Reptile & Amphibian Forums

(No names are used in this Post and I am not just talking about one company or seller).

In my limited experience with buying bps I have seen both good and bad customer service. My question is how do you deal with sellers that display (after you purchase) poor communication, lack of patience, and overall poor or no customer service? After spending hundreds of dollars on new snake(s) or equipment, the seller will not return emails or is abrasive to answering questions. Rather than solving a problem or making it right to maintain future business with you, they just rely on excuses and you’re out of luck until further notice. (i.e. “Don’t contact us, we will contact you”) or (“Maybe it will be here next week”).

I know certain things can not be controlled like the weather, back ordering of a product, holidays and what not but when you instantly send that person hundreds of dollars, then naturally you expect in return what you and the seller agreed upon to be done. (Shipping of product or snakes) Easier said than done I guess, if the seller does not come through for what ever reason good or bad excuse, shouldn’t the seller maintain some sort of customer service and try to make the situation right?

I guess I have to define CUSTOMER SERVICE
“Assistance and other resources that a company provides to the people who buy or use its products or services” –Dictionary.com

So is it too much to ask of the seller to:
1) Keep in touch on a weekly basis with the buyer on the status of his order.
2) Answering any questions the buyer might have.
3) Providing tracking capabilities on the package (one would hope the package would be insured and have tracking capabilities if you spent a couple hundred dollars for it).
4) Make the situation right (maybe picking up the shipping costs or something else to show the buyer is appreciated for his/her patience during this inconvenience of waiting on the seller to produce).

So restating my original question, how do you deal with poor customer service and do you have any suggestions?

Thanks
Nate
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1.1 Normal Bps
1. 100% Het Albino
.1 Lemon Pastel

Poor customer service is a pet peeve of mine.

I let my money do the talking. I never buy from them again. I work hard for my money, and I'm very choosey about who I spend it with. If I get poor customer service, I don't spend my money with them again, and I tell others who might ask about them about my experience.

Conversely, if I get great customer service, they have a customer for life, and I'll be free advertising for them. I've had three recent transactions. Two will be getting repeat business, one will never see another dime of my money.

Robin

I couldnt agree more, the thing is if you raise a stink about their actions will the seller ship you a quality product or animal? You know the saying, complain at a fast food place and they'll probably spit in your food.

thanks
Nate
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1.1 Normal Bps
1. 100% Het Albino
.1 Lemon Pastel

I feel the same way. If I get great customer service from a seller, then I am very loyal. I almost feel guilty if I buy from someone else, when I know I can expect an amazing product and or snake from that seller that I have done business with in the past.

I want to also add that I'm far away from being a seller myself (two years) but in that two years, I hope to learn lessons from my own buying experiences to put into practice when I begin to sell. I try to follow the "golden rule" in my life - treat others how you want to be treated.

An example, in one of my recent purchases, I paid for three normal females that arrived in excellent condition. Two days later I received an e-mail from the seller that one of the females "might" actually be a male, that they were filing the records and came across a mark on the records of one that denotes male. They requested that I get all three sexed to make sure that they are indeed female, and if any of them are male, I may keep it, and he will replace it with a female of my choice. He clearly felt horrible about the potential mistake.

I wrote him back and said that he could have just as easily said nothing, and I, being new to the business would have never known the difference (I trusted that I got what I paid for - he has a great reputation on the BOI and good referrals from people I trust). How he handled it shows the measure of the man. He earned a customer for life in how he chose to handle the situation. I am meeting another breeder today who has agreed to sex them for me and teach me how to sex and also show me his breeding facilities. He will also be getting business from me.

The lessons I learned - be honest - it pays off in the end. I will always re-sex any animal that I may send out when I'm a seller on the day that I ship. I'm quite sure this seller will adopt this practice going forward.

that is what I would do and not use the company/breeder again.
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Nita Hamilton
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Ball Pythons
ballpythonworld.com

I would say it depends entirely on the situation. In a perfect world everyone in business would have excellent business/customer service skills. But the truth is that many don't - I've found this especially true about people in the snake world. A lot of people I have had to deal with in the past year are great - they answer emails promply - provide support as well as excellent product. Then there are those that just don't - they either lack the technical skill (deal better with in-person-transactions) or the business savy (don't realize that it may be important to you to know the heat tape is on backorder). Just as there are different types of buyers there are different types of sellers. I'm one of those sellers that holds your hand through the whole transaction if you need it, you'll get emails from me until your snake gets to you and a couple after - some people like that, some people don't care, others find it annoying. But it is hard for me to get on the phone without my kids pitching a fit - so if you are the type that requires that I sit down and have a conversation with you, then we might have to put off doing business until my kids are all in college (LOL). Jusst different business skills for different people.

