VendorPro.com - Legit or Scam?
 

Hi All,

Just wondering if any of you that have websites have been hit up by this company "VenderPro" to get a fee from you to get certain works out to various stores.

Here's the gist of the letter I received.

Subject: I want to sell your artwork through our stores

I've spent a lot of time at your website and I think your artwork is perfect
for our stores. I especially like your drawing entitled Little Girl and
Bulldog. We work hand in hand with the largest stores in the country, plus
thousands of small to medium sized specialty businesses stretched across the
U.S. If you want the opportunity to sell your artwork through major
retailers plus the other 17825 art galleries, 51005 gift stores, 6088 craft
stores, 2990 craft galleries, and over 24000 mail-order catalogs ... check
us out at http://www.vendorpro.com

Sincerely,
Matt Burke
Vendorpro.com

Geary,

I question if even Proctor and Gamble have these many customers. This sounds like someone has gotten hold of a direct mail list and is hoping to try to drum up some business. Ask them to supply a list of vendors, galleries etc with whom they have signed contracts to supply art work. If they give them to you, carefully validate them. Also ask how long Vend-Pro has been in business and in which state(s) they are registered. You can then check with the states Commerce Departments and the Better Business Bureaus. I would be very leary of this operation.

I'm not sure whether this is the same outfit but I've gotten similar emails, also listing specific works on a website, as have many of the people on a painters' list I belong to. The consensus is that it's a racket. Some of these "services" are very persistent and keep bothering artists if they respond to their initial advances; often there is money required up front, as well. I would not write to them at all.

Maybe others have a different take on it, but that's mine.

I get lots of emails from miscellaneous organizations wanting to "help" me sell my artwork. Some of them take the time to customize their messages to refer to my work, some don't. I hit the delete button on all of them.

If you want to check this one out, though, Richard Monro's advice seems good. Please let us know what you find out if you do.

Some painters who responded to these offers were mercilessly harassed by the agents afterwards. If you do choose to follow Richard Monro's advice I would be sure not to give them a phone number.

Well here's what I found out. The BBB checks them out as legitimate. They've been in business for over a year. They have receptionists and a sales staff. Their service offers a way to get your prints into the hands of the various businesses they've mentioned.

Some were worried, since they mention specific images from our websites, that they would try to steal images for resale. The people I spoke to assured me they were only interested in getting the fee for services rendered. They have no desire to steal images and go into the printing business. They're content to just collect the $340.00 per artist per year.

So, bottom line for me on this (and this is what I told the guy) , all of this sounds dubious at best. I also told him it's too spendy for very little proof of it's success. And then I told him I can reach various buyers on my own, and getting them to put cheapo prints of my work that sells in frames at Department Stores is really not the direction I care to go. I'm saving that venue for when I'm rich and famous and have decided to go the TACKY route. You know, printing mugs, mouse pads, and baby bibs, etc. Hahaha! :oops: :D ;)

As far as them bugging the heck out of me. I know how to handle that as well. I'm the qickest phone hanger-upper and delete-buttoner in the west!

~Gear

Just a quick heads up that these people are still in business and actively targeting artists with web sites, I got an email from them today.

Put their name into Google and you'll find some very uncomplimentary results. It appears that their 'business model' involves getting people to cough up $340 dollars (non-refundable) up front and - that's about it.

Avoid.

I've got an email from them 3 days ago... It seems to me they've found me here in the forum.