Con-Cor and Tru Paint, you are now offically on notice.
Within the past 6 months, I had sent letters of inquiry on Products Manufactured by:
(1) Con-Cor Products. To the Attention of Mr. Jim Conners.
(2) Tru Paint.
Enclosed in my correspondences to each was a Self Stamped Address Envelope for a reply. (A.K.A. SSAE) More on this in a bit.
What has become of common courtesy in the Business Community of the United States of America?
Plain rude is the word!
I am from the “Old School”.
Been in the hobby for well over 40 years and some of the readers much longer.
If you use to be a advide reader and subscriber of “MR”, no not the flashy advertisement publication of today, with very little content, you will remember the SSAE Letter around 1974 and or 1975, in MR.
If you have past copies or bound or access to same look it up and see the letter to the editor comments on THE SSAE!
Seems to be some king of “thing” in the model railroad manufacturing industry.
How many other manufacturers can you think of, that would not answer a letter to you, if you did not enclose a SSAE?
Forget Irvine Athearn, he was notorious for not answering SSAE and would remove the postage from your SSAE and use for his business operations!
In conclusion, I would like to hear others of the same opinon and your respective stories on same.
In the past I did send out correspodence to some manufactures and only 1 ever sent a response back…MDC/Roundhouse. These days I don’t get reponses to Email correspondence either.
The specialist companies that manufacture things used by model railroaders are either one (or a very few) person shows, or insignificant little appendages to businesses that do a LOT of non-model railroad related business (the time when one of the Names was owned by General Foods comes to mind.) Either way, there’s no secretarial staff standing by to read and answer letters about anything that isn’t right in the main flow of the corporate profit stream. To a business, time is money - and time away from the main job will cost $$$ in lost production or product handling.
Now, how big a check did you put in that SAE?
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964 - with a framed Bachelor of Arts - Business on the wall)
I understand the frustration, but times have changed, though I agree many (most) companies would not respond to a letter today, unfortunately. I’d bet Microsoft, GE, oil companies, Amazon, auto manufacturers, etc would be low probability to respond, or you’d get a form letter. I’d give odds on phone and cable companies. Insurance companies, they are better as they know there are times they have to talk to customers or they walk elsewhere. An interesting one would be the US Postal Service! In many cases they want people to (1) go to FAQs, (2) chat or (3) call a contact number. In most cases the latter two involve talking with a contractor, who too often know nothing more than how to read a cookbook, and then you can talk to a supervisor, also a contractor, who may actually know something or have some authority to do something.
So I usually look for phone numbers, but some companies hide them. And then theres’ the waiting time thing. I’ve had rather decent luck conversing with folks at Atheran, Walthers, BLI, Tony’s Trains, etc… Bachmann is a bit tougher, but I love their service process on problem locos. Often these model RR companies folks are knowledgeable folks, happy to help, and that’s something hard to find at GE (as an example), unless you’re buying a locomotive or jet engine. In some cases they are busy, in other cases they seem to feel less time pressure. But some of the really small ones are a challenge. So overall I suspect it may be easier to communicate with the model RR companies than US companies as a whole.
I do think each company should have a responsive way to communicate with them. If not phone, then e-mail with a reasonable response time. I can understand their preference for e-mail versus letters as it’s usually more efficient. If they have no reasonable and responsive approach, I have no problem challenging
Con-Cor is a very small family-owned operation based in an industrial park in Tucson, Arizona. As near as I know they have no one to answer mail inquiries and maybe not even email in a very timely manner, so expecting them to sit down and compose a letter to you is expecting quite too much, even if you do include a stamped, self-addressed envelope.
Yeah, the Research Dept. will be right on this…[%-)] If one sent a SSAE for a specific piece of literature or catalog the vendor offered, then yeah, stick something in the envelope and drop it in the mail. Simple enough.
Nothing was said about the content of the inquiry. Depending on what was asked, that could be simple enough…or it could lead to long explanation, need more research, etc. Few people will be able to carve out the time for much more than a yes or no. Sometimes the lack of a reply is easy enough to interpret as a “no.”
Not defending the results one way or another. Unless the vendor offered something specifically in return on receipt of a SSAE, one should not assume an obligation to reply any more than if to an unsolicted email.
I have have exchanged E-mails with many MRR companies and have not had anything less than pleasant experiences everytime. Every time a problem was solved I E-mailed back to thank them and let them know “all was well, problem solved”. One locomotive company thanked me for letting them know that the problem was solved and said they rarely hear back and or get a thankyou when things work out well and they appreciated the fact I had done so. I think that speaks volumes about common courtesy on the customer side of things.
