This is intended to help VoIPSupply.com get their act together. Since I normally don't go bashing my vendors when they make mistakes, this should be taken in the spirit of constructive criticism. In a nutshell, VoIPSupply.com doesn't understand customer service. Why do I make a public note of this? To save you the potential aggravation of dealing with a company who doesn't share my definition of customer service.
For example, why put a phone number on your web site if, when your customers call it, you just tell them to go back on your web site and fill out forms? GREAT service ethic there, let me tell you. You can have the prettiest web site in the world, a great domain name, and a ton of Polycom in stock, but if you can't add value, then why are you in the business to begin with? Compound that with an order entry system that belly-flops whenever you place an order that bills to one state and ships to another (happened to me twice with these guys), and the result ain't pretty.
Perhaps customer service is as alien to VoIP purveryors as it is to the Gas Company and the Mortgage Company.
VoIPSupply.com disappoints, again
Reader Comments
(Page 1)2. Hello Ted/everyone;
it is quite hard in the internet retail business these days to afford high touch customer services. So, not saying it is a good thing for companies to have poor services, I just know personally it can be hard with the razor thin margins they make these days. But, that said, we chose to deal with Voxilla as our prefered supplier and partner for our customer needs. This was mainly because they are much more in touch with the community, and their customer services are top notch. I also haven spoken with their team many times respect how they do not carry everything under the sun, so they can focus on the products they will support, and support them well.
Regards,
Jon
3. Ted - First let me apologize for any inconvenience you encountered while doing business with VoIPSupply. I can assure you we do take customer service very seriously, and are constantly striving to improve the customer experience and add value.
I wanted to respond to a couple of the points you made, which are valid points.
We have experienced tremendous growth over the last few years, and have had our share of growing pains along the way, which is not uncommon. I can tell you that over the last quarter we have added a lot of resources in this area (customer service), and are making customer facing departments much more accountable for upholding service levels.
First, in regard to difficulties in shipping customer orders to an alternate location (i.e somewhere other than your billing address). Due to high rates of credit card fraud, we've had to institute some tough policies in order to protect ourselves and insure the long term viability of our business. In most cases, we manually verify credit card transactions with the card issuing bank to insure that purchases are indeed authorized by the cardholder. We also require in many cases that the ship to address be on file with the card issuing bank. I agree that this can be an inconvenience to customers, and we do make exceptions for established, recurring business partners, but it is unfortunately a necessary evil these days.
Second, in regard to "filling out forms"....I'm not sure exactly what occurred, but we do have secure, web based utilities for customers to input payment information, and apply for RMA when necessary. It's nearly impossible to manage the number of individual transactions we handle each day without becoming somewhat process driven. We have a lot of customers that have commented on the convenience of being able to complete these processes online without having to track down their sales rep.
As I stated earlier, we do make mistakes, but when they occur we do our best to see that they are rectified. It is not unusual to see our sales reps still at their desks performing minor miracles for customers long after their days have technically ended.
If you have any unresolved issues, or additional comments, feel free to shoot me an email, cory@voipsupply.com
4. I do not believe Cory's comment to be valid. I have placed two orders with voip-supply, one 6 months ago and one recently. The first order was never filled and it took 6 weeks and daily emails to gain a refund. They flat out ignored me a held onto my money for a lengthly period of time. My more recent order has gone much the same way. The order itself has been ignored for 20 days (currently says "Transferred to sales") This order was paid for using a verified paypal account so no credit checks here. The order was also made to the address verified with paypal so again I don't see an arguement. They are a totally useless company to deal with and I certainly won't be giving them a third chance to rip me off.
Actually I think Cory had one point, they have become process driven. Their process however seems to include never shipping my orders and ignoring emails.
I am totally displeased with voip-supply and I hope more people see this blog before ordering with them.
Posted at 7:38AM on Jul 11th 2006 by David
5. Hey Ted - I did a bit more research, and it appears you have a dedicated sales rep here, and on at least 5 occassions we shipped product to an alternate address for you. The policy is as much for our customers' protection as it is for ours.
Sincerely,
Cory
Posted at 10:54AM on Jul 11th 2006 by Cory Andrews
6. Cory, you're last comment was completely unprofessional. "...and on at least 5 occassions we shipped product to an alternate address for you." Making comments like that to customers, I'm surprised more people aren't upset with you. What you said to Ted was the equivalent of "I told you so." If that's the customer service you provide, there's no way I would ever deal with your company. It's disappointing to me that you can get away with that.
Posted at 10:12AM on Jul 13th 2006 by Brandon
7. You know...All internet retailers should model themselves like Newegg. They have the BEST customer service I've ever seen and they usually have competative pricing.
