Since starting Progress Paintball a few months back, I have stumbled across a lot of challenges ranging from manufacturers not wanting me to sell and support their products (as I have no physical store) to being let down. I always considered Progress Paintball to be a boutique paintball store which offers sales and support for those hard to get paintball products - you know, to be different. I never thought it would be easy - but I also didnt know how hard it was to work with manufacturers and suppliers! The instances where I have had items in stock (cant stock everything - built this from nothing, no loans etc) have gone smoothly whilst the areas where I have had items drop shipped or imported from America have not been so smooth. For a new business, the first impression is what sticks and as more and more times I get let down, it results in my customers getting let down. So what happens when you are giving out more refunds when you are letting down you customers? You start to get a bad repution and your business cannot grow. It becomes a catch-22 situation whereby you need to sell products to increase stock, but to do that you need to rely on other parties which let you down so you give refunds which takes away the ability to grow the company and buy in stocks. Ive learnt a lot - mainly that the paintball industry isnt like other industries (with the exception of Planet Eclipse) - there is no reliablity - sometimes feels like - no pride in getting orders right and putting customers first. I have spent 11 years working in customer service. So I am in limbo - So, what do I do? Shut up shop or decrease the size of the store (which was small anyway)?
Posted on: Mon, 08 Sep 2014 14:28:00 +0000
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