[Doc B.]

I do apologize for the problem. And I thank you for paying the amount we requested. This is certainly no excuse, but I will attempt to explain a root part of the problem. We have had glitch in our server for several months that does not allow us to use the UPS API that automatically calculates the shipping when an order is placed. International customers will notice that they don't experience this since the USPS shipping calculator API works well. We determined a while ago that the proper solution unfortunately involves an entire revamp of our web site, a new shopping cart and a move from our secure dedicated server to a new secure cloud based web host. This is in process but will likely take a few months to complete. The length of time for our request to be sent to you was bad form, I agree. And I apologize for what was an apparent case of our letting it slip between the cracks (sorry, bad pun).
 
In an effort to help our customers understand the issue, I have in fact taken some good advice from your detailed and extensive email to us and added information about this issue not only to the places we have already posted it on our forum for quite some time, but also on every single product description page of our web site. 
 
Regarding the use of a gmail address, I'm not sure how many of us here actually use a private domain name based email, but I can tell you that services like gmail, yahoo, sbc.net, etc. pretty much scrape all of those into the spam can these days. It's become quite difficult to communicate with our customers via our corporate email addresses because of this.
 
Guys, we've only been doing this for 22 years. I am the first one to admit we don't know everything and the first one to admit that we don't always get it right. And I will also admit to what is a personal foible - your email, while professional, presented the situation as a more or less lost cause in that you made it clear you were determined to post your grievance on head fi regardless of a response from us. Unfortunately perhaps for both of us now, my reaction was that a response would make no difference. I am not saying that was your intention, it's just how both myself and my wife Eileen interpreted it. Once again I sincerely apologize.

 

[Jd007]

Quote:

 
Regarding the use of a gmail address, I'm not sure how many of us here actually use a private domain name based email, but I can tell you that services like gmail, yahoo, sbc.net, etc. pretty much scrape all of those into the spam can these days. It's become quite difficult to communicate with our customers via our corporate email addresses because of this.

Off topic but have you tried an email delivery services, such as Mailgun, MailChimp, or SendGrid? They act as a proxy to your outgoing email server (incoming email still sits on your server), and increases your mail delivery success rate by making sure that the IP address of the sender is not on the spam list or major email providers. An alternative is Google Apps for Business, in which you get the complete Gmail web interface, but with your custom domain email addresses, Google in this case handles your incoming and outgoing emails, which should increase deliverability.

 

[PurpleAngel]

Quote:

 And I apologize for what was an apparent case of our letting it slip between the cracks (sorry, bad pun).

Good pun, it makes me laugh.

 

[Doc B.]

Yes it helps some, but we still see some issues with delayed delivery. Hopefully we will be able to find some more effective means in concert with our hosting revamp.

 

[queenbottlehead]

Hi Whitetriton,
 
I sincerely apologize that this situation has created such an ordeal for you! Doc B and I own Bottlehead and have two part time employees so we are not a large corporation by any means. I appreciated your e-mail and comments and learned from them, however I felt if I responded I would only further aggravate you. One of my least favorite jobs right now is asking for shipping costs while we revamp our shopping cart. I normally save that task for last as I'm not always sure what the shipping total will be and I want to be fair when asking for it. But you've taught me to ask when the order is placed which will be more professional all around. Honestly I am kind of astounded that this has gotten so blown up. At the time I e-mailed you asking for payment I had e-mailed over twenty customers and you were the only one who responded in this manner. Everyone else was great about it and I've even had some really nice phone conversations with customers that I wouldn't have had otherwise. I hope that you can put this aside and enjoy your amp kit or if this has soured your experience too much I would be happy to refund your money and move forward.
 
Kindest Regards,
Eileen Schmalle
Bottlehead Corp.
206-451-4275

 

[TrollDragon]

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[Whitetriton]

Doc B,
 
Thank you for taking the time to respond.  That was classy and I appreciate it.  I feel the matter is resolved and look forward to hearing the Crack.

 

[vkalia]

Quote:

Regarding the use of a gmail address, I'm not sure how many of us here actually use a private domain name based email, but I can tell you that services like gmail, yahoo, sbc.net, etc. pretty much scrape all of those into the spam can these days. It's become quite difficult to communicate with our customers via our corporate email addresses because of this.

 
OT as well, but my small business has had the same problem.
 
Good to see you guys still alive and kicking, Doc B - I am a holdover from the rec.audio.tubes and the Steve Zipser/Arnie Kruger A/B/X flamewar days.   Now let's see what Ned @ Triode Electric and Steve @ Angela are up to, and we can bring the band back together  
 
Cheers!