Why do so many shaving related vendors have such bad customer service?

[DesertIguana]

Honestly, I don't think most people use voice mail anymore!
My communication with vendors (and I'm sure most other people too) is via email or chat.
Matter of fact, I can't remember the last time I left a voicemail or received one.
So I wouldn't necessarily blame a vendor on bad customer service from the lack of hearing a voicemail. Voicemail is a legacy thing that's still included in phone plans but rarely gets used anymore. (Not to be confused with customer care via telephone that usually puts you in a cue and offers you a callback).
One other thing, that YouTube vendor that you mention has a contact page on their website which is probably their primary channel of communication with customers. I once had an issue with a purchase and they responded to me with a resolution in less than 24 hours!
My suggestion would be to use email or chat before anything else when contacting a company.

I'm old school I personally like talking with live person. Not being give choice like 1 for English, 2 for Spanish, 3 for French. Problem with voice mail is if you have it, return calls, or turn it off. I do not like go to www this, that and other BS. Email is ok, but if person who is on receiving end don’t say got it, thanks, or? Did it make destination????

I recently undertook a project for friend who is doing a fund raising event, I did not call and talk to bots, or vm. I work to get hold of person I need talk to. Locally I did it old school, walking, and talking to people. was I successful, yes had I had a larger window of time I would have predicted more.

Maybe I am wrong but when I started my small service business, I did it old school, walk, and talking to people behind the door off every business. If you don’t look behind every door of every business, you have zero idea what the business does.

 

[GrizzlyCA]

I have to say I agree with all that had been said here. I have had great experience with Pasteurs and Italian Barber.

What I find inconsistent is thst Some of the smaller artisans will answer an email or DM on Instagram in hours. On the other hand , the people that don’t even reply to an email asking about something I want to buy for over a month is crazy. And that means they have lost my business….

 

[hugosf]

Maggards, Captain’s Choice (@Captain Pre-Capsize) and Blackland (@Blackland Razors) are the best in the business. Customer service beyond excellent.

West Coast Shaving, Pasteur and Italian Barber are good too.
On the other way … there are very bad vendors in the wet shaving world

 

[muzichead]

I should have specified:
What I meant was, I hope nobody mentions any bad vendors!
The good ones always need praise and should be mentioned by name.

I have a problem with this in that, in my opinion, it's hypocritical that you can name vendors that are good and not the bad ones!! I'm gonna call out the bad ones just the same as it just might help someone else not make the mistake of ordering from a problem vendor and have to go through the same BS you just did...

My biggest problem with CS is too many people let vendors off too easily nowadays.

eg... If a vendor takes an order from you and ships the wrong merchandise to you and then after contacting them they offer to send out a replacement for free, usually after they receive the wrong item back, which they usually expect you to pay for return shipping and that's ok to most people!!

This is where someone who owned a business that prided itself in CS differs, the replacement item is overnighted and a call tag for the wrong item is issued no questions asked!! If I have to wait another 3-7 days for the original item I correctly ordered, they just put themselves on the list and tells me they are more important than me and will never get my money again, and it is up to me to let someone else know so they don't have to go through what I did...

 

[DesertIguana]

I live close to Razor Emporium, the VA has New Super Clinic within a mile, when I got to the Clinic I go to Razor Emporium. I do not buy much as I am sort of minimalist. Meaning if I have a Can of Soap, I may wait until its is gone or close to MT to buy more. Find the people are Razor Emporium are friendly, know product, and best price are good.

Stuff like Blades I buy on e-bay, have shopped AilExpress one they get good deals. Subscribe to a few Wet Shaving sites, most don't offer much to get me too excited. A sale has to be true sale, l true smoking deal to get my attention.

 

[luvmysuper]

I have a problem with this in that, in my opinion, it's hypocritical that you can name vendors that are good and not the bad ones!! I'm gonna call out the bad ones just the same as it

For the record - whether someone wishes to name names is entirely a personal choice, and we respect that, but...
B&B has always been a place where we welcome both positive AND negative feedback.
As long as it is factually recounting experience, we are happy to host both.
I can't tell you the number of times we have had to step in and admonish members who were being critical of someone who had negative feedback on a product or business.
We will continue to do that here.
Not everything is always sunshine and roses.
We've had our fair share of despicable characters whose fanboys always try to quash negative experiences with their favored guy.

 

[LRod]

I have a problem with this in that, in my opinion, it's hypocritical that you can name vendors that are good and not the bad ones!!

Hypocritical?
I think you need to re-read my thread title and the content that I wrote!
It was my rant generalizing a problem that I see in this industry. And I concluded it by asking for your opinions on the topic. I didn't create it as a thread for bashing vendors!
Since that wasn't the threads intent, I won't call anyone out. Plenty of other threads here that already do that! But it doesn't mean that you can't praise anyone on this thread. Praise for doing the right thing is a good thing and it belongs in any thread regardless of it's content!

 

[BigJ]

My experience has been pretty good dealing with retailers like Pasteur Pharmacy, Maggard Razors, Italian Barber and Smallflower. Also good have been some overseas vendors like Connaught, Gifts&Care, Yourshaving and Shavemac. All emails have been answered in a reasonable time. I haven't dealt much with the artisans directly, though.

+1! This is pretty much my experience!

If a vendor has a poor rep or if service is sub-par, then I do not return.

 

[luvmysuper]

Hypocritical?
I think you need to re-read my thread title and the content that I wrote!
It was my rant generalizing a problem that I see in this industry. And I concluded it by asking for your opinions on the topic. I didn't create it as a thread for bashing vendors!
Since that wasn't the threads intent, I won't call anyone out. Plenty of other threads here that already do that. But it doesn't mean that you can't praise anyone on this thread. Praise for doing the right thing isn't a bad thing regardless of the thread that you're expressing it on.

