BassBros communication

[Jack]

Anyone had an email from BassBros recently? Wondering if they are ignoring me specifically or if I can stop taking this personally.

 

I inquired about them selling one of my Spectors for me, then chased it a week later saying that I would specifically trade in against another Spector they have listed. Nothing either time. I tried calling once (just once, I'm a millennial) and didn't get an answer either.

 

Thank you for helping me with my first world problem.

[franzbassist]

I used their contact form once to ask about whether they would sell an item of mine on commission: no reply.

Asked the same question using the same form about a different item a few months later: reply within hours.

 

[Clarky]

I use WhatsApp when I have dealt with Will. He usually replies within hours. Number here: 07946 023849

[Rodders]

I called their landline and he called back very soon after, regarding possible trade in items and suitable stock. 

First time I've used them and would happily use them again. 

[Cosmo Valdemar]

I always use Whatsapp and usually get a response within a day.

There is link to their Whatsapp on the website.

[Jack]

Thanks all, I will try Whatsapp. At least that way they will have to tell me that my Spector is a hideous piece of unsellable trash that they wouldn't dare hang on their walls.

[Burns-bass]

Guess they're victims of their own popularity. Either that or Will is falling over the UK's largest collection of used Musicman Stingray basses (currently 15). 

[robiredale]

Yeah the email comms are not so quick.

 

WhatsApp works well though!

[Jack]

Just a note to say that Will was alerted to this post and responded to my email (which had gone to their junk folder) within about 5 minutes. Excellent work.

 

It's most likely my fault as I emailed them rather than using their web form. Maybe the lesson here is for me to do what I'm supposed to do rather than doing it wrong and then wondering why it hasn't worked.

[Aidan63]

I emailed them a few months ago, through the web site, no reply

I don't use whatsapp or anything to do with meta as their whole model is not GDPR compliant and I have a duty to protect my customers information. I know most people don't care, because it's free (it's not not really but hey if you believe it is good luck to you) and are happy to take the path of least resistance.

My loss, I guess many of you will say, the bass I was interested sold within a few days. But for me if you run a proper biz, and you publish your email address on your website, you have to check your spam folder daily, but the modern biz model seems to be facebook, instagram and whatsapp based, do everything on your mobile-phone style, and only engage with peeps who do the same.

You shouldn't need a stranger who reads a forum to message you on a different platform to alert you that you haven't replied to a customer enquiry email and there's a thread (on a forum you are a member of) about lack of comms, again.......

Edited August 22 by Aidan63
spelling mistake god for good

[Cosmo Valdemar]

7 minutes ago, Aidan63 said:

I know most people don't care, because it's free (it's not not really but hey if you believe it is good luck to you) 

Please explain.

[gjones]

I've sold a couple of basses to Will. He can sometimes be a bit slow in replying to emails, and sometimes needs a reminder, but he's always replied eventually.

[Kev]

53 minutes ago, Aidan63 said:

I know most people don't care, because it's free (it's not not really but hey if you believe it is good luck to you)

Bugger it, i'll bite.

 

How am I paying for Whatsapp?

[Jack]

13 minutes ago, Kev said:

Bugger it, i'll bite.

 

How am I paying for Whatsapp?

If there's no money involved, then you're the product my friend.

 

1 hour ago, Aidan63 said:

I emailed them a few months ago, through the web site, no reply

I don't use whatsapp or anything to do with meta as their whole model is not GDPR compliant and I have a duty to protect my customers information. I know most people don't care, because it's free (it's not not really but hey if you believe it is good luck to you) and are happy to take the path of least resistance.

My loss, I guess many of you will say, the bass I was interested sold within a few days. But for me if you run a proper biz, and you publish your email address on your website, you have to check your spam folder daily, but the modern biz model seems to be facebook, instagram and whatsapp based, do everything on your mobile-phone style, and only engage with peeps who do the same.

You shouldn't need a stranger who reads a forum to message you on a different platform to alert you that you haven't replied to a customer enquiry email and there's a thread (on a forum you are a member of) about lack of comms, again.......

