Rant: Shame On All Of The Suppliers With No Phone Numbers

[IAMREALITY]

Seriously. I just was browsing 5 different sites eager to order and not one of them had a contact number. Email only.

Well ya know what? I'm not spending my hard earned cash if it's impossible to actually talk to a real person. So disappointed. I had really wanted to order from a few but if there's no customer service number, then I have no choice but to deem them business wannabe's, at risk of all of a sudden failing and disappearing with no avenue for future service.

Hey, suppliers, wake up. It was your choice to start a business. So act like you run one. Having to field customer service calls is all part of it. Deal with it. In fact, I'd say fielding customer service inquiries appropriately is the backbone of ANY real business. So email only? No thanks. I'd like to actually have the ability to talk to a real person, if ya don't mind.

So just a rant, but with strong advice: If you are a supplier and refuse to publish a contact number, you are losing business. In fact, you likely are losing thousands. I'm ready to spend $200-300 today on the spot and all of you without a contact number lost out. I doubt I'm the only one taking business elsewhere because of it. Just thought I'd put it out there.

 

[forcedfuel50]

I am one of many vendors who doesn't have a customer service phone number and i don't know if I was one of the vendors you speak of, but regardless, i think my reasons/experiences are similar to other vendors.

First, i appreciate you sharing your input and feelings and i certainly sympathize with them, but please see it a bit from our perspective. Most e-cigarette companies you see on ECF are "cottage" industries that have one or two employees at most and many are based out of homes.

I can tell you from my experiences and the limited phone calls that i have taken by handing out my phone number, that if i were to be the phone rep, i would literally be on the phone all day and well into the night and still not come close to answering all the questions. It would be impossible for me to complete any manufacturing and design work.

The only "solution" would be for me to hire at least one if not two dedicated customer service reps, but that is simply not in the budget for me at this time and they'd still ask for "Dave" as they want to talk directly to the man, not to a sales rep. Hiring employess is much more expensive then a simple $8-10 an hour employee, you are required to pay UI insurance as well as workmans comp insurance as well as payroll taxes so a $10 an hour employee ends up over $15 an hour our cost (double with two sales reps) and that just isn't doable for many small companies.

Having email only keeps the questions short and concise and allows us to answer them at odd hours (i often answer my emails all in one sitting at night when i am away from the shop).

No doubt as this industry grows, more and more of us will be able to bring on dedicated service reps, but for now, many of us have to expend our time and resources on the essentials, which is production, packaging, shipping and emails. I hope you will not dismiss us just because we are small and support your local ecig dealer/manufacturer. It isn't that we don't want to talk to you, by all means we'd love to

 

[halonut]

I second everything Dave said and would add that using email customer service also eliminates the he said/she said disputes as a complete written record is created. It also gives us time to fully analyze the situation & the account/customer involved and respond in a concise manner that is appropriate to the situation.

We respond to emails that are received immediately when we are in the office and the rest within 8-10 hours maximum. Try calling the companies that do offer phone support, I bet that you will get a lot of answering machines and call backs the next day or later.

Too many people confuse telephone customer service with good customer service. Truth is email allows us to respond faster and resolve situations in a more concise & equitable fashion than the phone ever could. It also allows to make sure that all the orders get shipped in a timely manner.

Merchants who don't list their phone number at their sites are not hiding from anyone, the phone number is listed on the credit card statement of every customer we have. Most of which understand and respect that the telephone is not an efficient method of doing customer service for small merchants.