Without knowing the situation - I'd say make your intentions clear to the seller - if the seller cannot come thru or is inentionally rude - then take your money elsewhere.
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Tosha

"Nihil facimus sed id bene facimus"

11.42.0 Ball Python (Harry and Fluffy and gang)
1.0.0 Angolan Python (Anakin Skywalker)
0.0.1 Green Tree Python (Verdi - yeah I know but my kids love the book)
0.1.0 Bredls Python (Smurfette)
0.2.0 Feline (Pippen and Pandora)
0.0.1 Desert Tortoise (Pope John Paul aka JP )
2.2.1 Fish (1,2,3,4)
0.0.0 frogs rescued from pool skimmer

Customer service of today is horrible. What might qualify for good service now, would be considered inadequate when I was growing up.

>>In my limited experience with buying bps I have seen both good and bad customer service. My question is how do you deal with sellers that display (after you purchase) poor communication, lack of patience, and overall poor or no customer service? After

How do you deal with it? Well, hopefully you did some research to see if this person/company shows a track record of poor customer service. But this is hard to do in this industry as many are hesitant to say something about a "big breeder". Once the deal is done, you have a couple options: keep trying with the current person, informing them you are not satisfied with service. Let them know what you expect. Of course if they don't care, you likely need to post your experience and move on. If a person gets enough bad press, they will change their ways or lose sales.

>>I know certain things can not be controlled like the weather, back ordering of a product, holidays and what not but when you instantly send that person hundreds of dollars, then naturally you expect in return what you and the seller agreed upon to be done. (Shipping of product or snakes) Easier said than done I guess, if the seller does not come through for what ever reason good or bad excuse, shouldn’t the seller maintain some sort of customer service and try to make the situation right?

I'm a bit confused in this passage. A product such as heat tape being on backorder is different than not being able to ship an animal because of the weather. Personally, if I sold you something like heat tape and then realized I was out, I would offer you a refund. If you decided to wait, I'd likely throw you something extra for your troubles.

I have 6 snakes waiting to go out, but it has been too cold to ship. As a buyer and seller, I can understand wanting to get your animal as quickly as possible. But how do I "make the situation right"? Is it wrong in the first place? I do not control the weather - yours or mine. The one thing I will do, is offer the buyer a refund before I'll sacrafice the safety of the animal.
>>So is it too much to ask of the seller to:
>>1) Keep in touch on a weekly basis with the buyer on the status of his order.

Sounds like good customer service.

>>2) Answering any questions the buyer might have.

Good customer service.

>>3) Providing tracking capabilities on the package (one would hope the package would be insured and have tracking capabilities if you spent a couple hundred dollars for it).

Especially since we are limited to how we can ship reptiles, this should be a no brainer. Although insurance is a different story. To my knowledge, only Delta will insure a reptile and even that is hit and miss.

>>4) Make the situation right (maybe picking up the shipping costs or something else to show the buyer is appreciated for his/her patience during this inconvenience of waiting on the seller to produce).

Again, that depends on the situation. Backorder of heat tape, sure, unable to ship animal due to weather, no.

HTH
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Jay A. Martin
Jay Martin Reptiles

I have been pretty lucky since getting into ball pythons, but when I was buying my galapagos torts I payed a guy $2000 for a hatchling, and when the time came to get it he stopped answering my calls and emails. I has been 3 years and still nothing. Even though he stole my 2 grand he ended up losing money in the end because I would have bought many more animals in the future from him and now he will get nothing.
As for ball pythons my last purchase was a pair of het albinos from Jay Martin, and they are way better than I ever expected and I thought the price was more than fair. I also just picked up a pair of het lavenders from one of the big guys and I was a little short on cash but they offered to ship the snakes to me and I could pay the rest later. I thought this was unbelievable. Both of these sellers now have a customer for life.
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1.2 Het Pied
1.1 Het Lavender Albino(SK)
1.1 Het Albino
0.7 Normals
1.0 66% Het lav albino
1.0 50% Het lav albino
0.0.2 1999 Hatchling Galapagos Torts

I know what you mean,i have spent couple thousands with one person and then they totally dissed ME over the internet.and this guy is one of the old timers as far as colubrid morphs,did i say corns