HauntedMyst
07-30-2001, 11:41 AM
I moved this here since it really didn't belong in the other thread and I geniunely didn't intend to derail the discussion, just to spout off about the horrible customer service experiance I had. Many of you have read this already.
This is a hobby industry, an industry I think needs to be extra sensitive to customer service. Let's face it, economically, we're on a down slide. One of the first places budgets will be cut is from hobby spending. Who will you spend your money with, those that appreciate and support you as a customer or those that just take your cash and run? Now a days, you have many motor choices, names like Peak, Orion and others have grown in the past few years. Reedy continues to be a strong name.
Sadly, all too often companies fail to see the need for good customer service, especially in the hobby industry, and generally speaking we the customer just put up with it. My local hobby shop excels at it (HobbyTown USA) while others in the Chicago area are not that good at it. The 2 biggest RC car shops in Chicagoland stink at it. While they have excellent stock, their sales people are rude and unfriendly, and as a result they don't get my business any more. Perhaps they felt they were the only game in town and for a while they probably were. Why go to the extra trouble to provide good customer service when with less work they could earn the same in come? After all their customers couldn't go anywhere else to get their hobby stuff.
On one hand, you have companies like Trinity, who take your money and don't provide (at least in my case) any customer service and on the other hand you have companies like HPI and Associated. I have had to contact HPI on a few occasions with troubles with my vehicles. Kent Clausen himself responded to me and went the extra mile to send me no less then 8 rebuild parts for my MT shocks, free of charge!!! He didn't have to do that, he did it to provide excellent customer service. A while back, I contacted Associated with some trouble with my LRP speed control. I was shocked when Mark Pavidis himself replied with an answer and a direct contact to him if I had anymore questions. Did he have to do that? No, he did it to provide excellent customer service and an excellent customer experiance for Associated. I bought 2 Proline Modena bodies and the masks they sent me left residue all over the windows. I tried cleaning them with every know substance to man and they wouldn't come clean. I emailed them, they sent me 2 new bodies, no questions asked. I had one bottle of Testors spray badly on me and contacted them about it. They sent me 16 bottles of paint and 2 rolls of masking tape to make up for it. Did they have to? No, they did it to provide exceptional customer service and because they were smart enough to recognise that my money could easly to go their competitors from then on. Even here at RCCA when I've had questions or comments, I hear back from you guys actually writing the magazine, the names I read each and every month, when you could have slugged it off to some office drone to take care of. Why? I assume it's good customer service. In each of these examples, it shows not only exceptional customer service, it also shows integrity and character. Some companies have it, some don't. The final product is not what I judge a company by. I judge it by my over all experiance with them.
This is a hobby industry, an industry I think needs to be extra sensitive to customer service. Let's face it, economically, we're on a down slide. One of the first places budgets will be cut is from hobby spending. Who will you spend your money with, those that appreciate and support you as a customer or those that just take your cash and run? Now a days, you have many motor choices, names like Peak, Orion and others have grown in the past few years. Reedy continues to be a strong name.
Sadly, all too often companies fail to see the need for good customer service, especially in the hobby industry, and generally speaking we the customer just put up with it. My local hobby shop excels at it (HobbyTown USA) while others in the Chicago area are not that good at it. The 2 biggest RC car shops in Chicagoland stink at it. While they have excellent stock, their sales people are rude and unfriendly, and as a result they don't get my business any more. Perhaps they felt they were the only game in town and for a while they probably were. Why go to the extra trouble to provide good customer service when with less work they could earn the same in come? After all their customers couldn't go anywhere else to get their hobby stuff.
On one hand, you have companies like Trinity, who take your money and don't provide (at least in my case) any customer service and on the other hand you have companies like HPI and Associated. I have had to contact HPI on a few occasions with troubles with my vehicles. Kent Clausen himself responded to me and went the extra mile to send me no less then 8 rebuild parts for my MT shocks, free of charge!!! He didn't have to do that, he did it to provide excellent customer service. A while back, I contacted Associated with some trouble with my LRP speed control. I was shocked when Mark Pavidis himself replied with an answer and a direct contact to him if I had anymore questions. Did he have to do that? No, he did it to provide excellent customer service and an excellent customer experiance for Associated. I bought 2 Proline Modena bodies and the masks they sent me left residue all over the windows. I tried cleaning them with every know substance to man and they wouldn't come clean. I emailed them, they sent me 2 new bodies, no questions asked. I had one bottle of Testors spray badly on me and contacted them about it. They sent me 16 bottles of paint and 2 rolls of masking tape to make up for it. Did they have to? No, they did it to provide exceptional customer service and because they were smart enough to recognise that my money could easly to go their competitors from then on. Even here at RCCA when I've had questions or comments, I hear back from you guys actually writing the magazine, the names I read each and every month, when you could have slugged it off to some office drone to take care of. Why? I assume it's good customer service. In each of these examples, it shows not only exceptional customer service, it also shows integrity and character. Some companies have it, some don't. The final product is not what I judge a company by. I judge it by my over all experiance with them.