Let me preface this by saying that I love dealing with small business owners.  Generally speaking, 95% of them are going to do everything they can to make you a happy customer, especially if they screw up.  My gold standard for this is Rich Schaefer of Concealed Carry Concepts.  I had a custom order with Rich.  It's hard to get on his waiting list at all, and when you do, you know upfront there's going to be a wait.  I got my holster and after a few weeks experienced an issue.  Rich dropped whatever he was doing, made me a new holster with a revision designed to address my specific issue, and mailed it to me in short order.  That holster has been 100% and my impression of Rich has led me to recommend him to many others despite getting a faulty product initially.  When you screw up on a customer, you can make them a customer for life by taking care of them swiftly and effectively.  One of my close personal friends is a small business owner and this is his experience as well - the customers that give him the best word of mouth advertising are the ones he's had to rectify things with - the ones he's gone out of his way to do right by after making that initial mistake.

Well, Galloway Precision had the opportunity to make me a customer for life and flat out failed at providing any sort of customer service experience.

I placed an order for everything they make for the Ruger LC9 that amounted to $113, and I will keep a running tally of my disappointments.

Here is my first correspondence:



At this point, I actually wasn't very upset.  Still - businesses that list products as being in stock, and only tell you after they have your order and your money that it's going to be a while are a huge pet peeve of mine.  I experience this all of the time in my professional life, and I keep a list of businesses that I won't work with anymore due to just this issue.  This is 2012, we graduated to the point where websites can easily reflect stock levels at least a decade ago.

Disappointments:

1. Ordered LCI delete and expected it to be in stock, but told after ordering it was out of stock and there would be a wait.

Next up, they failed to meet their original estimate for backorder shipment (Thursday, March 8th) by a whole three weeks.



Disappointments:

1. Ordered LCI delete and expected it to be in stock, but told after ordering it was out of stock and there would be a wait.
2. Backorder shipment date missed by an entire three weeks.

I received no communication from them during this time, but I decided to be patient and when it finally arrived in April, I was excited to get it installed.  And that's when I was disappointed again.  The LCI delete didn't even fit!  I still wasn't mad at this point, and I decided to be as helpful as possible and include a detailed photo showing what was wrong:



Disappointments:

1. Ordered LCI delete and expected it to be in stock, but told after ordering it was out of stock and there would be a wait.
2. Backorder shipment date missed by an entire three weeks.
3. LCI delete finally arrives, but is out-of-spec or the wrong part entirely.

I sent that email on a Monday evening, and received no response on Tuesday. Nor did I receive a response on Wednesday.  Now I'm starting to get a little angry.  Keep in mind that Eric clearly stated that they work Tuesday-Friday in his email about the LCI delete being out of stock.  Well, it was Monday evening when I sent that email, so I should have been near the top of his inbox when he went to work on Tuesday, and then again on Wednesday.  Apparently he didn't have time for me.

Disappointments:

1. Ordered LCI delete and expected it to be in stock, but told after ordering it was out of stock and there would be a wait.
2. Backorder shipment date missed by an entire three weeks.
3. LCI delete finally arrives, but is out-of-spec or the wrong part entirely.
4. My email describing an issue I'm having with their part goes 100% ignored.

I sent a second email, just in case my email somehow got read and overlooked:



That evening, I happened to notice that Galloway Precision had the time to update their status on Facebook.  I had "liked" them after I heard that they were going to make LC9 trigger parts several months back.

Disappointments:

1. Ordered LCI delete and expected it to be in stock, but told after ordering it was out of stock and there would be a wait.
2. Backorder shipment date missed by an entire three weeks.
3. LCI delete finally arrives, but is out-of-spec or the wrong part entirely.
4. My email describing an issue I'm having with their part goes 100% ignored.
5. Company representatives have time to update their Facebook, but no time to help a customer they've failed to service.

I went from angry to incensed at that point, but I still managed to keep my words civil:



"First of all this is Eric's wife that runs the facebook page." - How is that germane to my issue? I couldn't contact your company by email.  I reached out by another medium, and the first thing you have for me is excuses?  I don't care who runs the Facebook page, if you're not representing the company, then you'd be a fake page, right?  That's not the case, so why bring it up?

