Ian Sommerhalder/Celebrity Authentics

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

You guys, I'm pretty upset.

I emailed Celebrity Authentics a couple questions WEEKS ago. They never responded to me, so today I decided to hunt down their number and call them. They are understandably only open Mon-Fri. I left them a message to call me back. I decided, ah, well. I'll just go ahead and order my autographs without getting the response I need.

I go to the preorder page, and see that Ian Sommerhalder is now listed as SOLD OUT. I'm really REALLY upset. If they would have gotten back to me WEEKS ago I would have been able to preorder. Anyone else have any issues with them not responding to emails/messages?? This was to be the highlight of my Dragon*Con this year :/

Comments

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

If they had replied to your email and you preordered, someone else who didn't email them wouldn't have gotten the autograph. So, what is their motivation supposed to be to reply to your emails?

[silvers-shadows.livejournal.com]

Good customer service and not getting slammed on that front on the internet, for starters.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

You didn't buy from them. You aren't a customer. It really bothers me when people yell "customer service" about a company they aren't giving money to.

So, yes, they got "slammed" on the internet. But they also got the same number of customers they would have gotten either way.

[silvers-shadows.livejournal.com]

... I'm not the OP? And service of a potential customer = customer service. Because if you screw it up, you lose a customer, they spread word of mouth, you lose people who actually use your service.

This is not hard.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

I think a lot of people have a skewed view of sales vs customer service because they are used to dealing with businesses with an unlimited supply of [whatever] to sell. Businesses with more demand than supply don't WANT you as a customer. They already have more customers than they can handle/

[kyndig.livejournal.com]

Respectfully, what the hell are you talking about? :)

Even if you have a product with limited supply it is still good business to try to provide good customer service. It's true that they don't need the OP's business for that one guest for this one con. However, by providing poor service they damage their reputation as a whole and the OP may not buy other things from them which are not so supply side limited.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

There you go again, saying "customer service" when talking about dealing with a person who isn't a customer.

They haven't provided poor service. They have provided *no* service, because they aren't doing business with him.

They haven't damaged their reputation. Their reputation is "we arrange autographs" (well or poorly, I have no idea, I've never dealt with them). "we respond to emails" (or don't) has no bearing on that.

They don't sell anything that is not supply-side limited.

[kyndig.livejournal.com]

"They don't sell anything that is not supply-side limited."

Ummm yes, they do. Absolutely they do. Go look at their website. I see plenty of things for which supply seems to (at least temporarily) be more than sufficient to meet demand.

"There you go again, saying "customer service" when talking about dealing with a person who isn't a customer."

You are engaging in pedantry. Customer service is often used to refer to pre-sale service as well. If it makes you more comfortable, just substitute them in your mind. :)

[andrew norton (from livejournal.com)]

Rule of Acquisition number:
9 - Opportunity plus instinct equals profit.
57 - Good customers are as rare as latinum. Treasure them.
87 - Learn the customer's weaknesses so you can better take advantage of them.
95 - Expand or die.
194 - It's always good to know about new customers before they walk in your door.
203 - New customers are like razor-toothed gree-worms. They can be succulent, but sometimes they bite back.

Think that about covers it!

[kyndig.livejournal.com]

Best. Post. Ever.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

The good customers are the ones who don't bother you with emails.

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

Silver_Shadows, you are spot on ;)

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

That made my head hurt a little. Customer service is key in any business. I *was* going to buy more than one autograph. I was going to buy 4 different ones. Now I'm thinking of not buying any.

[sparr0.livejournal.com]

No, it's not. There are plenty of small bars and restaurants all over the place that don't need to treat non-customers well because they already have more customers than they can handle. There's an amazing burger place in Atlanta. It has seating for about 8 patrons, and regularly has an hour line out the door. If you walk in while there's a line you'll get yelled at. If you don't *immediately* walk back out, you'll never be allowed to eat there. Many small shops will "fire" unwanted customers. Like I said, dealing with companies with unlimited supplies, who want as many customers as they can get, has skewed most people around here's view of "customer service".

[v4voluntary.livejournal.com]

As a long time employee of the food service industry I can say that sounds like a really piss-poor way to run a business. What happens when the long-term customers you have go somewhere else or pass away? With that view of "customer service" you ruin any chance of future customers. Just because you have more demand than supply doesn't mean you supply only to your demand. It means you do your best to supply THE demand.

[wettermark.livejournal.com]

"amazing." lol. why does it not surprise me that someone with this attitude would be impressed by the H&F hype. ps, you can get the same burger along with like 200 other people every sunday at brunch at their public house restaurant. fyi.

[rhino-rex.livejournal.com]

http://techcrunch.com/2012/08/25/email-tricks-of-the-super-successful/
responding to emails quickly is how you get people to trust you and use your service again.
my guess is that this is a fly by night service that figures on automating everything and minimizing work to maximize perceived profits. entrepreneur still thinking in dollar per hour on two minute/two line email responses. can and will be put out by someone that can communicate.

