Originally posted by: fisher
As far as the business goes, you are WRONG! I do not need the end users for my business, I don't even deal with new customers that are end users (well occasionally if someone sends us a decent request and is obviously in a bind we try to help....we look at it as a favor though and are not expecting to make anything on the deal). It was all figured out as far as time spent, items ordered, and profit/price paid....we lost money everytime selling to the end user segment at our low prices. We didn't want to raise prices because then we would lose the business end and if we had different pricing tiers we'd have to deal with complaints about that. So that's that.
you need customers. if you don't have someone you're selling something to or providing a service to you don't have a business. whether they are end users or businesses, they are customers. if you treat them like crap they will go somewhere else. and you're calling someone else "hooty"? wtf is THAT anyway? hooty? who says that?!?
Again when did I say I treated my customers like crap. I simply said you cannot expect a business owner to remain civil if you flame him or worse threaten him.
I don't understand how everyone is blindly trusting this guy from a company that seem to have relatively happy customers.
My business is now B2B, I deal with customers through trade lists rather than web based shopping. Eventually I will be importing and exporting to end users but in Japan...as that grows I will probably try to get into b2b there. There is a ton of phone calls and work that goes into most end user sales that I would rather avoid and sell lower and in high volume in order to save on costs. A couple $300-400 phone bills and $100-200 in extra shipping costs for returned products that were fine and advertised correctly kills a large number of profits for a small business. Even in my personal sales here which I assume most can operate PC's and peripherals fine, I have given some returns and the product wasn't even opened.
The problem is small businesses are not like WalMart, you can't expect to get a full refund of all shipping and costs because you simply changed you mind or bought the product locally as one was being shipped. I used to give all these kinds of refunds and paid shipping back, bought money orders for those wanting them and ate the paypal fees....but at the end of the day I realized I was losing money. Not making just less profit, I actually was paying out of pocket to sell items.
There is no doubt in anyone of my customer's minds that I have helped them fully in the transaction, if I take an end user's money...I treat him just as if he was buying my whole inventory....I have taken calls at 1 am from california thinking I was on their time and on the weekends and I handle the issues. However, I will also say I have gotten calls from orders requested at 6pm on a Friday night, early saturday morning like 7am asking if I took the order (via an email) "WHEN IN THE HELL ARE YOU PLANNING TO SHIP!!! DON'T TELL ME MONDAY YOU SHOULD AUTOMATICALLY REPLY YOU HALF ASSED MERCHANT!!!!! YOU HAVE MY PAYPAL NOW, DON'T TRY AND F***ING CASH IT OR I WILL SUE YOU AND BEAT YOUR AS$" (sort of a paraphrase from about 2 years ago I think) this is waking me up way early, hell it was 4am his time and he was probably thinking it was going to be voice mail or something....now this guy later apoligized but I will admit I told him I could easily fly out to whatever address he sent with the paypal mail and take him up on his ass beating offer....turns out he was in california and put in the comments to ship tonight only, I am in florida so although he thought I'd have time at 3pm his time, truth is I wouldn't have time to get to any shipper by then...it was handled though...the guy was an idiot though and only ordering a $5 uncommon cable I had for a very old item....he had no urgent need for it, but like any customer was hoping to have it in his hands quick. Anyway I got it in a priority mail evelope first thing in the morning and he got it tuesday somehow. I got a positive feedback and I debated how to handle his....the time frame ended up expiring by the time I forgot and remembered, but I was going to give him a positive since he did apoligize and turned out nice.
Like I was saying though I could have just told him to piss off, cashed his paypal and shipped the item two weeks later, but I didn't, he could have also gone to a board like this after leaving the voice mail he thought he did and say I took an urgent order and did not ship it on time and then make up all sorts of things I may have said to him.
My brother has a business that's huge and his guys sometimes send the funniest comments (they deal in alot of international items and people seem to think you work on their time and are willing to pay for their shipping costs). It's amazing some of those stories, $1000 freight bill for a $250 item and they think the $250 is including shipping....you tell them the rate is $1000 to get it there when they want it and they think you are ripping them off because 'how could shipping cost more than the item?' (I get this on the AT F/S forums too)
Anyways, like I said I jumped the gun on flaming this guy, about his rigs, I said it was a mistake. Still we don't know the full story and no need to call to arms to bring down a merchant over it.
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