Soakinuptherays

Why I deserved to get banned from TanToday!

As many of you have seen, I have been very hard on Max Recone and California Tan. My
conduct as become very personal not professional. That is why I deserved to get banned. Why did I act like this?

For 10 years, I have struggled everyday to make Soakin’ Up The Rays, Inc. successful.
The first 5 years were spent, just trying to make the company break even, the last 5 years
has been spend trying to make a living with my company so my wife could stay home
with the kids. Everyday, I work very hard to keep Soakin’ Up The Rays, Inc. in business,
just like you do with your salon.

Then in comes millionaire Max Recone and buys Cal Tan. I think to myself sure another
Spencer, he will never make it. Well, I was wrong. In my view, Max copies what has
made my company so successful. My 100% deticatation to support salon owners and
desire to fight for them at every opportunity. I had been willing to sacrifice my personal income from home tanners, beauty suppliers, Internet outlets and retail stores to demonstrate that support.

Another way, I decided to support salons was by not telemarketing my products. I believed that telemarketing was unnecessary harassment of salon owners. If my products
and service were good enough then salon owners would call me to buy the products. To
ensure I was educating salon owners, I start participating in the web boards, First with
Suntanning, then with TanToday and eventually on TanTalk. I felt that this level of one to one communication with my customers set me apart from other indoor tanning product manufacturers.

However it happen, Max copied what I was doing or they discovered it on their own.
California Tan more and more seemed to me to be copying how I do business. He announces his pro salon message and starts posting on the web boards.

The best example I can use is if, a multimillionaire open a tanning salon in the same shopping center as you with the same equipment. You would feel threatened, you would get peeed and you would want to fight back. They have all the money in the world to
advertise with the message you created and you could do nothing about it. You feel so
bad that all you worked for could be slipping away just because they have more money than you.

Drew, knows how I feel with Sun Ergoline equipping salons near him. The little guy
struggling against a big corporation.

I made it personal and I was wrong. If is not professional to act this way. I am sure Max believes that I am behind every negative thing said on the web about Cal Tan. I am not.

From this day forward, I will do my best to leave Cal Tan out of my postings. I have not
handled this very well, the last straw was when Max claimed my products were “Basic”.

My products are basic: Basically the best that can be made!

The things Max and Cal Tan are doing to support salon owners is what he should be
doing. Salons need to know that their suppliers care if they succeed or fail. I would hope that he is doing his best to deliver on the promises he made. The direction he has chosen is hard in the face of desire profits. I do not need to harassment or scold him for not succeeding immediately, I need to wish him good luck and offer my assistance to his efforts.

Sorry for my unprofessional behavior, I deserved to be banned!

Rich

Greg, I can only imagine what the last few days and weeks have been like for you. I understand that you have put years into making your company successful as we all have. I know only too well that many times our emotions boil over for a host of reasons and things get said and written that we wish we could take back. I have zapped out at you when I felt there was too much spam and you have zapped back at me when I do it. That is to be understood. Whatever comes out of the one day or however long ban I know we will all live through it to fight another day and lets face it, 100 years from now it really won't matter much anyway.


_________________
Rich Morgan
Oasis Tanning
Topeka, Kansas 66608

Go Huskers![ This Message was edited by: Rich on 2002-04-08 14:09 ]

fungirlz

Gregg:
I once got kicked out of the "BREAKERS" in Palm Beach for telling the Director of Food and Beverage their Shrimp was like Captain Ds... but they welcomed back with open arms when they realized I was entitled to my opinion... they also removed the "fried shrimp" from the choices..
It's good to get your feelings out..
No one really holds anything against one another around here..or even over on the other site..(we aren't that kind).
Mouthy yes.. mean at times..you bet.. but HATERS..nope!

In the words of my buddy Max Recone and the Beattles..
ALL YOU NEED IS LOVE.. yadadada...
Hang in there buddy.. This too shall pass.

Cubby

BooBop

Greg, we all know how passionate you are about our industry and your lotion company.

Don't sweat it. You have plenty of avenues to get your message across.

But in my honest opinion. I don't think anyone should be totally banned from any site. I know there are times that I would like to ban a few here, but heck, we all have opinions and we all do not agree all the time. So lets stick to tanning and get busy.



