Yesterday I got an email from a gentlemen claiming we were trying to capitalize off of a pandemic…it made me sick to think someone actually thought this.
His email made me stay up all night and ponder how a kind gesture I made was taken out of context and it made me upset…not at him, just upset that someone could think this.
Our intentions were NOT to make gains from a pandemic, they were actually just the opposite…NOBODY WINS WITH WHAT IS GOING ON IN THE WORLD RIGHT NOW…every business who has managed to stay open is just doing that – staying open to feed the employees and their families.
What we were trying to do was offer anyone who wanted a lift or leveling kit for their vehicle a discount. Offering a cheaper price to help with cost during economic issues as well as an activity to stimulate them during isolation. They could get the same part at the same price a wholesale distribution company ( many of whom are now closed or forced to run short staffed due to the pandemic) would pay…lots of people are at home bored, lots of people are at home in isolation and sadly lots of people are at home sick and we have no control over that…we have done all we can for our employees, our vendors and anyone who may come in contact with us. There is only minimal staff at the shop, everyone else is working from home or at home not working but we are paying them anyway.
If you look back at the original FB post, or note I sent to our IT people, he has a point… today the words we used are not correct, 5-6 weeks ago when we put the new website up the world was different, people were simply upset they couldn’t go on spring break holidays and that the NHL and NBA shut down, Disneyland had closed – NOBODY had any idea it would become what it has…..and 4 weeks from now it will be different again, hopefully in a positive way!
The 50% discount is just that – a discount to allow retail customers to pay approximately the same price as a wholesale customer (freight and taxes are included in the 50%).
*** He was also upset about a price change – he was a Canadain customer and he was looking at the pricing and was upset it was different from January…he had been looking at it in USD ( it would have added 36-44% final price change due to exchange depending on the day the last 5 weeks) and didn’t understand when he typed in truxxx.com it redirected him to truxxx.ca…***
As far as the past, the present, and the future…what happened last month, two years ago, tomorrow or even six months from now…there is always change in the world, world economics this week are not what they were last week and not what they will be 3 weeks from now…a month ago steel was still available, now today it isn’t and some that is available is inflated in price by 45%….commodities fluctuate in price as does the dollar we use to buy the steel.
I appreciate him calling us on the wording, the idea was simply meant to come from a “good” place and it was put in place at the beginning of March, before major shutdowns, before people got laid off, before the world had 2,000,000 cases. I’m glad he got it off his chest and made us aware.
Stay safe,
Darren Pilling