Ignoring that, I was clearly told that the correct part would be shipped out.  Fantastic!  I was also politely asked to send my part back, since it wasn't actually out of spec, it was just made for a gun I didn't even own.  I decided to wait and see if Galloway would make good on their promise to ship out the correct part - and I also decided to see if they'd send a return label for the incorrect part, like most companies will do.  I was again disappointed.  I let ten full days elapse, and still nothing came in the mail.  

Disappointments:

1. Ordered LCI delete and expected it to be in stock, but told after ordering it was out of stock and there would be a wait.
2. Backorder shipment date missed by an entire three weeks.
3. LCI delete finally arrives, but is out-of-spec or the wrong part entirely.
4. My email describing an issue I'm having with their part goes 100% ignored.
5. Company representatives have time to update their Facebook, but no time to help a customer they've failed to service.
6. Promised a new part in the mail, and this never actually happens.

My emails were being received (albeit ignored) according to the person running the Facebook page, and I didn't feel the need to publicly post on their Facebook page again now that I had their attention, so off to my email I went:



Obviously I'm being quite curt at this point, but I'm feeling out of options.  At least I'm not cursing or name-calling.  Much to my surprise, I actually got a response a day later - the first ever email response from Eric himself!



Wait, what?  Again, the point is brought up that his wife runs the Facebook page and not Eric himself.  Is he trying to say she's doing it without his permission or something?  Obviously she's part of the company and it shouldn't matter whether she's his wife or his employee or whatever, the Facebook page is an official one, and it was what I resorted to after failing to get Eric's attention by email.  Eric's wife clearly told me on Facebook that they'd send me a new part.  She politely asked me to send the part I had back, but didn't make that a condition of getting my new part.  Eric is telling me otherwise after I've been waiting for something in the mail, and now I'm pissed.

Disappointments:

1. Ordered LCI delete and expected it to be in stock, but told after ordering it was out of stock and there would be a wait.
2. Backorder shipment date missed by an entire three weeks.
3. LCI delete finally arrives, but is out-of-spec or the wrong part entirely.
4. My email describing an issue I'm having with their part goes 100% ignored.
5. Company representatives have time to update their Facebook, but no time to help a customer they've failed to service.
6. Promised a new part in the mail, and this never actually happens.
7. Now told that I'll have to pay even more money to fix a problem they created - I have to pay to send the part I have back before I'll receive a replacement.

I am not about to be forced to pay more money to fix a problem they created.  I am - after all - the customer.  I didn't order the incorrect part, they made a mistake and sent me the wrong part.  Why should I have to pay to fix their mistake?  I've already had to wait several weeks to get this part, spent my valuable time attempting to install it only to discover that it wasn't going to fit, and waited for two more weeks for a replacement that wasn't ever going to come.

I gave him a piece of my mind, but still refrained from name-calling:



Eric was now very quick to respond to my email:



This email speaks for itself.  Eric Galloway is neither a moral businessman nor a gentleman.  He'd rather disown his customers than deliver any sort of satisfaction.  His business ethic is to project his mistakes and failures onto his customers, and while he might be making money hand over fist right now, with this sort of attitude his reputation will be ruined in short order.

Disappointments:

1. Ordered LCI delete and expected it to be in stock, but told after ordering it was out of stock and there would be a wait.
2. Backorder shipment date missed by an entire three weeks.
3. LCI delete finally arrives, but is out-of-spec or the wrong part entirely.
4. My email describing an issue I'm having with their part goes 100% ignored.
5. Company representatives have time to update their Facebook, but no time to help a customer they've failed to service.
6. Promised a new part in the mail, and this never actually happens.
7. Now told that I'll have to pay even more money to fix a problem they created - I have to pay to send the part I have back before I'll receive a replacement.
8. I am given up on and called a twelve-year-old and a child.  Disappointment level: maximum possible.

As of right now, I haven't actually received a refund.  At this point, I don't really expect to.

