Just last week I received a package on my front porch. This was a replacement part for a tool which I purchased used, knowing it needed the part. The trick is, I needed it a few months ago. I ordered the part from the manufacturer directly on July 2, 2015. This part was said to be in stock and would ship to my home from their location which was also in the United States. I heard good things about the company and I bought the tool with confidence I could have the part and the tool fixed quickly. I thought, no big deal I will get it within a week, fix it, and then use it.
After not receiving a shipping notification and nothing showing up at my door for two weeks I decided to call the company. I finally got hold of a customer service representative after I had to wade through the automated phone attendant. The person explained that they had in fact received my order and they would try to ship it out the next day so watch my email. Well, the next day came and when it was nearing the end of the day I decided to call in again since I had still yet to receive a shipping confirmation. This time I got in touch with a different customer service rep who explained there had been a fire in their warehouse and that nothing was shipping that day or even that week. The fire didn’t happen that day, it had happened over 2 weeks prior to that. Instead of notifying me when I placed my order, or even when I called in the first time I was simply told incorrect information. I gave them the benefit of the doubt and after discussing the issue the customer rep. told me they are doing their best to get items lined up and out as quickly as they can. It should only be a few more weeks.
I accepted the explanation and began the waiting period. a few weeks came and I received a back-order notification in the mail, still no notification of any sort stating they are not shipping any products out. Few more weeks and another post card. After the third post card I had almost forgotten about it. Finally I received an e mail, my item had shipped. Two days later it was on my porch and packed like any other shipment. No explanation for the delay, no apologies, and as if it was just normal business for them.
I ordered the part on July 2nd, I received the part on October 13th. Needless to say, the quality is good but the customer service communication is fairly lacking.
I began to think about what we do at EXAIR, and came to the realization that if something like this had happened here we would have sent out an E-News, a simple e-mail, tell customers who call in, and other forms of communication to every last customer that had an order in and we would be notifying every customer that was placing new orders. We would be up front with the information and we would not hesitate to apologize for the inconvenience. We have had disruptive incidents in the past which we handled this way, this is just good business etiquette. This goes hand in hand with the fact you speak to a human when you call in to our office, all stock products (and we stock it ALL) ship same day on orders received by 3 PM ET when shipping in the US, and we will give you updates via e-mail or phone however you prefer. Then to top it all off, we will give you a 30 day guarantee and a 5 year built to last warranty on pneumatic parts.
So if you want to be informed, treated right, get the products you need in a timely manner, and get your problem solved, you have zero reason to go with anyone else.
Brian Farno
Application Engineer Manager
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF