no communication

[dawn408]

And it starts again this year. I won't name any names but I don't understand some haunt industry vendors. I call you...I email you...no response whatsoever. I want to give you lots of money...I tell you that when I try to contact you....all you need to do is answer a couple questions and I will send it to you. Why go to all the trouble and expense of exhibiting at tradeshows, printing catalogs, maintaining a website then totally ignore potential customers?

Looks like AGAIN this year I'll take the money that I had set aside to order from you and spend it with a vendor that will take 5 minutes to communicate with me.

[SpookywoodsFX.com]

I have 5 minutes! Hell, I'll get in the chat room

[voodoo willy]

I hear ya

It must be nice to have so much money that you can just ignore the customers. Ahh just one day, one day I'll be rich like that.

I own a retail store and I know you can get pretty busy...but I never ignore my customers or my vendors. If this company is to busy or can't handle anymore orders then at the very least they should call you back and let you know instead of having you float out in limbo.

[gadget-evilusions]

It sucks that some vendors are like that. I personally put right on the front page of my website that I can't do any orders this year. After the last 5 years I have learned when to just cut ourselves off when we have too much instead of being greedy and screwing customers.

[SAWDUST JONES]

Exactly...

There was one vendor who I spent half a year trying to get them to answer a phone, return a call, answer an email. Even called their personal cel phones. Finally gave up.

[SAWDUST JONES]

And also...

There are a few people in the haunt industry that I have written to about a variety of things, who, apparently, feel they are too big to respond, or perhaps I don't have enough money to merit a reply, or maybe I just don't have something they need.

In this day of easy communication, there are an ever increasing number of people who just don't give common courtesy and return emails. I understand busy, but when somebody spends the time to write you, stating their interest in something you do, at a minimum would it hurt to write back and say thanks for writing but you aren't interested?

[damon carson]

Personally I would say for every haunt industry vendor that I have dealt with with poor customer service. There has been 2 or 3 with excellent customer service. And not only that but very friendly and willing to help or do whatever for you. I love this industry and I love Halloween. And its great knowing there are people out there with the same passion as mine.
Damon

[jakprintsHAUNT]

In this day of easy communication, there are an ever increasing number of people who just don't give common courtesy and return emails. I understand busy, but when somebody spends the time to write you, stating their interest in something you do, at a minimum would it hurt to write back and say thanks for writing but you aren't interested?

While I cant say I've run into it in this industry too much...there is a general problem with the ease of communication and the ease of ignoring, or short answering with it. All too often I will email, wait a reasonable amount of time for responses, send one or more follow ups to make sure the 100s of spam bots didnt intercept the email(s), or that it just never got through as technology is not always the most reliable, then if they are even available I will try phone numbers. Eventually if at all I will usually finally get a response somewhere saying "yes we got all your messages, just too busy or not interested". Then I feel like the jerk for bugging them. I have even had this with trying to pay for things...you'd think they'd be knocking down my door instead of the other way around...lol.

Also all too often I will send a multi-question email and will receive an answer to one question with no mention whatsoever to any of the others. Originally I thought it was one until I had over a dozen that did the same thing. That one I understand less than the no response at all. If you took the time to read and respond, why only part of the way?

As much as I am a fan of technology some aspects of it seem to be de-socializing or dehumanizing us from the populous. Perfect example is texting...how many people often admit that they text more than talk as to "not get stuck on the phone"... Even something as simple as birthday wishes. It felt so much nicer in my case to get actual calls as opposed to just an almost impersonal text, and felt a lot more heartfelt to me. But I also understand that many people conditioned themselves to feel that texting is as good as talking in any situation. Hard to tell if the the future will make it all better or worse.

Just my opinion on it.

[SAWDUST JONES]

Well said...

The other issue is that many people are so thin skinned and sensitive these days-- When you don't hear back you are left to wonder if you have offended them, or if they are just too busy or they are ignoring you or some technical problem.

It can make a person paranoid.

[Kelly Anderson]

As far as people responding to your calls or emails....I have been involved in this industry for about 8 years now. Ive ran my website for about 5 or so. When I get emails about products or more so just about how I built some of the haunt rooms Ive done (as I talk about them quite a bit on my site), I still get so thrilled that other haunters liked what I did enough to personally try and get ahold of me.

Im excited to respond and sometimes my responce is about like writing a novel...I do appoligise for that. But when they respond back again they are so happy that someone would take the time to give so much information, even if there wasn't a single dollar to be made from it.

I just hope that the everyday grind from all we do to make it in this industry doesn't make us forget why we got involved in it in the first place. We usually love talking to people, new people, and expressing ideas to help others. And of course we love haunting.