79 replies to this topic

[Ideaman06]

tedp said:

Lots of great supplier choices here, folks. This is one subject that could easily be broken into several by product category.

Here's one that, if you're looking for a really, really nice shirt, is the best: F.A. McCluer. Their shirts are sold by neck and sleeve length, and their pinpoint oxford is my absolute favorite shirt ever. They also have a fantastic denim shirt - great with a tie and khakis. If you're ever looking for a great shirt, they sell in Brooks Brothers stores - just dynamite. $60 retail, mid 20's or so to us. Something like that.

Another of my favorites is Leed's. Absolutely wonderful customer service, their line is always of high quality and very diverse. And like I've seen above, their sample and self-promo policies are super.

There's my two cents. :)

There's one I haven't heard of: F.A. McCluer .... and I buy a lot of shirts in neck and sleeve size .... I'll have to check that one out ....

Leeds of course is always good

[Ideaman06]

logoclick said:

As far as favorites on my list for best service.

Hub Pen - Awesome Free 24 hour rush service
Dooley 0 Stadium Cups also Awesome Free 24 hour rush service
AaKron Line - Never screwed me yet. Great Service!
Gold Bond - Ditto
Glass America - Gotta Love em' Great Specials and quick turn-around.
Stouse - Great Labels, hang Tags, etc.. Great Prices.
Galactic Line - Balloons, Footballs, etc.. Also Great Service and Fast Production on Time!
Leed's - Great Stuff and Great Service.
Tagmaster
Windmill Press - Calendars Planners

Here are some more great suppliers ....

[Remy]

Chris, This is quite a tribute to your site....It's 11:00pm on Sunday and there are at least 5 people browsing this page.

[Ideaman06]

rickyboy said:

It's hard to pick just 10, but I'll give it a try:

1. Gemline
2. Leeds
It's funny that my top two are direct competitors, but both are superb companies with great local reps in the West, Greg Armstrong and Rick French.
3. Sweda
4. The Book Co - what a sleeper line but they'll do whatever it takes you help you close the deal!
5. Bic
6. IMC
7. Sanford
8. Pinnacle Designs
9. Logomark
10. San Mar

In these days of constantly declining customer service, I can almost always count on the above 10 companies to come through for me!

You listed IMC number 6 .... is that the one in Indiana or the one here in California?

[Ideaman06]

lovedzines said:

This is a great thread especially for people new top the industry like myself.

Yes .... it's a great thread .... even for us old timers .... gives me a chance to see what's changing in the industry ....

[Ideaman06]

creativegifts said:

Tagmaster is definitely on the bottom of my list (the very bottom). They have great products and prices but their customer service is non-existent. I have spent over an hour "on hold" today three different times throughout the day, left three messages, and have never been able to talk with anyone. All I need is a tracking number for a customer who has not received their products and you cant talk to anyone at the company. I have just removed every one of their products from my website. I dont have the time to deal with companies that cost me customers.
Joyce Reid

I understand your frustration Joyce .... but Tagmasterâ??s been around a long time .... theyâ??ll get things worked out .... and be back on top in no time

[cmroma]

Michele,

I will give you a shameless plug!! I used Mineral Springs for my first ever bottled water order this past year. It was a decent order, almost 4,000 bottles. I priced out virtually every bottled water supplier I could find. (This was for my best customer, but they had a strict budget for this order). Freight is a major concern when selling bottled water, so I had to quote freight with the order. Mineral Springs came in below every other supplier when you included freight into the order.
The order went incredibly smooth, thanks to Michele!:)
It was delivered early! And my customer could not have been more pleased.

Mineral Springs also prints the Distributor name and phone number very small on each label. Because of this, I received three additional phone calls for quote requests (one for bottled water), and developed 2 new customers.

Thanks to Michele and Mineral Springs!

