California Tan - PR

California Tan has been investigating the sale of some of our new products through an unauthorized outlet. It appears from our preliminary findings that the product was acquired by an individual who fraudulently misrepresented himself as a salon owner. We are exploring legal actions to remedy this situation.

We intend to enforce our distributor policies that limit the sale of our products to tanning salons. Tanning salons provide ongoing, face-to-face assessment of consumer needs during product selection and use, provide current product education, and maintain our products’ premium image. These services are essential to keeping our products competitive and building a loyal consumer base.

Thank you for your patience and support

CHUNN

Who is the distributor that sold the product? Everybody wants to know this!

BooBop

Yes I would like to know.

And as I stated in another post, why doesn't the distributors verify the salon before filling orderr? This couldn't be that hard.

LeBronzeBaby

I too would like to know. As a new salon owner I haven't yet decided to go with a specific distributor yet so this information could help me to decide.

darktanman

Quote:
On 2001-11-06 18:46, buntanner wrote:
Yes I would like to know.

And as I stated in another post, why doesn't the distributors verify the salon before filling orderr? This couldn't be that hard.

[/quote]

How would you suggest this happen? Just how many hoops would you jump through to work with a new distributer? When a distributer gets between 40 and 200 orders a day[ This Message was edited by: darktanman on 2001-12-12 23:06 ]

BooBop

There are several things the salon could provide for verification.
1. Business Lic.
2. Sales Tax Number
3. State FIN #
4. Listed Salon Phone
5. Verify through the town's local business registary.
There can be lots of ways to veryfiy. And if someone did get through and later it was determined that it was fraud, there would be more legal avenues for the dist. and the manufacters to use in the courts of law.
If a person sent or called in an order for lotions then they company could have a specific department that would verify all the information. I don't think the local convient market, or beauty shop with 1 or 2 beds should qualify as a tanning salon. (this is just my own opinion.) And I know I will get some flack on this statement.

Big Dawg

darktanman, it shouldn't matter wether the lotion order is for $40 or $40,000, that is the distributors job. That is basically what is wrong with the distributor/salon owner relationship in this industry. If a distributor doesn't know you personally how in the **** is he helping you to sell more product to make you and him more money. For the most part we do NOT have any distributors in the industry only $8.00 an hour order takers.

tanningtrendsetter

Quote:
On 2001-11-11 11:56, Big Dawg wrote:
darktanman, it shouldn't matter wether the lotion order is for $40 or $40,000, that is the distributors job. That is basically what is wrong with the distributor/salon owner relationship in this industry. If a distributor doesn't know you personally how in the **** is he helping you to sell more product to make you and him more money. For the most part we do NOT have any distributors in the industry only $8.00 an hour order takers.


Then how do you justify bad mouthing the manufacturers and boycotting them for what unscrupulous distributors do?

Big Dawg

Same reason, manufacturers have let too many people become distributors and because of that they do not have a personal relationship with them to control diversion.

Informer2

Mitzi prove to us that you own a salon and have beds.

Tax Id#? doesnt' mean anything, just means your a business

Business License#? uh, for what. Salons are not licensed by any industry organization. A license to operate a business still don't know if your a salon or not.

Business Cards? anyone can print them

Phone#? Heck just register a 800# that rings differently to the home/office so everytime you anser the phone you say "tanning Salon, how can I help you?"

Local Registry? Excuse me but how is a distributor going to check that? And if they do do you realize how easy it is to put up fake business's in houses. You can even go online and put a fake ad in the yellow pages.

So prove to us you have a salon. Get my point. These online sites survive on this diversion and they will do the above and more. It is impossible to prove someone really owns a salon unless you visit them face to face and that's not gonna happen. It would cost to much for the distributor and I highly doubt a salon would pay for a distributor to come out and verify they are who they really are.

Note 1: 14,000 salons have only 1 or 2 beds

Note 2: Guess what else? 90% of these websites out there are from Salon Owners. So even if you prove your a salon how does a distributor really know you really have 22 beds and should be buying this much? When in fact you have 2 beds and are diverting product to the internet.