Tech assistance?

[Link]

When you buy a product from a dealer or smith what do you think is a reasonable amount of time for them to get back to you with technical assistance?
Hope ya all had a good holiday.
Don

 

[280ai]

NO more than 3days 5 if your generous most of them don't check phone messages or e-mail or text you just have to keep calling ask me how I know!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[quest450]

Link, you seem to be a major PITA.....tell me I am wrong Sir !

 

[K22]

My smith backs everything he makes and will work with me if it's a factory rifle, he sold me. He has never turned me away even if problems develop later on in the life of one his rifles.

But I have been dealing with him for over 30 years now and he is local.

 

[pdog06]

Ok Link, there has to be a story behind this question, correct?

 

[CJ6]

I trust my Smith and we discuss the build at length. He knows if something unexpected comes up he can call me anytime.
Unless he calls, I don't bother him.

 

[Link]

Link, you seem to be a major PITA.....tell me I am wrong Sir !

Well, my good man I don't know who you are, but maybe you have some input of value.

 

[Link]

Ok Link, there has to be a story behind this question, correct?

Yes you are correct. I'm not going to discuss my problem on the net. I just asked a question to make sure I don't expect to much from a well-known business.

 

[Dgd6mm]

I believe the #2 post is spot on.

 

[Walt Krafft]

Many if not most of the gunsmiths and suppliers are also competitors. I recently requested some information and it was 10 days before I got a response because he was at a match.

 

[gkgeiger]

Times sure have changed. When I was in business, if I couldn’t respond the same day I would apologize. Of course I wasn’t a one man operation. Today customer service is nonexistent. If I get good service, I make sure I thank them and tell them why. JMO

 

[Chiquita]

For some reason returning calls and emails within one business day is not that important anymore.

Sometimes one has to be PITA so to get calls/emails back.

 

[dellet]

Let’s not forget the customers that email Friday at 4:45 before a holiday weekend and again on Tuesday at 8:30. Then show up on your doorstep at 9:00 when you open and are pissed that you’re not prepared for them. Since” it's been 5 days from the first email.”

Or the classic “I’ve left a message every day for the last week. why haven’t you responded”. When the greeting on the message machine clearly states “closed for the week of”.

Impossible to count the number of times I have been accused of not responding,
only to tell the customer their phone mailbox is full or not even set up.

My number/email isn’t in your contact list? not my problem you didn’t get the message.

You’ve been in an area with no service all day and explicitly told me not to proceed without authorization, again not my problem.

You gave me a contact number that you won’t have access to the day of your appointment.

Sometimes im not so sure that all the advancements in communication make it easier to contact people or not. But it sure has raised expectations.

And best of all, it’s always the merchants fault.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

I wonder how often small businesses get overwhelmed with Bot email. I don't like checking/cleaning out my email.

 

[David Milisock]

Times sure have changed. When I was in business, if I couldn’t respond the same day I would apologize. Of course I wasn’t a one man operation. Today customer service is nonexistent. If I get good service, I make sure I thank them and tell them why. JMO

No CRAP! You must shop for service!! Today they have a phone, an email and a text message that they ignore.

When I ran my business, I kept my phone with me and answered it even when 100' in the air! Believe me my billing rates reflected that. For nearly the last 20 years I ran my business, I only gave bracket estimates, my average billing started at $2,500 and went as high as $250,000. They knew I didn't screw them and that I was ALWAYS THERE.

With today's technology there is NO EXCUSE for not communicating, even if you're a one-man operation. You go on vacation, it's posted in your email, web page and your voice mail.

If you run your business and you want to set a minimum time for you to respond for a service call then say that up front in your voice mail, your email and your web page.

The last 20 years I never worked weekends, holidays and for 30 years never Christmas week, UP FRONT! After the first 15 years I dumped 45% of my clients by pricing myself out of their budget. That's how I handled demanding clients, calm cool over pricing, some clients paid triple but that was ok they deserved it!

My philosophy was that I can't sell for less, I can't always have a perfect product, but I can always answer a call and make a call.

Yes, even with spam filters it took 20 minutes a day to get rid of crap mail. If you don't want to do what it takes to run a business today, close up!

