New snake advice. Who to ask?

In all honesty, I bought from a "reputable" dealer, (a pet store) and they have no clue when it come to anything. So I have been using you guys, (thanx) and their rival pet store, that is more than willing to help.....even proffesionals can end up knowing :cens0r::cens0r::cens0r::cens0r: all. Side note----their rival now gets the buissness of all my pets!

Many great responses here, and i thought it would be a very interesting topic for discussion, as well as make a few people stop and think when this situation arises. There are a few other situations like this as well, and maybe I will bring them up in the future sometime. They do make for good conversation and make people think about some of the not so discussed things about our industry or business in general.

I used to get so many advice calls (often related to snakes not produced by me) at terrible times, that I had to take my phone number off of my website completely. I don't mind the advice emails so much, because I can answer them when I have time, which is usually within 24 hours. Providing only an email address for contact has helped a lot, and the advice requests don't seem nearly as annoying as when I used to let people call and text me.

What I have found so many people asking about was very often related to feeding and escapes. So, what I finally did was compose articles with feeding tips and another one with tips for finding escapees. Now when someone asks me about either topic, I just give them the link to where those pages are on my website and don't have to reinvent the wheel.

I also like to refer people to the forums for certain things as well. By actually answering emails and being willing to give some advice, I definitely have gained a number of customers over the years that have told me they are buying from me, because I helped them out in a time of need when other sellers wouldn't answer their calls or emails.

Great post Wendy. I too have directed many people to my extensive care sheet posted on my website.

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Originally Posted by muddoc

Great replies everyone. Thanks for reading my long post. The quote above, was actually addressed in my original typing of this post (for some reason it didn't post, and I hadn't copied the long post, so it was lost). Great that you brought it up, as this has always been my biggest concern when handling these situations. I know for a fact that I have gained customers by helping them with something that they got from someone else. However, I also know that I spent numerous hours sometimes on one person, and then after the long back and forth, they disappear forever. When time is a valuable commodity, it sure is a bad feeling to know you lost 2 hours dealing with someone that never intended on buying from you.

It is definitely a rock and a hard place, and 99% of the time, I end up spending the time to help the person/reptile.

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I read this and remembered how you helped me before with one of my hatchlings I hatched out myself. Even though the little guy didn't survive, you did spend quite a bit of time helping me and I haven't forgotten that.

When I'm in the market for another ball python, you can bet I'll be stopping by your website to pick something out. :) Your animals are killer and your service (even when I'm not a customer currently) is great.



When people ask me for advice, I give it honestly. Now that I'm thinking about it though, I see what you mean about people blaming you for a dead animal. Thing is, it was up to them to decide who to take advice from. All you can do as someone wanting to provide good customer service is to provide them with honest advice. Perhaps you could give them a disclaimer when you advise them of care and such, that they may want to check with the person they originally purchased from.