“Terrible,” “a mess,” “not good at all,” “they suck,” “unworkable,” and “don’t have their s*&t together” are just some of the comments from integrators reflecting on the most frustrating suppliers in 2023. Similar to last year, frustration surrounding the supply chain situation was center stage among the comments received by CE Pro as part of its thirteenth annual Quest for Quality Awards. Dealers were not shy about sharing their dissatisfaction about higher prices, lack of product availability, jacked up shipping costs, empty shelves, poor communication and irate clients.

It seems virtually no manufacturers or suppliers were spared when CE Pro asked dealers to vent about their most frustrating experiences with the manufacturers and distributors that are causing them the biggest headaches. By far, this year represented the most comments we received, which reveals just how frustrated integrators are right now.

Below is a compilation of the most frustrating experiences with the names of the suppliers redacted. (These complaints are kept strictly anonymous and were sent to the individual manufacturers or distributors so they can use the feedback as constructive criticism.)

Putting It All in Perspective

“[Manufacturer] is a vendor everyone is picking on, but at the same time they refuse to use inferior products. I really feel in the long term there will be less call backs and issues.”

“Mr. Slappyhands, for sure. Every time I go to reach for anything, he slaps it out of my hand. Cut it out! Quit slappin’ my hands!”

2024 Lighting Controls and Fixtures Report

Lightapalooza took place in late February, and the growth of the event has mirrored the rapid ascension lighting fixtures and controls.

Download your copy now!

“All the Airlines – American, Delta, etc.”

“I don’t want to throw anyone under the bus.”

“Everyone we work with is great at what they do. Everyone has a niche. Generally, if they are exceptional, that is who we use!”

Frustration with Everyone

Some dealers were equal-opportunity sharers, saying it wasn’t just the suppliers that were providing some of the most frustrating moments in their careers this past year.

“Most manufacturers did a horrible job of mitigating supply chain issues and caused way more frustration in the market than they needed to. Most all get an F.”

“I am frustrated with ALL that have NOT moved manufacturing back to the USA or more friendly countries to us!!!!  When will they learn from the last 4 years of boondoggles (starting with trade embargo years).” 

Integrators Sound Off

Here is a sampling of some of the most frustrating experiences dealers are facing with suppliers. We hope it is therapeutic for CE pros to get these complaints off their chests. Do any of these sound familiar? If so, it might bring a level of consolation to know that you are not alone.

“[Manufacturer’s] communication was not good at all.”

“[Manufacturer’s] prices are too high, too difficult and costly to become a dealer, non-dealer support is limited at best especially for simple RMA needs, and supply/availability is the worst in the industry.  Product quality has really gone downhill in the past few years and they’ve screwed up their software and configuration options so badly.  I can’t speak lowly enough about them as a whole.”

“[Distributor] due to the slow payment processing and not having online payment portal.”

“[Manufacturer] without question! Every part of our dealings with them is difficult. MONTHS to process ‘sell throughs,’ over billing and crappy service from rep.”

“[Distributor] is not customer friendly and the website is a mess. Finding a specific brand or product is difficult.”

“[Manufacturer] allows their company to be driven and directed by their marketing department rather than listening to dealers on trends.”

“[Distributor] pricing is inconsistent.”

“They billed me for a service I no longer have and didn’t response to any of my support-tickets open over their homepage!”

“[Manufacturer] NEVER has inventory or an answer of when.”

“[Distributor] charged $50 to ship one HDMI extender.  When I complained, the response was ‘I guess we really screwed you on that one!  We’ll look at your next order, and if the numbers are high enough, we’ll see what we can do.’ There has not been a ‘next order.’”

“[Manufacturer] tells their distributors and dealers that they are out of stock, yet they save product for their own retail sales! Several price increases that they applied to backordered units. So, we have already ordered and committed to our clients at cost X, then they raise OUR cost when they couldn’t provide product.”

“[Manufacturer] — No stock, no spare parts, terrible service.”

“We have crucial items for projects with [Manufacturer] that have been on backorder for 16+ months and every solution they have offered is borderline insulting!”

“[Manufacturer] is by far the worst manufacturer to deal with right now. From lack of visibility, unavailable parts, insane lead times, and overall poor response and communication, they have consistently missed the ball on helping their dealers out. Missed deadline and timeline after missed timeline. Parts getting pushed back further and further, and overall apathy to their dealer base.”

“[Distributor] — Not having any idea when products would be available, then cancelling our account when we didn’t make any purchases that year.”

“With [Distributor] I had an instance I called in for a rush order, but I didn’t realize the shipping cost was over $200 vs $10 if I ordered online.  I was not informed the shipping cost difference as I was supposed to know about it.  Part of it was my fault, but it should have been done better.”

“[Rep Firm] takes the prize. They are the ones that allocate product for [Manufacturer]. I finally had to call the manufacturer and ask them why I could not get product that was ordered 8 months ago. They told me they could ship it that day and would be in contact with our rep. We got the product a week later and have received shipments now on a regular basis.  From what we understand they were not allocating to us. Thanks for the help.”

“[Manufacturer] has unworkable lead times (12 months +). They then tell us which quarter the items will arrive and still they miss these dates. Very hard to do business with currently.”

“[Distributor] has multiple mis-shipments then hours and hours of my time to fix their mistake.”

“[Distributor] does not look to see if things are in another warehouse. I have to do that. And if those products are backordered in another warehouse, they don’t communicate that.”

“[Manufacturer’s] margins are paltry, at best, their shipping has slowed to a turtle’s pace, their inventory was ridiculously non-existent during and long after the pandemic, their dealer support is non-existent, as is their communication and technical support, especially when they farm it out to overseas countries. Examples would be far too many to list here.”

“[Distributor] didn’t seem to have their ‘cough cough’ together when the shortages hit. It took them a while to call us back with any replacement stuff that we needed or could get in another manner. And then also as far as like head units and amplifiers and major things that we really needed that we normally would have got cheaper prices on from them they have no other references on what or when they could get anything.”

“[Manufacturer] — Lack of quality support, product quality issues.  Poor follow up.”

“[Manufacturer] — The prices keep going up and there is never anyone who comes to see me.”

“[Manufacturer] — Although we love their products, they don’t have a portal, so we have to physically email our orders and hope to find items ‘in stock.’”

“[Manufacturer] takes dealers or customers direct into their own sales organization and then complain our sales are too low.  Well, you stole all our best accounts… what do you think would happen?”

“[Manufacturer’s] pricing has been unilateral for several years. Then this vendor decided to give the largest volume receiver to Costco who began selling the unit at $100 under unilateral price with numerous ‘Sales Periods’ reducing the price an additional $100. All other Costco vendors maintain unilateral prices with consumer practices like a five-year warranty but product is still sold at a unilateral price determined by the manufacturer/vendor.”

“[Distributor] consistently cancelled back ordered items usually just before or right when they came in (probably to give to other clients).”

“[Distributor] is impossible to get ahold of, and when you do they just give you empty promises and never fulfill anything.”

“[Manufacturer’s] defective returns policy is horrible. Customers that purchase a brand new out-of-the-box DOA product have to get it repaired.  Very unfair to the consumer that just spent top dollar for their product.”

“[Manufacturer] – Every time you place an order, they will bomb you with a new price. Three price revisions in 5 months. Their product pricing has almost reached 35% higher.”

• Page 1