Vidon / Jewelite Problem

[Erik Sine]

A word of Caution.

 

 

So, I’ve been busy lately building a display for the BrightON LEDs going in over at a booth for the upcoming ISA Show and have been meaning to get this out as a word of caution.

 

As you may know we’ve been selling Vidon / Jewelite Trim Cap for a little over a year now alongside Plasco, and now also, soon to be Guildo Trim from Italy.

 

We had a really great start to a new relationship with Vidon Plastics, who is the actual manufacturer of Jewelite.

 

I had really good conversations with Matthew Dube, who handles Sales & Tooling for Vidon Plastics.  For those who may know, Jewelite doesn’t sell much of 3/4” Trim Cap, if you use Jewelite, chances are you’re buying 1” & 2” instead of the 3/4” even for small letters, like say 10”.....and this is hard on your fingers…  So some dialogue sparked (last early spring) up and I wanted to improve their 3/4”, so I sent over some ideas and they were open to it.  They had sent me out some sample versions of the extrusion changes I had suggested…and it worked out well.  They said they would kick around the idea of making the changes between themselves and see what happens.  I also suggested at the time, the upcoming ISA show and throwing the idea of the changes with their customers at the show.

 

 

That was the last conversation I had with Matthew Dube of Vidon while also placing a very large order of 1” & 3/4” Trim Cap....it was a great last conversation.

 

 

 

That was then, this is now.

 

Fast forward to just this last December 2022, I needed to place another order of Jewelite Trim Cap and see what was the lastest was on the changes to the 3/4" Trim. 

 

Usually the response time from Matt was pretty quick, but pretty soon I was finding myself sending out multiple emails with no response.  My phone calls about the inquiry of placing an order were never responded to. This was odd.

 

I even reached out to the general Trim Cap sales email and another rep responded, and told me to send it to him.  I sent over a PO, had to make a correction because their Gold is no longer made, and soon after revising the PO, I received no further response from this other rep. by email or phone.

 

I was totally excommunicated for some unknown reason.  To this day I have no idea why.

 

If there was an issue somewhere, I can’t image why, usually the right thing to do out of professionalism, is reach out and communicate.  But Matthew Dube, does not do that.

 

The way they treat people trying to improve your product line to sell what not many are NOT wiling to buy?

 

And, to be honest, I do this to myself at times.  I for the most part put trust in people until they give me a reason not to.  This is a flaw I have.   I have to say, this doesn’t really happen where I get burned like this.

 

I can only imagine this has to be Matthew Dube’s character, this has to have happened before somewhere, whether it’s within his what appears to be a family business or with relationships he has had with outside vendors and people he does business with.  No integrity….

 

I don’t know, I can only guess.  I mean, if it happened to me....someone genuinely and sincerely trying to help his product out…..surely it’s happened with others who may have been intertwined a lot deeper.

 

Now fast forward…

 

Then, today I happened to look at a social media site and I came across a post by a Yorston & Associates.  They’re one of these sales reps that represent sign component manufacturers to Sign Suppliers and maybe they reach out to sign shops, idk

 

They made a post about “Did you know Jewelite has a Paintable Trim Cap Roll”.  What this rep probably doesn’t know (because they’ve never fabricated or installed signs), is that “we” as sign fabricators can paint just about any roll, we don’t need a “Paintable Trim” roll.  So that was useful.  My guess is, and I have no real information….somewhere along the lines with this Yorston Group, maybe Vidon excluded us, or Yorston pushed to have us excluded moving forward to break that house account.  Now, it’s just an educated guess with no real information to back that up…but the chronology of events seems to line up.

 

This Yorston may be the same group the Brown’s of Transco had told me about many moons ago…a group of sales representatives that they use to pay an absorbent amount of money to, to represent them and push sales for their sign components to the sign suppliers.  They said it was the biggest waste of money they ever paid out, I just remember words like “Arrogant” and “Do Nothings” when it came to results, oh and “Conflict of Interest” when it came to representing them who also represented their competitors with like products to suppliers. So they seized employing this group or individuals that may not make up this group and reached out to smaller niche suppliers such as The Sign Syndicate who can put marketing in a true form, not bullshit sales points, but by putting the sign components in relative fashion and example.  IN fact when we posted about how to use some of the products we opened a lot of eyes, because some didn’t know certain products were available or how to use them.

 

I remember sitting in the office of a operations manager of a major sign supplier discussing the politics of the industry and in walked one of these third party sales groups like Yorston, in fact..he may have been a Yorston rep.  He came in with a bag of painted trim cap screws, muttered a few words to gain interest of the operations managers who’s office I was in…..it was pitiful.  The rep was nice, he was a nice person, the presentation just seemed odd.  When he walked out of the office and the door closed behind him the manager rolled his eyes and shook his head, cracked a smile and something under his breath like…“useless”. 

 

Who is going to buy painted screws....for trim cap? 

 

Don’t get me wrong, there is always something for someone.  It may be convenient for some, but it’s just not cost effective.  Experienced Sign Shops pop hundreds of these little fasteners into cardboard or styrofoam substrate and spray them as needed for the project they are undergoing.  I don’t think any or most of these reps have had any experience fabrication & installation experience in the sign industry, and it doesn’t translate well for the Sign Component Manufacturer which they serve.  Because the real information the MFG needs is lost, or never gets back to them in the form of feedback about the products they are creating.

 

But this is also a double edged sword, because a lot of times these shops, who want others to do their due diligence of homework on picking components for sign applications they build will buy products from sign suppliers just because they were read a quick sales pitch, from a sales point card that the manufacturer created for the rep, not by merit of the product itself.  Ask the rep a few questions about a product is usually followed by a shrug of the shoulders followed by "I'll have to get back to you"

 

It’s interesting, when I first started doing the Benchmark Light Testing Projects for Neon & LEDs my relationships with the Electric Sign Component Manufacturers really grew.  It opened up my eyes, I really got to understand the relationships that are truly are between Manufacturer & Suppliers, and even how the Sign Associations really operated.  This was the “looking behind the curtain of Oz” moment for me.  To this day, there is still one thing that pops out to me, something that was said by a rep of EGL.   He said that the Major Sign Suppliers and other sales reps…”are like the mob” to the Sign Component Manufacturers.

 

It was a odd thing to hear back then, I didn’t pay much notice as that was not my ballgame, but I did see some strange hints….. but it makes total and absolute sense to me today, it’s as Clear as it can be.  I’ve written about this before in past articles.  Where Major Sign Suppliers that see The Sign Syndicate as a threat or competition, they would reach out to Sign Component Manufacturers and threaten them with no longer stocking their products if they continued a relationships with us.  That backfired a few times in their faces, in a few cases I found out because the MFG Called me up laughing to relay the phone conversation they just had form the rather large Sign Supplier on the eastern side of our grand country.

 

I absolutely love this industry that we’re in, I wound’t trade it for anything.  Work, never seems like work to me.  I’ve been blessed, truly…I feel very lucky to have known and learned from those in this industry that had a true passion, what I learned from them made me better.

 

I’ve been in just about all phases of this Industry now…I don’t know what’s left.  From starting out as a first generation’er in Fabricating & Installing Signs in 93, to starting The Sign Syndicate a “nuts and bolts” news and information website in 2005 where we started the electric sign industry Lighting Benchmark testing.  Getting involved in electric sign component sales.  Being asked to become a Electric Sign Technical Director for a Sign Association, though it was short, it was still an “experience” as one man put it.  Now these days I’m developing my own LED Line from all the benchmark testing we did for the Neon & LED Lighting components.

 

But in all those years, all those relationships I’ve developed….this with Vidon / Jewelite, is a first for me.  I Like to help people and companies in this industry, that was my purpose of starting the SS.

 

Again, the purpose of this was a word of caution.  I hate to see what happened to me, where you invest money and time, to just see it go to waste.  If it helps at least one person from a disaster, then it’s been worth the time here behind a keyboard typing this out.

 

Oh, by the way.

 

I encourage all to go to this years ISA Convention in Vegas.  I you happen to stop by the Vidon Plastics / Jewelite booth and you’re a Jewelite Trim Cap user, see if they made the changes to the 3/4” Trim Cap….and if there is more “Mechanical fastener space” now than before, tell Matthew Dube at the booth to be sure and thank me, glad it worked out.