I think most of us live in this world. Many dealers are small one man bands with different support staff in every day on a part-time basis. A customer in the shop will always take priority when the alternative is to be on the phone in another office often on a different floor with no oversight of whether someone is waltzing off with 4K speakers etc.
It strikes me that a lot of people on this thread are describing how they think all customers should behave like them and all dealers should behave like theirs. Life just isnât like that. If I ring I want to talk to someone but I understand my dealer may be so busy they may need to call me back. If I email then no matter how small it is I expect a response. Again, it may not be immediate but the bare minimum is a response.
This idea that a call is a must is a 19th century quirk of men of a certain age and a limited sample on a specialist web site. If you have more than one communication channel thatâs a recognition people have different needs and you should expect people to use them. A well known dealer has channels on Snapchat, Insta, Facebook and Twitter. They broadcast once in a blue moon from each and constantly complain about people using those channels to contact them instead of phone or email. They take 5 minutes to answer the phone (because they prioritise people about to physically engage) but often never reply to emails. Absolutely deserve their poor reputation.
This whole âemails can fall offâ before you know it is nonsense. If you run a business and youâre so disorganised that you canât trawl through emails and answer them all then you deserve someone coming on a thread saying they wonât use their business.
I agree that both e-mail and phone should be available for customer enquiries and both channels should be responded to by the dealer, even if there has to be a slight delay if the dealer is indisposed.
As for priority, both channels of communication should be afforded equal priority. Furthermore, the dealer cannot know what an enquiry by phone or e-mail could lead to. It is also possible that a lengthy demo a dealer is embroiled in could lead to nothing, whereas an unreturned e-mail or phone call could have led to a new and profitable customer, so ignore that phone message or e-mail enquiry at your peril. Additionally a customer might test a dealer with a rather small initial purchase, so the size of the initial enquiry is no indication of the ultimate value of a new customer.
I still maintain however that complex and/or expensive purchases are best explored via a conversation and a demo at the dealer and, ideally, followed up with a trial at home. I would never spend a sizeable chunk of money unless I trusted the dealer. For me, I can only assess trust via conversations and face to face meetings. If I were buying a cable then fine, I would communicate in the most expeditious way. If I am considering an expensive black box or two, I will want to meet the dealer and have a demo.
I do it the other way round: in some circumstances when I send things to people by email, e.g. too long for text or with attachments, if requiring urgent attention by people who donât habitually read their emails several times a day I will often send a text to draw their attention to it.
I have been in retail 40 years, you never leave an in person customer to answer the phone, EVER! But, as soon as you are finished, return the phone call immediately. As for emails, answer them as soon as possible always within the same day.
I also have emailed many dealers through their websites or email address and like you many did not reply or took too long. Unfortunately this is a Normal UK lack of service. Country and business need to wake up, they miss opportunities. All industries the same. They put systems in place and donât assign responsibility to check emails and deal with the. Employ but donât train. Useless country and management.
In my hunt for a good used nap 300, and when I finally discovered that I can just change the power cable on an amp bought in the UK, to an EU shuko style. I took contact to 2 UK dealers. One with a 2017 demo unit, and Tomtom that had several older units listed on there site. I got no reply back from the mail sent about the demo 2017 model, but after 20 mailes and 2 phonecalls to Tomtam I bought a 2008 unit Dr and send to HQ for servicing. So answering mails may not always be a bad idea.
I have just corresponded and ordered a new Hana cart and a nac 32.5 complete with onboard MC card and Hicap both CB from a very pleasant and astute HiFi dealer down Tiverton way.
Got to say: my local dealer is excellent replying to emails, or any form of contact come to that, their service is exceptional - highly recommended.
Made many enquires re their âprelovedâ stock & they get back to me very quickly - am I just âluckyâ?? (Have mentioned their name before - not sure if allowed )
John
Of course they got back to you - you are a regular. If I dropped email to my local dealer I would probably get a phone call back. The point of this thread was about dealer response to unknown folk sending emails asking for ex-demo gear. In that circumstance a phone call likely to be more fruitful IMO
Except email was fruitful for both of us with this unknown guy from France emailing a previously unknown dealer in Tiverton. Both can work.
As always itâs down to dealer and customer to both make the effort required.
This dealer has just called me to confirm some details ( that I had got wrong). Excellent service.
Just to add: Iâve (luckily) had good responses (& then purchased) from an email to a dealer in Manchester & one in Scotland (Iâm Midlands), it does bug me when I hear of peoples bad experiences - no matter what the current financial times are: itâs common curtesy to reply to an enquiry, of any form; glad to hear that people donât go back to dealers that have ignored them
Congratulations on your purchase and weâll done!
I too bought an ex-display Uniti that had never been played or registered, so had full warranty. Saved a substantial chunk of money, it sounds great and the dealer was happy to turn over his stock.
Nice oneâŚenjoy!
I am glad you got sorted out. There is no place for putting people down on this forum - I have asked for help on matters which were obvious to many forum users and received great guidance. Thatâs they way it should be. Whether you initiate contact with a dealer by email or phone is a matter of personal choice. As a self employed person for many years, I would always be alive to a new business opportunity. Many came to nothing. The means of communication were of little importance. I hope you stick with the forum -itâs great and many users give of their valuable time freely and help us all
Thank you for your response âŚwe are currently surrounded by mountains of boxes in our new apartment in a Grade 2* Georgian Town House.
Our main living area is 32 â x 20 â with eleven huge sash windows !
Placement of my very modest system of Uniti Star and Credo speakers will be an interesting challenge but other matters are at the top of my to do list.
Iâm sure I will continue to use the forum notwithstanding the less than helpful nature of some replies
Regards
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