_________________
"The Only Disability In Life Is A Bad Attitude"
Mitzi
[ This Message was edited by: buntanner on 2002-04-08 20:44 ]

njchica

Greg....

From everything I've read about you, from you, etc... one thing stands out----->

YOUR PRODUCTS ARE NOT DIVERTED WHILE OTHERS ARE. Others talk the talk, but you seem to be the only one AT THE MOMENT who is 100% walking the walk.

Savvy and smart salon owners realize the value of private label lotions and will support you and spurn diverted products. Your hard work will pay off. Chin up!!!

Sheila in Minnesota

~ A quick clarification here ~

And Greg knows this to be true ~

We asked for a "cooling off period". For a 24-hour period for both sides to review what this peeing match has escalated to . . . and was it worthy of either company.

A total ban of anyone from TanToday.Com would only come from extreme misbehavior.

For a board that dislikes controversy - I would think you would applaud the efforts to stop the blood shed that was happening between Cal Tan and Soaking up the Rays.

I hope it works out for everyone involved ~ if not, it will not be from a lack of effort.

Sheila

Don Smith

Greg:

Long before Max decided to buy Cal Tan, YOU were talking about how to help tanning salon owners make more money.

Long before Max decided to buy Cal Tan, YOU were talking about the dangers of supporting distributors who also owned tanning salons competing with tanning salon owners.

Long before Max decided to buy Cal Tan, YOU were talking about the adverse affects of diversion. [Note: attendees of the last Chicago show will remember the "Lotion Showdown" that yours truly organized (which had, by the way, the highest "attendance" of any seminar!). Greg was the first and "featured" speaker and he "set the tone" for those who followed because he had the courage to talk openly about the diversion problem. Interestingly, one of the "branded" lotion company "moguls" chewed my butt out royally after the seminar for giving Greg a "forum" that allowed him to talk about diversion. My, how things change!]

So, my friend, don't worry about how tanning salon owners "perceive" you and your company because we all know that you were standing up for our best interests when it was not "PC" (politically correct) to do so.

Max must be given credit for being a "quick study" and realizing that either (1) supporting tanning salon owners, or, (2) being "percieved" to be supporting tanning salon owners was the "master key" to lotion sales success. Why others didn't "get it" is beyond me (in one case, yours truly told a lotion company "mogul" what should be done over a year before Max stepped in and did what I had recommended).

HOWEVER! Don't kid yourself about who the trade Pubs and websites like TrashingTheImageOfTanningToday are going to support in this pi**ing contest between you and your company and Cal Tan (and it ain't going to be you!). There are just too many "advertising" dollars available from Cal Tan compared to the few pennies that are available from you. Them's the sad facts of life, gator-man!

Also, don't think for a minute that Max and his team don't know that PL lotion is the next "barrier" he/they must cross in order to further increase their market share. Max knows that if a tanning salon's PL line accounts for 50 of their total lotion sales, there is only 50% available for "branded" products! Thus, EXPECT that he WILL continue to mount a campaign AGAINST private label lotions (you would do the same thing if you were in his shoes, wouldn't you?).

The "bottom line" is that you and Max are to be commended for "looking out" for the best interests of tanning salon owners (it doesn't matter if you did so because you REALLY cared about us or if you did so in order to help your companies grow; the fact of the matter is that you supported us!) and that "fact of life" will serve both of your companies well (very well, indeed!) in the next few years.

My advice, Greg (which you didn't ask for - LOL) is to spend your time and money on developing new products and in continuing to help tanning salon owners sell more lotions. You don't have the money to get into a "war" with Max!

My advice, Max (which you didn't ask for either - LOL) is to continue supporting the best interests of tanning salon owners. Even though you have the money to "crush" Greg and his company, it would be "self-defeating" for you to do so (no one likes a 900 pound bully, Max)!

The inescapable fact is that people tan better when they use ANY lotion (even just a moisturizer ) than they do if they don't use a lotion when they tan and THAT message should be shouted from the roof top's by both you and Max. Our first objective should be to get more of our clients using a lotion (ANY lotion)!

Don

PS: I'm not sure which one of you is the best "smoozer" and "spammer" in the industry. Both of you are "world class" without question! LOL