Let me tell you a story. For too many years I squinted at a 14-inch monitor. Early this year I decided to get a 19-inch monitor that won PC Magazine Editor’s Choice regocnition. I went to an online store to secure my purchase. I found the monitor, and it indicated the ability to ship soon, so I ordered it. Immediately I got an e-mail that said the monitor was backordered L Why didn’t they tell me that before I oredered? I was ticked off, but decided to give them a while-after all, it could come any time. So I waited, visions of a shiny new 19-inch monitor dancing in my head. After a week with no word, I finally got tired of waiting and called customer service. I was connected to a polite customer service person who listened to my question:
“When will the monitor be available?”
“We don’t know Sir. The Manufacturer hasn’t told us.”
I was frustrated. I had looked around and knew it was in stock at another company.
“Cancel the order, then.” I told the lady, impatiently.
“You have to give 72 hours notice before cancelling,” she said.
“That’s just unacceptable,” I retorted. “If you don’t have the monitor ready to ship now, then cancel it.”
“The manufacturer may be ready to ship it.”
Aha! I thought. This is a drop-shipping operation!
“Then call the manufacturer and ask please,” I told her.
“I can’t do that, Sir.
“Then cancel the order. Now! ” I was disgusted.
She cancelled the order. The next day the monitor arrived by Next Day courier. It had been shipped, but the retailer’s level of communication with the manufacturer was such that they didn’t know exactly what was going on.
In the meantime, I had ordered the monitor from another dealer, and subsequently returned the monitor from the original company. I am sure that the return shipping costs ate up whatever profit there was in the sale. And why did that retailer’s site show the item in the stock when it actually wasn’t available? Probably bacause the inventory levels weren’t updated in real time, or often enough to be accurate. This situation is actually quite common, so be prepared for issues like this.
The lesson: Drop-shipping may well handicap your ability toprovide excellent customer service. And withoutexcellent customer service you’ll lose your bestcustomers to your competitors. If price doesn’t distinguish you from other onlne businesses then customer service most certainly must. Though I’ve had one occasion to return a book to Amazon,, I had a good experienece because they handled it so very well when I caled about the problem.
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