But he left the 866.921.4553 number at the top right of the page.

He can always be reached by email:

[email protected]

You know he would read them too!! :rolleyes:

Pantera 28, you are right but missed an important part, a major part. The manufacturers of parts such as Gaffig and CMI are out thousands more. They supplied the "Power" that fueled Trick Marine into business. Without the "Power", i.e. parts and components, Trick has nothing to sell.

There lies the problem. Those companies decieded to undermind existing distribution by adding a "wholesale" distributor. Existing distribution as: Teague, ECM, Eddie Marine, Hardin, Dollar, CP and many many others. Their parts were (and in many cases still are) available at many sources coast to coast.

Those companies that supplied Trick parts deserve some of the flack that this and many threads have been spreading around. And for those compaines that are out monies with "unsecured credit", blame those credit managers inside your on company for letting Trick Marine get way out there in credit world. After all, you (as in companies) put him on the map. All companies want stronger numbers and growth in market share. But no, don't take the hard road and plan new market stradagies----new advertising ventures-------new product development-----no, that takes too much money and effort. Take the low road and add to distribution. Even go the distance and lower your minimum purchase agreements and get this new guy a jump start.

This comes from over 40 years of working experience in a major product distribution business. I fight this crap on a weekly basis.

I'm interested as a seller of Gaffrig the truth of and scope of this. I have difficulty seeing any positive benefit for Gaffrig being associated beyond perhaps recovering some not paid for product.

Interesting perspective that I've not yet heard in all the Trick threads (at least the parts I've read). I on two different occasions denied distribution requests on our billet and stainless products from Fred for many reasons, most all of which have been covered including the ones you just posted. Along the lines of your post it's interesting what companies were quick to snap him up as a distributor even after others cut him off due to non payment and knowing his propensity to undercut pricing of other long time quality distributors of theirs. I can't help but notice these things and some manufacturers seemingly willingness to cut long time distributors throats in the interest of a short term buck. As a businessperson I tend to shy away from manufacturer's products that are bad risks simply because of those same manufacturer's distribution decisions. The Trick scenario is just one of many of these situations I've come across. Contrary to what many believe to be huge profit margins in the marine parts industry due to the fact a lot of the parts are expensive, nothing could be further from the truth in most cases. Mercury and a few large mfgs probably being the exception to that. So when a company comes along selling cheap and cutting those already relatively small margins I look at just who is supplying that product to them and many times make or alter my buying decisions accordingly. It does not make sense to me to support mfgs. that give no support back to distributors who actually "stock" and "invest" in their products vs. fly by night "drop shippers" operating out of their house with no investment in the product or the industry in general other than perhaps a cheap website and a few mag ads.

Case in point. We stopped selling CMI after probably a 15 year history with them when they took away some of our discount without notifying me and appointed 2 distributors at the time with longer deals, one being the subject of this thread. Granted we did not do the volume Teague did or Trick for that matter, but it doesn't take a brain surgeon to give product away at near cost and move larger numbers at all other distributor's and dealer's expense. CMI didn't care, hence I no longer sell it. This was several years ago and before CompX purchased the company. Are they better off? I know I am for not wasting time and investment selling a high buck product against discounters and a mfg that didn't care to boot. I suspect I'm not the only dealer that stopped going out of their way to sell this and other products being discounted in favor of products they could actually make a couple bucks on.

You need to contact the Postal Inspection Service


http://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/co...complaint.aspx

When Ateco was initially awarded a CMI distributorship that was the first major issue . . . Trick selling for cost. Unfortunatley there is not much a manufacturer can do to regulate prices as it would be price fixing. They can and did suggest MAP pricing but Fred just ignored it. He was literally giving away product. He even states it in emails he was sending to our potential customers when providing quotes. These are the issues that most of the advertisers on here complained about Trick/Fred.

I agree that CMI continuing to sell him product after we brought this up numerous times facilitated this practice, but at the time he was moving significant product for them. Evidently product he never paid for. I think there have been lessons learned.

Hey Kirk did you get a answer?

Mike was out today. Left a message for him. I will let you guys know. Hope that he hasn't stepped into anything that he was unaware of. I doubt it though.

What would he be buying? Even if Trick was doing well?

ebay store is down

http://stores.ebay.com/Marine-Perfor...Q3amesstQQtZkm

The listing by seller is still there http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZcyncecil