Re: SWFA: Customer Service
The underlying theme here is, who do you want to do business with. I have purchased a few items from SWFA over the years and all but one transaction went off without a hitch; I got my item(s), as advertised, in the stated timeframe. All's good.
However, it is the one that did not that propmts me to respond to this thread. I was recently looking for a particular product to satisfy a certain application. I emailed SWFA to ask if they carried or were aware of said product. The response was very terse; "Not aware of any." Nothing to the effect of "No, but..." or "take a look at..." OK, they don't have it and they don't care to elaborate.
Being a newb to precision shooting, I lurked around here and other similar fora. After being made aware of more effective seach tools, I stopped asking questions and started doing some research. When I found a product that did satisfy my requirements that happened to be offered at SWFA for a very reasonable price, I ordered it. A couple of days later, I got an email saying that the item was back-ordered. I used to work in purchasing/supply, so I get it; sometimes things just are not available. I replied asking for a rough ETA. I then received "[sic] We are unable to get an eta from xxx as this time. Usually we can get things within 1-2 weeks". Two weeks later I inquired into the status of the order, suggesting that a substitution might be made. I did not get a response. Another week later, having found what I was looking for elsewhere, I emailed SWFA to cancel my order. Again, another terse response, "The order has been cancelled". Again, no effort to offer a solution or even try to salvage the transaction.
I am a very pragmatic person. I subscribe to the K.I.S.S. method and adhere to Occam's razor. If vendor A and vendor B have the same product for the same price, I'll toss a coin and exclude extraneous factors. However, all things being equal, if one vendor goes out of their way to cater to the customer and another makes no effort to do so, well, the choice is clear.
That being said, I will probably purchase from SWFA again as their prices are usually pretty good but I will not expect them to go the extra mile.
I know I will probably get flamed and be told to put pull out my tampon, but if I am going to spend my money somewhere, it is my prerogative to spend it someplace that genuinely values my business.
The underlying theme here is, who do you want to do business with. I have purchased a few items from SWFA over the years and all but one transaction went off without a hitch; I got my item(s), as advertised, in the stated timeframe. All's good.
However, it is the one that did not that propmts me to respond to this thread. I was recently looking for a particular product to satisfy a certain application. I emailed SWFA to ask if they carried or were aware of said product. The response was very terse; "Not aware of any." Nothing to the effect of "No, but..." or "take a look at..." OK, they don't have it and they don't care to elaborate.
Being a newb to precision shooting, I lurked around here and other similar fora. After being made aware of more effective seach tools, I stopped asking questions and started doing some research. When I found a product that did satisfy my requirements that happened to be offered at SWFA for a very reasonable price, I ordered it. A couple of days later, I got an email saying that the item was back-ordered. I used to work in purchasing/supply, so I get it; sometimes things just are not available. I replied asking for a rough ETA. I then received "[sic] We are unable to get an eta from xxx as this time. Usually we can get things within 1-2 weeks". Two weeks later I inquired into the status of the order, suggesting that a substitution might be made. I did not get a response. Another week later, having found what I was looking for elsewhere, I emailed SWFA to cancel my order. Again, another terse response, "The order has been cancelled". Again, no effort to offer a solution or even try to salvage the transaction.
I am a very pragmatic person. I subscribe to the K.I.S.S. method and adhere to Occam's razor. If vendor A and vendor B have the same product for the same price, I'll toss a coin and exclude extraneous factors. However, all things being equal, if one vendor goes out of their way to cater to the customer and another makes no effort to do so, well, the choice is clear.
That being said, I will probably purchase from SWFA again as their prices are usually pretty good but I will not expect them to go the extra mile.
I know I will probably get flamed and be told to put pull out my tampon, but if I am going to spend my money somewhere, it is my prerogative to spend it someplace that genuinely values my business.
