How long does it take to get a Price Quote from WF?

[sunkist]

If you have had a ring custom made from WhiteFlash, how long did it take to get the initial price estimate back from them?

 

[jldunn]

They had mine either the day after I asked for it or two days after. From First contact to getting the ring FedEx''d to me it was just a little over two weeks.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Jeremy, it seems like the last we saw was your wax model. Do you have pictures of the finished ring???? (As in, we need PICTURES!)

 

[sunkist]

Two days!? Wow, that''s good and it''s what I was expecting from them, but sadly that''s not my story. I first contacted them about it by email 20 days ago and still haven''t gotten the price quote yet. There was a mix up in receiving the emails, I guess, but I got an email finally a week ago saying they''d contact me ASAP, and a week later, still nothing.

I guess I should give them a call. I guess I figured since they are an internet company email would be a good way to communicate with them. Does everyone here dealing with them usually communicate with them by phone?

 

[jldunn]

I put up the whiteflash pictures of the finished product in that tiffany pear thread a little while ago. I still need to take my own pictures. It''s crazy beautiful. It might take me awhile to take my own pictures of it. My girlfriend is over a lot and I don''t like taking it out of hiding on the chance that she might walk in.

I like to tell her things like, "I think I''m going to propose to you this weekend" just about every weekend. She''s convinced I haven''t even started saving for a ring. Misinformation is a great tool for those who can''t tell a white lie with a straight face.

 

[jldunn]

I communicated almost exclusively by e-mail. I had a pretty simple design that they had done in the past though, so maybe that makes a difference?

 

[Kaleigh]

Date: 2/27/2006 9:40:33 PM
Author: sunkist
Two days!? Wow, that''s good and it''s what I was expecting from them, but sadly that''s not my story. I first contacted them about it by email 20 days ago and still haven''t gotten the price quote yet. There was a mix up in receiving the emails, I guess, but I got an email finally a week ago saying they''d contact me ASAP, and a week later, still nothing.

I guess I should give them a call. I guess I figured since they are an internet company email would be a good way to communicate with them. Does everyone here dealing with them usually communicate with them by phone?

No most people do use emails but if the time laxes as in your case you definitely need to give them a call.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

OK, Jeremy, let me go look!

 

[JohnQuixote]

Hello Sunkist,

We do a lot of work by phone, but most of our communication is actually via email as you suspected. I can't explain what has occured in your case but we certainly regret the miscues and want to help you.

As I write this it's 9:15 PM CST. Because of our current workload someone will be answering the toll-free number tonight until 11:00 PM CST. When you call please ask for Lesley, Director of Sales, and identify yourself as Sunkist - I've alerted her to expect the call. If not tonight we will open again in the morning at 9AM CST.

Thank you for posting to chase this down.

Best regards,

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Goodness, John! 11:00pm??? I also emailed a question about a week ago and never got an answer, although I think it was a long shot question anyway about a virtual stone on the site. I''m not needing to call tonight, though! I just want to buy Jeremy''s ring from him to make this easier.

 

[belle]

it''s time

to get you a diamond diamondseeker.

 

[JohnQuixote]

Date: 2/27/2006 10:27:59 PM
Author: diamondseeker2006
Goodness, John! 11:00pm??? I also emailed a question about a week ago and never got an answer, although I think it was a long shot question anyway about a virtual stone on the site. I''m not needing to call tonight, though! I just want to buy Jeremy''s ring from him to make this easier.

DS, it happens

. Standard hours are 9-6 cst, but we sometimes have phone coverage at odd US hours to accomodate clients in other time zones. It never hurts to try. We hope email will be reliable 24/7, but a voice on the line is a stronger bet in a pinch and isn''t subject to spam filters.

 

[Dancing Fire]

John Q

i e-mailed WF on 2-22 about a custom pendant and haven''t got any kind of reply.

