Gents,
I have known Jorgen and Bob for a long time...
Jorgen started up race deck a few years ago, (as I understand it, he has been in the business much, much longer) and very unselfishly donated several hundred feet of Race Deck to the car we auctioned off on ebay for the benifit of the NY Downtown Hospital at Ground Zero for 911. At the time, I don't believe Jorgen had a lot of money to be throwing around. We did our best to use his product, but we unable to because of the Labor Union rules at the Javits Center. (I hope I spelled that right).
Jorgen wasn't angry at us or dismayed in any way--he was just glad he could help--even though we were all ultimately frustrated in our efforts.
I am sure there is some misunderstanding here as I know Bob and Jorgen to be men of thier words.
We purchased many, many thousand feet of flooring from Jorgen and we are very happy with the product. We feel it changed the entire look of our shop to a more professional one. We drive forklifts on it, place jacks on it, drop tools on it, and love it. Jorgen even came down personally and installed a good chunk of it himself. (He actually delivered ALL of it personally.) He has always done what he said he would do.
As for the pricing...
I can give you a little insight. America is a free place. Jorgen sells flooring to his dealers and they are FREE TO SELL IT TO ANYONE THEY CHOOSE. Jorgen can NOT tell them what price to sell it for. Bob can not tell them what price to sell it for. No one can tell them what price to sell it for. They can burn it if they so desire. If they want to sell it for less than they paid for it...well, there is really nothing Jorgen can do about it. It is called free enterprise. Jorgen can only control the advertising of his name and product--hence, the prices are not published on the web below retail because Jorgen won't let them. The dealers then fight it out as to what they will sell the product for. (Kinda like the Ford dealer and the cars on their lot.)
Jorgen controls dealers from "stealing", (or whatever you want to call it) other dealer's sales by refusing to ship product anywhere but to that dealer's area. If the dealer then wants to ship the product to Iran, there is little Jorgen can do about it. (Well, maybe the State Department would get involved with a shipment to Iran...but you get my point.)
I have simply known these men for too long and don't believe they have any reason to lie to anyone. They are trying to run a business and keep all of the customers happy.
In an effort at full disclosure:
Kirkham has never sold an inch of Race Deck to anyone and we have never tried to sell it to anyone--even though we really love the stuff. Jorgen has, nevertheless, asked us if we would be interested in selling it to our customers, but we have simply been to busy to even think about it--too many cool new projects in the works...
Even so, I doubt we would even make a fly's dent in his sales volume as he produces the stuff, not by the truck load--but by the train load.
I am confident this can all be easily resolved with a couple of phone calls and some kind words.
David
