First off, I don't think you should judge any company by its performance over the past few months...lots of external influences affecting day to day operations of a lot of the bigger suppliers.
Secondly, I wish MORE retail places would charge actual shipping costs...which is what I have to pay when I place orders with suppliers. Shipping fees and supplies are not cheap!
I've been using the wholesale arm of Antique Radio Supply for years, with zero complaints. For the first time ever, they sent me the wrong brand tubes last Friday. I called them Monday and the correct part was out the door immediately, and within minutes I also had a return label emailed to me so I could ship the wrong parts back..
Not sure about that "First off" statement. I can and will continue to judge businesses on performance versus how other companies in the same market perform... even in these times. I do not feel bad for this. That's what we do as consumers and how we keep companies competitive.
We all do this. That being said, I totally empathize with the ongoing obstacles from covid to weather to supply chain issues that impact almost every business' performance. I am not someone who gets upset by delays or mix-ups unless it has not been communicated well. It is the customer service that I was not impressed with and I should have led with that. Customer service is one way to mitigate performance issues when they arise.
Your experience with Antique Electronic Supply as wholesale customer is different than my experience a retail customer. I had to purchase my own postage and wait two weeks after they received my return before the replacement was even labeled for shipment. It would have been worse if I hadn't kept asking on the status. So the actual total time from when I received the bad items to the time I received replacement was about 1 month. There are more details that I won't go into here.
My client wasn't happy he had to wait either. He doesn't care about the issues I had with this supplier. However, I mitigated his frustration by communicating often and going the extra mile (he got the option of a custom unfinished cab at cost out of the deal).
Like I said, I hope this customer service experience was just a fluke as I do like them. However, this experience has for sure prompted me to look at other possible alternatives.
Hoping I haven't driven anyone crazy driving my point home.
The only "supplier" I'd add to your list is Ebay. There are times when I can only find an obscure part there, and usually the prices are good and the shipping is fast.
Good point! I do use ebay and not always for just NOS tubes.
Topic: Suppliers (as of 2021) (Read 9697 times)