Customer service

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 12:51 pm

My SS e-mails are up to 3-4 per week! I have never gone a week without ANY! They have been coming after I updated my address after months without an email valid(the former address became extinct). They began arriving even though many months(year?) had passed since ordering anything.

8iowa · Post by **8iowa** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 1:11 pm

joe:

Some time back, Nick Engler explained the email problem; that they send numerous emails out, and customer's ISP's fail to deliver them. I find that my ISP lets some emails through, and then others are held up. Fortunately I can search my "quarantine" file and retrive them, but often several days have passed and the offer is no longer valid. In this case, several times I have called customer service and they honor the price anyway.

Would the call centers in India do this for us? I don't think so,

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 4:22 pm

foxtrapper wrote:They may be friendly if and when you finally get hold of someone, but as a customer, I'd rate their customer service pretty low.

If you don't order from them frequently, they drop you from their e-mail list. Now it's not like it costs them much to e-mail me a sales flier. When I order something, I'll be emailed for 2-3 months about sales, and then it quits.

Items are backordered without warning to the customer, and left indefinately on backorder.

Prices are adjusted without the consent of the customer. I did consider taking action on this one. I had a signed contract for X, not X+. I got the excuse that it was an incorrect price, but that's just an excuse, we had a legally enforceable signed contract.

Their web page is poor for prospective customers to use. It's confusing, cluttered and difficult to navigate. They lose potential customers here quite a bit.

I like my machine, but I cannot say I'm enamored of the company.

I'm sorry, foxtrapper, but the only thing you have said here that I can relate to is that you like your MarkV.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 7:18 pm

dusty wrote:I'm sorry, foxtrapper, but the only thing you have said here that I can relate to is that you like your MarkV.

Clear and concise as usual!

doug45601 · Post by **doug45601** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:02 pm

foxtrapper wrote:They may be friendly if and when you finally get hold of someone, but as a customer, I'd rate their customer service pretty low.

If you don't order from them frequently, they drop you from their e-mail list. Now it's not like it costs them much to e-mail me a sales flier. When I order something, I'll be emailed for 2-3 months about sales, and then it quits.

Items are backordered without warning to the customer, and left indefinately on backorder.

Prices are adjusted without the consent of the customer. I did consider taking action on this one. I had a signed contract for X, not X+. I got the excuse that it was an incorrect price, but that's just an excuse, we had a legally enforceable signed contract.

Their web page is poor for prospective customers to use. It's confusing, cluttered and difficult to navigate. They lose potential customers here quite a bit.

I like my machine, but I cannot say I'm enamored of the company.

Be sure to walk softly while on thin ice! This forum is full of dedicated and loyal Shopsmith Inc. users. Negative comments and statements are not appreciated here. Owning a Shopsmith MKV and liking it is not enough to be a true loyal fan. You must also support the Shopsmith Inc no matter what and always defend it against all enemies. If you don't follow these suggestions you'll be subject to PM's and asked to explain yourself! Now be nice and play the game as our forum leaders would have us do! (They are the ones who live on the form more then they do in their shop)

shydragon · Post by **shydragon** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 8:10 pm

I have only called them one time and it turned out to be a very frustrating. When I placed a very large order with them, I asked that it be delivered to a different address where someone would be home. Well, they did as requested, but they created a new account for me, which then became my default. So, when I go to view my recent order, I don't see anything, or when ever I go to place an order, this other address shows up. So, I change the address, place my order. Then when I view my order, there is nothing there. It is now under the new account they created, which doesn't show up from your Owners Page.

So, my phone call was regarding that. My request was for them to change my default account back to what it was. They said they couldn't do that. I told them, "that doesn't make sense, you created the new account, you should be able to change it" So anyway, when I place an order, I am unable to view it from the Owners Page, only from the email confirmation.

I make other purchases, using different addresses without changes to my account, just because I used a different shipping address. So, I don't know if it laziness, too much of a hassle, or they really don't have the computer smarts. So, now I just live with it.

8iowa · Post by **8iowa** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 9:35 pm

dragon:

I can't relate to your problem at all. Somehow there must a be mis-communication/understanding gap between you and customer service.

I spend the winter months in Gainesville, and the summer in the U.P. I have orders sent to both places - no trouble at all. In fact, last fall I had several items on backorder, slated to be shipped to the U.P. When we left to go south, I called customer service and had them change the shipping destination to Gainesville - it happened smooth as silk - no problem. You can have two shipping destinations (perhaps even more) on your account. I do. You should be able to have a billing address, and separately specify where you want the items shipped to.

shydragon · Post by **shydragon** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:12 pm

8iowa,

Question: When you go to owners page and review recent orders, do you see all your orders, whether they go to one address or the other?

I don't, by changing the shipping destination on just that one order, a new account was created, even though all the other info stayed the same. So from that point on, whenever I order, and then go to checkout, it brings up the page where you put email and phone number in, and the one time address use is prefilled. I'll manually change it, submit my order, but it is still under the new account. So, I am unable to see my new orders when you view "recent orders" as that is tied to the original account. That is why I called them, to try and get that sorted out. It was like beating your head against a wall.

In fact, if I go to "View recent orders" it is now blank. None of the orders show up now. It says "for status call such and such number" They must have purged that data.

wlhayesmfs · Post by **wlhayesmfs** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 10:30 pm

I don't know how anyone gets dropped but I am on a very very limited budget and do not order very often at all. But I see emails weekly of not more on specials and sales. In fact I just got my hollowing tools last week from the recent over stock sale. If SS was going to drop anyone that does not order from them it would be me. I just get small fix it up items very seldomly and get most of my items from rebuying someone else MkV or Er that don't appreciate.
I will love the times I can actually order from them
I agree on being nice to the SS bunch with out them to start with where would we be now? Think about that

a1gutterman · Post by **a1gutterman** » Wed Feb 04, 2009 11:25 pm

It costs SS nothing to keep your address on the e-mail list. It WOOD cost them someones time to remove the e-address of those that do knot order. I do knot think that SS will remove anyones e-address from the e-mail list unless a request to do so is made. The thing I have found is that my ISP does knot want to deliver all my e-mail: They decide what is SPAM and what is junk and do knot send it on to me. I stopped them from that practice about a year ago. Now my ISP sends me ALL of my mail and I decide what I do knot want. My ISP does mark those items of my e-mail that they think are SPAM. About 25% of what I get from SS is marked as SPAM and the rest is knot. I have no idea how they make their decision on that. I have registered the SS address on my preferences for receiving mail from right on my ISP site. None of it should be marked as SPAM.