Yup - that's exactly the point I was making. There are still a whole bunch of great BV rep's, whose work is being undone by guys like this.

In a conversation I had with BV some time ago, he told me that California and Florida were the two 'absolutely crucial' states for him, that he would be in real trouble if he lost significant sales in either, and that his careful choice of rep's reflected this fact.

Well, that was back in the days when we had a whole bunch of great BV rep's in California ... guys like Chris Huhn, John Redman, Tony Frackowiak, Harley Condra et al, who went well out of their way to show everyone that BVM rep's were class acts. Guys who would repeatedly go the extra mile for the customer, guys who didn't think that having fun was all about deliberately p*ing people off, guys who you'd be hard pressed to find anyone being upset about, guys who knew how to make newcomers (aka potential customers) feel welcome.

Then those guys all left us, and now we are left with one guy who I personally still like, but who is generally considered to be fairly stand-offish, plus two guys who seem to go well out of their way to offend people with their arrogance. It's not just BV sales that suffer either - the Fresno jet event has generated a lot of controversy, and come very close to being boycotted on at least two occasions, basically because of the arrogant attitude of 2 BVM rep's.

I personally don't understand why Uncle Bob hasn't picked some quality new blood to replace the truly great rep's he lost here, as well as doing something meaningful about the way his remaining rep's push people away from BV.

I hope he can do something to turn the tide around here.

Gordon