Originally posted by IchabodCrane If they were an independent distributor, they are falsely portraying themselves as part of Ricoh which clearly Ricoh wouldn't allow
Do you mean the store is designed to look like it is Ricoh's Pentax Store? Yeah, maybe. Pentax probably signed some sort of special Dealer Agreement with them, so we're both partly correct. Believe me, I know Pentax has plenty of skin in this mess but we should all understand (as well as we can) where the fault lies before we start casting aspersions. Since long before you were a member I have been critical of the way Hoya outsourced virtually all of the traditional corporate functions to contractors.
By all indications they are an independent distributor - a totally separate, private company.
Their entire business model is to provide a turnkey webstore that looks like it is a corporate store. They design the webpages, the artwork and the product shoots, handle the marketing and the deals, etc. They even keep the inventory and make their profit by selling at a markup.
They say such right on their corporate webpage. Can't be any more clear than that. That's what they sell your company and what you contract to let them be - a Dealer. Their marketing hook is to
let you go about the business of distributing your product through your regular business channels.
Pentax is featured on their front page right next to Budweiser as one of their premier clients.
Some on this thread have said they have no problem outsourcing this function is SS can do a better job for less money - and OK, I'll buy that. Of course, when they bung it up the brand owner takes the heat, not SureSOURCE.
Last edited by monochrome; 09-16-2013 at 05:05 PM.