La’s The Place: How was the most recent Holiday season for your company and did you see an increase in sales from last year?
GCF4All: Holiday sales were steady, we’ve made a lot of changes due to the recent down turn in the economy and since our program is really set up to help individuals improve on their situation we really try to pre-screen our prospects to make sure this is the right program for them.
LATP: Has the recent economic decline and credit crunch affected Guaranteed Consumer Fundings client base or has there been an increase in sales due to the large amount of people with less than perfect credit?
GCF4All: We have seen an increase in customer orders but we’ve also seen less of a tolerance to comply with our terms and conditions from possible defaulting customers that is resulting in us adding additional screening questions to make sure we are enrolling the correct customer who is out to better their situation. Since we perform no credit checks we still seem to attract a few customers that have the wrong intentions not to pay in full which makes it bad for the customers that are signing up for the right reasons.
LATP: Since the electronic world changes at such a rapid pace, do you find yourself with a build-up of old, out-dated inventory or do you move it as fast as it comes in?
GCF4All: Our Guaranteed Consumer Funding program is very unique so all of our products are typically “Just in time” so it is not ordered until it is ready to be shipped which eliminates unwanted inventory on our end and guarantees brand new state of the art merchandise for our customers. All of our distributor’s drop-ship directly to our end user; in this case our customers.
LATP: Which sells better for your company, Desktop or Laptop computers?
GCF4All: Well it comes down to economics so it would be the desktop because it is cheaper then our laptops. We also offer a few more desktop configurations/choices that make it a better seller.
LATP: Guaranteed Consumer Fundings GCF4all.com website Satellite TV, Cellular, Internet Phone, and Broadband Service menu links go to other companies. Do you have an affiliate marketing program for these services and is there financing available as well?
GCF4All: We are considered an aggregate so we try to offer additional services to our customers who qualify. We concentrate on our business but there are a few services that make sense to be involved in and by going through our company we are able to offer an additional discount to our customers because of the volume we generate. The customer still has to qualify for the service and they deal directly with the different companies for liability purposes, but the discount is passed through via Guaranteed Consumer Funding.
LATP: How do you see the sub-prime lending business react to the new presidential administration and do you think new restrictions will be enforced?
GCF4All: I see credit overall being affected. There will be tighter policies, high minimum credit score requirements, fewer approved loans and tougher conditions tied to those loans implemented to ensure better pay up results. Simply put, credit is going to be harder to come by, so sub prime lending will only increase.
LATP: What do you predict will be your biggest seller for next year?
GCF4All: I think our biggest seller will still be our small business desktop but we are looking to sale more LCD Flat panel HD TVs next year. We will be offering more competitive pricing and with the switch over coming in February for digital broadcasting, we will be looking to supply those who will be in need of and will want to upgrade to a new HD TV.
LATP: What growth do you see for your company and for your industry in the future?
GCF4All: We will be growing at a very conservative rate probably 5% a quarter but we will be watching the financial markets very closely to follow the unemployment and jobless index report to determine customer’s ability to honor their future payments. Guaranteed Consumer Fundings objective is to help consumers who are in need of our service and more importantly who are in a position to help themselves. With the down turn in the economy we have to be careful not to enroll those who have no other financing alternative and are looking to defraud us, because we have already noticed a trend of not so honest prospects/customers and they only make it bad for programs like ours because they tend to slander companies and make multiple invalid complaints once they have been exposed and their credit revoked.
