DBS has been an 888VoIP customer for several months now. While we maintain relationships with many larger distributors, 888VoIP specializes in VoIP hardware and carries specialty items like CyberData IP paging speakers, Yealink IP phones, Patton PSTN gateways and 3CX licenses so they’re a great partner to have since DBS has such a strong focus on VoIP and collaboration solutions. Our 888VoIP account executive, Tom Wanderlich, is outstanding. In fact, everything about my 888VoIP experience was perfect right up until a couple weeks ago…
The Problem
Early this month I ordered a few CyberData products for one of my best customers. One of the items, an IP-enabled overhead paging speaker by CyberData, absolutely had to be on-site by Thursday the 18th so it could be installed the next day. That gave me thirteen days to get the speaker to my client – no problem! Or so I thought…
Five days after placing my order my client asked where his equipment was so I emailed Tom for tracking information. He replied that two of the items were in transit and the third was on a 3-week backorder. I checked the backordered SKU and of course it was the paging speaker – the one item my client had to have ASAP! I tried to source it elsewhere but couldn’t find it anywhere. It was starting to look like a lost cause so resigned myself to failure and broke the bad news to my client.
The Monday before the speaker was to be installed my client called to ask if there was anything else I could to expedite delivery or find it elsewhere. I searched again, found nothing, and called 888VoIP customer service as a last resort. I was elated to hear the IP speaker was in transit! …until they told me it was in transit to the 888VoIP headquarters in New York and wouldn’t get to my customer until a week after it was needed (and three weeks after I’d ordered it).
I think these guys would have done an excellent job of getting my client their equipment. Don’t you agree?
At this point I felt a rage start to build. Maybe I’m just spoiled by D&H‘s two-day ship times but when the 888VoIP customer service rep told me how long my client would be without their equipment my blood really started to boil. I don’t remember exactly what I said to the poor lady but I do seem to remember asking her if they could just strap the paging speaker onto the back of a pack mule and have him walk from California to Cincinnati because that had to be faster than their current shipping methods.
Honestly the shipping time isn’t even what made me mad though. When I ordered the paging speaker there was no mention of a three-week back order. Neither when I initially priced and quoted it to my client nor when I actually ordered was I given any indication that this item wasn’t sitting in the 888VoIP warehouse and shipping out within a day or so. They charged my credit card, sent me an order confirmation, and I expected everything was a-ok. If I’d known ahead of time the product was unavailable I never would have ordered it! Now my client was forced to spend more money to have their installer come out a second time just for this speaker whenever it arrived and THAT’S why I was mad – because an avoidable situation was costing my customer extra money they hadn’t planned on spending.
My Response
After I vented to the 888VoIP customer service rep I proceeded to called Tom and he was of course very apologetic but he couldn’t really do anything to help. Frustrated that I still hadn’t made any headway in actually solving my client’s problem I took to social media to vent. First I left some not-so-friendly comments on 888VoIP’s Facebook page and then I sent some less than professional tweets about my experience which I’m less than proud of:
Dear @888Voip: It would be nice if you told me BEFORE checkout that you don't have anything I want in stock
— Phil Denton (@phil_denton) September 16, 2014
Rather than waiting for me to have to call you and ask where my (customer's!) stuff is. Get your sh*t together @888Voip
— Phil Denton (@phil_denton) September 16, 2014
The Solution
I found out pretty quickly that 888VoIP keeps a very close eye on their social media because my Facebook comments got the attention of Eric Jeffers, 888VoIP’s marketing manager within just a few hours. He responded to my comments on the 888VoIP Facebook page and then called me personally to apologize for the confusion. He told me via email that he would take personal responsibility for finding a way to notify customers ahead of time when items aren’t in stock. He also said he’d be working closely with Bill Majerczak of CyberData to get my order filled but at this point I was skeptical. Then I saw Bill’s Facebook comments and I finally started to think we could make this happen after all.
By the next day Eric had somehow managed to chase down CyberData’s production team and get my client’s hardware moved to the front of the build queue. The CyberData team completed construction of the overhead IP paging speaker in record time, sent it directly to my client via priority overnight at no additional charge, and the item arrived on my client’s loading dock at 1030AM the morning of the 18th as promised and as required.
Needless to say, my client is happy so now I’m happy too. Last month I would have said there’s no one who cares as much about my clients as I do but now 888VoIP and CyberData are giving me a run for my money. This type of commitment on the behalf of larger companies that I rely on as suppliers is rare so I wanted to make sure to give credit where credit is due and the credit for this win definitely goes to the 888VoIP and CyberData teams, especially Eric Jeffers, Tom Wanderlich, Bill Majerczak, the unknown 888VoIP customer service rep who I asked about the pack mule, and the CyberData production team. Thank you for all of your help and if any of you guys is/are ever in Cincinnati let me know and the first round is on me. You may have just won over a client for life!
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