Magazine distributor Gordon and Gotch yesterday emailed many newsagents reminding them that their account was due to be paid yesterday:
Dear Customer,
We take this opportunity to remind you that your Aug’10 account was due on the 20th of Sep. As has previously been communicated, continued disregard of trading terms may result in supplies being suspended.
We urge you to promptly settle the debt due at present and adhere to our terms of trade going forward, thus avoiding any disruption to trade. Attached below are our banking details for electronic transfers.
I know of several newsagents who received this email who had already paid their account. While that is disappointing, it is not what galls me the most about the email. The email reflects the abuse of small business newsagents by the magazine distributors. Consider these points:
- Most newsagents do not have access to appropriate levers with which to control the amount they will owe Gotch each month.
- Newsagents have to fund retail real estate in store, labour for managing magazines and the freight cost of returning unsold stock.
- Newsagents are billed for product supplied to the end of the month.
- Gotch operates with a ‘fluid’ end of the month for processing returns from newsagents – we are not told when the end of a month will be and can find that we have missed it by a few days and therefore miss needed credits.
It is unfair for a magazine distributor to aggressively pursue newsagents to pay bills on time if they do not provide newsagents with the capacity to manage the amount they will owe.
The current magazine distribution model is unfair to newsagents.
i get that email every month ,nothing new there
Shaun – if your account is paid within the due terms – you shouldn’t be harrassed like that
Dont mind saying i sent a cheque on monday (the day the account was due) so they will probaly get it wednesday (a couple of days late). Would they rather i sent it last week so that they recieve cheque by the due date but said cheque bounces like skippy???? Ross it would be nice to trade within thier terms but not always possible.
P.S. should get Networks E-mail today!!!!
ha i can never afford to pay within the due terms i am only a day or so late . good luck this month with 5 wednesdys in the month it is going to be a killer and can only return up untill the 27th .
Shaun & Allan – I’m in total agreement with you. I wish I could post here the email I sent back to Mole after I received the message.
hehe austin powers scene come to mind.
imagine what would happen if on last day of month they sent us 10,000 dollars worth of every possible mags they distribute.
i mean there has got to be some sort protection for small business from practices such as that scenario right? if not, what is to stop the distributors from doing something like that.
i know in the trade practices act, there is provision for unsolicited stock or something of that sort. i don’t know if that would apply to us.
would anyone know anything about that trade practices act provision?
i get that email every month,thats ok as i pay them late every month, just hit the delete button. Should get the network letter soon as well, have not paid them yet either, maybe today or tomorrow or even next week, my company policy is 30 day accounts
Honestly guys…its good to hear im not the only one who has this with GG and Net…im sick of burning a F###ing hole in my gut thrying to get these pricks paid by the 20th.
I go from feeling so down by it to then looking through the shit the send us off spec each week and then thinking….Nup F##k em they can wait
Both of the distribution companies hold an effective monopoly and use that market power to their advantage. Loss of access to one or the other would be terminal for most newsagencies and so most newsagencies are quiecent about their situation and any problems therein.
If the Government accedes to a request to include small business in unfair contract considerations then this would be one contract where some additional latitude could be approved.
I think Gotch is slightly more lenient than Network in enforcing the terms. Network once suspend our delivery when we were 7 days behind due date. I doubt the trade practice act will protect us in unsolicited stocks as i am sure in those fine prints of the agreement (who has actually read them? i haven’t) we signed with the two supplier their lawyers would have ensured their arse was covered.
Han, I agree that Gotch has been more lenient. However, they are less lenient today than a year ago.
Thanks guys. You have all made me feel better about paying late!!! Glad I’m not the only one!
I got one of those emails fro Network telling me they hadn’t received parcel over 30 days from submission of return report. Check their records and found that it two weeks for them to receive three boxes that were sent back on the same day.. I replied to their email “Thank you for confirming that your system is still not working properly” Lets hope their new depot in Vic works better. Hah Hah
As i said i always receive the email from both but I have only had my supply cut once from NDC and it just so happend when we took over the business so I think they were just showing who was boss. I will give both companies this much if you do call them up and let them know you will be late they are always pretty good about it, even NDC have let me slide into the following month on one occasion.
jeffc, i had one of those emails stating my phyisical returns had not arrived before the 30 day cut off . i called followmont up and they said it was scanned in a few days after leaving here which only makes it 1 week instead of over 4 weeks that they are saying they received it .i called up network and there answer was that they still have not received it even though i had already received an email stating that they have but it was late, so at the end of the day they have no clue what is going on
agreed. they have no clue whatsoever.
and always place the blame on us when it comes to returns.
have personal experience as well where i personally dropped off the returns and then they said that i did not stick on labels and i was issued “infringement”.
i personally do all returns procedure and i am attentive to detail. don’t point their greedy fingers on me when it’s them that hire probably underpaid workers who don’t give a f%#k
Newies- it is all about the commission they earn on 30 Bank bill rates so that they can have a good Christmas party.
