Many of them really don't understand this. Then they wonder where all the business went. At this point in time, I do not have a negative impression of Jerry Ma. I will assume he is honest, and maybe a bit too busy to properly address some issues he has. From one of his Ebay e-mails I am under the impression that he may not even see some of the items he is selling. I know he is based in Hong Kong while the items he sells are from mainland China. I'm not sure of exactly how he operates his business but he said that someone else does his packing for him. What I ran into may not directly be his fault, but it's his name on the business so it's still his responsibility. I do, however, sympathize with the position he is in, having to rely on others.Zensuji wrote:Its all business at the end of the day.
This isnt directed at any vendor in particular but its a real shame when a small business doesnt understand the massive impact of small gestures of good customer service does for a business.
Earlier this week I received an order from another mainland Chinese vendor which is a good example of how these vendors often miss some very simple, but key points about customer service. Of three items purchased (wall art), the largest was smashed because the outside box was smaller than the inside box the item came in. The product was the same size as the inside box. There was no room anywhere to pad this item, so even though it was double boxed, any force on the outside box would transmit directly to the fragile product. It apparently did, as four pieces of procelain were broken off.
The second item was a wood plate with double dragon carvings on it. In the product description, the pictures showed a black lacquer plate with a white background and red painted highlights on the details of the two dragons. What I received was black dragons on a bare wood background with green details. Unfortunately, the green details blend so well with the main black color that the details become invisible and the dragons become just two sillhouettes. The original red color in the pictures properly highlighted the details and they were clearly visible. It was also supposed to come with a mounted hanger, but when I went to hang it on the wall I saw that they forgot to put the hanger on or to include one with the order. When I brought these issues to the vendor's attention, their answer was that they were aware of the change but didn't have the time to take photographs of the replacement, and that they try to keep this to a minimum. In my opinion, the minimum should be zero. There is no excuse for knowingly shipping the wrong item to a customer without notifying them first.
The third item survived, so this order was not a total waste of time.
The vendor responded quickly and offered a very reasonable and convenient financial solution, but although I do appreciate this, due to their knowingly shipping a different product than what was ordered, and due to their inexperience in proper packaging, it is unlikely that I would make another purchase from them. When vendors are too busy to ship the right items then I'm too busy to fill the shopping cart and hit the "buy" button.