Perhaps he wasn't so much saying that you personally were hypocritical, but that generally in the online world there are raging examples where the hue and cry is always "did you contact the business before you posted here?".

 

[WetShaveVet]

Never, ever had an issue with Top of The Chain, Italian Barber, Blackland, Timeless, Simpson, or Shave Nation. Other than that, my experience is very limited. Perhaps that is a good thing.

 

[Jay21]

If I’m shipped the wrong item and the vendor expects me to pay return shipping, I’m opening a dispute with my credit card company.

 

[rsp1202]

I can't recall ever having a problem with a vendor. OTOH, I've had two unsatisfactory factory-direct experiences, enough to put me off their brands.

 

[DesertIguana]

Well if people keep having great customer expierences with a particular vendor, they will by again, and again.


Easier to keep customer, then attract new one.

 

[LRod]

Again, I find it hypocritical that you find it ok to praise a vendor by name when they do good but don't name the bad ones and hope nobody else does when they have bad CS!! You say its out of respect but its disrespectful for you to not share the info with your fellow forum members. The thread is about bad CS, is it not? In my opinion it's just as important to share info with other forum members whether CS has been good or bad. By not naming the bad one's you are essentially letting someone else possibly make a purchase from a vendor with questionable CS...

Maybe you need to re-read this post!!

I did read your thread title and read it again, you asked why so many shave related vendors have such bad CS, yet you don't want to and hope nobody else names any vendor that has bad CS!! Again, in my opinion it's as important to let your fellow forum members aware of any vendor with questionable CS...

Agree to disagree!
I don't like to go in circles. I'm here to enjoy my time and respect others opinions. I'm not here to judge or argue with anyone. You're free to skip over a thread and also free to create your own if you'd like.

 

[DesertIguana]

Not a shave company but example of what good customer service was in the old days.

LL Bean Freeport, ME, answer phone 7 x 24 x 366, people were knowledgeable on product, they also had products specialists, and stood well behind everything they sold.

Use to get catalogues 3-6 times a year. They sold quality items, and offer real deal life time warranty.

Things changed, I no long buy from LL Bean, because of the way the company & products changed.

 

[LRod]

Not a shave company but example of what good customer service was in the old days.

LL Bean Freeport, ME, answer phone 7 x 24 x 366, people were knowledgeable on product, they also had products specialists, and stood well behind everything they sold.

Use to get catalogues 3-6 times a year. They sold quality items, and offer real deal life time warranty.

Things changed, I no long buy from LL Bean, because of the way the company & products changed.

I don't know the history of LL Bean but they probably sold out to someone else like most companies do now days. Once that happens, the good in the company gets vaporized. It's sad but that's the way things are now. I have another example: Cremo men's products!
I used them from the inception of the company. They were created and owned by 2 guys that made fantastic products. They sold out to Edgewell personal care and that was it. The product line started changing and the formulations changed. The quality was gone! As soon as I saw what was happening,
I stopped buying.

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

The product line started changing and the formulations changed. As soon as I saw what was happening, I stopped buying.

Yep, just like Tabac, and Michel's Wool Fat. When companies change formulations like that, without asking the public what they want, then they shouldn't be surprised when the public stops buying their products. If a company has a product you like, but they change it to garbage, why settle for less? There is a huge array of products out there from other companies to choose from.

I myself love and appreciate Stirling soaps. My only wish with them, is that they would stop the limited run stuff, and just make it all available. Plus, I want more mentholated version of their soaps, Ron didn't even know why he didn't think of to put out a mentholated Lime based soap. Well, like the awesome enabler I am, I earn my title, and I planted the seed, so we should get a mentholated Lime soap next year hopefully.

 

[Wogus]

... I want more mentholated version of their soaps...

I use Stirling Frost Drops to add menthol to any soap I want. It's good stuff.

 

[Star_Wahl_Clipper_Treker]

I use Stirling Frost Drops to add menthol to any soap I want. It's good stuff.

Hello there! I am a mentholated junkie, so I got to have good quantities of menthol in my shaving diet. I personally use the PAA Chill Mill, which is a menthol mill, similar to a pepper mill, hand grind of course, and uses the PAA frost flakes. Beware of the Yeti, because menthol aint for clowns HAHA Yessir!

PS: I love your avatar, a formulations of pretty triangles!

 

[DesertIguana]

I don't know the history of LL Bean but they probably sold out to someone else like most companies do now days. Once that happens, the good in the company gets vaporized. It's sad but that's the way things are now. I have another example: Cremo men's products!
I used them from the inception of the company. They were created and owned by 2 guys that made fantastic products. They sold out to Edgewell personal care and that was it. The product line started changing and the formulations changed. The quality was gone! As soon as I saw what was happening,
I stopped buying.

Know the LL Bean Company started out making boots. Company grew to also selling other stuff.

Back in the day I had one of their Baxter Parker’s, used many years in winter.

One year one of the arms start to come off. So they said in guarantee. They would fix any product,

I sent in with not to please repair. To my surprise weeks later a box arrived. Inside was replacement Parker.

It was not my Parker, so I called asking if they goofed. Few minutes lady said we just replace it under our guarantee.

Honestly if they just repaired it I would have been happpy. They did me right.

I bought many items from the company over they years. Everything they sold was great.

Buddy bought one of their fly rods, wound up busting tip off by accident. Sent in hoping to get it repaired. They sent him replacement rod.

Great customer service.