Craig Roma
Proforma DHJ Promotions

[Sparky]

TradeNet - A+ for Service, Sales Aids and Self-Promo's
Norwood - Souvenir
Vitronic 4 Seasons - Great Sales Aids
HotLine - A little slow, but steady
Gold Bond - A little slow, but reliable.
Maple Ridge Farms - Oh So Yummy and FRESH
Americana - Awesome Customer Service, Distributor Promo's and Sales Aids
Stouse - Great all around!
GemLine - Great service, prices and delivery time
Bic Graphic- Great Sales aids
Norco - Excellent service, product and art help!

[JENNIFERS]

Just joined this site as a new member today. I would like to ask how Reflectix can find its way to being on the list of the top 10-20 Suppliers? We have an excellent rating in all aspects with all the major groups that rate Suppliers....so how do we get to be automatically listed?!!! How do we get to be the automatic first thought? Thanks in advance for the replies.

[bdadco]

UPIC has no listing for wildfire? Wonder why??

Sparky said:

TradeNet - A+ for Service, Sales Aids and Self-Promo's
Norwood - Souvenir
Vitronic 4 Seasons - Great Sales Aids
HotLine - A little slow, but steady
Gold Bond - A little slow, but reliable.
Maple Ridge Farms - Oh So Yummy and FRESH
Americana - Awesome Customer Service, Distributor Promo's and Sales Aids
Stouse - Great all around!
GemLine - Great service, prices and delivery time
Bic Graphic- Great Sales aids
Norco - Excellent service, product and art help!

[Alan]

I agree this is very tough!

1) SanMar - customer service, selection, delivery, web site, marketing tools
2) Bullet Line - Two people make this company what it is to me, Larry Baida outside sales rep and Carlos Gonzalez the inside customer service rep. Not to mention open until 5pm PST, free distributor website with inquiries that work!, stand by products and imprinting, etc.
3) Hub Pen - Great product, pricing, customer service, 24 hour production
4) Digispec - Great service, follow up, easy to work with
5) Bic Graphic - Easy to work with, automatic follow up tools,
6) CPS - Pricing is great, service is improving, product is good
7) Landes - Great service, follow up
8) Leeds - Great products, production
9) Logomark - Huge selection, distributor web tools, customer service
10) Towels Etc. - Great service, order follow up, quality of product and imprint
11) World Wide Line - Service and imprint quality!

Alan Underkofler
All About Promotions

[cmroma]

JENNIFERS said:

Just joined this site as a new member today. I would like to ask how Reflectix can find its way to being on the list of the top 10-20 Suppliers? We have an excellent rating in all aspects with all the major groups that rate Suppliers....so how do we get to be automatically listed?!!! How do we get to be the automatic first thought? Thanks in advance for the replies.

Jennifer,

I have had several very good experiences with Reflectix. I have only placed about 3 orders with your company, but Customer Service was EXCELLENT....delivery was on-time (in one case early), and product quality was great.
From my point of view, I think what is keeping you off of my top 10 list is simply that you have a very specific line that I do not have the opportunity to sell very often. My top 10 suppliers are the companies that I use almost every week.
I think that possibly education about how to better sell your line would help. I don't really think about Reflectix unless a particular company asks me about reflectors, wrist bands or safety programs.
I would be VERY interested to hear some case histories or some selling ideas that you think would be successful.
Some people on this site may think that this will be advertising for your company, so you can send me a private message or call me. (I don't really think it is advertising if a Distributor asks for this specific information, but I don't want to open this can of worms!):D

Thanks,
Craig

[Dan]

We recently placed our first order with Reflectix and it was a very nice experience. Customer service was GREAT! A school librarian ordered book markers for a reading program. We look forward to doing more with Reflectix in the future.

[Ideaman06]

There are over 4,300 suppliers in our industry .... and on the day that I counted we've listed only 90 of them ....

I'm adding 35 suppliers to the list for a total of 125 ....

