In early 2010, I came to the conclusion that I was trapped and being held hostage by a book warehousing company, QP Distribution based in Mulvane, KS. Being a long time customer, I rarely rocked the boat. I did my best to work with them but it seemed no matter what I did, they were bound and determined to continue unilaterally raising rates and fees on me despite my minimal and low maintenance usage. It seemed like the longer I stayed with them, the more I would be financially punished. There seemed to be no consideration that I had been a good-paying customer for 8 years.

Over time, it felt like I was being squeezed more and more and there was very little I could because I had inventory consisting of thousands of books being warehoused in Kansas and I was dependent on them. There seemed to be few options out without incurring a huge expense. Quite frankly, I think they knew that and used that to their advantage against small, independent publishers. Most small publishers cannot bear the thought of discarding their valuable inventory and yet letting a book warehousing company unilaterally raise fees without proper notice or explanation didn’t seem reasonable either.

In early 2011, a couple of unhappy incidents ultimately led to a confrontation with QP Distribution. Ultimately, I decided to terminate the working relationship even if I had to sacrifice my book inventory along the way. I could not simply go year after year being an unhappy victim. QP Distribution made it very difficult for me to leave and tried a series of last hour tactics to extract as much money as they could from me. That was the last straw for me. I was even being held hostage at the very end for trying to terminate the working relationship.

Despite my best attempts to proactively resolve the matter amicably, we could not come to an agreement and I concluded that I had no choice but to take drastic measures and escalate matters to terminate the relationship. The termination was a very bitter fight because I finally lost my patience and decided to make a stand even if that meant the possibility of dealing with legal consequences.

At the very end, there was a stalemate. I never really got what I wanted but neither did they. It seems that after all their posturing, QP Distribution did not have the stomach to deal with me anymore because I had turned the fight very personal where I had an extreme disrespect and distrust of anyone connected with QP Distribution. There was no going back because there was no trust or respect. And because of my very public letters, they certainly don’t want to deal with me anymore.

The book publishing industry continues to its upheaval and the book warehousing business is trying to desperately survive by squeezing its last dollars from what remaining customers are left. I refused to be one of those customers being squeezed anymore. Quite frankly, I should have terminated the relationship in 2010. I waited a year too long.

You can read my story of how I dealt with the QP Distribution Book Warehouse Hostage situation by following these blog posts from the TurnKey Publisher website:

As you read my letters, you can see I became increasingly aggressive as they continued to frustrate and extract more monies from me even after termination.

 

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