Re: Tuba Consumerism & Emails


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Posted by Brian Frederiksen on February 19, 2004 at 21:55:05:

In Reply to: Tuba Consumerism & Emails posted by Joe Baker on February 19, 2004 at 18:10:31:

I'm on both ends when it comes to this, I buy a lot and sell a lot on the net.

One thing you need to remember is that the customer is always right (even if he is wrong) and everyone has their own way of doing business. The issue is the prefered way of communication. There are phone people, fax people, snail mail people, unsecured email people, secured email people and a few more including those who will only deal with you if they see the whites of your eyes.

I've had people refuse to give a card number - maybe they were stung by identity theft, who knows. All I can say is that if any merchant steals card numbers, a pattern would show up and the police would spot it in a second. Some people will send a card number by unsecured email, some split it between several emails, some have to do it on a secured line and then there are those who go online, print an order form then send it with their card numbers not trusing the net.

I have a friend who takes an old time, in the country attitude for his business. He has phone hours (like 9-12) and will not answer the phone even if he is next to it. His attitude is that if they don't reach him today, they'll reach him tomorrow. Maybe this worked 50 years ago but not today, they will call the other guy. There are those who expect immediate response 24/7. Maybe for a large corporation but not a small business. Some businesses have an answering service - personally, I hate them because the person answering is just a message taker with no knowledge of what is going on. There is voice mail, some leave a message, others don't. Let's not even touch the issue of cell phones.

Merchants need to adapt to all these but there are times things do not work out. Once I checked voice mail before I did a concert and there was nothing. Checked after and there were three messages. What was I going to do, take an order while on stage? There must be an understanding by both the merchant and customer. The customer has the upper hand - he can buy elsewhere. Believe me, the merchant will get back to you.

Sometimes this requires patience.




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