a rant for the pros

mvinson

mvinson

If this is not the place for this please accept my apologies and move it to the correct section - I put it here because it addresses the business side of things

I am pretty new to this site and have spent much more time reading than posting, but since I know that this is THE site for those of us who love the hot stuff as well as those "in the business" I wanted to address something here

I am both a consumer and a collector of hot sauce - In attempting to order sauces online I have run into a couple of problems time and again

First - Why do people who sell sauces online continuously have sauces listed which are out of stock? I know that something runs out on occasion but I just attempted to place an order online and gave up when I had 11 different items come up as out of stock and I was only to the C's - at least this particular site listed them as out of stock when I tried to order - most places you only find that an item is out of stock when you actually receive your order - Am I out of line in asking that someone who wants my money spend the time cleaning their website up and keep things current?

I know to many here having a bottle of hot sauce that is not opened and consumed is pretty much sacrilegious, but as I said I am a collector as well as a consumer - I like the hot stuff on my tongue but I also like the hot stuff on my wall - I collect hot sauce for the very same reason that I eat hot sauce - because I want to

Anyway - it is as a collector that this rant comes from - again to web sites - KEEP YOUR PHOTOS AND DESCRIPTION CURRENT! Sometimes I want a particular sauce for my collection because the label has changed - When I order from the description and the photo I expect to receive what I see and read - But when I actually receive my order I find that what I get is not what I actually ordered but rather the newer version that I already have - One place I complained to put the blame on the people they order from, I guess it was a drop-ship operation - Excuse me, but I ordered from YOU and I expect YOU to keep YOUR site up to date - when you don't you are wasting my time

OK rant over (this particular one anyway) Thanks for putting up with me
 
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I can see your point. I have a fairly hefty collection as well....and have run into the same kinds of problems when trying to order from some (not all) websites, so I feel your pain!

Lately, I've switched gears and have been prowling eBay instead. I do, however, have some great retail websites you may not have looked over. Just PM me and I'll send you my list.
 
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mvinson said:
Anyway - it is as a collector that this rant comes from - again to web sites - KEEP YOUR PHOTOS AND DESCRIPTION CURRENT! Sometimes I want a particular sauce for my collection because the label has changed - When I order from the description and the photo I expect to receive what I see and read - But when I actually receive my order I find that what I get is not what I actually ordered but rather the newer version that I already have - One place I complained to put the blame on the people they order from, I guess it was a drop-ship operation - Excuse me, but I ordered from YOU and I expect YOU to keep YOUR site up to date - when you don't you are wasting my time
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That used to be a major gripe of mine too(and it was for all retailers, not just hot sauce ones) UNTIL i had to maintain and update the website my partner and i used to have for our custom paint business. Now i see why sometimes for the smaller guys you really just don't have enough hours in a day to do things like that. if its a huge company then yeah i think theres really no excuse but for the smaller guys with few to no employees i can understand they delay.
 
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A big reason most of the large hot sauce sites can't keep update is because they either don't care or don't really know. most of the owners have probably not tried 80% or more of the products they sell on the sites. They simply add what they think will sell.
 
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paulky_2000 said:
I can see your point. I have a fairly hefty collection as well....and have run into the same kinds of problems when trying to order from some (not all) websites, so I feel your pain!

Lately, I've switched gears and have been prowling eBay instead. I do, however, have some great retail websites you may not have looked over. Just PM me and I'll send you my list.
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I also keep my eye on eBay - but a lot of the lower end sauces just are not there - plus when I order from a site I generally place a good size order so that shipping does not eat me alive on just one or two bottles

and a pm has been sent - I am always on the lookout for good sites - thanks
 
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Sickmont said:
That used to be a major gripe of mine too(and it was for all retailers, not just hot sauce ones) UNTIL i had to maintain and update the website my partner and i used to have for our custom paint business. Now i see why sometimes for the smaller guys you really just don't have enough hours in a day to do things like that. if its a huge company then yeah i think theres really no excuse but for the smaller guys with few to no employees i can understand they delay.
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I agree to a point - I know it is not easy to keep up a site - I have built a few sites before myself and even hand coded them -

as the old saying goes, you only get one chance to make a first impression and there are sites that I will never order from again because of this

if you are losing business by not keeping your site current what is the point of having a web site at all?
 
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Bradh728 said:
A big reason most of the large hot sauce sites can't keep update is because they either don't care or don't really know. most of the owners have probably not tried 80% or more of the products they sell on the sites. They simply add what they think will sell.
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As I said above - it is my opinion that thinking like that will just cost them business and money in the long run (I know that they will not get my business or my money) - but then again, who knows - I have found out in this life that I have a lot more questions than I do answers lol
 
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mvinson said:
As I said above - it is my opinion that thinking like that will just cost them business and money in the long run (I know that they will not get my business or my money) - but then again, who knows - I have found out in this life that I have a lot more questions than I do answers lol
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That is one of the hardest things for people to understnad, a smart man has answers but an even wiser man has questions!!
 
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mvinson said:
if you are losing business by not keeping your site current what is the point of having a web site at all?
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Exactly. Thats the reason we gave up on our site. We have always and continue to do better by word of mouth only. So far nobody has ever contacted us to arrange to ship their vehicle cross-country for us to paint. We figured that someday if we ever start to gain that kind of reputation and notoriety then a website will go up.
 
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We here at KATO'S are trying to keep up. We are always adding new products to our site I agree it really upsets me when I order on line & find out it's gone.

Mick
KATO'S
888-528-KATO(5286)
 
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A similar issue I have for many sellers is that they don't allow for international orders on their websites.

**Slightly off-topic rant**

There's a convenient drop down list of the US states and canadian provinces, but no option for other locations such as AUS. When trolling the interweb for stuff, I usually go straight to the checkout to see if it's gonna be painful browsing, ordering, filling in details only to find out that they can't/won't send to here, or that i need to email the store and either ring or (worse!) email CC details due to the added freight.

Surely it isn't too hard to get USPS or DHL int'l rates calculators into the checkout.
 
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Our problem from the other side of the argument, is that when people want to purchase from us from another country, many of them look at the rates, and then send us a hate mail telling us we are ripping them off due to the high rates. Each and every time, I have to cut and paste the calculated price from the USPS website to prove to them we're not charging anything extra.

We also now only ship USPS EMS as we can track it to the door of the orderer, instead of the order disappearing at the border, and then hoping for the best. I don't want to tell you how many orders were 'lost' that we had to replace, and then go through the bs red tape to get a refund on our claim. It ain't all happiness.
 
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DEFCON Creator said:
Our problem from the other side of the argument, is that when people want to purchase from us from another country, many of them look at the rates, and then send us a hate mail telling us we are ripping them off due to the high rates. Each and every time, I have to cut and paste the calculated price from the USPS website to prove to them we're not charging anything extra.

We also now only ship USPS EMS as we can track it to the door of the orderer, instead of the order disappearing at the border, and then hoping for the best. I don't want to tell you how many orders were 'lost' that we had to replace, and then go through the bs red tape to get a refund on our claim. It ain't all happiness.
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I can feel your pain, Creator.

I have spent 10 years in the shipping business and international shipments are the most difficult. Having to replace an order strictly on the word of the recipient in another country.....that's a gamble at best!
 
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