My wife sells candles and my sister is a piercer. It's the way that small businesses run these days. Not because that's what the business wants, but because that's what the customer wants. Both my wife and my sister run really high end businesses. It's £30 for a candle and £100-£2500 for a piercing. Serious money moving around with serious people. They both regularly get messages on social media that say things like "how much for [product]" or "open?". How many of us get similar messages from venues or clients?

 

Don't blame the businesses for opening channels that customers demand.

 

On a more specific note (and not directed at you specifically). I opened this thread with the want to find out if there was some sort of systematic issue with contacting Bass Bros. Maybe the owner was sick, maybe they had shut down, maybe someone had sent them £3k and not received a bass, maybe not and my message was just stuck in a junk folder. We've all seen people like Dave Funk just stop messaging people back and that is not what has happened in this case.

 

Can we please NOT use this thread to attack what I'm sure is a wonderful small business? We all need more people trading in more good basses. Once my (very) minor issue has been sorted I have had a great exchange with Will.

 

 

EDIT - And if anyone runs a business themselves that would benefit from a custom candle or you want some metal shoved through your skin, please give me a shout? Support small businesses!

Edited August 22 by Jack

[OliverBlackman]

26 minutes ago, Jack said:

If there's no money involved, then you're the product my friend.

 

My wife sells candles and my sister is a piercer. It's the way that small businesses run these days. Not because that's what the business wants, but because that's what the customer wants. Both my wife and my sister run really high end businesses. It's £30 for a candle and £100-£2500 for a piercing. Serious money moving around with serious people. They both regularly get messages on social media that say things like "how much for [product]" or "open?". How many of us get similar messages from venues or clients?

 

Don't blame the businesses for opening channels that customers demand.

 

On a more specific note (and not directed at you specifically). I opened this thread with the want to find out if there was some sort of systematic issue with contacting Bass Bros. Maybe the owner was sick, maybe they had shut down, maybe someone had sent them £3k and not received a bass, maybe not and my message was just stuck in a junk folder. We've all seen people like Dave Funk just stop messaging people back and that is not what has happened in this case.

 

Can we please NOT use this thread to attack what I'm sure is a wonderful small business? We all need more people trading in more good basses. Once my (very) minor issue has been sorted I have had a great exchange with Will.

 

 

EDIT - And if anyone runs a business themselves that would benefit from a custom candle or you want some metal shoved through your skin, please give me a shout? Support small businesses!

Probably should have just used the existing thread rather than creating a new one IMO. Then those who like to critique BB have already done so 😆

[Kev]

1 hour ago, Jack said:

If there's no money involved, then you're the product my friend.

 

Urgh.

 

[Graham]

I found the emails from Bassbros were going into my junk folder, I was a little anxious that I'd not received a notification they'd shipped my bass; but they had, it'd just gone into junk

 

The Outlook/Hotmail junk algorithm seems a bit screwey at the moment and keeps putting legitimate emails into junk

[BigRedX]

Because of the non-GDPR compliance of the WhatsApp EULA, any serious business using it for transactions with an EU country could find themselves in legal trouble should anything ever go wrong. I used to work for a client whose business terms and conditions and NDA which I had to sign, specifically forbade me from having WhatsApp (and Zoom - although that has got better since the pandemic) installed on any device that I used for my business activities.

 

If you've got a web form for initial on-line contact then there shouldn't be any reason to publish your email on your website, and if you do use email then you need to take steps to ensure that both your emails and your customers reach their proper destinations and don't end up being marked as spam or even worse being blocked completely.

[tegs07]

13 hours ago, Graham said:

I found the emails from Bassbros were going into my junk folder, I was a little anxious that I'd not received a notification they'd shipped my bass; but they had, it'd just gone into junk

 

The Outlook/Hotmail junk algorithm seems a bit screwey at the moment and keeps putting legitimate emails into junk

A quick check on mxtoolbox for bassbros domain shows it’s not DMARC compliant. Microsofts exchange servers are doing what they are supposed to do. Junking the email as it’s not compliant. The sending server is not proving ownership of the domain name.

