Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Some Wholesalers Charge Refundable Deposits - Wholesale Purchasing Tips from Worldwide Brands


By Chris Malta, CEO and Founder of Worldwide Brands

Wholesale Tip #6

There are some fees that a genuine wholesaler will never charge. For example, if you are asked to pay an ‘Account Set-Up Fee’ and ‘Monthly Account Maintenance Fee’, you should suspect that you have encountered a wholesale scammer and are NOT talking with a legitimate wholesale supplier.

SOME real wholesale suppliers will charge a small refundable DEPOSIT when you first open an account with them. Typically they credit that deposit amount against your first order. The critical word here is 'refundable'. If there's a $100 deposit to set up your account, you should get that $100 back at the time of invoicing your first order of at least a $100 worth of product.

There's actually a good explanation for this ‘refundable’ deposit. The wholesaler is wants to filter out online sellers who are just 'tire kickers'. Online sellers have built a reputation for being 'Wholesale Window Shoppers'. So many online sellers will set up accounts with multiple wholesalers BEFORE they actually know which products they want to sell. So often, the online reseller never returns to buy anything. It costs the wholesale supplier money to set up these accounts. Wholesalers use these ‘refundable’ deposits to identify those retailers who are serious about selling the wholesale supplier’s products.

These refundable deposits are not typically large amounts because the wholesaler isn't trying to make money from them. Wholesale suppliers only try to ensure that you're not wasting THEIR time and money by establishing an account you won't use. You must check that deposit is refundable. A non-refundable account establishment fee should alert you to a scammer. It’s not the mark of a real wholesaler!




Worldwide Brands is an eBay Certified Solution Provider providing product sourcing information for eBay sellers. They are the publishers of an extensive directory of legitimate, fully-verified ecommerce wholesalers and manufacturers.

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