effetre, Messy and Vetrofond
# 9 Our 35% everday discount on Borosilicate Color
# 8 Our Artist Program worth an addional 3% discount
# 7 Using your Artist Points to purchase rare colors in our Artist Store
# 6 Largest Inventory in the U.S. of Effetre Color
# 5 Largest Inventory in the U.S. of Messy Color
# 4 Largest Inventory in the U.S. of Vetrofond Color
# 3 Largest Inventory of Double Helix (excluding Jed@DH)
# 2 An inventory of over 200,000 pounds of 104 glass.
# 1 Pat Frantz Blog,
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andThe Bash!

And the best reason to shop at Frantz...............Mike's Goofy Pictures, and if you never seen one, click on to the link above and see what I mean!

Mike

Understand.

How will I know whether my glass shipped and if I can add one last order? I'd also like to spend my artist points and have the glass included when it ships.

How To Do It.
 

When I go into work on Sunday I will locate your orders. When you are ready to place your order tell the customer service person or put into the comment section of your web order that you want this order to be combined with your hold orders and to use your Artisan Points towards any charges that need to be paid.


Thank You

Mike Frantz

OK, placed order online. I used my artist points toward glass in the point store and hopefully it will ship with my order. Thanks so much!! I'll be back. ;)

A
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Sad.
last year I was able to use the hold orders to accumulate a bunch of the CIM colors when they were on sale in 1/4 pounds to "try"....(doing exactly what Mike said...only buying the "sale stuff" :D )
Otherwise, I probably only would have bought those by the rod, to "try", when I visited Gail, at her house (ok, I love to visit her basement!) or tried to buy them from Sue or something....so...yeah, he probably *did* lose money on me...but...It DID get me to try out his company....(and I would order from Frantz again, if I had money to do so--I haven't ordered a real box of glass from anyone since then--stupid economy!)

Forgive my ignorance - I don't know if I'm missing something - but how is one customer placing multiple sale-only orders different than one customer placing one sale-only order? Wouldn't it be no profit either way? You'd be following all the same steps, just with a delay to put a box aside...

Loved the hold policy, pretty sure I was one of the ones that exceeded the minimum without a problem... ;) It made it easier to justify multiple items - especially with the sales - when I really was only interested in one or two colors. So instead of shopping and picking up 5 pounds of glass total, I'd do in two or three orders combined, and you'd be shipping 20 lbs... From my experience, it increased the amount I would order, which I would think would be better for you.

Let me explain. Each time a customer would place an order to be put on hold, we still would have to do steps 1-8. You know that saying about charging a $1 per minute when making beads? Well we do have 15 employees and it does not cost a dollar a minute, but $.75 per minute is realistic to fulfill orders. Even when the order is 4 different 1/4 pounds there is close to 15 minutes in labor. Over the years when you average it all together it will cost $10 to $15 in labor to complete a small order. So doing only steps 1-8 might be slightly less. The problem is not all, but a very large percentage of those who place orders in the Hold Program were ordering very small amounts of glass that many times did not generate enough profit to cover the labor.

When I tossed the numbers into spread sheets I found that 25% of the time we made profit, the other 75% we broke even or did worse.

The idea was to increase sales, but at what cost? The plan was to make the shopping experience at Frantz as good as we could make it and our great pricing and large inventory not to mention our Artist Points Program will continue, we just had to cut someplace and the HOLD program and CANDY were things that had to go. Next would be employees, but I will do everything to keep everyone employed, but in these bad economic times, something had to give.

We do hope that each of our customers understands that what we are doing is trying to remain in business. What may surprise you is that each company that is selling beadmaking and lampworking supplies is struggling, it is not just the just the customers who are hurting, is is all of us.


Sincerely

Mike Frantz

Thanks for the explanation, Mike, it's appreciated. I hope it improves for all of us.

WAIT a minute! The CANDY is gone now too?!? No one mentioned that before. O.M.G. That's it... I'm quitting lampworking. :badgrin:









;) ;) ;)

Aww..I never found candy in mine..but I did get a free 6 rod sampler once which was very sweet!I never took advantage of the hold program..and placed good sized orders.The last time I hesitated on an order because I needed a couple extra days to make sure I had the funds but then added dichro to it and placed my order.
Now I have to go look thru those boxes I saved for the packing label and look for candy..lol..

" but we soon found out that when a customer just ordered highly discounted glass, the was no profit, just expense"


This is what Mike said in his post and it is a huge bottom line factor for his business in this current economy.:cry:
He really had no other choice.

Hey, the CANDY was the thing to get people to go thru the entire box! I used to circumvent this tactic by opening the bottom of the box... hehehe... I'll miss that though.

Well..I made it an artform to get my glass out without dropping one piece of packing popcorn cause my cat would pounce on it and shred it..didn't want him eating it either..so I slo
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moved my hand around in the box after I took my glass out slo
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Thats ok..I am a Klondikeaholic and glad Mike didn't put those in my boxes..lol! :)

Hahaa, yeppers, was digging through peanuts wondering... :-\"

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Lisa

Frantz glass...saving diets across the world by eliminating candy in glass shipments!