What Would You Do? A Question About Online Retailers

[SamB]

I've been watching this thread because I had a similar interaction with an well known online retailer a couple of years ago
I'm a "black and white" kinda man (please think Clint Eastwood) and I was gonna write this online seller off and move my business elsewhere but....
I came to my senses, holstered my side arm and buried the hatchet ... (not literally)
That same online retailer came through for me and made everything right for me - in spades !
I will stand up for them no matter what happens
The French are passionate and deserve respect and appreciation - thank God for them - (oops I have said too much) otherwise we are running across the border for our reef needs ...
Sheesh - nuff said...

 

[Reef Supplies]

My ears are ringing.

Most of you know me, most have dealt with me personally. Unfortunately I can not deal with everyone personally all the time, since time does not permit. When I don't, I expect my guys to do as good of a job as I do. In this particular case it was me and looking back, I could have handled it differently.

When an order is placed and I receive emails the next day asking about shipping, I assume the order is urgent and making changes to an urgent order would delay it for you and delay everyone else whom is not being attended to.

During this crazy season, we can not permit to make changes to orders when items that are ordered are marked as B/0 or awaiting arrival. If a client is in a hurry, he/she should NOT order items that are not marked same day. There are exceptions. It does happen that a supplier will short us and we get an empty box surprise once it lands. In that case, we will do what ever we can to get the changes made. We are not unreasonable.

Your order was placed on January 02 at 22:43. We received it the next morning on January 3rd. The next day on January 4th we received an email asking if the order had shipped. On January 5th I replied with the same message that warehouse sent you (warehouse sent you a message on the 4th) reminding you that some of the items you ordered were marked as 2-8 days.

You replied asking if we could remove the items. Being the busiest time of the year. I replied with;

“We cant, I can either wait or delete the whole order. If you want you can reorder. Dec and Jan is very busy, we can not make any special request as that will slow down production”

November 26 (black Friday) to right around January 3-4th we see roughly 700-800 MORE orders than usual. I’m not asking anyone to feel sorry for us and our work load, on the contrary.

Our first priority is to ship all order that items are in stock. This is the case with ALL clients, be it clients with $7000 of invoices of $7 of invoices. Every client is equal, no special treatment, sorry.

So when I emailed you, I did not email you as a customer rep, I emailed you as a friend (since we have gone back and forth so many times). I hoped that you would understand that the fastest way for us to get the order out was for us refund it so you could go back and order what was in stock. You took it as we don't want your business.

My biggest problem is I have the very bad habit of replying to clients like I would family and friends. I think its time I step away from customer service and let my guys take over.

Love you all

Ray

 

[Canadianeh]

My ears are ringing.

Most of you know me, most have dealt with me personally. Unfortunately I can not deal with everyone personally all the time, since time does not permit. When I don't, I expect my guys to do as good of a job as I do. In this particular case it was me and looking back, I could have handled it differently.

When an order is placed and I receive emails the next day asking about shipping, I assume the order is urgent and making changes to an urgent order would delay it for you and delay everyone else whom is not being attended to.

During this crazy season, we can not permit to make changes to orders when items that are ordered are marked as B/0 or awaiting arrival. If a client is in a hurry, he/she should NOT order items that are not marked same day. There are exceptions. It does happen that a supplier will short us and we get an empty box surprise once it lands. In that case, we will do what ever we can to get the changes made. We are not unreasonable.

Your order was placed on January 02 at 22:43. We received it the next morning on January 3rd. The next day on January 4th we received an email asking if the order had shipped. On January 5th I replied with the same message that warehouse sent you (warehouse sent you a message on the 4th) reminding you that some of the items you ordered were marked as 2-8 days.

You replied asking if we could remove the items. Being the busiest time of the year. I replied with;

“We cant, I can either wait or delete the whole order. If you want you can reorder. Dec and Jan is very busy, we can not make any special request as that will slow down production”

November 26 (black Friday) to right around January 3-4th we see roughly 700-800 MORE orders than usual. I’m not asking anyone to feel sorry for us and our work load, on the contrary.

Our first priority is to ship all order that items are in stock. This is the case with ALL clients, be it clients with $7000 of invoices of $7 of invoices. Every client is equal, no special treatment, sorry.

So when I emailed you, I did not email you as a customer rep, I emailed you as a friend (since we have gone back and forth so many times). I hoped that you would understand that the fastest way for us to get the order out was for us refund it so you could go back and order what was in stock. You took it as we don't want your business.

My biggest problem is I have the very bad habit of replying to clients like I would family and friends. I think its time I step away from customer service and let my guys take over.

Love you all

Ray

Ray in my opinion is very super duper helpful. That is how my experience has always been with him. He is the only CEO that helps me directly and promptly.

For me this shows:

1. He really cares about his customers
2. He really cares about his business
3. He always try to go up and above to please his customers. Anytime any owners or CEO help customers directly, it ALWAYS add extra value on customer experience index. I cannot remember any other online store as big as reefsupplies that do this.

Having said that Ray, please do NOT step away from customer service! This is your NICHE! Otherwise, Reefsupplies will be just one of those online stores.