Like Mike said, we don’t know what the letter was all about, however in this day and age and speaking from experience, several E-mails can be sent back and forth in a very short period of time. They probably looked at your letter and wondered what it was.[;)]
Not to hijack the thread, but speaking about the courtesy of enclosing postage…I can’t tell you how many times I’ve received letters or phones requesting a “catalog” without anyone ever offering to pay for postage. I’ve even gotten nasty letters because we only give a website in our small ads and not a mailing address. Of course, the reason we don’t is because it’s just too expensive for a small business like ours to always have up-to-date printed literature available. It’s much easier to make changes to a website or Facebook page. Not only that, but we’re so small that we don’t have enough items to even have a real full fledged catalog.
What I don’t understand is, if some folks write to numerous companies for literature (and I base that on the fact that some send form letters requesting info)…wouldn’t it be much cheaper to go out and purchase a Walthers catalog? Isn’t that what most of us did before the internet existed?
Although my experiences have varied a bit, I almost always receive a response to an email and if not by the 2nd one, via a follow up phone call.
Walthers has been getting very poor at responses and you have to get “lucky” reaching someone when they’re actually sitting right there.
I’ve received very helpful responses from Kadee, Bragdon Enterprises, Z-Stuff Smart Signals, Scenic Express, several hobby stores halfway/all the way across the county, etc.
I also think that SASEs are viewed by most these days (if they even remember what they are) as antique as a manual typewriter or bakelite telephone and tube t.v.s. It’s just not in the business “vocabulary” these days. Maybe for a return of a manuscript from a submission to a publisher, etc.
MY pet peave is that businesses only show a web address and not a street or even state so that If I might want to use their services (say…custom layout builders for one example) I can determine right away if it’s even practical. I can sometimes surmise this by researching their telephone exchange but even that’s dicey with cell phones everywhere.
So, for the OP, I recommend two emails followed up by a phone call or two. If I don’t get any response at all after a reasonable amount of time I definitely move on to another dealer or manufacturer. I ran a small, ma and pa record company while also working a full time day job and I ALWAYS ALWAYS responded as quickly as possible to an inquiry. So I can’t buy that argument.
I agree that expensive to produce catalogs, etc. should NOT be expected to be sent out to me without some sort of payment.
I 100% agree that customer service in every area of life is quickly becoming a much cherished artifact from the past. This is another sign of the downfall of civilization. [sigh]
True, except they ARE paying for postage to write everybody. When you figure out the initial postage, writing supplies, etc, it sure seems like buying the catalog would be a better deal and give them a lot more information.
The only thing I can figure is that they like getting things in the mail. : )
I disagree. Customers got more and more demanding, unrealistic, and unsatisifiable to the point that companies started pushing back.
A few years ago, I worked in a bookstore and we changed our return policy from 90 days to 30 days. People would argue with me when I said that I couldn’t accept a return on a six month old purchase. I’d stand there like a rock letting the wave of nonsense wash over me. Then they’d demand to see my manager, who’d back me up. Then they’d rant about “customer service.” Sorry that “customer service” apparently means I, a $9/hr wage slave should violate company policy, get written up, then lose my job for you so you could return a book you read.
I bought an Accurail kit that was missing a wheelset. I emailed them, and they quickly responded and said that they were sending a replacement. Within in a week I received an envelope that not only had one wheelset, but an additional four wheelsets, and two trucks that had wheelsets installed. Their excellent customer service made them my #1 ranked company. I will definitely buy from them again.
Today, I would say the best way to contact a company would be through email. Companies do not always have someone in the office to answer calls, if several people are calling, you may be place on hold. Emails can be sent, and someone will be able to read it as soon as possible. Letters take time to be mailed, while emails are instant. Lastly, letters require paper, ink, etc; and phones can charge long distance etc. Email is the most economical way to communicate.
One person mentioned companies now have website addresses in advertisements now instead of phone numbers or street addresses. It is probably cheaper for them to jut have the website address versus all their infromarion, and in this day an age, someone can easily see their website, and see tons of information, like the street address, phone numbers, hours, email, etc. Also, many companies either have there products on their website, or a catologe you can download (which saves printing cost).
Yes,I’m surprise those dinosaurs are still in business with today’s free long distance cell phones and cordless phone bundles like from companies like TWC.
e-mail may take several days but,I am yet to have one remain unanswered.
I’m sorry, I totally disagree with your opinion about how businesses are run. Not saying your wrong, just saying this is absolutly not the way to run a small business! The only advantage a small business has over larger businesses is their ability to personalize service! Every customer should be the absolute focus for every business and every email and letter answered promptly and with details answering the questions raised.
Who do you want to buy things from, a comany who feels your business is unimportant; or, one who caters to your needs. I know which one I’m going to do busines with.
What you describe, is the failings of modern business, today! Without customers, there will be no business to work at!
Mark DeSchane, 31 years as a small business owner.
Mark,First I fully agree with your observation as the way things should be but,the down side is a lot of small shops think they’re doing you(general speak) a big favor by being in business so, hurry up make your purchase so I can get back to my cell phone conversation.
Seems mom and pop had the right idea by giving personal service to their customers.
To bad they don’t teach that in small Business 101.