A post by the rep from Adjustable Clamp Co.

[Anonymous]

Saw this on a discussion forum today .. .. can't verify it's authenticity, but I have no reason to doubt it.

For those of you who don't know me, I am the customer service manager for Adjustable Clamp Company. We manufacture Jorgensen®, Pony® and Adjustable Clamp products; and yes, the Cabinet Master Bar Clamp.

The purpose of this post is to hopefully answer all of your questions, and clear up a lot of the speculation surrounding our 100th anniversary sale on the Cabinet Master Clamp. This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

At the beginning of the year (yes, our 100th anniversary) we sat down and put together a plan for some specials to celebrate the occasion. The Cabinet Master promotion being the biggest. Our main goal was to give a big thank-you to all of the woodworkers and craftsmen who have been buying and using our products for so many years. Of course we realized that by doing this we would increase our market share, and get some attention in the marketplace. Not a bad thing.

Adjustable Clamp Company is a privately held, family owned business; yes the same family for 100 years (very cool). The current owner is a great guy, and a fine gentleman, who really cares about this company, its employees, and the products that we manufacture. It's like being a member of the family here. The reason I'm telling you all of this is that we have no board of directors to answer to, and pulling off a promotion like this was not some big corporate strategy, just a way to say thanks.

We offered the promotion to all of our distributors; obviously not all decided to participate. We did not limit any of them in the quantity they could order. We put this together last spring, took all of the orders we could get, and then got busy building. By getting such a huge volume of orders for one product, we were able to put together a huge buy of raw materials, saving some costs. We did not make a single penny of profit from this sale; we actually sold all of these clamps below cost to our distributors, and asked them to sell at the great prices you saw. Again, to say thanks.

We delivered every clamp to every distributor complete and on time. Nobody anticipated the great volume of sales, and attention that this sale would cause. I believe that the quantities ordered by each distributor believed they would last at least

for a full week. For one distributor, it took four (4) full semi-trailers (48' each) to deliver their order. We had never run a promotion like this before, and neither had our distributors, nobody knew what a huge reaction it would get.

Now that Woodcraft has run its promotion, I can tell you that it is now done. All of our participating distributors have run their ads. For those of you who did not get any clamps at the sale price we are genuinely sorry. For those of you who did, we hope you enjoy your new clamps, we believe they are the finest available anywhere, at any cost.

[Dave Balderstone]

I know many people will scoff at this, but I take it a face value.

The publishing company (newspapers and magazines) I work for is 80 years old this year. For our anniversary issue of the newspaper, we offered an 80% discount to our long standing advertisers. It was wildly successful... We went from 80 to 160 pages.

This stuff does happen, and it happens because the people running the company do indeed want to celebrate more than they want the profit.

djb

[B a r r y B u r k e J r .]

Not to mention that it's GREAT PR and provides excellent, long lasting word of mouth good will. How long does a clamp last? A lifetime? Every time those clamps get used, some folks will remember the deal, and talk about it. Good companies still understand the business sense of good will, even if it's not easily measurable as a line item.

On the other hand, I wonder how many will use his as an opportunity to turn a quick profit on eBay?

Barry

[bob]

It certainly sounds genuine. Where was it posted? And did the poster leave a real name or was it anonymous?

Bob

For those of you who don't know me, I am the customer service manager for Adjustable Clamp Company. We manufacture Jorgensen®, Pony® and Adjustable Clamp products; and yes, the Cabinet Master Bar Clamp. The purpose of this post is to hopefully answer all of your questions, and clear up a lot of the speculation surrounding our 100th anniversary sale on the Cabinet Master Clamp. This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. At the beginning of the year (yes, our 100th anniversary) we sat down and put together a plan for some specials to celebrate the occasion. The Cabinet Master promotion being the biggest. Our main goal was to give a big thank-you to all of the woodworkers and craftsmen who have been buying and using our products for so many years. Of course we realized that by doing this we would increase our market share, and get some attention in the marketplace. Not a bad thing. Adjustable Clamp Company is a privately held, family owned business; yes the same family for 100 years (very cool). The current owner is a great guy, and a fine gentleman, who really cares about this company, its employees, and the products that we manufacture. It's like being a member of the family here. The reason I'm telling you all of this is that we have no board of directors to answer to, and pulling off a promotion like this was not some big corporate strategy, just a way to say thanks. We offered the promotion to all of our distributors; obviously not all decided to participate. We did not limit any of them in the quantity they could order. We put this together last spring, took all of the orders we could get, and then got busy building. By getting such a huge volume of orders for one product, we were able to put together a huge buy of raw materials, saving some costs. We did not make a single penny of profit from this sale; we actually sold all of these clamps below cost to our distributors, and asked them to sell at the great prices you saw. Again, to say thanks. We delivered every clamp to every distributor complete and on time. Nobody anticipated the great volume of sales, and attention that this sale would cause. I believe that the quantities ordered by each distributor believed they would last at least for a full week. For one distributor, it took four (4) full semi-trailers (48' each) to deliver their order. We had never run a promotion like this before, and neither had our distributors, nobody knew what a huge reaction it would get. Now that Woodcraft has run its promotion, I can tell you that it is now done. All of our participating distributors have run their ads. For those of you who did not get any clamps at the sale price we are genuinely sorry. For those of you who did, we hope you enjoy your new clamps, we believe they are the finest available anywhere, at any cost.

[LRod]

One, so far. Although he has three separate auctions going under two different IDs (as of midday, Sunday the 19th).

LRod

Master Woodbutcher and seasoned termite

Shamelessly whoring my website since 1999

[Eaglesc]

[Bob Bowles]