I ordered from you even Amazon is a bit cheaper because you guys ship fast and again personalized communication from you. I will be heartbroken if you step away. I have dealt with your employees, and even though they do okay job (okay mean do what is the minimum they need to do) I can feel that you put way much more care on customers. We all know that nobody can make everyone is happy.

I vote to have Ray to stay on customer service!

 

[Reef Supplies]

Hmm, I was just looking for the appropriate forum to post a similar complaint...although I'm more torn about posting the company name, as I think honest feedback is fair game, good or bad. But its probably right to try and avoid a public bashing...
I placed an online order on December 20, and didn't receive any communications from the seller other than the order confirmation. I emailed them a couple times during the following few days to see what the status of the order was...no response. I was put off by this, as like you stated in your post, the seller has a reputation for quick response, and their website says they ship pretty much anything in stock next day, sometimes same day. So after not hearing back for 4 days, I contacted the buyer through PayPal to request that the order was cancelled. Within minutes the seller responded, stating that they would be closed until January 9! (3 weeks after I placed the order)
I said if that's the case, than I would definetly like to cancel the order.
The seller decided this wasn't reasonable and escalated the claim through PayPal. I now have to wait for PayPal's resolution review process to get my money back. It's going on three weeks since I placed the order, and still have the charge on my card. I feel this was totally unreasonable and that the seller was just trying to be a pain in the ass.
With all that said, I don't think you're wrong to expect good customer service from a professional business establishment. It's not some kid on kijiji...
I personally won't be ordering from them in the future, which is a shame because this place has some really great stuff.
But what do businesses learn when they treat us like crap, and we come right back two weeks later? Nothing...
The only way you really have a voice is by where you choose to spend your money in the future, and where you refer your friends and family...

Sent from my LG-H831 using Tapatalk

Please note that this is NOT us. Just thought Id clarify that

 

[Reef Supplies]

Ray in my opinion is very super duper helpful. That is how my experience has always been with him. He is the only CEO that helps me directly and promptly.

For me this shows:

1. He really cares about his customers
2. He really cares about his business
3. He always try to go up and above to please his customers. Anytime any owners or CEO help customers directly, it ALWAYS add extra value on customer experience index. I cannot remember any other online store as big as reefsupplies that do this.

Having said that Ray, please do NOT step away from customer service! This is your NICHE! Otherwise, Reefsupplies will be just one of those online stores.

I ordered from you even Amazon is a bit cheaper because you guys ship fast and again personalized communication from you. I will be heartbroken if you step away. I have dealt with your employees, and even though they do okay job (okay mean do what is the minimum they need to do) I can feel that you put way much more care on customers. We all know that nobody can make everyone is happy.

I vote to have Ray to stay on customer service!

Thanks for the kinds words! I will take this under consideration for sure!

 

[hark]

My ears are ringing.

Most of you know me, most have dealt with me personally. Unfortunately I can not deal with everyone personally all the time, since time does not permit. When I don't, I expect my guys to do as good of a job as I do. In this particular case it was me and looking back, I could have handled it differently.

When an order is placed and I receive emails the next day asking about shipping, I assume the order is urgent and making changes to an urgent order would delay it for you and delay everyone else whom is not being attended to.

During this crazy season, we can not permit to make changes to orders when items that are ordered are marked as B/0 or awaiting arrival. If a client is in a hurry, he/she should NOT order items that are not marked same day. There are exceptions. It does happen that a supplier will short us and we get an empty box surprise once it lands. In that case, we will do what ever we can to get the changes made. We are not unreasonable.

Your order was placed on January 02 at 22:43. We received it the next morning on January 3rd. The next day on January 4th we received an email asking if the order had shipped. On January 5th I replied with the same message that warehouse sent you (warehouse sent you a message on the 4th) reminding you that some of the items you ordered were marked as 2-8 days.

You replied asking if we could remove the items. Being the busiest time of the year. I replied with;

“We cant, I can either wait or delete the whole order. If you want you can reorder. Dec and Jan is very busy, we can not make any special request as that will slow down production”

November 26 (black Friday) to right around January 3-4th we see roughly 700-800 MORE orders than usual. I’m not asking anyone to feel sorry for us and our work load, on the contrary.

Our first priority is to ship all order that items are in stock. This is the case with ALL clients, be it clients with $7000 of invoices of $7 of invoices. Every client is equal, no special treatment, sorry.

So when I emailed you, I did not email you as a customer rep, I emailed you as a friend (since we have gone back and forth so many times). I hoped that you would understand that the fastest way for us to get the order out was for us refund it so you could go back and order what was in stock. You took it as we don't want your business.

My biggest problem is I have the very bad habit of replying to clients like I would family and friends. I think its time I step away from customer service and let my guys take over.

Love you all

Ray

thanks for providing your input Ray. I respect how you run your business and wish you continued success, it is awesome each time we see Canadian success stories like yours. Someone told me recently you guys were doing allot of international work lately as well..... well done!

I may not agree with everything you wrote, but my intention was never to debate who is right or wrong and so I will not, it truly was to gauge others insight into their experiences with online retailers. You said it best, you treat everyone like a friend and that's likely my downfall as well...Maybe I expected more than I was entitled too.

take care and talk soon