On Thu, 2010-01-07 at 17:14 -0500, Seth Vidal wrote: > On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 5:12 PM, beth h <[email protected]> wrote: > > I'm sorry it's so hard to special order stuff through your local shop. > > I've similar experiences as a customer and do sympathize. > > > > As the lead buyer at our shop, I can tell you that if a shop is left > > holding the bag too many times on a non-stock part they can't easily > > sell to someone else, they may become more skittish about special > > orders in general, and orders for non-stock items in particular. > > > > We do our best to manage special orders where I work, but we make sure > > the customer is committed by asking for half down, advising that we > > give no refunds on non-stock items, and advising that delivery times > > are usually beyond the control of one small retailer (we estimate 7-10 > > days unless they want to pay for expedited shipping). > > > > We also advise the customer that if an order will not fulfill our > > minimum required dollar amount to place an order from a distributor we > > may have to wait until we have enough other stuff to order from that > > distributor before placing the order. This is a reality for a small > > retailer; we just don't have the buying power of a mail-order house > > and we are often required to educate customers to that effect. > > > > These last two paragraphs are the critical bits. > > If you're upfront about ALL of that and give reasonable expectations > and keep communication up then any pissed off customer is unreasonably > pissed off. > > I've just found that a lot of LBSes are rotten at communication and > managing expectations.
But, I think, a lot better than Beth is at getting the money up front. I've never had a special order where I didn't have to pay full price up front. None of this "half" business, full price in advance.
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