 

[Mara]

sounds like WF may have a bit of a backlog with emails and quotes or some lost items?

whenever in doubt, i''d pick up the phone and call and speak to someone....email communications are not foolproof...there has been a time or two when i am waiting for something from someone and they say oh i sent that to you and i never got it, well they fwd me the email and surely there is the date and time stamp etc.

if a few days went by with no response, i''d email again or call.

 

[sunkist]

Date: 2/27/2006 10:14:33 PM
Author: JohnQuixote
Hello Sunkist,


We do a lot of work by phone, but most of our communication is actually via email as you suspected. I can''t explain what has occured in your case but we certainly regret the miscues and want to help you.


As I write this it''s 9:15 PM CST. Because of our current workload someone will be answering the toll-free number tonight until 11:00 PM CST. When you call please ask for Lesley, Director of Sales, and identify yourself as Sunkist - I''ve alerted her to expect the call. If not tonight we will open again in the morning at 9AM CST.


Thank you for posting to chase this down.


Best regards,

Thank you John! I didn''t get a chance to call Lesley tonight because I was in class all night, but I will make a phone call tomorrow.

 

[rstillin]

FYI, I contacted WF about a diamond and they promplty returned my mail. I even got a call. The call prompted me to follow up with another email regarding a custom setting. After that email I did not receive any info regarding my request until I contacted WF again about a month later.

I''ve now started the quote process over again and am awaiting a response. WF, you have an excellent rep here, but it appears that a few of us have experienced the same lack of follow up once contact was made. Not a rant, just information to use as you choose.

 

[firebirdgold]

I emailed WF about a quote too and immed got a automatic responder email, and then got a "thanks for emailing, the design guys are taking a look at it" the next day. Did you get either one of those?

I don''t expect an actual quote soon though, since I told them that there was no hurry. (Bf is consumed with ph.d defense prep and work right now.) I really just wanted a ballpark to make sure this is in our budget and doable before handing it over to my bf as a strong suggestion.

 

[AmberWaves]

Maybe I got lucky, I was (am) looking for a stone only, and less than an hour after I emailed, I got a phone call, and an email with a potential stone (which was PERFECT). Over the course of 3 days, I heard from him no less than three times a day. When I decided that it was too soon, I notified Ron at WF that we''re going to hold off until March, and he said it was fine. Then a day ago, I was thinking of emailing Ron to let him know we were getting ready to search again, when I found out he had already emailed me to let me know that he was ready when I was!! We''re re-searching next week. Excellent customer service!!

 

[atroop711]

Hi...

I had initially emailed them but didn''t get an email back. I called about 2 days later and they are emailed me back but my spam filter took their email out. From my 1st call to the very end (with Denise), it was a great process. I never stressed not one bit. I told her what we were looking for, how much our budget was and I also had some stones already picked out for her to give me feedback on. She emailed me later on with her feedback on the stones I had mentioned and also had some she wanted me to look at. We narrowed it down to 2 diamonds. The next morning one of them sold but the one I really wanted was still available. She had the stone shipped to WF so they can inspect it, they loved it and gave their approval. I bought the stone in 2 days! Then we started on the setting. I emailed her what I wanted, she got back to me within 1-2 days with a quote. The go ahead was given and the rest is history!

GL with your future purchase

Annette

 

[sunkist]

Alright, I just wanted to finish up by saying I called WF and they are super nice and we got everything figured out!

& Thanks everyone for your input on your experiences!

 

[atroop711]

YEAH

...Good to hear!

 

[cymbrie]

Glad to hear your issue got resolved Sunkist. We too had trouble reaching WF in the last several weeks. I sent about 3 emails and called 4 times. I received 2 emails back the last saying they would contact us the following day. It has been over a week and still we have had no further response with regard to our inquiry. We are working with another vendor now who has been much more responsive. Similar to rstillin, not a rant but more for informative purposes. WF is very highly recommended and I hope they will remedy this for future clients.

 

[Gonzodogg]

Not to beat a dead horse but I thought I would just throw in my .02 b/c I know John is reading...