Sorry to hear about you "problems".   I have ordered several items from him at different times. Once I received the wrong item and once I received an item that won't work in my gun but   He (or his wife) were extremely helpful and pleasant to deal with each and every time––especially with the exchange.     They also shipped my stuff out pretty fast.





I hope the two (or 3) of you get this figured out to everyone's satisfaction ASAP.

 

OP is the type of customer that I put on my "do not work for" list.
OP should have a poll asking who the rest of us think is in the wrong.

What the OP SHOULD do is to take all documentation in to the post office and file a complaint of mail fraud.

After weeks of not being able to contact the company I call the CC company and stop payment.

As a company, Galloway precision needs to professionally deal with customers, mistakes are understandable but responding to a paying customer and accusing them of not being nice when they're frustrated with your customer service... its not in good taste.

Apparently Galloway has no idea what it means to be professional and doesn't understand the concept of customer service

So, apparently you think it's okay to:

• Wholly ignore legitimate problems brought to your attention by a customer using the email address you have provided to them on your business card.


• Send a customer an incorrect part, promise to fix the situation right away and then renege on that promise.


• Force a customer to pay for return shipping on a part that YOU sent them by mistake.

This being the case, I will put you on my "do not buy from" list here on the EE.

Sounds like both you need to go back and learn what it means to play nice.





Eric is, with the contact I have had with him, a good guy but this is not his main gig, and it shows.





OP, you need to learn how to communicate professionally. IOW, Hello does not get in done. One look at that piece and I knew you did not get the correct part you ordered.





Eric should learn what it means to run business professionally. IOW,
you need to do a better job sorting out the parts you have made for you and
to do the heavy lifting to answer every e-mail, even if you do not feel
like it. Also, taking a class on how to run an e-business would not
hurt either. Lastly, he might want to take his wife to these classes, or
set up her own FB account.





This type of stuff happens everyday with lifestyle businesses on the internet.




 
 

Did you not see my initial email about the problem (that got ignored?)



I'm not sure how I could have been more professional or to the point.  The unprofessionalism started when Eric hoped I would go away, so he wouldn't have to fix my problem.

First time ever I'm glad i have bit my toungue on this site. I saw this late last night and my first response was that OP was kind of being a dick.  But i was too tired to formulate a response so I just subscribed and let it wait til morning. When the OP admitted that he already had problems with another product he had bought online I kind of pigeonholed him as a complainer. And in my opinon you should have left out the tag line about how some other internet retailer handled their own fuck up. It is not germane to Galloway Precision's customer service.

That said, after rereading your original post and then comparing all the dates on the messages and the date on the shipping package I have realized my error. OP you have every right to be pissed at Galloway. Matter of fact I dont disagree with you at any step of the way. They need to ship you your correct part NOW. And if they dont include a pre stamped return envelope I wouldnt spend my own money to ship back their mistake back to them. If they said they would refund that needs to happen NOW.

Keep us updated.

Also anyone taking up for Galloway look at the stupid amount of time it has taken them to handle their buisness. Order place on the 3rd of march and explicity told it would ship end of the week was actually shipped 26 days later. WTF? And to top it off it was an incorrect ship of the wrong part??? now they wont respond to emails in timely fashion??? And the person running the FB page acts like it is not their responsibility to handle any business aspect??? I'm def right there with you OP on not caring who is running it. Even saying that it is the wife is stupid. Its a company page, you dont wont your wife in the business when theres problems then you cant have her out there fronting for you.

I think I would have been extremely frustrated with the company service and would have been even a little less polite. If you are running a business customer service will get you everywhere.

Sounds like a company that offers a product should provide that product on-time and 100% correct the first time.

Add me to your list.  You're a whiner and your communication is unprofessional. Getting what you want is harder when you just stomp your feet and scream "me! me! me!"

So how long would you stay patient?

I waited three weeks to get the part I ordered when it was listed as being in stock.

When I got the wrong part, I waited an additional three weeks after making the vendor aware of the issue before being blown off.

Would four weeks be a better timeframe?  Five?  Twenty?  What's your standard?

The time frame isn't the issue.  Your attitude was.  You can get the same point across without juvenile snarky comments AND you wouldn't have burned a bridge with a vendor.

