200 replies to this topic

[Chris Miller]

Anyone ever seen this?

http://www.corporate...uyersguide.com/

Its easily accessible from www.corporatelogo.com

All the supplier info an end user would need, and nothing to stop them from getting it.

If you are concerned about this, send an email to the following address and let them know about it!:

CorporateLogo@MediaBrains.com

You may also call the owner, Virgo publishing at 480-990-1101

Lets hear what you have to say!

[sdmillar]

I recommend that distributors that are concerned about this look for their top 5 suppliers that they value and make sure that if that supplier IS listed there, call someone in the marketing dept at that supplier's office and let them know of your displeasure. I would bet big money that most suppliers do not know this listing exists. Our company is not listed there and I would have no problem removing it immediately if I found out that it was.
I talked to someone this morning at corporatelogo.com and they do not see the problem with having this supplier info out there for all to see. I am confident this can be taken care of with a good number of phone calls from the right people (distributors) to the right people (suppliers and corporatelogo.com)

Chris Miller said:

Anyone ever seen this?

http://www.corporate...uyersguide.com/

Its easily accessible from www.corporatelogo.com

All the supplier info an end user would need, and nothing to stop them from getting it.

If you are concerned about this, send an email to the following address and let them know about it!:

CorporateLogo@MediaBrains.com

You may also call the owner, Virgo publishing at 480-990-1101

Lets hear what you have to say!

[Chris Miller]

I dug into this a little more and the person we need to speak with at Virgo is Suzy Kelley. She can be reached at skelley@vpico.com or 480-990-1101.

She exaplained to me that it is open like it is for ease of use.

I explained to her that anyone searching for "promotional product supplier" or the like on google or any major search engine (and there are thousands every day) can and will stumble across this directory of supplier contact info. They don't seem concerned with it at all because they say its never caused problems in the past, but how do they know?

If you don't like the idea of this info being available to anyone and everyone, I suggest you contact her and any supplier who is listed there like Scott said. This would be the same as me opening this site up to end users. That's just plain scary in my opinion.

[Allan]

I wonder how she would like it if we were able to publish her subscription list. I think that it is the same thing. Or how about her publishing contact list. Do you think she would like to have her blackberry listed? Come on, this information is private industry information. Is there a lawsuit for giving out company secrets? Do the suppliers that are listed give permission to be on that list?


Ok, Now I will go have some coffee and settle down.:lol:

Chris Miller said:

I dug into this a little more and the person we need to speak with at Virgo is Suzy Kelley. She can be reached at skelley@vpico.com or 480-990-1101.

She exaplained to me that it is open like it is for ease of use.

I explained to her that anyone searching for "promotional product supplier" or the like on google or any major search engine (and there are thousands every day) can and will stumble across this directory of supplier contact info. They don't seem concerned with it at all because they say its never caused problems in the past, but how do they know?

If you don't like the idea of this info being available to anyone and everyone, I suggest you contact her and any supplier who is listed there like Scott said. This would be the same as me opening this site up to end users. That's just plain scary in my opinion.

[3Koi Maui]

It would appear that at least some of the suppliers may know about this site. If you look at some of the listings, there are blurbs that may have been contributed by the supplier. If not, then the company message was taken from the supplier's site or catalog.

For example, go into Apparel - TShirts - and look at a couple of the suppliers' Company Details.

[sdmillar]

I talked to this Suzy Kelley and not only do they have an online website for this information, but every January they PRINT the directory with all this info! She says it only goes out to promotional product distributors, but how much verifying of subscriber information do they do? I'll bet you dollars to donuts I could subscribe my dog today under ABC Promos and have the next issue on my doorstep tomorrow. I hate to see people that do not understand our industry come in and try to make a buck and open up Pandoras box and joepardize the sensitive information distributors value this way.

I suggest everyone that makes a call to this Suzy Kelley about this post that they have made that call, as well as any calls made to alert suppliers about this, post responses so we can get a handle on what the future holds for this leak in the industry information.

[Allan]

How's this for a mission statement. This taken from the buyers guide website. It appears right at the top of the page below the WELCOME.

It seems that distributors are not the only market that they target. Red color added for emphasis.:mad:

http://www.corporate...uyersguide.com/
"Our searchable database of promotional products and services is an invaluable tool for distributors, business owners, and sales professionals. If you have questions/suggestions, please contact our Buyer's Guide Department."

[Chris Miller]

Allan said:

How's this for a mission statement. This taken from the buyers guide website. It appears right at the top of the page below the WELCOME.

It seems that distributors are not the only market that they target. Red color added for emphasis.:mad:

http://www.corporate...uyersguide.com/
"Our searchable database of promotional products and services is an invaluable tool for distributors, business owners, and sales professionals. If you have questions/suggestions, please contact our Buyer's Guide Department."

That's sad. Business owners?!?! I hope I read that wrong. They do have these other buyers guides for other industries too. Suzy told me about them, and none are password protected.