It seems to me that WF is understaffed (with great people though) and that sometimes comunication breaks down. I have had some issues with the custom ring I am having them make and it seems like they have trouble letting me (and one another) know what is going on.
I have had the best luck when I call and ask for Lesley and she puts me in contact with the person I need to talk to.

like I said, just my .02

 

[pebbles]

I''ve had mixed responses from them too. About a month or so ago I called (instead of emailing which I normally do) to ask if one of their ACA diamonds was eye-clean or not and I never got a response. I decided on a different type of project anyway, so I was slightly annoyed but not raging mad. If that had been for my engagement ring, you can bet I would have been more upset. I''ve also had to call/email to find out what was going on with a pendant that I am purchasing from them when I hadn''t heard anything from them. Again, not a rant, but something for the masses to be aware of.

 

[dreamycastle]

I had a similar situation but the delay in response was just a approx. a week or less. I was pretty nervous cos I was decided on a stone already. Anyway, lesley was great and she explained that she was busy training her stuff whole of last week. That probably explains the backlog of mails and stuff that came up.

 

[JohnQuixote]

Date: 2/28/2006 6:25:35 PM
Author: Gonzodogg
Not to beat a dead horse but I thought I would just throw in my .02 b/c I know John is reading...

It seems to me that WF is understaffed (with great people though) and that sometimes comunication breaks down. I have had some issues with the custom ring I am having them make and it seems like they have trouble letting me (and one another) know what is going on.
I have had the best luck when I call and ask for Lesley and she puts me in contact with the person I need to talk to.

like I said, just my .02

Thanks G. You have good instincts about our staff and workload; both keep growing. There are many new hands on deck. Nevertheless, our intent is to maintain good communications. We appreciate you calling in and being involved. We'll take your .02 - and the other change in this thread (thanks to all) - and invest it.

 

[Mara]

john i already gave this recommendation to lesley previously re: emails, but re: this whole communication thing...

i suggested that on each of your work emails you guys should have''auto response''. it should be something like ''hi this is john thanks for your email. i typically respond to emails with 24 hours of receipt, HOWEVER if this is urgent, please call me at XYZ''. if you do not hear from me within 24 hours, please contact me to ensure that i received your communication'', or call my backup Renee at XYZ''.

it should go on all of your emails from everyone''s accounts so that the customer always has a ''yes they got my email'' thing and ''yes they will get back to me'' BUT if they don''t at least they have that option to call in and speak to someone else etc.

in the circular world of CS that you guys are in, where you ar all a team, customers can have a plan B form of action but at least they got your auto-response and know your typical turnaround for responses. aka that way someone won''t expect to hear from yuo within the hour. and if they do, it''s a perk.

 

[argh&stuff]

My girl sent an email/contact request form regarding the setting we originally liked, Sunkist. She never heard back, and got all sad. I guess it happened for a reason, though, because now I have a better plan in the making.

I''ll definitely contact them regarding this tulip set head, set lowish, with a cathedral build up to the stone (like the Niwaka setting). Maybe I''ll get a response. I sure hope so!

 

[firebirdgold]

Date: 3/1/2006 6:40:20 PM
Author: argh&stuff
My girl sent an email/contact request form regarding the setting we originally liked, Sunkist. She never heard back, and got all sad. I guess it happened for a reason, though, because now I have a better plan in the making.


I''ll definitely contact them regarding this tulip set head, set lowish, with a cathedral build up to the stone (like the Niwaka setting). Maybe I''ll get a response. I sure hope so!

I emailed them last sunday about a niwaka inspired setting and I already got a quote from them, so prompt! It made me very happy, but not as happy as the quote itself!

 

[argh&stuff]

Really, Wren?

I hope I''m as happy when I hear from them as you are! I have a budget that I really have to stick to, and I am pretty much set on it looking a lot like the tulipsetting from Niwaka...

That gives me hope. Thanks!