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Author Topic: Breathing Color supplies in Canada  (Read 11589 times)

Luca Ragogna

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Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« on: April 11, 2011, 11:24:30 am »

Is anyone else having a horrific time ordering BC material in Canada? I'm ordering directly from Amplis (the only Canadian distributor) and I'm finding their customer service is abismal. I LOVE BC Lyve, but if this keeps up I'll have to stop using it. I've had a roll of Vibrance Luster on order for over a month and a few weeks ago I had to scrounge around for a quart of Timeless Luster varnish because Amplis didn't have any and couldn't tell me when they might get it.

Am I the only one with this experience?
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2011, 11:36:44 am »

Is anyone else having a horrific time ordering BC material in Canada? I'm ordering directly from Amplis (the only Canadian distributor) and I'm finding their customer service is abismal. I LOVE BC Lyve, but if this keeps up I'll have to stop using it. I've had a roll of Vibrance Luster on order for over a month and a few weeks ago I had to scrounge around for a quart of Timeless Luster varnish because Amplis didn't have any and couldn't tell me when they might get it.

Am I the only one with this experience?

No you are not. There are problems with Amplis. I had the same trouble with them for a bread-and-butter item like Ilford Gold Fibre Silk. It took them three months to supply my retailer with roll stock. This kind of distribution practice is not in the interest of either the manufacturer or the customer. It would appear to arise from a practice of aggregating a large number of orders before bringing the material into stock in order to reduce shipping costs, and minimizing the amount of inventory they carry in order to minimize carrying costs on inventory. If this is what they are doing, it's great for them, but dismal for us consumers. The way to address this problem is to directly notify BC with evidence of the gap between order time and delivery and the customer relations experience you've had. I did this in the case of Ilford and Ilford has now assured me the problem won't re-occur.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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mstevensphoto

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #2 on: April 11, 2011, 04:14:49 pm »

I have no experience with ordering to Canada, but I've got to say that I've found the customer support from Breathing Color to be really fabulous. Can you contact them direct and ask for potential solutions?
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Luca Ragogna

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #3 on: April 11, 2011, 06:00:21 pm »

I wish! They are really great, I've talked with them on a number of occasions, but if you want their stuff up here it has to come through Amplis. Even if you're buying it from a camera store, they get it from Amplis.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #4 on: April 11, 2011, 07:24:41 pm »

Someone should ask BC whether the terms of their agreement to give Amplis a distribution monopoly also require Amplis to keep adequate inventory of their products, and if this - normal - kind of agreement is in place, how has BC been enforcing it? In a market the size of Canada's (I've been told there are retail stores in the US who do a larger volume of business in singe product lines than our whole country) it is perhaps understandable that a distribution monopoly or duopoly makes commercial sense in order to keep overheads down, but especially in these circumstances it is really necessary for suppliers and customers of that monopoly to exercise great vigilance over performance.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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mikev1

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2011, 12:37:36 am »

Can't you order directly from Breathing Color? I thought you could.

Amplis has forced me to buy from the US on a number of different occasions,  a four week wait time for something like gold fiber silk is bs.  Especially when I can get it in three days or so from New York.

I try to keep my inventory as low as possible, which I suppose they are doing as well.
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Luca Ragogna

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #6 on: April 12, 2011, 04:41:30 pm »

Can't you order directly from Breathing Color? I thought you could.

I talked with Adam Hill at Breathing Color, he told me I had to purchase through Amplis.

From the BC website:
Our online system does not accept international orders at this time. However, we will accept your order by email or phone, provided that there is not already a Breathing Color distributor in your country.
« Last Edit: April 12, 2011, 04:44:44 pm by Luca Ragogna »
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #7 on: April 12, 2011, 06:03:30 pm »

Luca, did you inform them of the problem you are having with Amplis? Did they say they would investigate?
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Ian99

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #8 on: April 12, 2011, 06:06:30 pm »

Oddly enough, my experience with Amplis has been quite different. I am not associated with them and I am not an apologist for poor distribution.

As background, I am moving from being an amateur to a small time consumer of professional products for sale as an add-on to my normal income stream. In the past I have managed several large importation/distribution companies and have some understanding of the issues in that business.

I live in the Toronto area, and the retailer for professional products of all types is Vistek. Generally they do a good job, but even they cannot keep all SKUs in stock. I was really annoyed with their supply of Ilford GFS, but I then heard that Ilford had switched distributors to Amplis. This may be wrong but that is what I understood and it would explain the glitches in supply during the crossover period.

I contacted Amplis and they were willing to supply me with product, even though I was a   very small consumer.

I encountered the same issue with buying BC products from Vistek. BC will not ship to Canada, and that makes some business sense for them even though we may not agree with it. Vistek do not stock it, Amplis does, so BC makes a profit, Amplis makes a profit, then Vistek makes a profit (for doing nothing). No wonder things cost so much in Canada. This is absurd but it is a small market.

My response was to buy canvas from Lexjet in Florida who would ship to Canada. Their customer service is superb, unfortunately their product also came with large black globs of guck and severe roll marks, so that was it for Lexjet.

Back to Amplis. I have placed many orders with them over the last six months and they have been happy to take them and allow me to pick them up at their location the following day. They have always had the stock I wanted, and I understand that your experiences may differ.

However, Amplis should never allow customers to pick up their own orders because viewing their back-door receiving/shipping area is like a view into the fourth world. Third world would be bad but their operation is simply awful. Every time I go there I see the same decrepit equipment, 5 or 6 slovenly “workers” who generally are having a party or watching TV.  They are surrounded by a mess of product, which should be extremely embarrassing to management but evidently there is no serious attention given to the backroom operations.

Again, I have had no problem with customer service or supply from Amplis, but they are risking losing their whole business from their backroom operations.

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Luca Ragogna

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #9 on: April 12, 2011, 06:17:57 pm »

Luca, did you inform them of the problem you are having with Amplis? Did they say they would investigate?

I've asked my business partner to do that. However, I did send a tweet to BC pointing them to this thread so they can see it's not just me.
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Luca Ragogna

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Re: Breathing Color supplies in Canada
« Reply #10 on: April 12, 2011, 06:41:46 pm »

Ian, from the very beginning my experiences with Amplis have been sub par. I ordered a roll of BC Lyve and a pint of Timeless Gloss, I was quoted $195.17 for the roll of canvas. I thought that was great since it lists for $320 at Vistek. The package with a container of water based varnish gets left outside my door in January. I've never had to not sign for a package. There was no invoice inside the package, I had to call and request one be emailed to me. They charged me $270.88 for the Lyve. They had quoted me the Economy canvas price. When I called to ask, I didn't even get an apology.

I tried to order the Vibrance Luster about a month ago. I called a couple of weeks ago and none in stock and no idea when it would arrive. I called yesterday, because now I have orders to fill, still no idea when it's coming or even if it's been ordered. The worst part, is that I called yesterday and was promised a call back in the afternoon, but I had to call again today because they never did. It's those little things that really piss me off.

I really like the BC products, especially the varnish, but I'll have to run a different material if things don't change.

I am kind of glad that I'm going through this now as I'm just getting my business set up, instead of when I'm up and running with a ton of orders.
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