There are two sides...... Please suffice to say that we make our entire living in the VIPER COMMUNITY only, sponsoring, giving back, and TRYING to do right by 98% of our callers. We have not built this business by being rude...we do get frazzled on MONDAYS (like today) and can be short with some known time-wasters. But we reserve the right to withold service from time-wasters, and give it to our valued customers.
Ok first let me start off by saying you have the worst idea of how a business should be ran ever. Period. You reserve the right to withold service from time-waster? Who are you to say who is a time-waster and who is not. Not everyone who owns a viper is "loaded" and is ready to buy on demand. Some of us need to PRICE THINGS and SAVE UP FOR THEM. which brings me to answer your #1 comment.
1) I quoted this guy tires, wheels, headers, and more earlier....he buys elsewhere and wants me to service that sale. I actually told the Emailer that if the used headers were indeed sold by PartsRack originally as he claimed, the gaskets could be FREE from us! (He did not reply..the offer is open)
WRONG, try again. I bought elsewhere? no. I have been saving up for the 505A CCW wheels and belanger headers. I came across a local add for some used headers and i picked them up. FACT, you just lost the sale on the wheels when you were my #1 choice. WHY? beacause you didn't have the time of day to help me with a simple order... which in the long run just lost you a larger order. And in the very long run, several orders. You are not in a position to say who is and who is not a "time-waster" People save up and then they buy. Some people like to shop around and spend their money wisely. You are not willing to help those "time-wasters" so you are basically losing out on a LARGE % of income yourself.
2) When callers ask for advise and quotes multiple times and buy NOTHING...we reserve the right to stop wasting our time away from our true, valued customers, some of whom kindly chimed in above. (I deeply appreciate that.)
People are not allowed to price things? Does everyone that walks into best buy, buy something? NO. They want to look around, see whats out there, get prices.. save and then come back and buy. If you go into best buy and are pricing a Plasma TV, and tell the salesmen your not looking to buy today... and the salemen says well im not "wasting my time with you". You just lost that sale, and the customer will be going to circuit city. Short run is good for you, dont have to "waste your time" ... long run = you just lost some good money.
3) Anyone who does not have the guts to put their true name in their profile should not earn your belief that they are even legit 'customers'. Shills? Bashing for self-entertainment? (gotaviper is known, thanks.)
Is it really good for your business to bash people on the forums? Do you really think that makes you look good at all? The "guts" to put their true name in their profile? Who are you to say what they should do with their profile or their name. You need to treat every person that calls you as a potential customer. That is the only way a business will maximize its profits. If you cant handle the load, hire someone to answer all the stupid questions. All those stupid questions that you brush off and put aside, are losing you 1,000$'s in the long run. Its your business , If you want to limit your customers to people who can only buy asap, so be it. Your loss.
4) FACT: One 'constant complainer' above drizzled crocodile tears all over me while I wrote and re-wrote his elaborate (and free) "diminished value" appraisal to yield him THOU$AND$ vs his insurance. His last $350 order he complimented the $50 discount I volunteered, that he did not even ask for. Now he is Anti-JonB due to some disagreement. I eventually joined a short list of vendors who don't want or need his unreasonable business anyway.
You are not going to have 100% perfect customers. You are also going to have people like me posting my comments about vendors if they treat me rudely. People are going to share their expereiences with other Viper owners so you might want to do yourself a favor and treat them all with respect. If you dont have time to answer a question, put it off for a few days and then get back to them. Dont make smart, short, rude comments to get rid of them. Your getting rid of $1,000's in your bank account by doing so.
5) I have little patience for NON-CUSTOMERS needing free advice so they can be better informed to buy on eBay-of-fencing-operations. We even invite and DO help our customers and newbees with LOTS of tech support...but not Repeat freeloaders.
Then you have little patience for PROFIT. I used to work at circuit city, selling car radios. I helped every single customer as a potential buyer. Even if they were in there for free advice, and were going to end up buying on ebay. Bottom line is, when they receive great customer service, they keep coming back, that and they also refer their friends to come in and speak with me personally. You will get more sales in the long run, but you have to put up with free loaders. Those free loaders MAY cause you more business, they may not. But if you dismiss them all, your are dismissing all potential business.
6) We appreciate your BUSINESS. We share your Viper passion. We are ALWAYS an advocate for our customers with the manufacturers. We honestly solve the rare manufacturer-supplier problems that occur. But we wont kiss backsides, and we sometimes slowly apply a "fairness" test to ~5% of callers / mailers who repeatedly pick our brains for info and seldom if ever become customers. When the scale tips to one side, NO SOUP FOR YOU is a fair, logical response.
If you are that busy, hire help. The hired help will pay for itself, it will help you NOT LOSE customers. You just lost my sale on CCW wheels/tires. That could of paid your hired help for 2 weeks.
I felt i was treated rudely in the email, so I posted it publicly. If you don't want that happen in the future, don't treat your customers like that.
You had the nerve to say I purchased elsewhere and am freeloading you, when I was saving up to BUY FROM YOU. Vipers are coming down in price, especially GEN 1s for under 30 grand now. Your going to have to get used to the fact that Younger guys are going to be affoarding them now, and these younger guys are not loaded. They will SAVE for their purchases, and they will call alot. and annoy the hell out of you. You gotta deal with it, beacuse they will still buy, just not on the drop of a ball.
