GLOCKENSPIEL;
Please don't make it soud like you were "stuck" with them, did you not get a full refund ??
John
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GLOCKENSPIEL;
Please don't make it soud like you were "stuck" with them, did you not get a full refund ??
John
Firstly, I am not currently or ever have been a Marstar client. In fact since I'm not really into surplus or knock offs of surplus rifles I'm not likely to be a customer in the future. This is not a dig at Marstar I am simply not their target market. I have been reading this thread though mostly out of amusement and a bit out of curiosity. I do want to make some comments both in defense of Marstar and hopefully some helpful advice. I run a few different businesses, two of which are customer referral driven. One is a bodyshop and one is a restaurant. Probably two of the most criticized industries there are so I can safely say I know what a nightmare bad reviews can be.
The INTERNET has created a new customer that we never dealt with before. I can have someone smile at me say how amazing everything was then go home and "blog" that we used too much salt, not enough salt steaks was too big portions were too small....and so on and so on. Yes, first reaction is to jump down their throat and ask why they didn't say so to us there. Why didn't they call us and let us know their "concern"(we use this word in place of words like complaint,whine) We can never ignore a bad review. Silence validates the concern. We first apologize, why would you ask would we apologize if we didn't do anything wrong? It's simple, we apologize that they were not completely satisfied. We are taking ownership of our possible oversight but are not committing to any one thing. This disarms the client's anger and brings them down to a manageable level. Next we try to get to the root of the problem, what their concern is. Yes it is not easy to figure out who or what a complaint was on a public forum. Your goal is to not resolve it here but open up a dialog where they can call you or message you in private their concern so you can correct or clarify it. After doing so when they thank you ask them to let people on line know they were taken care of.
John you have been in this business for a long time. I understand you get tired of people always wanting something from you. You sell a rifle cheaper then everyone else they have a concern about shipping costs. You sell them cheap ammo with a thin margin and they complain because it wasn't packaged like the new expensive ammo. The customers I see complaining in your threads are usually the ones who are shopping around for weeks to save $3 dollars on a $100 dollar gun. They realize their business is really not that crucial to you, or anyone to that matter so they try to discredit you publicly to get $5 back. These are the people that usually say "I guess my business isn't important enough to them" Usually when someone says this, it's because its true. Unfortunately the INTERNET gives them a way to infect the customers you do want with distrust. This means you have to try to soothe these "frugal" shoppers or start raising prices to weed them out. Lets face it, you sell a hundred dollar rifle for $75 people will do business with you. They will of course expect the hundred dollar service for the discounted price.
My solution is simple. for every concern on here offer that person an immediate, thanks for your concern, this is my personal email address. please message me with the details of your sale so I can look into it and try to resolve it for you. If you can't resolve it to their satisfaction then offer them a rebate on their next purchase. this keeps them as a customer and should make them happy. if they still aren't happy then it costs you nothing to lose them. In the 20 years I have been in business I have given many coupons and gift certificates I have never given anyone a discount or money back. It's in my opinion bad business to give post discounts. It may create a sense of entitlement of discounts to customers who can find anything wrong.
I do want to thank you John for what you have done for the industry. I have read enough on here to know that alot of the rifles we buy were made possible because of efforts you made when I was still in University. I think people take for granted how difficult it is to import firearms and ammo. I'm sure if it was easy alot of the "experts" on here giving you post after post of advice would have jumped in with a bigger better store long ago.
Uh, it's their business. And importing isn't 'difficult'. It's simply knowledge of the process and I'm guessing some time and specialized paperwork. That's not difficult, it's just their jobs. I imagine it's difficult for an individual,but for a business it's not difficult.Originally Posted by Natureboy
If there's a lot of paperwork make sure you know what the paperwork is. If the paperwork gets hung up, make sure you know where to go to get that resolved or expedited. And if it takes six months and you need it today, then start six months ago. that's not difficult, it's actually pretty easy work if you ask me. Once you've done it once it's just a process.