If you want to be uncommunicative, do so, just post it up front and don't act like it's your customers fault when they go somewhere else.

 

[David Milisock]

Let’s not forget the customers that email Friday at 4:45 before a holiday weekend and again on Tuesday at 8:30. Then show up on your doorstep at 9:00 when you open and are pissed that you’re not prepared for them. Since” it's been 5 days from the first email.”

Or the classic “I’ve left a message every day for the last week. why haven’t you responded”. When the greeting on the message machine clearly states “closed for the week of”.

Impossible to count the number of times I have been accused of not responding,
only to tell the customer their phone mailbox is full or not even set up.

My number/email isn’t in your contact list? not my problem you didn’t get the message.

You’ve been in an area with no service all day and explicitly told me not to proceed without authorization, again not my problem.

You gave me a contact number that you won’t have access to the day of your appointment.

Sometimes im not so sure that all the advancements in communication make it easier to contact people or not. But it sure has raised expectations.

And best of all, it’s always the merchants fault.

These kinds of people are easy to get rid of, a refund and a notice that if you return, I'll trespass you!

The most common problem for service is the contact point blaming the assistant for missing the message. I just had that two weeks ago. For three days her personal assistant didn't check her mail. So, I told her that the real problem was that for three days she didn't check her personal assistant.

 

[David Milisock]

Many if not most of the gunsmiths and suppliers are also competitors. I recently requested some information and it was 10 days before I got a response because he was at a match.

What not have an alternative supplier?

 

[dellet]

These kinds of people are easy to get rid of, a refund and a notice that if you return, I'll trespass you!

The most common problem for service is the contact point blaming the assistant for missing the message. I just had that two weeks ago. For three days her personal assistant didn't check her mail. So, I told her that the real problem was that for three days she didn't check her personal assistant.

I completely forgot that one. Messages screened before getting to the intended recipient.
Or better yet, “I just only look at my emails at X time”. But they contact you after X, and won’t check their emails again until after X tomorrow.

I will say that since phones record when and what number you called, a lot of the above conflicts get resolved pretty quick, and rarely happen a second time.
People who are never on the receiving end of a phone message that is 5 minutes long describing every detail of what they want or need, then when leaving their name and number it’s 132 letters and monosyllable spoken at the speed of an auctioneer on cocaine. With caller ID blocked. Need to spend a day working phones somewhere.

It’s hard to keep a sense of humor on both sides these days.

 

[Jonnyofalltrades]

NO more than 3days 5 if your generous most of them don't check phone messages or e-mail or text you just have to keep calling ask me how I know!!!!!!!!!!!

If this is a one-or-two-man-show, I would expect levels of service to reflect the level of relationship that's been developed. I don't expect somebody to stop, drop, and roll just because some random tire kicker (me) sent them an email or left them a voice-mail.
However, if I see that one of my better clients tried to contact me, I reach out immediately!

 

[David Milisock]

I completely forgot that one. Messages screened before getting to the intended recipient.
Or better yet, “I just only look at my emails at X time”. But they contact you after X, and won’t check their emails again until after X tomorrow.

I will say that since phones record when and what number you called, a lot of the above conflicts get resolved pretty quick, and rarely happen a second time.
People who are never on the receiving end of a phone message that is 5 minutes long describing every detail of what they want or need, then when leaving their name and number it’s 132 letters and monosyllable spoken at the speed of an auctioneer on cocaine. With caller ID blocked. Need to spend a day working phones somewhere.

It’s hard to keep a sense of humor on both sides these days.

Quite frankly I didn't retire because I physically could no longer do the work. I retired because people, especially highly educated people kept getting dumber by the moment.

One of my favorites is this, I talked to a guy at your shop 4 days ago and he said that you'd be right out.

Who was he? I don't know.

If your problem is so important why didn't you make a note of his name? Unfortunately that never happened because they day you said you called was a holiday and we were closed!

Well, I left a voice-mail!

Ok then you never talked to anyone and most likely didn't call at all. (I could be that way because, I was the owner and all holiday calls were routed to my cell)!

I'm sending you a refund on your deposit, you should receive it in two days, please go away.