Customer service??

[kc261]

I can say he HAS 5 mins bc he does... so do you and so does everyone... Whether or not you choose to MAKE that 5-10 mins available is your call... My analogy was waking up early...Jeff said spend an extra 10 mins at night... Either way he didnt say "im leaving in 3 mins dont have time"... it was "im leaving at 2pm".... well my email was at 7 this morning.... you cant find 5-10 mins in 7hrs?

You know he has 5 mins, because he has 7 hrs before he leaves for the show. But you don't know how many things he needs to fit into those 7 hrs, and how many other things he wants to fit into those 7 hrs, but can't. You don't know how many emails he got today asking for him to send pics. Of course if it was tons of people all asking about the same snake that is easy, but you said he has lots of ads on kingsnake so that probably means lots of different snakes. Maybe answering all the emails with the level of customer service he would like to provide on any other day would have taken him the entire 7 hours and then his snakes wouldn't be packed for the show. You are right he is the one that chooses whether or not to make the time to take those pics and send them to you. But I'm not sure you have figured out that probably isn't the only thing he is choosing from. It isn't just sleep or this one pic. In fact, if he only got your email this morning and he's leaving this afternoon, it was probably too late for him to decide to get a little less sleep. So I think you are being a little harsh on him and not seeing the whole picture.

Now, I'm not taking the breeder's side. From your account, it doesn't sound like he handled it well. People who are in business should figure out a way to get good at customer service even if they aren't good at it naturally or don't have a business background or whatever. If he doesn't have time to deal with customer service today because he is leaving for the show, then he could have set up his email account to reply to all incoming messages with an auto message that says something like "We are at the show this weekend, our online store reopens 8 am Monday." And it would have been even better if he had the foresight to put a similar note in his ads warning people he'd be at the show and therefore unavailable online this weekend. Businesses aren't required to be open 24/7 after all. Of course it'd be best if he could mange to do both somehow (hire someone for the weekend maybe?), but that is probably unrealistic for most reptile breeders.

Since he did take the time to reply to your email, he should have figured out a way to do something other than say "I don't have time so you are prolly gonna lose out on the chance to buy this snake cuz I'll sell it to someone else at the show". He could have offered you a way to put a hold on the snake. With some creativity there are hundreds of things that could be done. Even if it was something like a big non-refundable deposit that most people wouldn't do until they'd seen more pics, it at least puts the ball back in your court. Or maybe he gets your phone number and calls you so you get first right of refusal if someone gets interested in the snake at the show. Of course that particular one would prolly get the other customer upset, but I'm just pointing out the wide variety of things that could have been done.