I just want to share with everybody a little tale about business ethics, customer service, honesty and fine print. As we all know, all four of those terms are an extremely important aspect of business (and life, to be exact).
Some of you may have seen my post about the 330 gallon cube tank and cherry stand which I posted about a week ago. The tank and stand are beautiful to say the least (from the pictures). It is the 48” x 48” x 33” tank if you need a little spark to help you remember. The tank was built by a company which is based in Southern California. I really would rather not give any names at this point. The company seemed to be very professional as I was given a quote within 15 minutes, and all my questions were answered right away. That exemplifies good customer service. I asked for a quote for the tank INCLUDING shipping. I would not see any reason not to include shipping because the tank was to be shipped from the west coast to the east coast and that price could be, of course, substantial. Although the quote I was given was significantly higher than other quotes I received that day, I went with the unnamed manufacturer. Knowing that this set-up was going to be for a large, prominent company I felt that they deserved only the best, and that is what I like to supply to my customers. In the back of my head a little voice told me that the extra money that would be dished out would be well worth it and made up for in beautiful quality, and what I hoped would be good customer service..
Boy, was I wrong……….
After paying the generous down-payment of 75% due prior to the start of the fabrication process the customer service let’s say “was lacking”. Prior to the credit card payment, I was promised pictures of the tank/stand during construction. I repeatedly asked for the pictures and was promised them, but NEVER saw them until the day before the tank was shipped. The total process was to take 8-10 weeks for completion and the tank is due for arrival next Tuesday. My customer now sees me as unprofessional. The fabricator in California gave me excuse after excuse on why the process was taking so long. For the most part he shifted the blame to his carpenter to whom he sub-contracted the stand and canopy work to. He told me to “just blame it on him” but as you all know shifting the blame gets nothing accomplished and only makes you look bad while the person at fault sits back and enjoys a $35.00 sandwich on his lunch break. When trying to contact him during the entire process I would leave countless emails and telephone messages and would RARELY I mean RARELY get a return call without pretty much sitting on hold for 5 minutes. (Do you see the correlation with initial payment and reduced customer service???) Anyway, he repeatedly promised me pictures, and even gave me times when I would see them. Guess what??? Never saw one picture until last Friday…
The next unhappy thing I feel that you all should know is that I was given a quote for a solid Cherry wood stand and one point had to remind him that that was what I had paid for. He was asking me which stain I wanted for the PINE stand he was about to have built….WOW
Here is the kicker………..
Never during the total process, was the notion that all items shipped were freight collect. Today I was contacted by the freight carrier about the final shipment process and was told that $2156.00 was due at the time of shipment. I quickly responded with “Oh no, that was to be taken care of by the manufacturer”. I ran home and took a swim in the sea of fine print associated with the manufacturer process and found, in fine print, that “all items shipped are freight collect”. My heart pretty much dropped. That sucks. I was never verbally told this by the unnamed representative of the company who is also, by the way, the president of the company. I realize that it was in fine print, and I was lacking sense in not reading everything. I dealt with this guy through the entire process and never spoke to anyone else in the company. That little number was never even hinted upon nor was the idea of freight collect. Anyway, I realize that I should have read everything, but after asking for an estimate INCLUDING shipping I thought all was taken care of. Well, now I know that you need to read EVERYHTING no matter how long it takes. The freight company was nice enough to discount the rate and drop it to $1400.00 but that is still an insane number. Oh well, lesson learned. Read everything……
Here is the last email received from the company. Note the lack of communication in reference to shipping cost:
Joe,
Thanks for the note. Your aquarium, stand and canopy and sumps went out today. ABF Freight and tracking number xxxxxxxxxx.
Be sure to inspect for damage just to be safe before you sign for the freight.
The aquarium and stand came out beautiful!
Thanks for your business!
Hopefully Karma will teach this guy a valuable life lesson someday!!!!
Some of you may have seen my post about the 330 gallon cube tank and cherry stand which I posted about a week ago. The tank and stand are beautiful to say the least (from the pictures). It is the 48” x 48” x 33” tank if you need a little spark to help you remember. The tank was built by a company which is based in Southern California. I really would rather not give any names at this point. The company seemed to be very professional as I was given a quote within 15 minutes, and all my questions were answered right away. That exemplifies good customer service. I asked for a quote for the tank INCLUDING shipping. I would not see any reason not to include shipping because the tank was to be shipped from the west coast to the east coast and that price could be, of course, substantial. Although the quote I was given was significantly higher than other quotes I received that day, I went with the unnamed manufacturer. Knowing that this set-up was going to be for a large, prominent company I felt that they deserved only the best, and that is what I like to supply to my customers. In the back of my head a little voice told me that the extra money that would be dished out would be well worth it and made up for in beautiful quality, and what I hoped would be good customer service..
Boy, was I wrong……….
After paying the generous down-payment of 75% due prior to the start of the fabrication process the customer service let’s say “was lacking”. Prior to the credit card payment, I was promised pictures of the tank/stand during construction. I repeatedly asked for the pictures and was promised them, but NEVER saw them until the day before the tank was shipped. The total process was to take 8-10 weeks for completion and the tank is due for arrival next Tuesday. My customer now sees me as unprofessional. The fabricator in California gave me excuse after excuse on why the process was taking so long. For the most part he shifted the blame to his carpenter to whom he sub-contracted the stand and canopy work to. He told me to “just blame it on him” but as you all know shifting the blame gets nothing accomplished and only makes you look bad while the person at fault sits back and enjoys a $35.00 sandwich on his lunch break. When trying to contact him during the entire process I would leave countless emails and telephone messages and would RARELY I mean RARELY get a return call without pretty much sitting on hold for 5 minutes. (Do you see the correlation with initial payment and reduced customer service???) Anyway, he repeatedly promised me pictures, and even gave me times when I would see them. Guess what??? Never saw one picture until last Friday…
The next unhappy thing I feel that you all should know is that I was given a quote for a solid Cherry wood stand and one point had to remind him that that was what I had paid for. He was asking me which stain I wanted for the PINE stand he was about to have built….WOW
Here is the kicker………..
Never during the total process, was the notion that all items shipped were freight collect. Today I was contacted by the freight carrier about the final shipment process and was told that $2156.00 was due at the time of shipment. I quickly responded with “Oh no, that was to be taken care of by the manufacturer”. I ran home and took a swim in the sea of fine print associated with the manufacturer process and found, in fine print, that “all items shipped are freight collect”. My heart pretty much dropped. That sucks. I was never verbally told this by the unnamed representative of the company who is also, by the way, the president of the company. I realize that it was in fine print, and I was lacking sense in not reading everything. I dealt with this guy through the entire process and never spoke to anyone else in the company. That little number was never even hinted upon nor was the idea of freight collect. Anyway, I realize that I should have read everything, but after asking for an estimate INCLUDING shipping I thought all was taken care of. Well, now I know that you need to read EVERYHTING no matter how long it takes. The freight company was nice enough to discount the rate and drop it to $1400.00 but that is still an insane number. Oh well, lesson learned. Read everything……
Here is the last email received from the company. Note the lack of communication in reference to shipping cost:
Joe,
Thanks for the note. Your aquarium, stand and canopy and sumps went out today. ABF Freight and tracking number xxxxxxxxxx.
Be sure to inspect for damage just to be safe before you sign for the freight.
The aquarium and stand came out beautiful!
Thanks for your business!
Hopefully Karma will teach this guy a valuable life lesson someday!!!!
