Ron Billingsley is he around or hiding??

I paid him 9 days ago for a table display and now no word from him. Everytime I had questions about his stuff he would email me right back with anwsers and photos, now I made the deal and paid him he has not contected me back when I email him about receiveing payment and if I can get an update on the display case. No return emails. Yeah he might be busy, but you always have one min to reply to a paying customer right? I just want to know way he wont reply, maybe he will now. Im not trash talking him, atleast not yet.

It probably would have been a good idea for you to have checked the BOI before you placed the order and paid money. There have been a couple of such reports on this forum.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ht=Billingsley
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ht=Billingsley
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ht=Billingsley

It seems that a couple of years ago everyone was singing his praise now it appears that he may have over extended himself.

He is going to be at NARBC, so do not expect much contact from him this weekend.

Sorry, I didn't hire a customer service rep to answer phones 24/7 or return emails as soon as they come in.
I do not know why, but demand is higher this year, then ever before. For every order I accept, I have to turn down three.
I am making displays as fast as possible.
Not only am I having people call the week of a major show, wanting something, luckily I have people who are planning ahead, for upcoming shows, i.e. Tinley Park, and the new show in VA. Those I can do, the week of, I can not. Even Fed Ex and UPS is falling behind shipping orders to customers! But I am taking responsibility for that also.
All I can say, is be a little patience, and I'll return your calls as soon as I can, and reply to your emails.
I am looking into hiring a shipping company, to make boxes, pack and ship the orders.
So far, the cheapest I've found, will only raise the prices about 25%. I'll keep looking for now. But at some point an option will have to be made. Currently, doing it myself, I am not charging for any of those things (other then actual shipping cost). Just the price of doing business. As soon as I hire someone (company or person) I will no longer be able to do so. There will be a fee or charge for labor, material cost, and actual shipping charges. I tried the UPS store and Kinkos. The cost of doing business with those organizations would raise my prices nearly 45%!

Meant no harm by this, sometimes you read alot of bad things but still want to give it a shot and I did. Thanks for the reply.

Ron,
I am glad that you decided to post a response here but I think customer service would be better served if you would return emails or phone calls. It is our money that you have and we have paid in good faith. At the very least those that have sent money need a reply.

Waiting...if not so patiently

Mike Phillips
Phillips Reptile Company

Originally Posted by Ron Billingsley

Sorry, I didn't hire a customer service rep to answer phones 24/7 or return emails as soon as they come in.
I do not know why, but demand is higher this year, then ever before. For every order I accept, I have to turn down three.
I am making displays as fast as possible.
Not only am I having people call the week of a major show, wanting something, luckily I have people who are planning ahead, for upcoming shows, i.e. Tinley Park, and the new show in VA. Those I can do, the week of, I can not. Even Fed Ex and UPS is falling behind shipping orders to customers! But I am taking responsibility for that also.
All I can say, is be a little patience, and I'll return your calls as soon as I can, and reply to your emails.
I am looking into hiring a shipping company, to make boxes, pack and ship the orders.
So far, the cheapest I've found, will only raise the prices about 25%. I'll keep looking for now. But at some point an option will have to be made. Currently, doing it myself, I am not charging for any of those things (other then actual shipping cost). Just the price of doing business. As soon as I hire someone (company or person) I will no longer be able to do so. There will be a fee or charge for labor, material cost, and actual shipping charges. I tried the UPS store and Kinkos. The cost of doing business with those organizations would raise my prices nearly 45%!

When demand exceeds supply......raise your prices.

I think that was in Business 101.

I bought a couple of displays from Ron. I told him that I was driving down to the U.S. (from Canada) to pick them up. I called ahead of time to confirm that the displays were shipped and he confirmed that they were....except they weren't....

So...there I was at a UPS store in NY 1.5 hours from home with no displays...

I called him when I was there. He was at a show and it took about another 1.5 hours before he finally confirmed that he had relied on someone else and that they weren't shipped. That's allot of waiting around.

He was always polite but I had to drive back empty handed and nothing was offered as a token. He simply said that he'd pay the difference for Express shipping.

So total time wasted. 1.5 *2 for the initial trip
1.5 * 2 for the second trip
1.5 waiting around for him to get back to me on first trip.

4.5 hours.

The experience was such a hassle that I'm now getting acrylic displays fabricated in Canada and reselling them to Canadian clients.

I only make $40.00 profit on each of them, but they sell well. That's business that would have gone to Ron...never would have thought of it if it wasn't for him. You also get what you pay for....When I brought one of the displays to a fabricator to show him what I wanted done, he immediately told me that he could never match the price because he refused to build the displays like Ron's with sharp edges, end pieces, non-polished surfaces, etc.


Denis
DenJenn Reptiles
www.pythonregius.ca

Originally Posted by patenaud

He was always polite but I had to drive back empty handed and nothing was offered as a token. He simply said that he'd pay the difference for Express shipping.

So total time wasted. 1.5 *2 for the initial trip
1.5 * 2 for the second trip
1.5 waiting around for him to get back to me on first trip.

4.5 hours.

Not trying to defend letting orders fall through the cracks (especially repeatedly), but I think paying the difference for shipping is offering something as a 'token', even if it was an insufficient token to make you feel better.

And 1.5 times two, plus 1.5 times two, plus 1.5 is actually 7.5 hours wasted.

I am writing this Sunday evening, around 9:30pm. I just finished packing 21 boxes to ship out first thing in the morning. All I can say is I am truly sorry for disappointing all of you. It was not my intention to cause any harm. Plain and simple, I am a one horse pony show. I had no idea this season would be as demanding as it was. I've filled almost double the orders then I had last season.
I now know first hand, the pains of a growing business. I was taken by surprise and let numerous customers down.
All can say at this point is, I am trying to work harder, and faster, and be more dependable. I've turned down countless orders, knowing I could not fill them in a timely manner.
I will strive to put in place, a working program that will allow orders to be filled and shipped within a limited time period.
Like I mentioned in previous posts, I am looking for a company I can use to package and ship the acrylics, without costing the customer to much more then what I am charging now. The only problem, as we all know, everyone wants to make a profit, including shipping companies. I will keep searching until I find a solution.
Until then, I would like to thank all of you who has stand behind me, and given me such support, and to the folks I have disappointed, I hope I can prove myself in a future transaction. Until then......