NEVER EVER BUY FROM PROVEER

[Booper 2]

Just a little heads up for you all about the lovely people at Proveer, who used to be signsupplyusa.com and eastwestplastic.com up here in Canada. They have 5 or 6 locations up here and I dont know how many down there in the states but they're flat out scammers who IN MY OPINION have horrible customer service.

Long story short, I needed some black foamcore, called 6 different places locally, only one that had it was Proveer. Sales person on the phone quoted me 16 bucks a 4x8 sheet. I asked if they would cut it, he said just tell the guy in the warehouse when you get there.

Last night got an email from Proveer, XMAS SALE, 40% off RTAPE Conform Series. Figured, well since im going there anyways, mights as well grab some.

Showed up there today, asked for a sheet of black Foamcore, told the girl I was quoted 16 bucks, and asked if RTAPE was on sale, she replied yes. Ordered 1 24" roll and 2 12" rolls because the last time I bought app tape they sold it by the 48" roll and cut it to whatever size you wanted.

She rings it up, total, 200 bucks!!!!!!!! I assumed RTAPE must be really good stuff if thats the sale price, paid it and went to the warehouse to pick up my stuff.

Warehouse guy brings me the tape and foamcore, and its white. I say to him, I ordered black, he says go back to the order desk. Same girl there says well the 16 dollar stuff is white only, if you want black its 40 bucks! Fine, pay the difference, go back to the warehouse and wait.

Warehouse guy brings me the sheet, I ask him to cut it in half for me, he says they're not allowed to but he will loan me a knife. THEY SELL PANEL CUTTERS HERE, there's one set up in the middle of the showroom!!!!! So im forced to eyeball cut the sheet to get it in the truck, and managed to waste about 5 inches of the panel due to the cut not being straight.

Get home, log onto uscutter.com to look at the price of RTAPE, its about 70 bucks a roll for 24" wide REGULAR PRICE, so I call PROVEER back and speak to the girl who took my order, and she explains to me that the 40% off sale price is 40% off the LIST PRICE, so in actual fact, the actual price difference between the normal charge and the sale price is only about 6 bucks on the 24" roll because they never charge full list to the customer.

Of course I paid cash so there is no reversing the charge, they want a 20% restock fee to take the tape back, and they are the only game in town for the foamcore.  Im F'ed so at the very least I figured I'd give you guys the heads up so they dont bend you over without the benefits of lube like they did me.  

[bamafan2277 50]

Wow that really stinks that they did that to ya.

Hopefully you are able to rake in some good money off the stuff to make up for them ripping ya!!

[Guest sciondrgn]

I really hate that this happened to you but you have to ask questions.. It sounds like you told them what you wanted and they gave you a total and you paid it no question even though you thought it was to high.. You could have easily not paid and taken your business elsewhere. And when you called about the foam core did you specify black?. If they quoted you $16 and you said black foam core you should have gotten their name and you could have challenged them on it when they tried to charge you more there in person..

Again it sucks you had a bad experience but to me it doesn't sound like all their fault.

[Booper 2]

I specifically asked for black foamcore. While I agree I am very junior when it comes to the whole sign industry it never dawned on me that a black sheet would cost double what a white one would, its not like I was asking for lime green.

As far as the RTAPE goes, I had no clue what it costs, Ive only ever bought one "log" of tape before called Rite-mask, and it was around 100 bucks for 48" cut to any length.  Its my fault for not comparing the cost of RTAPE to Rite-mask beforehand absolutely, but after hearing all the hoopla on here about how wonderful RTAPE was, I just assumed it was a better quality product that obviuosly cost a bit more. My issue was with the response I got about the 40% discount only ACTUALLY being 6 bucks on a 160 bucks worth of tape.

Am I a newbie yes, did I learn from my assumptions absolutely, would I ever do business with PROVEER ever again or recommend them? Absolutely NOT, and my post was meant to inform other newbies that may fall prey to these pricks. 

[Dakotagrafx 7,297]

That's an example of a company that does not want return customers!

[canadasignguy 0]

Hey I just got word from my proveer rep that they are getting the axe by Roland next year. You may want to start finding other support if you have one of the roland printers.

[Booper 2]

All Graphics Supply is a Roland distributor as well, if you need supplies or support for your Roland gear they have a few offices across Canada & I've never had any problems with them.

Another good one is ink4u.ca they have offices in Ontario Quebec & Nova Scotia and are very pleasant to deal with.

F@#& YOU PROVEER!!!!! LOL!!!!

Ben

[locknload1 17]

When ever I do business with the "big guys" I always get my rep to quote the price, and then have him call it in for me. The rep always knows the bottom line and can give the discounts.

For the mom & pop shops, they're all owned by middle eastern people (at least the ones I know of) and so my Karrass training really comes in handy in knowing how to negotiate the price I want.