No...they should ship product on-time and 100% correct the first time.  If the company did that there would be no issue.

Very effective when they won't respond. tax.... I doubt you never get frustrated when dealing with an issue.where a company repeatedly makes mistakes and then stops replying to you.

tax, your argument seems to be that when a company does something that makes a customer angry, that company has a "get out of service free card" as soon as the customer shows that they're angry.

I sent polite emails when I wasn't pissed off.  When polite emails didn't work, I resorted to snarky messages.  I could have cursed and called names, but I believe I exercised restraint.

In my experience, the only way to get two-way communication going with Galloway is to be snarky.  Polite didn't do anything for me.  All of my communications are there for you to see, I didn't leave a single thing out and it's all in order.  Just a little reading comprehension is required.  Big text looks daunting but trust me, it is doable.

No - not at all.  It's perfectly ok to get angry and let a business know it, but that doesn't mean you have to become discourteous and petty, like saying a 12 year old designed their website.

If you aren't getting the response you want, try a different method of contact - telephone or certified mail, even go down to the business location if you're close by.

It's a lot easier to get what you want if you remain professional and polite.  It sometimes helps to provide a timeline in each correspondence so they can see what effort you've made to resolve the issue.

You can threaten them with the BBB, referral to the Attorney General's office, small claims court, sending Guido to break some kneecaps based on the seriousness of the problem but you don't have to act like a high school kid when you do it.

I've done things both ways and I learned a long time ago being firm but polite will get you much further along than ranting and raving.

Also consider this - once you convince a business they've lost you as a customer for life, what real incentive do they have to go above and beyond to help you?  They know they won't get any repeat business, so they do the bare minimum to make you go away.  If your approach is "Hey - I want to be your customer and give you lots of money down the road, but you're preventing me from doing that because you won't resolve my problem" then you are certain to get a better response.

Don't get mad.  Get what you want.

In a perfect world, yes they should.  Everyone makes mistakes and most small business owners understand that how they handle the inevitable mistake will play a much larger role in their reputation than day-to-day operations.

Everyone expects things to be done right, and most people do most of the time.  Mistakes are to be minimized and learned from as they can't be eliminated.

I stopped reading there, because it's clear to me that you didn't read my post.  You scanned it.  I never said "a 12 year old designed their website."

Come back when you've had the time to actually read everything I wrote.

Clearly this company dropped the ball a number of times.  Mistakes are one thing, gross incompetence is another.

You would think that a company would provide product on-time and correct, but I see these same type of issues weekly on various web boards. The OP's experience is nothing new when it comes to lifestyle businesses.



To my mind, Eric should pay for shipping to and from, send out the correct part, and maybe throw in a sticker or two, or maybe a spare magazine if he was forward looking.



To eat the $10 in shipping, when your QA/QC process was....well....lacking is small potatoes when it comes to the tens of dozens of dollars in potential business lost when the OP calls you out.



The OP would not get a good grade from any Business Writing class I had, but then the OP is not running a business and shipping out the incorrect part.



 

I lol'd when I read that.  Believe me, my day job consists of agonizing over how our clients will interpret my words sometimes.

Being on the other end of the stick as a customer is quite refreshing!

Calling them out publicly on Facebook in the manner you did was petty. You could have sent them a private message.

It is very common in all industries to have someone handle social media that may not have any ties to the day to day business of a company. My buddy works for a company that all he does is manage professional skaters social media, hyping up events and such. If you tweeted the guy like "hey I saw you at place X and you were a dick" my buddy is going to say the same thing, he is not the person you want to talk to. My wife's hospital also has a social media guy. if you posted on their Facebook a rant about not being hired, he is going to point you back to HR.

None of this excuses the poor business practice, missed deadlines, incorrect parts, and BS return shipping policies, BUT this could have gone a lot better had you not had a Facebook temper tantrum.

Meh.  Honestly, do you think a company like Galloway Precision is going to have a person dedicated to their Facebook?

I was upset because I knew someone that could help me with my problem was wasting time on Facebook instead, and I was right.  Private messages in the form of two emails at that point hadn't worked.

