On Tue, 6 Oct 1998, Dennis Barr wrote:
> Hi list: For the second time, I have requested by e mail parts for my
> TR4. I have not contacted the "big three" as I am looking for used,
> original items. Last Friday, I e mailed requests for these parts to four
> of our suppliers, including Rimmer in England, and guess what--the only
> company who has had the courtesy of answering was Rimmer ! They did not
> have what I wanted, apologised and asked that I try them again.
> Why do the suppliers have e mail if they are not going to answer us?
> Like many of you, I cannot always call during the work day or fax in a
> request. This night use of the list and e mail is about my best avenue
> of communication.
Unfortunately, the suppliers are not always as connected as we are.
Case in point: Obsolete Automotive (in Sarnia, ontario) are a mail-order
firm. They deal in most of the major LBC marques. They have a flyer that
comes out from time to time, and they make a big hoot on the back page
about having a web site and an email address.
The web-site has not benn updated since it was first posted. (probably
close to 2 years). Also, they do not answer their e-mail.
Why? There's only one employee who is "connected" enough to answer email,
and often I surmise that the email gets printed out and stuffed into
someone's mailbox, or just stashed into the "round file"! As for
web-work, *work* is the operative term. It's a lot of thinking and time
to organize a web site, debug, update, et al. Especially when you have
more important things to do.
I found that you get much quicker responses with a phone call. I
harangued them about not answering their email- but what else can you do?
I think it is also possible to set up a thing that receives email and
forwards it to a fax... might be a good suggestion for the big businesses,
but I'm not sure how well it would work (imagine a fax machine full of
spam....)
-Malcolm
* There is a FAQ for this list! Its temporary home is:
http://www3.bc.sympatico.ca/walker/triumph/trfaq.htm
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