It’s rare these days to find excellent service, both online and in RL but I had an extremely positive experience today right after having an absolutely horrid experience in the arena of hobby shop customer service. The experiences were truly mirror opposites of each other.
First the bad:
Earlier this week I’d placed an order for the Stug Schurzen set I needed with DiscountModels and the whole week went by without an email confirmation or any other communication for that matter. Called their toll free service number today and got a voice message saying they were out until Monday. That was the last straw for me and I sent an email cancelling my order and went looking to see if it was available in other places.
Now the good:
Found the exact same set I needed on Hometown Hobbies for $1 more. Placed my order and received an email confirmation within seconds. Sent another email asking if they could expedite the order since I’d already lost a week on this item. They responded back (within 5 minutes!) saying they’d already boxed and shipped the order!
They’ve made a customer for life out of me because of this (and Discount Models lived up to their name and lost me as a customer for life). It’s amazing to me how badly some businesses can handle things over the Internet and, by contrast, others can do it so well.
wbill, glad it worked out in the end.
tho, it won’t be ‘the end’ until you have the item!
a case in point:
some weeks ago, i ordered the barrel for my Stug from squadron over the internet,
along w/ some A-7 parts for my buddy.
no confirmation. time goes by, no package.
call customer service, they have no record of my order.
re-do order over phone. blame myself for waiting 2 weeks to follow up.
package arrives today (ordered Tuesday), and i just get it at the office as they were working late, otherwise it would have been locked in there until Monday!
open the box. A-7 PE, A-7 resin cockpit, squadron catalog. no barrel.
called up. they have to check & call back. they call back. out of stock.
the only reason i placed the order in the first place !
they tell me to check back by phone or on the website in a few days,
as they get stuff from Eduard once a month and they may get a shipment in a few days.
yeah that worked so well the first 2 times i ordered it!
so my missing barrel is not automatically back-ordered,
and they don’t seem to really know if they have one coming in in the next shipment.
but if i call them in a few days, they will make their best guess if they do or not?
i think i will pass.
i won’t say i will ‘never’ order from them again, but i won’t be in any hurry!
looks like i use the kit barrel & save $12.
I’ve never had this bad of an experience with Discount Models, but then I’ve only placed two or three orders with them. My biggest beef with them is their prices! Compared to numerous other web sites, many of their items are extremely expensive.
I have to agree with you - Hometown Hobbies has some great customer service. In the past year and a half, I’ve order more than $1,200 in merchandise from them in probably 12 or 13 seperate orders. They have always gone out of their way to let me know when items were delayed during backorder or if items were no longer available. They do have some quirky ways of handling some problems, but nothing that bad. The only online site with better customer service (IMHO) is Great Models.
This was my first (and last) experience with Discount Models. I’ve ordered extensively from Hometown and also Military Hobbies (only complaint there is that it’s in Canada with delays handing off between USPS and Canada Post). Even when I’ve had problems with Hometown they’ve been extremely prompt in dealing with them and that makes a big difference in my book.
Ed,
You’re right the ultimate test will be when my order arrives but at least I know it’s been shipped now. My professional existence revolves around measuring and improving turnaround times for our business customers and a 5-minute TAT on an internet transaction is just phenomenal in my experience. [:D]
Had a bit of a problem with Greatmodels, but they did step to the plate for me. They ran out of stock on an item and I asked if they would substitute an item. They did and it ended up costing more. I already had paid based on the pre exiting order and it ended up costing more. Well, since they said I was a good repetitive customer they would absorb the extra cost and ship it to me pronto. Kudos to them. I have done much business with them and will do more in the future.
I have waited about 6 weeks for a delivery from Micromark (I was quoted 5 weeks initially). Ive had problems with my PC and had to reformat, losing lots of data including the order details. I sent an e-mail to them on Thursday to try and track my order. I received a reply on Friday, apologising for the late/lost delivery and and that they would send another. I rate this as exceptional service, considering that I am 1000s of miles away and my first order from them. I doubt that I would receive this service here in the UK.
When my order lands I will praise them further.
As far as ordering online, I consider myself the KING!!! LOL Hobby shops are as plentiful as pork products here so I get everything in the mail. I used to be a Squadron shopper but found them so darn expensive. I had a bad experience with them too. I ordered about $150 worth of stuff from them and the shipping was free as a result. They shipped it as cheaply as they could. When it hit the military system it went space available and I was a month waiting for what normally takes 7-14 days.
Since then I have gone to Great Models. I love the fact that I can view my cart and see if any back orders are in yet.
As for Micro Mark, they are some of the fastest in the business as far as I can tell. Ive gotten orders from them in as little as 4 days. Thats unreal and I was shocked when my order showed up in mail call.
What is the URL for hometown hobbies, maybe Ill check them out next.
I’ve never tried Micro Mark but will look into them as another potential source of online goodies.
I used to shop solely on price but good customer service is worth a few extra $$$ if I know it will save frustration down the road and guarantee I get what I need when I need it.
I had one recently with GreatModels. I ordered the Revell-Germany 1/72 U-Boot (yes, I ordered a boat model- first and only. I was young and experimenting. I didn’t inhale) Well, it came all smashed up. Sent a request for parts ro Revell, but didn’t hear anything for 2 months. Greatmodels sent me a whole new model free of charge.
My Schurzen set arrived right on schedule today. Can’t get any better than that.
As an interesting side note, I did receive a very angry email from the owner of Discount Models accusing me of negligence in not filling out my order form correctly and leaving him stuck with a $12 piece of merchandise. That to me is somewhat ironic considering he uses a manual order form that does not have any restrictions on fields for submission validation or auto-response. When I pointed this out to him and apologized for not including an email address, his response to my finding his site difficult to use was simply “I’ve processed over 3,000 sales this year and yours is the first complaint!” Not exactly the way to win over sale # 3,001 as that destroyed any remaining inclination I had towards doing business with him in the future. I wonder if he’s stopped to think how much potential business his format could be running off as opposed to insisting there isn’t any room for improvement/betterment in terms of the service he’s trying to provide…[sigh]
I use my LHS for consummable supplies but their kit stocking is mostly Tamiya in the area of armor plus their prices aren’t the greatest, although I still browse through there when I happen by.
They do have a nice supply of brushes, paints, and general tools and I support them in that regard pretty heavily, but I buy all my kits online these days as the savings in terms of tax and overall pricing outweigh the shipping costs, especially since it’s rare for me to order single items when I go to spend. [:D]
Well Bill! it sure sounds like a good reason not to have Discount Models on my list of places to shop online for merchandise. I was trained as a manger long ago, that the customer always comes first, and is always right! That state of mind took me along ways in customer relations for many years, and I dealt with people who were in far more demanding positions then mine. Thanks for the heads up. I’ll shop elsewhere. semper fi, mike