Posted at 1:11PM on Jul 16th 2006 by Michael
8. Oh where to start with VOIPSupply. I bought it a bunch of items from them and they shipped to my location in Canada
1) When the product shipped to me, the box did not include the MKC server I bought, this server came from the manufacturer which happens to be next door. However the shipping receipt included the value of the server. The order was stuck on the border with Canada customs as they were looking for the item. It did not help that I had to pay duty on a product that was not really subject to duty, just so that I can get the phones out of customs.
2) The mediatrix had a fault, and after several test, decided that the mediatrix is defective, the proof came when i brought in anothern mediatrix, plugged it in, and everything worked.
3) I shipped out the mediatrix well before the new year. After two month
a. I never ever ever, received notification that they received it,
b. Never received a status
c. Never received an indication if there was a problem detected
4) I had been without a phone system all this time
a. No one in the company is accountable. I can never get an answer on anything
b. Their phone system is extremely horrible.
i. The sound quality is terrible, and that is sad given that they are a phone company
ii. The support auto attendant does one and only one thing. No matter what option you chose, you are forwarded to extension 3415
iii. This 3415 extension is NEVER EVER answered.
iv. The extension apparently belongs to one person, who NEVER EVER returned a single call of mine, even thought I left many voice messages and left my contact information.
v. I finally found that the only way to get anywhere is to call sales and get them to find the person. When I did, the story has been always the same.
1. The product is with RMA
2. RMA is in a different building, and I have to go there to talk to them
3. RMA is testing and they are behind. The story did change after 6 week, I was told the product shipped. I waited nothing showed up.
4. I called again and said where is the product, they said it did not ship and that it is in testing, the person told me he has no idea where I got the information that the product is being shipped from, well since he is the only one I talked to, odds are him.
5. I also asked him why he never returns my calls, and he said that he never got the messages, maybe they are “lost in the system”
a. So this is either untrue
b. Or if true very interesting because again, dare I say, they are a PHONE company, and should not have messages lost in the system
So after all this mess, I have to bive a Brian Dooley credit for helping me sort this out, he is a nice guy. But now the problems start again.
The mediatrix they sent me just busted again, not sure why, i must be an unlucky man, or they mediatrix just sucks. Called VOIPSupply, i was sent back and forth between sales and support to be told that I am stuck and that mediatrix only has a 30 day warrenty. SO now again I am stuck with a phone system that does not work, and a company that has horrible customer service, the sad thing is that they told me to buy another one (from them) guess what, no way, if i am gonna buy anything, i would do it from a company that gives a damn
Posted at 11:52AM on Jul 18th 2006 by Samer Forzley
10. As a follow up.
I contacted mediatrix, they were shocked to hear that the device was not warrenteed by VOIPSupply, and asked me to ship them the deffective one, within a week, they had trouble shot the problem, confirmed the defect, and shipped me a new one.
Thanks Mediatrix
Posted at 8:30AM on Aug 1st 2006 by Samer Forzley
12. I placed what is no doubt a small order for Voipsupply -- a single Digium TDM400P card. Although the web site did not say it would be refurbished or used, it was clearly at least the later, since the anti-static bag it was shipped in had been opened and resealed at least three separate times.
The card did not work, in multiple machines both old and new, and with multiple distros of Linux & Asterisk. I concluded it was bad and asked for a refund. I sent it back UPS.
It's been over a month, and there's still no refund on my card -- I just checked five minutes ago.
And now, they are sending out newsletters claiming they've reformed:
"Based on your feedback over the past three months, we found that our previous RMA policy was a source of great frustration for you, our customer. Thanks to your feedback, we were able to create policies and procedures that better meet the wants and needs of our customers."
I don't find this at all credible.
I've disputed the entire charge with my credit card company, and encourage those who've had any RMA type problems with these guys to do the same. Don't waste your time getting a phone runaround.
Posted at 4:09AM on Aug 15th 2006 by StewLG
13. Blake, thank you for the kind words. We just launched a brand new website this past week, are still rolling out new features, and beleive our site is even better than when you last posted your comment.
In regards to this whole thread, Atacomm and VoIP Supply have both been in the business for several years; and honestly the few times we've worked with Cory and VoipSupply our experience has been pretty good.
If anyone continues to have problematic experiences, obviously you are more than welcome to check us out. I'd really like to point out we are in the process of building an extensive support site that anyone can take advantage of, even if you don't buy from us you are welcome to participate in our forums, use our knowledgebase, and access our downloads.
1. We stopped ordering from voipsupply.com altogether. We were supposedly setup as a reseller, but they shipped us equipment that was used, then gave us hassle on the rma.
Then never shipped a replacement.
Phone calls went unreturned and some people were just rude on the phone.
Won't deal with them again.
Get my stuff now from atacomm.com and they've been great, even if their website isn't as pretty.
Posted at 6:41PM on Jul 6th 2006 by Blake H.