Lack of email reply

[Serpent_Nirvana]

So, it probably goes without saying that it is polite email etiquette to at least make some effort to reply to emails when conducting business deals. If I've got an animal up for sale and someone inquires, even if it's an offer I'm not even remotely interested in, I make an effort to at least reply with a simple "No thank you." My only exception is if the person says, "Please call me if interested," and doesn't seem to expect an email reply, and I'm not interested -- that, to me, seems implicit.

I'm sure I've screwed up and forgotten a message or two here or there, but I do try to make the effort not to.

I've also noticed that it seems fairly standard for many people NOT to do the above. Many people are great and will take the time to fire off that "No thank you," (or "It's sold" or "No I don't have any females,") but for many people the lack of reply seems to be their way of conveying "Not interested." (Or, "No, I don't have that in stock," or "It's sold," or etc..)

In the same vein, I've noticed that lots of larger businesses don't reply to inquiries too well. I can understand that as the larger the business, the more animals and exposure, the more email volume they have to deal with and some will slip through the cracks. That could even happen with a smaller time person who gets overwhelmed or has a bad day or whose spam filter is being overzealous.

So, I'm curious -- does everyone on here automatically take that lack of reply to mean, "No" ? Or will you persist in contacting (maybe not go crazy, but perhaps a followup email) if you don't receive any reply to an inquiry -- on the off-chance that yours slipped through the cracks the first time around?

Do you personally use no reply to mean "No" and would you be irritated at a subsequent inquiry from the same person?

[wwmjkd]

I've been fortunate enough to deal with some very responsive and straightforward people, with one or two exceptions, so I tend towards repeat business. I don't usually interpret a lack of response to indicate a negative to whatever my inquiry was, but I move on pretty quickly. if I'm not worth someone's time, I generally don't care to waste my own. I will say that I've really appreciated the professionalism of several people on this board who are really quick with responses. hell, even Ralph Davis took a few minutes to answer a question I had a while back, and it was just to let me know he didn't have what I was looking for. that kind of thing goes a long way in my opinion.

[Annarose15]

I absolutely always reply to inquiries, and I expect the same courtesy in return. When someone doesn't reply to me, I give the benefit of the doubt that it was an email glitch and try a follow-up email (or sometimes two). If I still don't get a response (and there isn't a phone option), they simply won't get any more inquiries (or business) from me.

[Jabberwocky Dragons]

I agree that a response is always in order, even if it's that an animal has been sold or to decline an offer.

I do occasionally receive legitimate emails in my SPAM folder (probably a 1:200 ratio of legit:spam) so if a seller doesn't regularly scan their SPAM or Trash folder, that may be the reason for a lack of reply. Of course, that falls on them for not checking their SPAM but the lack of reply may not be intentional.

[wolfy-hound]

Depending on what sort of breeder I'm contacting actually. If they are a popular breeder, I will assume that my email was lost and send another.

I myself have listed things on craigslist before, and said something like "Please list your experience" or "No cage included" and gotten 100 replies with just a "I want it" or "Does it come with a cage?" type replies, and I just ended up deleting them. If they followed the VERY simple instructions, then I would reply, even if it was just "It's already sold, thank you for your interest!" But if they couldn't send simple information or follow the simple instruction, or request something that I state outright on the ad(can you deliver a single rat to my home 200 miles away for free? No really, I had almost a dozen emails ask this on an ad that stated exactly that I would meet ONLY within one town in a PUBLIC place, NO HOME DELIVERY!).

If it's a ad like on here, then I try to answer each one. I might delay answering emails if I'm talking to someone who is in the process of buying... in case they DO buy it or DON'T buy it, then I can continue to answer emails accurately.

[Anatopism]

I absolutely always reply to inquiries, and I expect the same courtesy in return. When someone doesn't reply to me, I give the benefit of the doubt that it was an email glitch and try a follow-up email (or sometimes two). If I still don't get a response (and there isn't a phone option), they simply won't get any more inquiries (or business) from me.

We had an email glitch recently... weren't getting any emails, then all of a sudden got 30 all at once x.x felt horrible that none of those people had a response until it was too late.

[Serpent_Nirvana]

I myself have listed things on craigslist before, and said something like "Please list your experience" or "No cage included" and gotten 100 replies with just a "I want it" or "Does it come with a cage?" type replies, and I just ended up deleting them. If they followed the VERY simple instructions, then I would reply, even if it was just "It's already sold, thank you for your interest!" But if they couldn't send simple information or follow the simple instruction, or request something that I state outright on the ad(can you deliver a single rat to my home 200 miles away for free? No really, I had almost a dozen emails ask this on an ad that stated exactly that I would meet ONLY within one town in a PUBLIC place, NO HOME DELIVERY!).

If it's a ad like on here, then I try to answer each one. I might delay answering emails if I'm talking to someone who is in the process of buying... in case they DO buy it or DON'T buy it, then I can continue to answer emails accurately.

Ohhh yeah, no, I'm not talking about "those" inquiries, ha ha. I have the same thing on my website for chinchillas -- please list your experience, living situation, and location. Oh, and the words "NO MAMMAL SHIPPING" in giant red letters. So I agree -- I don't always reply to "I want 2 by ur chinchilla can it live with a parakeet in the same cage i really want one plx calll me." (Okay, I made up the parakeet part ...) I've actually found that for those, NOT replying is the best option because if I try to reply I just end up offending and/or pissing them off.

I think that what I'm more querying is whether y'all think it's better to be a hair more persistent (especially with bigger companies that handle a large volume of emails and, therefore, also may get a large volume of SPAM) or whether that persistence is kind of rude. I appreciate all your replies -- and Annarose, I think maybe you're right -- much as I hate it, might be time to pick up the phone for a few inquiries.