I don't think the service is very good

paul heller · Post by **paul heller** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:10 pm

I wonder if Shopsmith has any idea how many callers they lose because the callers are tired of waiting in the queue. I have tried several times now to contact customer support. I wait 20 minutes, listening to the awful music loop, and hang up totally frustrated. That is lost business! I wanted to buy something. That purchase won't happen today. Maybe never, if I never get through.

You folks think Shopsmith customer service is excellent. I have to disagree. It used to be. But I think it is now very sub par. Sure, if you get someone it is excellent. But the overall experience really is far below what is normal in the industry, in my opinion.

I can't figure out what is worse: getting someone in a timely manner who has is sitting in India and has no understand of their product, or waiting for an incredibly long time on hold to eventual end up with an expert. I actually think neither one is good, or acceptable.

What a shame. I'm really disillusioned today. And I am one of Shopsmith's better customers. They have an unhappy customer and they don't even know it or know why.

Paul

ryanbp01 · Post by **ryanbp01** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:18 pm

I've encountered the same thing, unfortunately. I guess that why I prefer to order on-line. I have found that if I do call to place an order that is is best to do so shortly after they are open for business.

BPR

jmoore65 · Post by **jmoore65** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 4:36 pm

Sounds like the people who get to speak with a service rep as ok.

Sounds like it's difficult to get a hold of one. I would certainly find this disappointing.

This could of course be good news. Too many customers calling in with orders overwhelming the order desk. How much more of this success can ShopSmith take before they hire more service folks?

(There, I've started another rumor :-) )

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 7:36 pm

paul heller wrote:I wonder if Shopsmith has any idea how many callers they lose because the callers are tired of waiting in the queue. I have tried several times now to contact customer support. I wait 20 minutes, listening to the awful music loop, and hang up totally frustrated. That is lost business! I wanted to buy something. That purchase won't happen today. Maybe never, if I never get through.

You folks think Shopsmith customer service is excellent. I have to disagree. It used to be. But I think it is now very sub par. Sure, if you get someone it is excellent. But the overall experience really is far below what is normal in the industry, in my opinion.

I can't figure out what is worse: getting someone in a timely manner who has is sitting in India and has no understand of their product, or waiting for an incredibly long time on hold to eventual end up with an expert. I actually think neither one is good, or acceptable.

What a shame. I'm really disillusioned today. And I am one of Shopsmith's better customers. They have an unhappy customer and they don't even know it or know why.

Paul

Gosh Paul your experience saddens me. I spent 40 minutes on hold with Shopsmith today. Yes I can order online which was the source of my recent order. The question requiring an answer today would never have been answered online. Linda was great she offered to fulfill the item I had failed to order before then explained how high the freight cost would be as compared to if I ordered the item as part of a larger order. Man its neat to receive an answer that saves dollars. Even if I did find myself writing eight checks to the folks who expected payment while I waited. Hmmmm that seems like great use of my time all the way around. Jim

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 8:19 pm

I do, on occasion, get put on hold for an unacceptably long period of time. I usually do not hang on. I go do something else and then try again later.

I don't know if it has always been this way or if this is a condition that has been caused by the financial crisis and the resulting reduction in force at Shopsmith.

None the less, I am willing to live with it. I do reduce the impact by doing most of my shopping with Shopsmith online.

I have never tried to communicate with Shopsmith by email. That might be interesting.

paul heller · Post by **paul heller** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 8:42 pm

jmoore65 wrote:This could of course be good news. Too many customers calling in with orders overwhelming the order desk. How much more of this success can ShopSmith take before they hire more service folks?

Oh how I wish (hope) you were right. But my guess is that they cut staff and have fewer people there to answer the phones. As I said, they probably do not know how many calls and how much business they are losing. That's what stinks.

I remember I had a chance to tour Gateway 2000 computers in the mid 90s. That was some operation, and they seemed to have great service at that time. They had a huge call center with a big panel on the wall at the end of the room. The panel indicated how many callers waiting, how many lost, and other statistics. They worried about how many were waiting, but the really worried about how many hung up!

Paul

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:01 pm

Paul,

This is one more sign of the times. Don't kid yourself they are painfully aware of their situation. True they cut employees. True they were aware it would make for longer call wait times. it is also true they are like many other American business's in looking toward the internet for orders. The bottom line is we each have a decision to make. How much time can we invest waiting for phones to be answered. How willing are we to switch our habits to buying online. I for one am placing more orders with my vendors online now than ever before. I am not thrilled with that change as I am a people person and thrive on the personal contact. As for shopsmith online orders. Virtually everyone I have placed has shipped trouble free. Yes there have been back orders. On a couple of those I called for an update. I found it very interesting when I returned from a month long vacation and business trip to find all (Yes All) of my back orders waiting for me. When looking online my purchase history shows all orders shipped. Okay I hate back orders. Worse than that I hate seeing any business close their doors. I have lost some thirty business clients over the last couple of years. Its far easier for me to cut vendors slack and try to be positive in these uncomfortable situations. I desire to see America strong and with a viable business community. With these comments I return the soap box to the darkest corner of the closet. Please realize I am not attempting to be offensive. I have no desire to hurt feelings only a desire to see our economy return to a profitable status. fjimp

cincinnati · Post by **cincinnati** » Fri Sep 25, 2009 9:12 pm

With the shape things are in right now it's being between a rock and hard place. I work in retail and we have cut staff to the bone because sale dollars are down. We have the same number of customers but they are buying much much less.
we have the same problem. Everyone knows about lines at the cash register. Customers get very frustrated with a wait in line. But fact of the matter is lines only happen just a few times during the day. In our case we get hit with a rush of customers everyday at 11:20am. You can set you clock to it. Why 11:20? We have no idea, Just the way it is. The rush only happens about 5 to 10min. No way can we hire extra cashiers for just 10min. Now by 11:45 the cashiers will just be standing talking to each other.
I bet Shopsmith can tell the same story. They may go an hour without a call.

I am not sure how big people think Shopsmith is but I have more people in my house at any given time than they do employees. I think they are around 12 employees right now.
Their call center is about the size of my bathroom. I know it can be frustrating being on hold. But how would you like to be the lady who is the only one answering all the calls. Her nerves must be shot by the end of the day.

I have called twice in the last year or so and at most was on hold 10min.

mreese · Post by **mreese** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:16 pm

paul heller wrote:I wonder if Shopsmith has any idea how many callers they lose because the callers are tired of waiting in the queue. I have tried several times now to contact customer support. I wait 20 minutes, listening to the awful music loop, and hang up totally frustrated. That is lost business! I wanted to buy something. That purchase won't happen today. Maybe never, if I never get through.

What a shame. I'm really disillusioned today. And I am one of Shopsmith's better customers. They have an unhappy customer and they don't even know it or know why.

Paul

I agree.
They add to their problems by requiring you to call them to use some of their email specials. I tried to order a several hundred dollar item using the "order in the next 5 days and get XX% off" offer but you had to call them on the phone! Arghhh.... I tried for several days and then gave up. They lost my order.

I have no idea why they would send me an offer in email but not allow me to reply via email or the web site. They require you to call and then are not able to answer the calls. It doesn't seem like good business decisions to me.

By the way, the items I ordered on "email offers" are back ordered. Why put items on sale that you don't have in stock? I don't understand. They ship some pieces and then have to absorb the shipping cost of fulfilling the rest of the order, reducing or eliminating their profit. I still love my machine. I wish them well but ...

fjimp · Post by **fjimp** » Sun Sep 27, 2009 7:37 pm

mreese wrote:I agree.

By the way, the items I ordered on "email offers" are back ordered. Why put items on sale that you don't have in stock? I don't understand. t ...

Well now this question really isn't a mystery. If times are tough. A company doesn't have new products ready for introduction and no way of guessing what items customers may be ready to purchase. Why not create specials that tease the customers imagination. Then when they receive orders can place orders with vendors prepared to ship. Great plan we the end user get items we desire at a reasonable price. We help a company we care about and who needs to generate cash flow. Personally it sounds like a win win to me. Incidentally the special items I have ordered in the last 3 or 4 months are shipping far quicker now than six months ago. Now I need to order from Shopsmith. In that I spent the last month traveling and not ordering anything my Fed Ex and UPS drivers are going into withdrawal. fjimp