What the heck happened here?

[Deleted85763]

A Distributor contacted me. They have an inventory they would like to sell at X. I, a broker, email company A with the details. Company A says they will buy it at X and they will pay me a commission. They just need a sample to confirm the quality. I tell distributor to send a sample to Company A. Distributor sees the address and says "We have been in contact with Company A and they have already issued us an order at X +. Company A replies "Yes, we did get a sample from them but we are still waiting for or customer to evaluate it. In the meantime we found another customer who will buy it but only at X, like what we agreed. Now Distributor is not happy and will not sell.

What in heck? I'm dumbfounded. What do you think happened here? Why did Company A not tell me they had been in contact with the distributor? Why is Distributor not going to sell now after they agreed to me to sell?

 

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[alexkuzmov]

A Distributor contacted me. They have an inventory they would like to sell at X. I, a broker, email company A with the details. Company A says they will buy it at X and they will pay me a commission. They just need a sample to confirm the quality. I tell distributor to send a sample to Company A. Distributor sees the address and says "We have been in contact with Company A and they have already issued us an order at X +. Company A replies "Yes, we did get a sample from them but we are still waiting for or customer to evaluate it. In the meantime we found another customer who will buy it but only at X, like what we agreed. Now Distributor is not happy and will not sell.

What in heck? I'm dumbfounded. What do you think happened here? Why did Company A not tell me they had been in contact with the distributor? Why is Distributor not going to sell now after they agreed to me to sell?

Lol, while I cant give you an answer, I can share a similar story of irrationality.

About 8-9 months back we were looking to buy a brand new apartment to furnish and rent out.
We found an ad on a window: "Apartment for sale" and a phone number. Contacted owner and went to see it.
All good so far, the apartment was nice and in the exact building we wanted it to be.
We asked for price, owner said X, and we agreed right away, no haggling, no nothing.
And then the owner said, give me a few days to think about it .
He didnt want a deposit, stopped answering his phone and finally after two weeks of trying to reach out, he picked up the phone and said that he doesnt want to sell it and removed the ad.

 

[Deleted85763]

Lol, while I cant give you an answer, I can share a similar story of irrationality.

About 8-9 months back we were looking to buy a brand new apartment to furnish and rent out.
We found an ad on a window: "Apartment for sale" and a phone number. Contacted owner and went to see it.
All good so far, the apartment was nice and in the exact building we wanted it to be.
We asked for price, owner said X, and we agreed right away, no haggling, no nothing.
And then the owner said, give me a few days to think about it .
He didnt want a deposit, stopped answering his phone and finally after two weeks of trying to reach out, he picked up the phone and said that he doesnt want to sell it and removed the ad.

Thank you for sharing that but the seller in your case simply changed their mind. That's very common is business.

In my case the buyer already had an agreement with the seller yet they went through me and got a lower price for the same goods from the seller. I had no idea they even knew each other. When the seller found out who the buyer was they would not sell at the lower agreed upon price with me. That's not common. It's incomprehensible.

 

[BizyDad]

Thank you for sharing that but the seller in your case simply changed their mind. That's very common is business.

In my case the buyer already had an agreement with the seller yet they went through me and got a lower price for the same goods from the seller. I had no idea they even knew each other. When the seller found out who the buyer was they would not sell at the lower agreed upon price with me. That's not common. It's incomprehensible.

That's not that incomprehensible. Look at it from the supplier's point of view. They had an existing order from customer a. They probably think that now customer a doesn't want to honor that order, and instead wants the same order at a lower price.

The cool thing is you clearly have better negotiating skills than both these guys.

 

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[PhilKowalski]

The cool thing is you clearly have better negotiating skills than both these guys.

Hell, yeah, definitely! And maybe, this is the road you should follow in the long term (and I know I am creating my own competition here as I am professional negotiator with 20+ yrs experience). Quite honestly: Maybe we can connect and just exchange ideas (only if you want to @robertwills )

The agency model has its upsides and downsides and I think this is one of the downsides.