[sdmillar]

I know Allan, these people are clueless. I have talked to two of their people and I am getting dust on my face from speaking to such a brick wall. Gotta go to the suppliers and have them remove this info. Suzy did say that with one simple email to her, the supplier(s) can have this done. She reiterated what Chris said was "they have not gotten any negative feedback thus far." Lets make sure she realizes the magnitude of this problem. For those that forgot where to contact Ms. Kelley, She can be reached at skelley@vpico.com or 480-990-1101.

Allan said:

How's this for a mission statement. This taken from the buyers guide website. It appears right at the top of the page below the WELCOME.

It seems that distributors are not the only market that they target. Red color added for emphasis.:mad:

http://www.corporate...uyersguide.com/
"Our searchable database of promotional products and services is an invaluable tool for distributors, business owners, and sales professionals. If you have questions/suggestions, please contact our Buyer's Guide Department."

[3Koi Maui]

sdmillar said:

Suzy did say that with one simple email to her, the supplier(s) can have this done. She reiterated what Chris said was "they have not gotten any negative feedback thus far."

I wonder what Suzy decides is no negative feedback, given that she has now received at least 2 calls. If no one ever called her before Chris' call, then I can see her statement. But to say it again to SDMILLER invalidates the 'thus far' part.

Or perhaps Suzy's criteria is that the negative feedback must be from the suppliers, who are paying for ad space. We might be the target audience for her advertisers, but the suppliers are the source of income. It will probably take feedback from suppliers to make a change.

[Allan]

Scott is a supplier! Why does that not have more weight? Are they wanting to have calls from every supplier listed? I guess I have to add another question to the list that I ask my suppliers. I don't have time to call the suppliers to ask them to call her.

3Koi Maui said:

I wonder what Suzy decides is no negative feedback, given that she has now received at least 2 calls. If no one ever called her before Chris' call, then I can see her statement. But to say it again to SDMILLER invalidates the 'thus far' part.

Or perhaps Suzy's criteria is that the negative feedback must be from the suppliers, who are paying for ad space. We might be the target audience for her advertisers, but the suppliers are the source of income. It will probably take feedback from suppliers to make a change.

[sdmillar]

Allan and 3KOI,
I believe they will especially listen to suppliers, since as 3Koi points out, that is where the income comes from, but if the Suppliers do not realize the problem, which I did not until this morning, they can not do anything.
If everyone made a few calls or shot a few emails to a few suppliers expressing this concern, this would be taken care of by week's end. Let's exercise the power of our numbers and show what this group can do.

Allan said:

Scott is a supplier! Why does that not have more weight? Are they wanting to have calls from every supplier listed? I guess I have to add another question to the list that I ask my suppliers. I don't have time to call the suppliers to ask them to call her.

[3Koi Maui]

I am delighted to see that some of my suppliers are NOT listed.

If you do contact your suppliers to give them your feedback, please check first to make sure they are listed.

[jschmitt]

This is why we need to have someone in charge of looking out for this industry and the interest of Distributors. As a distributor we should not have to spend time doing this when we spend money with ASI and PPAI.

[benbaker]

jschmitt said:

This is why we need to have someone in charge of looking out for this industry and the interest of Distributors. As a distributor we should not have to spend time doing this when we spend money with ASI and PPAI.

Okay, let's get the right people involved.

Local organizations, PPAI, PPAC and ASI to name a few. If the industry organizations get involved, then maybe we can get this shut down or modified.

I for one am getting in Contact with PPAC.

Happy Selling.

Ben

[TheOne]

All Corporate Logo did is put togerher a directory of suppliers. You can do a google search and put together the same list yourselft. Corporate Logo does not show supplier pricing to anyone. What informatoin the suppliers show on their web site to web users is not the fault of some maagazine that lists the suppliers. Corporate Logo does not market to end users. The market thier magazine and web site to distrbiutors. Does anyone ever know of one end user that has used this tool? The bigger issue is what the suppliers show on their web site. If they restrict pricing information to authorized users then there is no problem.

[artboygrafix]

There's nothing on that list you can't find with a bit of creative Googling, guys. If you think sales reps and many end users aren't doing a lot of that already, well, surprise surprise. It's a potential problem for distributors, but only if this site gets a lot of hits and only if pricing is shown. Which I don't believe it is, from poking around a bit. Anyone know if anyone is even SEEing this info? It is a popular site? I'd never heard of it. I don't think this qualifies as a major concern. IF ASI or PPAI can pressure these guys (or perhaps some of the listed vendors call and complain, as suggested - I think that's the only practical way to address it) to remove or limit access to the info, great, but providing the info is, well, entirely their prerogative - it's public info. And as TheOne says, it's not as if they're getting pricing info from the major suppliers, or are able to order direct from any who matter.

[TheOne]

If it can all be found by googling then why are we roasting these guys for only making a list of supplier web sites?

[blh222]

Question for the suppliers that are listed: What are you doing with the info and requests for info that you are getting? I just played around on the site and got the suppliers phone number, address and contact for new accounts. Am I missing something??? It just doesn't add up. Maybe they could give out the website for end users to look at but not the suppliers contact info also.

[biggerfish]

YIKES! Check out google's listing of sites that are linked FROM this site:

http://www.google.co...buyersguide.com

Amazing, is all I can say.