More likely the difficult part is that business owners simply place their order to the U.S. then let it work it's way through the system without any guidance, and when it comes in, then it comes in. I had a gun store tell me this just this week. When's your next gun order? Don't know, could be anytime in the next three months. What? you don't call the manufacture to find out when the product will be shipped and track that? Find out if it's delayed at the border and take steps to smooth that out? Really? The only difficult part about that process is that they're not doing anything at all. Place the order and maybe it comes in next week, maybe it comes in at Christmas, maybe it's here in time for easter, and you don't know? That's because nobody made any effort to find out the answer. If they did, it's wouldn't look hard, it'd look easy.
In the meantime, I wanted to buy from them but couldn't. And since it's a christmas gift, what am I supposed to do? Keep shopping, that's what I do. If they'd have said 'shipped in two weeks, here in three, here's the price', I'd have laid down a deposit.
Don't tell me it's difficult to import from the U.S. It may be a bit complex the first time, but it's not difficult.
I'm ranting - mostly because I don't think this is isolated. The number of business on this site alone (and the few that I've dealt with since I became a gun owner) that don't understand basic customer service is amazing. Geesh, I had a guy who was more interested in going for a smoke break than selling me and my son a gun - and it was overt and obvious. So he went for his smoke break and I took my business elsewhere. I'm looking at you gun room waterloo. How often do you go to that store and see the staff out front having a smoke? Smoke all you like, but maybe you shouldn't have staff that prioritize smoke breaks with the girls over taking customers money. OK, NOW I'm ranting.
I've made a couple purchases from Marstar.
I always call to confirm/ask about my orders regardless of the company they're made with. It's just smart shopping to call and make yourself a person instead of another email.
While I'm here: Hi John, I've been loving my Norc 1911A1 since the day I opened the box. I was impressed with both the speed of service and the quality of the packing job. It was clear to me that your employees had taken the time to ensure my firearm was packaged correctly and in such a way that CP could try their hardest and still not damage it. Also, I find your responses to the individual issues on this thread to be fair, appropriate and mildly entertaining.
Just my $0.02. Enjoy your day.
May our shots be true and timely, Our observations keen. May our bark roll out like thunder, in the name of home and Queen. May the ranks of tanks and bayonets pay heed to the power of the guns. For all the lords of battle, We are the chosen ones.
When there's a new sub forum introduced I'm usually the first to
So which one is it? Do you know it isn't difficult or are you guessing?
At some point in their life, everyone will gamble on a fart and lose. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I like Marstar and have generally had good dealings with them. But once or twice they have pissed me off.
Like forgetting my order for eight months. Then billing me and shipping it out after the order was cancelled.
That was fixed satisfactorily, but still...
Or like when I ordered an AK chest pack on sale for $8 and asked them to go with the cheapest shipping. And they sent it out next day express and I paid $35 shipping for an $8 chest rig.
It's funny to read about, but no funny to see on your credit card. I should have refused delivery. But it came Canada Post and they didn't say what the shipping charges were and just left it in my mail box.
Hahaha.
You'll find that I don't guess when I'm posting unless I post that it's my opinion. Did I post that it was my opinion? Importing isn't difficult. The fact that people who claim to import for a living and don't actually have a f**** clue what they're doing doesn't mean I don't know what I'm doing. It means they don't know what they're doing. Why, do you know something about importing? Speak up.
The only thing more amazing than the lack of service from many retailers in this industry, are the people like you who apologize for this nonsense. In every thread about crappy service around here, there's a few that jump in and claim that it's acceptable, that customers have to do business the way the vendors want. I don't think so.
But enough about you already...LOL. Dude all I'm saying is there are people that will complain about everything while doing nothing. Sure if the first round of business sucks, pass on the second. Dump, and run first time around is a bit rash. Deep breaths.
Bullcrap. I am having an argument on the internet and I am WINNING! I'm not going to stop now!
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