I don't think I'd treat a customer service issue with Smith & Wesson the same way.  But then, I'd probably never have an issue like this with Smith & Wesson.

You try and do business with a retailer, they have incorrect information on their website... they miss their stated date to ship what they mistakenly said that they have in stock...  when they do ship they ship the wrong item... you email them and they don't respond.... you contact them via Facebook and when they should fall over backward and ask you to forgive them and let them make it right, instead they whine about it, but then say they will send the correct part.... then they don't.... and then the owner tells you to send back the part they should never have sent you in the first place on your dime....


OP, can't you see what a jerk you are for complaining about all this?  I mean, no wonder some Einsteins say they wouldn't do an EE exchange with you.

You are so unrealistic in your expectations.  You saw something for sale, paid for it, and actually expected to receive it in a timely manner.

What planet are you from?

It seems like that's what the wife is... I mean it wasn't like she was even posting about business it was a copy and paste from an email and she got called out on it.

Either way, I completely agreed with you that their business practices suck as does their care free attitude towards customers.

I had a guy like this on eBay just last Sunday, bought it now, paid immediately, guy marks it shipped that night, and I assumed it would be picked up Monday. I contact him wednesday for tracking info and the number isn't in the system. He tells me to wait sometimes it takes 72 hours . I called FedEx and they looked into it, the shipping label had just been paid for and printed 5 minutes after I messaged the guy.

I had another guy state that he ships within 24 hours of cleared payment which made me choose him over other sellers. A week later and it still wasn't shipped, guy says "oh my business has outgrown itself", all of his current listings still listed ships within 24 hours in big bold letters and other auction items ended after mine had shipped and been received based on the feedback.

Some people can't handle online business and definitely can't meet commitments.

So you're going to ignore everything I said because I mixed up "website" with "facebook"?

Your loss.

not really a loss if you are going to continue to post without reading the OP.

terrible behavior by the company, but your emails do indeed look like they were written by a teenager.

So you're allowed to be condescending even though you have nothing to do with this situation?  Do you have a special hat that you wear?  The ball cap of internet judgement?

But when I do the same thing you just did for just cause, it's not okay?

Makes perfect sense!

Did I miss the part where the 1st point of contact was a phone call?



Didn't see that, but might have missed it....all I got was a parade of emails.

I specifically avoided calling.  I knew going in that this was a business on the side.  In other words, the proprietor has a day job.  Eric's email was the first thing on his business card next to his name, and email gives the opportunity to respond at leisure - which apparently to Eric Galloway means 12 days.

I don't think 12 days is a reasonable amount of time to respond to an email, but I guess it is better than calling someone's phone when they're at work.

I'm not seeing how phone contact, or at least attempting it, would be a bad idea.



I agree the turn around time on email follow up sucked, but picking up the phone on your end, and attempting direct contact, probably would have been a smart move.

I disagree.  I'd call a company like S&W.  They've got people whose sole job is answering phones.  Small companies like this don't, and in my experience trading emails back and forth can be very effective.

It's obvious from Eric's business card and his website contact info that he prefers emails.

you're confirming my post and merely taking attention away from what you were trying to bring attention to.

You're talking in circles and adding nothing to the discussion.  Thanks!

I've had issues such as this with various online retailers.

98% of the problems were resolved within a timely and satisfactory to me manner. Usually with the seller going above and beyond to make the situation correct.

There are always going to be people out there who are either incompetent, lazy, or just plain don't give a shit.


I had a gem of a seller on ebay that would not return any correspondence until I filed a case with ebay.

The seller was rockmountaintactical, the part was a tactical charging handle latch, a $22 part.

Bottom line was I was shipped the item and it never appeared at my residence. The item was delivered to my city, but the post office had no clue where it was. The day it was to be delivered I had multiple other items being delivered by the post office and I asked the mail carrier directly of its whereabouts, no idea.

In 13 years of purchasing on the internet I have never not received anything I have ordered be it from a few cities away or from China.

The seller then resorts to telling me I was trying to get another part for free and that after he shipped the item, any and all obligations were met by him. This after he offered to have me pay for another at a $2 discount.

