Has your decision to do business with a vendor

[diamondseeker2006]

I didn't see this thread until now, but I find it quite ironic that people who probably consider themselves so tolerant are putting down a vendor for stating his personal beliefs on his personal facebook page! I actually haven't surveyed all the PS vendors for their religious, political, and moral beliefs. I buy from them because they offer superior products at fair prices. It would not bother me in the least for them to post their personal beliefs on their personal facebook pages. This is America where there is freedom of speech the last time I heard. If I "friend" someone and they have offensive (to me) status updates, I hide them from my newsfeed. If it was really bothering me, I can easily click to unfriend them. I happen to have friends with varying beliefs and political persuasions and I don't have to agree with everything they believe to be their friend.

 

[winternight]

I think it is a given that some people will stop patronizing a business for political reasons. I certainly would. If a business was homophobic or racist, for example, I wouldn't give them my money. As for this particular issue, well I don't see the point in getting into my personal feelings, but it is a very political hot button issue. You're free to post whatever you want on your personal page and it is free to come back and bite you.

What irks me is the vendor complaining about customers. It seems very high school and unprofessional. If you buy from Blue Nile or Tiffany's and post about their customer service or the quality of their product you certainly don't have to worry about someone gossiping about you --- someone who has your name, address and credit card information. Here is a suggestion, if you have a great experience with a vendor post about it and if someone else doesn't respect that --- this is how yelp and countless other rating engines work.

 

[Imdanny]

Yes, gossiping about your customers is pathetic.

But what I don't like lately is a pattern I've noticed where PS vendors (on PS) have something negative said about their work or customer service and he or she battles for the next 14 pages denying anything other than his or her perfection, going as far as to insult the consumer.

Meanwhile, a bunch of PS's, no different than the cards following Alkce, take the vendors side and gang up on the consumer.

We're all human. We all make mistakes. Admitting them (for vendors) and not playing this game of 'my favorites can do no wrong' would be much more becoming for businesses and for this community.

In particular, a recent thread in which a well respected member of PS was personally attacked by a vendor was appalling.

No one has more respect for master craftsmen than me, but that was really too much.

 

[winternight]

Well that thread mentioned "experimental" pricing. And given the third vendor's intense involvement in the thread and in the earlier thread on that particular ring, I couldn't help but wonder if there was a quid pro quo - lower price = you post a great review. So if I was the second vendor I might have lost my cool as well. Shouldn't preferential pricing be brought up transparently? And I do question other people's reviews given the clique on FB.

 

[yssie]

I would be less than impressed by a vendor asking about how to handle a customer on a facebook page... but I'm not even *on* facebook, at all, and I have no idea who this vendor is or what was said, and I have no idea if what I'm imagining is at all representative of what actually happened!


Danny, thank you. I didn't expect everyone to agree with me, but I did expect everyone to keep it civil - obviously my expectations were too high.


winternight - Fine... before we all go 'round the mulberry bush again let's just get that particular objection sorted, shall we? I didn't want to share but I see people are all too eager to assume the worst of DBL for my hesitation, so...

I paid ~6k for the VC with sidestones. I paid ~4k for the DBL without sidestones. VC's original expectation was ~7k. DBL's original expectation was ~3k for the same job with cast shank. You can make of that what you will (I understood that VC planned for a tidy profit and DBL was underestimating the workload, but I don't know for sure and I didn't ask, and since neither had actually made the design before those details of workload were guesswork - thus, "experimental").

Put the stones at ~500. DBL gave me a ~1k "discount" off the "list price" of 5500 (I posted in that original thread that the DBL price was sans stones but re-reading some emails I'm pretty sure it does in fact include the stones), and VC gave me 1k "discount" off "original expectation" of ~7k. VC has made clear that he has no interest in ever making such a trellis again so a "list price" is irrelevant, and no PSer would ever have to pay DBL's "list price" so that's irrelevant as well.

SO NO, I DID NOT BARTER A GOOD REVIEW FOR A LOW PRICE.
A) It wasn't a low price,
B) I'm not that sort of person, and
C) I gave exactly the review that I felt was earned - there was no need for a barter anyway, DBL simply did an exceptional job.

David participates heavily on PS and VC does not: relatively speaking the amount of VC's participation was far more unusual than the amount of David's. Kindly note that I'm not the least bit interested in discussing what that participation entailed on either side - my only responsibility is what comes out of my mouth.

Second point - I post a lot on PS. Both DBL and VC know this. Both DBL and VC get business from PS, and both DBL's and VC's business is going to be affected by PSers' opinions. This isn't a secret, nor is it a conspiracy - it's just a fact. If DBL, who has read tens of thousands of my posts and who knows that I am very, very particular, took extra extra care in manufacturing my ring - well, good for them, that was the clever thing to do, no? I'm not the least bit surprised to hear that vendors have different standards for PSers and non-PSers, that's just smart business. And I have no doubt that DBL would give any PSer the same consideration he gave me throughout this transaction - if people want to question his honour/integrity/work ethic that's their fools' trail.

I am NOT going into why my budget was what it was. That's no-one's business and it's got nothing to do with the topic.

 

[ForteKitty]

I would be less than impressed by a vendor asking about how to handle a customer on a facebook page... but I'm not even *on* facebook, at all, and I have no idea who this vendor is or what was said, and I have no idea if what I'm imagining is at all representative of what actually happened!

It was DBL who posted that question, not VC.

 

[yssie]

I would be less than impressed by a vendor asking about how to handle a customer on a facebook page... but I'm not even *on* facebook, at all, and I have no idea who this vendor is or what was said, and I have no idea if what I'm imagining is at all representative of what actually happened!

It was DBL who posted that question, not VC.

Different thread FK, I have no idea what happened on FB. It's no matter now anyway - just wanted to clear up some misunderstandings in winter's post.

ETA: oops, how about answering the actual OP?
I don't know... it'd depend on what I was buying I guess, and whether I could get it elsewhere... All in all I'd rather just not know. One of the advantages of eschewing social networking sites entirely!

I have pretty strong feelings on this sort of stuff. My best friend in the world has pretty strong feelings on this stuff too - and we mostly disagree. We became friends before we'd really figured out how we felt... I don't think we'd be friends, let alone best friends, if we'd met now. And I'd have missed out on getting to know a really incredible person - and some crazy debates!!

 

[winternight]

Yssie, I'm sorry if my point upset you but I was curious about pricing and your thread was locked. I'm not on here enough to what is normal or not. Thanks for the clarification, I sincerely hope that you're enjoying your beautiful ring.

Fortekitty, thanks for the clarification.

 

[Imdanny]

I would be less than impressed by a vendor asking about how to handle a customer on a facebook page... but I'm not even *on* facebook, at all, and I have no idea who this vendor is or what was said, and I have no idea if what I'm imagining is at all representative of what actually happened!

It was DBL who posted that question, not VC.

Ok, so who is the vendor referred to in the OP?

 

[yssie]

Yssie, I'm sorry if my point upset you but I was curious about pricing and your thread was locked. I'm not on here enough to what is normal or not. Thanks for the clarification, I sincerely hope that you're enjoying your beautiful ring.

Fortekitty, thanks for the clarification.

Ack. Sorry winter, I kinda blew up there!
Yeah, I locked it and haven't gone back to read what happened after my last post. Obviously I'm not yet settled over the whole thing so that's probably for the best! I hope that clears things up though - and thank you, I am

 

[Clairitek]

Yssie, I do want to comment on one thing you said. I asked dbl for a quote on a setting for my graduated five stone ring with old cuts. I also wanted a trellis but with four prongs on the center. David felt that the only way to get what I wanted was to handforge the basket "like Yssie's ring" and quoted me $5.5k. So you did get a better deal than this PSer did. No hard feelings as the guy has to make a living. I just ended up going with someone else who would carve be a wax in my budget.

 

[yssie]

Oooh a 5stone with old cuts? I'm doing *exactly* the same thing with WF right now! Though the graduation will be very, very slight. I can't wait to see yours!!

Thanks for the update Clair - I suppose being first had more influence than I'd credited it with. I'm really glad you found someone else to do it in-budget

 

[Clairitek]

Oooh a 5stone with old cuts? I'm doing *exactly* the same thing with WF right now! Though the graduation will be very, very slight. I can't wait to see yours!!

Thanks for the update Clair - I suppose being first had more influence than I'd credited it with. I'm really glad you found someone else to do it in-budget

I am, too. Honestly if I had been resetting an engagement ring with a larger budget I may have considered it, but this is not an e-ring so I decided to go with affordable.

I hope to have it in a few weeks! I'll definitely be posting it once its on my hand! I am looking forward to seeing the design you came up with for your mom.

 

[Rockdiamond]

I would be less than impressed by a vendor asking about how to handle a customer on a facebook page... but I'm not even *on* facebook, at all, and I have no idea who this vendor is or what was said, and I have no idea if what I'm imagining is at all representative of what actually happened!

It was DBL who posted that question, not VC.

Oh how Id love not to participate in this discussion- but the above comment leaves me little choice.
IN this thread, there have several references to a vendor posting a complaint about a consumer on a private FB page- Since it's clear that in this case Yssie is our consumer I need to have this clarified.
A vendor ( not me) posted an account of a transaction with a consumer that may have been seen by some as a complaint- this was done on the PS FB page.

I am in complete agreement that it is not appropriate for a vendor to discuss a client transaction on FB- or here on PS unless the consumer started a discussion.

Danny +10000000000

 

[ForteKitty]

David, you did post a question, asking what a vendor is to do w/ unhappy clients. Did you not?

eta: It was started on February 9, in case you need some refreshing.

 

[athenaworth]

Selective memory loss :-/

 

[Rockdiamond]

David, you did post a question, asking what a vendor is to do w/ unhappy clients. Did you not?

eta: It was started on February 9, in case you need some refreshing.

Here's the exact question I posed
"If you commissioned a custom made ring, and the result was not what you expected, what would you expect the vendor to do?"

IN retrospect it was ill advised to pose this question- a good example of why one should never .post when angry....

 

[ForteKitty]

Exactly. Given what was happening here, it doesn't take a genius to figure out who you were slamming.

 

[Rockdiamond]

My question was aimed at finding out how consumers reading it would handle a situation where a custom made ring was not what they expected.
It seems to me this is an important question for jewelry lovers.

 

[decodelighted]

David, you did post a question, asking what a vendor is to do w/ unhappy clients. Did you not?

eta: It was started on February 9, in case you need some refreshing.

JUICY!

 

[coda72]

Well, I'm pretty certain that there's vendors on here that I would never do business with (or again), but it isn't due to FB postings. But I'm a business owner, and many of my FB friends are my customers, and believe me, I'm very careful about what I post on FB. In fact, I rarely post on FB in order to not have the type of situation that occurred here. I'm not out to alienate half (or more) of my customer base with my personal beliefs, so it's a very rare occasion when I post anything personal at all on FB. In essence, my personal FB page has become my professional one, and I treat it as such. And I think it's a good idea when any business owner or someone who represents a business does the same.

 

[Lula]

Well, I for one have more respect for VC after the VC/DBL thread, and less respect for DBL. If vendors were not allowed to post on PS, I think the "comparison" threads would be educational. However, with vendor participation they become a zero sum game. That thread was going in a "Lord of the Flies" direction at the end.

As for the actions of the "mystery" vendor on the "mystery" PS FB site, it sounds like another example of a business thinking "Cool, I can use FB to increase my sales" without doing the necessary due diligence on business netiquette before they jump in. I would not do business with a vendor who was posting the type of photos people are alluding to in this thread. And vendors should not be discussing clients on social media sites that other clients are members of. That is no different than two salespeople in Bloomingdales discussing a customer in front of other customers.

 

[Dreamer_D]

Isn't their some saying about not mixing business and friendship? That is my motto, because the former always wins when it comes down to it.

 

[smitcompton]

Hi,

I am definitely confused. I did not think this thread had any thing to do with Yissie, DBL or Victor Canera. People are making assumptions that perhaps they should not. While I like DBL's website and now his work, IMO he lacks any subtletiy in his responses
in posts. He's rather annoying. Guess what DBL, this isn't about you.

If our vendor has a deeply felt religious belief it does not bother me, as I said before. Talking about a customer is another thing completely. I thought it was about a person who called him a liar. Figure it out folks. I'm not longer sure. Perhaps he will think twice when thinking about doing it again.
Annette

 

[Imdanny]

Selective memory loss :-/

In the OP.