This woman at Gotch rings me on the 28th each month and she actually said its a job and I have to do it.. We talk about the weather and I ask what she is wearing then she says I gotta go and chat with another Newsie..
Let the love go round I say….
Network seem to be loosing there way?? We have had audits on our returns for the last 6 weeks all of them comming back with a fail….. i rang for the first 3 weeks to be told “as long as you are doing them right you don’t have a problem.” After the first time we made sure we doubled counted and checked to make sure it wasn’t us that was the problem. After having our account fined for the differences I rang and demanded to talk to someone that has some idea instead of a call centre staff and got no where!! After talking to 3 other newsagencies in the area I found that I wasn’t the only one in this position. We all decided to call ANF to get some value out of our fees and put the sqeeze on them to follow it up…. Today I received a call from network who all of a sudden were very helpful stating that they do have some issues at the “warehouse” and they are trying to sort things out! They have backed down on the fine. All of this could have been sorted out if I have spoken to someone at the start.. The Contact at network I found very helpful was Laura. Has anyone else had this problem??
Carl. We got slugged with the ‘fine’. I got onto some kid that started telling me they check every thing in the box, then double check and all this is done and recorded under the watchful eye of closed circuit TV so they say they have the ‘evidence’ & they are correct. I told the kid to stop ‘taking himself in hand’. In the end I gave up. I still get the warning about mismatch of returns but at least they don’t ‘fine’ me anymore. We also are very cautious with our returns. I spoke to the ANF about this (along with oversupply) and asked what they were doing about oversupply and why they hadn’t been more proactive. He told me they were in delicate negotiations with the suppliers and didn’t want to jeapordise those negotiations. As a result of this information (along with other apparent lack of interest)I am now no longer a member of the ANF
so what actually happens when we drop off returns and they misplace it.
obviously they would say we are in the wrong. but how about actual consequence, do they take back credits? how can we prove we did everything accordingly?
ed, check out this post with advice on how to avoid the problem:
http://www.newsagencyblog.com.au/2010/07/05/how-to-avoid-being-fined-by-network-services.html
We also ask for a signature from the warehouse team for the number of boxes delivered with the date.
We told them from the get-go (when this new ‘infringement’ system was implemented) that we would be not only taking photos of boxes, labels and contents, but that we would also be emailing them in the event of any dispute.
Only had to do that a couple of times, and they got the message.
We were pushed to do this due to the bloody-mindedness of customer service staff that we must be stupid and remiss. We ended up getting a formal apology for that one..
i will be doing that from now on as well. taking photos of boxes and labels and actual delivery maybe with each photo i will include my middle finger as well.
maybe everyone should take photos that way with middle finger on each one.
what adds to the frustration with the account – particularly with Gotch is that the invoice is sometimes not received until the 10th of the month – doesn’t leave a lot of time for reconciliation.
Just had a look at my GG account for november ,words to best describe it i cannot put on this blog . Good luck chasing the money because it will be late a lot later than normal . i am not robbing peter to pay paul anymore peter will get paid this month before paul even gets a look in if you get were i am coming from .
I am actually scared to have a look at networks account i might leave that till next week to look at .
The November Statement from Gordon and Gothc is available NOW on their website, lots of time to get started on reconciling
yes done that and now i need some medication to get over it .
Mines the same as the previous months which has come down steadily over the past couple of months to that thanks to some judicious and somewhat aggressive early returning of both G&G and Network. Haven’t checked network yet but if it’s similar (did a $1800 sup return a week before returns close)I’ll be happy, considering last months mag sales are up 1.5% from last year according to my Tower POS data.
As usual, G+G tried all of last month to push up our account with those high priced overseas titles. They will definately wait a while for payment.
Paul S – you nailed it n one – EARLY RETURNS!
We had a huge cull of all of the crap, didn’t cut the range but took a huge swipe at every title and, based on previus 3 month’s sales, early returned everything I reckon wouldn’t sell.
End result – G&G and NDC both down by 2/3rds.
We still have the same wide range of mags but nowhere near the shelf hogging volumes they previously occupied.
Whilst we won’t be able to maintain this at least we might get our bill down to a manageable level.
Just saw my NDC account.
Where’s the panadol.
I would say where is the scotch, but after seeing how much I owe network, I can’t afford the scotch.
Max,don’t worry to much about it , it is nothing compared to what we will be getting for december account with the 5 wednesday deliverys
Jim,
I don’t see a reason why it can’t be maintained. There should be a pretty sustainable maximum cap on the monthly magazine bills based on what the actual sales are.
I believe I can cut another 15% sustainably from my mag bills particularly as I’m going to start returning certain titles with no sales history immediately upon receipt and devote the space to no mag products.