Question about Vendors and Company Reviews

[michael_mus]

Hey all,

Came here to complain about Bottlemark.com who told me today (a week after ordering) that they are still behind and expect an 8 - 12 day delay for my ~300 crowns.

I didn't order anything custom, just some plain crowns and two of their inhouse-designs they had in their catalog.

Then I got to thinking: Wow, I had this same crap with thefastrack.ca last month.

Brings up two questions:

Is this the kind of slow service I should expect from homebrew vendors in general?

and

What are the criteria for making it onto the HBT vendor list?

 

[Pappers_]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f173/when-does-hbt-remove-vendor-286063/ especially TxBrews final post in the thread will answer your question about when HBT removes a Vendor.

As for your experiences, I don't consider two weeks to be an exceptional or bad experience when ordering unusual or specialized items, brewing -related or otherwise.

I've renamed your thread so other members can find it if they are looking for a review of Bottle Mark.

 

[michael_mus]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f173/when-does-hbt-remove-vendor-286063/ especially TxBrews final post in the thread will answer your question about when HBT removes a Vendor.

As for your experiences, I don't consider two weeks to be an exceptional or bad experience when ordering unusual or specialized items, brewing -related or otherwise.

I've renamed your thread so other members can find it if they are looking for a review of Bottle Mark.

Hey thanks Pappers. The questions and my review come from a good place I promise. I'm an easy customer, just don't like chasing my purchases around.

I appreciate the feedback and I don't see a problem with two week delays either. I expected 7 - 10 days.

What I'm finding a problem with is a little deeper. With these past two purchases, I've had to reach out for a status update where elsewhere, with other hobbies (motorcycles, music + instruments, art, jeep, cars, etc) I get a message or two within 48 hours of purchase, usually including tracking information. At the very least a confirmation that things were moving along.

So, this being the 2nd item I've ordered through the HBT site in two months - And having rocky experiences with both, I thought I'd bring it up. I absolutely didn't mean any disrespect.

Over the past few years I've ordered art from the UK, a rebuilt transmission for a 1995-and-a-half VW GTI, and a power supply for a SCSI to Zip drive for an Akai MPC2000XL sampler. Niche stuff, both cheap and costly. In general, I shop online and have never had slow / silent service like this before.

I asked about the vendor program because I'd either like to know that there is a methodology in place or not. If not, I'll do more footwork in researching these companies and their reputations.

Again, I hope this comes out with respect. I'm appreciative of the guidance here, but I'm confused about the vendor page.

 

[Pappers_]

I asked about the vendor program because I'd either like to know that there is a methodology in place or not. If not, I'll do more footwork in researching these companies and their reputations.

Again, I hope this comes out with respect. I'm appreciative of the guidance here, but I'm confused about the vendor page.

I understand, hope this clarifies. Being a Vendor Member does not carry an inherent endorsement of the business. Vendor Members pay to be able to advertise and post in the Vendor section - without having a Vendor Membership, businesses are not allowed to advertise on HBT.

Vendors will be and many have been removed, though. If a business is ripping people off, taking money and not delivering service or product, they will be removed.

Dissatisfied customers are not sufficient to remove a vendor though, for three reasons.

First, every business has dissatisfied customers. If you look in the Company Review section (which is not limited to Vendors), every one of the widely respected large, national homebrew supply stores has negative reviews, some of which are stridently negative (I'll never do business with these so-and-so's again!)

Second, there is a greater tendency to post negative experiences (to warn others ) than positive experiences, although some HBTers are good about praising businesses that deserve it.

Third, there are niche businesses that provide value to customers in a certain way that will necessarily dissatisfy another customer. For example, a company that offers cut-rate prices but does so by having no inventory (using drop shipping from the manufacturer or supplier) will get lots of negative reviews from people who wonder why it took 4 weeks to get their order. But, that business's niche is people who don't care about getting their purchase speedily, but do want the very lowest prices possible.

So, to summarize:

1) Vendors pay to be Vendor Members, it is not an endorsement

2) Vendors are removed for ripping people off but not for having bad reviews or dissatisifed customers

3) the Company Reviews section is a powerful tool and completely separate from the Vendors section. Any company (including Vendors) can be reviewed here and reviews are not censored. The only limitations are that posts be actual reviews from actual customers - not self reviews and or commentary on other members' experiences.

I'm going to lock this now, because this is really about HBT policy, set by the site's administrator and not really appropriate for back and forth discussion (including by moderators like me). I appreciate the questions you raise, though, and hope this explains it. If you or anyone has any follow-up questions or thoughts, please PM me.