Drop shipper Smart Living Company has ceased operations

[na-6695]

"IMPORTANT NOTICE

On December 31, 2019, Smart Living Company ceased operations. Sigma Distributors, Inc. has acquired the intellectual property, inventory, and other select assets of Smart Living Company. Sigma Distributors is not responsible for Smart Living Company’s payables, product returns, or any other debts or liabilities. For matters pertaining to business with Smart Living Company prior to January 1, 2020, please email slc8302 (at) gmail (dot) com .

Sigma Distributors is fully prepared to accept new orders for Smart Living products and will begin shipping new orders on January 2, 2020. To inquire about placing an order with us, please email customerservice (at) SigmaSLC (dot) com . Our new toll-free phone number will be operational shortly and will be posted on this page when available. We will also be launching a new e-commerce website very soon, which smartlivingcompany (dot) com will redirect to."

Someone just bought an item from me that I source through SLC and when I went to place the order I was met with a shocking notice that the order minimum MUST BE $100,000. 

I get the feeling that something horrible is about to happen to thousands of eBay sellers who use(d) SLC for their product sourcing. Better put your stores on vacation until this get resolved.

The old SLC phone number just rings busy... In the mean time I have placed my eBay stores on vacation until this matter gets resolved and am more than likely going to have to refund my buyer and cancel the transaction. There goes my Top Rated Seller status due to another "defect" that will put me over the 3 allowable.

[mam98031]

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@eleanor*rigby wrote:

@na-6695 

I know it's so easy to overlook posts/replies on threads like this, so I'll post mine again. (It was the very first reply to your original post, so easy to miss.)

"When you say that you "source through SLC," does that mean you list an item you don't have physical possession of and then when someone buys it, you buy it from SLC and have them ship it to your buyer?

Or was SLC a wholesale supplier with whom you had an agreement to buy stock and worked with them to send items directly to your buyers without handling them yourself?"

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The answer to both those questions would be yes.  They say the same thing, just in different ways.

[na-6695]

@eleanor*rigby

SLC was a drop ship company: when someone purchased an item from me I would place the order at SLC and they would ship it to the buyer in my name, i.e., showing my name and address as the company the buyer bought from. It is this way that I am (was) able to list nearly $100,000 worth of merchandise for sale without having to invest any money in inventory.

[papermoneyforme]

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@na-6695 wrote:
@eleanor*rigby

SLC was a drop ship company: when someone purchased an item from me I would place the order at SLC and they would ship it to the buyer in my name, i.e., showing my name and address as the company the buyer bought from. It is this way that I am (was) able to list nearly $100,000 worth of merchandise for sale without having to invest any money in inventory.

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They were a drop ship company, but also a wholesaler as you could buy quantities of each and then list the items for sale and ship them yourself.

It was done by many people to make sure they had stock.

[na-6695]

Yes, you are correct, but the idea behind using them (or any company that does it) as a drop shipper is that you can offer a boatload of products without having to purchase any stock. Just in one of my eBay stores I have over $100k worth of merchandise for sale. I sure as heck cannot afford to purchase that amount of stock especially with the uncertainty of whether or not it will sell considering the tight margins because of those who throw away profit in exchange for the warm fuzzy feeling of making a sale.

[papermoneyforme]

So, what are you going to do since your supplier has gone poof?

[na-6695]

@papermoneyforme

I reached out to the company that bought them out and am waiting for them to contact me. They are supposed to continue the operation as it was. One has to set up a new account with them using your old membership number. They are still in the process of getting their phone number(s) up and running (not sure why they didn't just keep the old SLC numbers). As things progress I'll update.

[kad3054]

I had been working with Smart Living Company for more than 15 years and my work system always worked very well.
I also contacted the company that bought it with Sigma Distributors and they told me that they will continue working in the same way and that by the end of January they should already have the website ready. So we must expect how they will work.
Meanwhile we must look for options that allow us to continue working and not lose our customers or our status as Ebay sellers

[mr_lincoln]

@na-6695   Another good reason  not to drop ship ...

[gramophone-georg]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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@na-6695 wrote:

There goes my Top Rated Seller status due to another "defect" that will put me over the 3 allowable.

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Failing to fulfill a transaction disappoints the buyer and the whole eBay community suffers for it.

IMHO out-of-stock defects are one case where eBay got it right.

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Nonsense.

What the "whole eBay community" REALLY  suffers from is all the constant unannounced whimsical policy changes and user unfriendly interface.

This "whole eBay community's" suffering will likely be evident when Q4 results come out. Occasional OOS defects, while annoying, aren't even in the top 100 reasons the community is suffering.

[na-6695]

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@mr_lincoln wrote:

@na-6695   Another good reason  not to drop ship ...

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Tell that to Jeff Bezos. Sure, Amazon stocks and sells products and as well there is the FBA program, but Amazon also allows vendors to sell drop shipped merchandise. So does Walmart, Kmart, Sears, and an endless variety of online marketplaces. Let's not leave out Shopify - the majority of stores there sell drop ship merchandise being sourced and shipped directly from China. You make money where you find it. If the drop ship business model doesn't work for you then all the better for me as you won't be my competition. Thanks for that. I appreciate it.

[catherine32961]

You do realize that you are competing against a house account which is why it appears that they are losing money when in fact they are not?

Do a quick check and you will see that the seller Koo*e**oo is owned by the same person that owned Smart Living Company - incorporated in Delaware but registered in California as Foreign. Who is also the same person that owns Grace**ck Logis***** their return warehouse name. This person actually owns and is involved in quite a few competitor sites.

[imakesugar]

Has anyone received a current phone number for this company?  Does anyone have a link to the new site? My husband used to sell through their catalogues.

[ritarobi007]

What is the contact information for Sigma.   I have been with SMC -> SLC since 2007.   I order in bulk from there for the products that think will get discontinued... just went to log in to place an order and guess what... site not found error.