Bottom line, try your best to get what you paid for, then make it known to others to avoid dealing with said seller, and to top it off tell the seller to choke on a bag of dicks.

Yeah, I get all that. Eric may prefer email, but when that doesn't get the desired result, might want to seek an alternate route....like using a phone.



Given the nature of your situation and the timeframe involved, never once actually calling, yet opting for Facebook instead, seems a bit odd.



What exactly is the down side to picking up the phone and pushing 10 buttons to seek direct contact, rather than waiting days for an email?

You're really stuck on this, aren't you?  Do you have ten digits I can dial so I can explain using my voice that this is the 21st century, and we're communicating using computers now?  I assume you're not dictating your posts on ARFCOM.

Your argument would make just as much sense if you said "Eric may prefer email, but when that doesn't get the desired result, might want to seek an alternate route... like a billboard near his house."

And I didn't "opt" for Facebook.  As I said in the OP, I had "liked" them several months back.  A few hours after sending out my second email (a couple days after sending the first) there on my news feed on Facebook was a post by Galloway Precision.  I didn't go seeking them out, it just popped up like everything else does on Facebook.  They had enough time to post a pointless status update on Facebook, but not enough time to even acknowledge my email.  I made a split-second decision to call them on that publicly, and I included that communication because I included every little bit of this fiasco, not just the juicier bits.

I'm tempted to search through your post history here on ARFCOM and find a thread where you've complained about something, and then nit-pick you for whatever way I feel you failed to communicate.  I'm real big on writing words in the sky using smoke trails from a bi-plane.  If you didn't employ that method, then I will judge you as having failed as a customer.

You're acting like a fucking child. Asking why you wouldn't CALL them is somehow confusing to you?



"Call them....like using a phone?!? Why do THAT when I can spend days sending emails, with zero result, and chew someone out of Facebook!!!!"



Who in their right mind would dispute the potential "benefit" of making a damn phone call?



Email after email after email....but that phone thing, shit that NEVER works.



Again, what is the DOWN SIDE to picking up a phone and seeking DIRECT contact?



Congratulations, out of a possible .

And some of you guys criticize the OP more than the seller.

Unbelievable.  

Let's ignore a couple things for a minute:

1. That email is obviously their preferred communication mode, given that they have day jobs and probably can't answer the phone 95% of the time.


2. That regardless of how many other communication modes I chose not to employ (smoke signals, fax, certified mail, etc.) it's not an excuse for them to ignore their primary method of contact.

Assume that instead of communicating via Facebook and getting Eric's wife, I call and get Eric's wife.  I explain that it's disheartening to see that my emails are going ignored while frivolous Facebook status updates are being posted.  Debbie apologizes(exactly as she did on Facebook) and tells me she'll send the correct part out (exactly as she did on Facebook.)

Wow!  We're communicating via phone now, and achieving exactly the same thing!

Eleven days go by, and I don't get anything in the mail as promised.  I call and get Eric himself, just as I did with my third email.  He reneges on his wife's commitment (exactly as he did via email) and refuses to send me the correct part, stating that I must pay extra money because of his mistake in the form of shelling out for return shipping.  I refuse to accept this and Eric tells me off (exactly as what happened in the email.)

For someone who claims that I'm "acting like a f-ing child", it seems as though you can't understand that the root of the problem here isn't the communication method, which has been working great for over a decade now, and which we are currently employing.  It's that Eric topped off his already bad customer service with a reneged promise.

No matter how I got in touch with them, Eric still would have backtracked on his wife's commitment after making me wait for over a week thinking I had already gotten the problem fixed and that my part was in the mail.

That reneged commitment, and not any action of mine, is what made this whole situation go from mildly annoying to outright rage-inducing.

Its a lot easier to ignore someone via email than it is if they call.  Email has its place in business, I prefer it, but when it fails and I know someone is just putting off dealing with a situation or me, I call them.  Many times an effective way to resolve a problem.

Sorry this didn't work out, I was planning on ordering something from these folks in the future, now I'm not too sure.    

Not the place for this