 

Its not like companies haven’t had years to make these very simple changes.

Edited August 23 by tegs07

[Beedster]

5 minutes ago, tegs07 said:

A quick check on mxtoolbox for bassbros domain shows it’s not DMARC compliant. Microsofts exchange servers are doing what they are supposed to do. Junking the email as it’s not compliant. The sending server is not proving ownership of the domain name.

 

Its not like companies haven’t had years to make these very simple changes.

 

During/following lockdown we had to go 'tech-enabled' for a while and I have to say that while I agree with the idea that businesses should know this stuff, I was surprised at just how hard it can be to make the necessary changes. Specifically, we had some tech developed that while lovely on paper, client use demonstrated had a couple of less than optimal features. These took a long time and a lot of cash to sort to the point that we were forced to leave some of the work undone as while we'd have preferred to fix it, it wasn't business critical (we're not a tech business) and cost-benefit ratios simply didn't work out

[tegs07]

2 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

During/following lockdown we had to go 'tech-enabled' for a while and I have to say that while I agree with the idea that businesses should know this stuff, I was surprised at just how hard it can be to make the necessary changes. Specifically, we had some tech developed that while lovely on paper, client use demonstrated had a couple of less than optimal features. These took a long time and a lot of cash to sort to the point that we were forced to leave some of the work undone as while we'd have preferred to fix it, it wasn't business critical (we're not a tech business) and cost-benefit ratios simply didn't work out

I wouldn’t expect a company that is not predominantly web and e commerce based to be fully clued up. But if your primary source of revenue is e commerce then getting it right is crucial. 

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, tegs07 said:

I wouldn’t expect a company that is not predominantly web and e commerce based to be fully clued up. But if your primary source of revenue is e commerce then getting it right is crucial. 

 

Ah, I assumed BassBros had a physical presence, if they are virtual only then yes, ignore my post  👍

 

But either way, I had the same problem as the OP with BB a while back and while they got back in touch after I messaged (I think by WhatsApp having been given that steer here), the fact that messages weren't being picked up did kinda put me off selling my bass through them, it just slightly sniffs of poor organisation/customer care. I had some similar problems with The Gallery a while back but at least in their defence it's a physical shop 👍

[tegs07]

2 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Ah, I assumed BassBros had a physical presence, if they are virtual only then yes, ignore my post  👍

 

But either way, I had the same problem as the OP with BB a while back and while they got back in touch after I messaged (I think by WhatsApp having been given that steer here), the fact that messages weren't being picked up did kinda put me off selling my bass through them, it just slightly sniffs of poor organisation/customer care. I had some similar problems with The Gallery a while back but at least in their defence it's a physical shop 👍

They have a physical store but their online presence is surely the most important way of getting customers?

[Beedster]

1 minute ago, tegs07 said:

They have a physical store but their online presence is surely the most important way of getting customers?

 

Mmm, I suspect they'd be the best judge of that though, if business is working despite the iffy tech, why change the tech (hell, they get free advertising on BC in threads such as this every three months because of it)? 

[tegs07]

30 minutes ago, Beedster said:

 

Mmm, I suspect they'd be the best judge of that though, if business is working despite the iffy tech, why change the tech (hell, they get free advertising on BC in threads such as this every three months because of it)? 

I guess it depends whether they want to communicate with their customers effectively and not have their domain spoofed.

 

There is no major change to tech required. Just adding a couple of DNS records. It would take about 15 minutes.

 

I work in tech and am permanently mystified about how many UK companies have inefficient labour intensive workflows, archaic technology and staff that don’t take technology seriously but wonder why the far east is taking over as the industrial and economic powerhouse.

 

This is excusable for mom and pop type stores but plenty of big name private businesses and public sector companies are shockingly inefficient.

 

Perhaps not paying the CEOs millions and investing in training and getting some staff that are suitable might be a smart move?

Edited August 23 by tegs07