Alexander Mfg.
Artcraft Line
A.T. Cross
Bay State
Combo Print
Compass Industries
Crown Products
Custom Crest (CPI)
Dri Mark
Gemline
Handy Cutter Line
Hard Hat
Hazel
Illini
Indiana Metal Craft
Lanco
LarLu
Magna-Tel
Maple Ridge Farms
Mille Lacs
Page Seed
Payne Publishers
Plush Plus
Points of Light
Press-A-Lite
Quill
Reflectix
Royal Industries
Senator
Sorg's Paper
Soundline
Supermatic
Tee-Gee
Tranter Graphics, Inc.
Wizzer Line

There may be some duplicates now, but 125 is a pretty short list ....

There are very few of the 125 that I won't do business with .... mostly for personal reasons .... looks like a really great list of suppliers too me though!

There are a few suppliers that are new to me, so I've got some homework to do .... but I believe that if we all support the suppliers on this list .... 2006 will be a great year for both distributors and suppliers!!!

[Promotions Division]

Thought it may have just been us but it seemed to take me an excessive amount of time to get our catalogs from Dard/Tagmaster.

[rwhoffman]

What a great thread this is! Nothing better than testimonials from so many distributors. For my 1/2 cent worth:
Leeds is my number one choice and I don't remember seeing it but, Dunbrooke Apparel has great products and excellent customer service (self promo prices are great as well, I ordered golf windshirts for about $11 each and landed two orders from other duffers who saw me wearing it).
Anyway, thanks for all of this information!

[plantia]

Some of our favorites are: CPS - Sanmar - Leeds - Zippo - Bic - American Ad Bag - Crown Products - Sabina - Tradenet

Who we won't do business with, unless we have to: Promotional Slide Guide

Sue

[RMN]

michele said:

Just wanted to make sure you are using us and if not why. Just a friendly question. HA!

.

My experience selling bottled water has been my customers can go direct...I see a lot of private labels out there are they really being sold by specialty adv. distributors?

Mary

[RMN]

Ideaman06 said:

.... but I believe that if we all support the suppliers on this list .... 2006 will be a great year for both distributors and suppliers!!!

I AGREE, LET'S SUPPORT THESE TOP SUPPLIERS...And continue to refer our good experiences from suppliers (and report our bad...as food for thought).

THIS WAS A GREAT THREAD!...I LEARNED A LOT...IT CONFIRMED, I USE MANY OF THESE TOP SUPPLIER; AND I WILL TRY IN 2006 SOME I HAVE'NT TRIED YET.

THANKS FOR THE INFO EVERYONE!

Mary
RMN.Marketing

[Tom Aufman]

creativegifts said:

Tagmaster is definitely on the bottom of my list (the very bottom). They have great products and prices but their customer service is non-existent. I have spent over an hour "on hold" today three different times throughout the day, left three messages, and have never been able to talk with anyone. All I need is a tracking number for a customer who has not received their products and you cant talk to anyone at the company. I have just removed every one of their products from my website. I dont have the time to deal with companies that cost me customers.
Joyce Reid

Tagmaster is one of my Favorites. They just instaled a new computer system to better serve us. They have those Glitches pretty well worked out..
Glass America, Leeds, Cap America, Vitronic 4 seasons and Admanco, Dooley, MORCO,
TPI, Perfect Match (Pins), Gill, Selective Gift Institute, SanMar, Alpha, Gemaco,
W C Bunting Co. Alexander, Essef Lincoln Line, Quill. Supermatic, 3M Post its, MWM Dexter Tailor line, Birch Craft Studios.Tradenet.
Quikey. Express a Button, Bag Makers, Samco, Press a Lite, Beacon, Several others
Note ,, Not Norwood, They sued me and 4 other distributors for no valid reason. and I can't call them a favorite. With Former Pres Tom Roller and staff Fired.. I am going to wait and see.
There are many other good ones I missed. I will catch them later.....tea