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I've always believed communication with your customer base is key in any business!

[lemur-bat.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit wary of posting on a potentially flammable thread, but I do want to share my experience with said company. I found out that they were doing pre-sales through FB and subsequently was alerted to when they began sales, which was back in June, I believe. I figured they would sell out quickly and as such, tried to snag tickets that first day. Needless to say, they were swamped: their website crashed and the phones were impossible. They eventually sent out a message asking customers to e-mail their orders in along with contact info and they would call everyone. I honestly wasn't sure if they would, but lo and behold, I got my call a few hours after my e-mail. And this all happened on the first day of pre-sales. So, I would venture to say different experiences for different people. *shrugs* There were a lot of people on FB who were pleased with how they handled the rush. I can even vouch that the company seemed to respond to FB postings in a timely manner. Any company is going to have it's pitfalls and it's kinda random bad luck as to who will experience them. I might imagine the sudden sell-out being due to the prospect of the the guest not cancelling so close to the con and people changing their minds at the last minute. Those pre-sale tickets were available for a surprising amount of time. But I did kinda screw myself by not picking out my pictures! I didn't realize those were sold out too. I think a trip to the dealers den might remedy that, hopefully!

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

I had dealings with them previously that were good. I should have included that in the above. Knee-jerk posting, I guess. I guess I'll just roll the dice and see if they sell any autographs at con. You know, thinking of that ... if they *don't* sell at the con, I'm sure there will be even more upset people. Some probably don't know that you had the opportunity to preorder online, and are planning to go the old route of buying at con.

And, yes! There are always plenty of 8x10s available in the dealer's room. I was going to peruse them myself, since I didn't care for some of the shots Celebrity Authentics were offering!

[altxchange.livejournal.com]

Is there a reason why you didn't follow up weeks ago? As soon as it went past a few business days, a follow-up email or phone call really should have been done. Email can be incredibly unreliable as I've had emails from customers end up in spam folders sometimes depending upon what email provider they use.

Your only recourse at this point is to *calmly* call them on Monday to see if any exceptions can be made, if they have a standby list for cancellations or if they can contact you if they have time for more sales/photos than they originally allotted.

[v4voluntary.livejournal.com]

This. With the caveat that you harangue them incessantly with follow ups. If there is money to be made they will find a way to make it.

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

My hope is that they will still offer some at con. ::crosses fingers:: I'm definitely going to give them a ring Monday as well though!

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

I guess I didn't follow up weeks ago, because I thought they were just behind on emails. That's why I called them. That pesky thing called life got in the way of my Dragon*Con planning, lol.

Thank you for thinking your response through, and actually coming up with an option. (Unlike a few of these posters ... WOWZERS!) I forget sometimes why I don't post things to LiveJournal communities ;)

[wsmith1966.livejournal.com]

Hello, My friend sent a private message to you pertaining that I have a pre-order ticket for a photo op and a autograph as well. I tried to get a refund for my ticket but celebrity told me all sales were final. If you want to still get a photo op or autograph. Just contact me and I will sell you my ticket. As I am trying to save some money and cut back whom I am getting photo ops with.

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

Hi there! I'm definitely interested. Have you spoken with Celebrity Authentics about how to go about transferring something like that? Feel free to email me at abreeskye@yahoo.com

Thanks so much :)

[jonathan davis (from livejournal.com)]

Seeing that CA has scheduled just about every minute of the TVD cast's time while they are at Dragon*Con and Ian for example is only signing for 2 hours each day. I highly doubt they will have any extra tickets for sale at the con.

It's gonna slammed as it is without adding more people.

[myras-girls.livejournal.com]

I bought my tickets the first day of the pre-sale. The website was slammed and everyone panicking but I sent an email and a message and I got two calls back that day, one for the email and one for the message.

I left them another message with a question a few weeks ago and forgot I'd called until they called me back to answer my question. It wasn't an urgent issue- just a question so it didn't bother me that it took them over a week to call me back.

They definitely have some kinks to work out of their system but I felt they provided great customer service to me.

Sorry to hear you had a negative experience. It sounds like you found someone selling their ticket, though. :)

[http://users.livejournal.com/mad_brilliant_/]

If you click on the "View Details" button for Ian, you'll see that you can ask to be put on the wait list. I'd suggest doing that ASAP.

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

THANK YOU SO MUCH! I've added my name. THIS is the kind of response/help/advice I was looking for :) I didn't even know a wait list existed. Again, thank yo so much.

[abreeskye.livejournal.com]

Thank you to all of you that responded to me on a positive note!

I spoke with Abby at Celebrity Authentics today, she was VERY nice and helpful. She apologized about what happened with the email, recognized me from my post to them on FB and my message to them over the weekend. She said they are going to try and figure out why they never received/responded to my email, that shouldn't have happened.

Proof that good customer service will make you more money? I'm going to buy more autographs from them now, and quite possibly in the future as well if they are in charge of guests I'm interested in.

Thanks again fellow con-goers!