Phone number

[Jason jamrock]

What's the phone number to the store I don't want to drive 2 hrs to get there to find out you do not have the fish I am wanting 

[Daniel]

The store doesn't have a phone number. But you can ask @Robert what he has in stock in this thread:

 

[Cory]

We don't have a phone number. Your situation was a common one. Do you have X in stock? I'll be in. You show up, the 200 tetras you wanted already sold. You're now angry. Flip side is, I'd like to prepay for 50 tetras. Customer in store says I'd like these fish. Now we have to tell them they've already been sold.  I hope in the future we can find a way to give estimates, however at this time it is very work intensive and leads to dissapointed customers either way.

[Kirsten]

5 minutes ago, Cory said:

We don't have a phone number. Your situation was a common one. Do you have X in stock? I'll be in. You show up, the 200 tetras you wanted already sold. You're now angry. Flip side is, I'd like to prepay for 50 tetras. Customer in store says I'd like these fish. Now we have to tell them they've already been sold.  I hope in the future we can find a way to give estimates, however at this time it is very work intensive and leads to dissapointed customers either way.

As a (lord willing) former retail worker, thank you so much for this. It's so hard to answer phones while giving in-store customers good service (especially if you're armpit-deep in a tank trying to catch a dozen shrimp), and you're right, it so often leads to disappointment one way or another.

It sounds so simple to have a site with live inventory displayed, refreshed every minute, but I know the reality of that is sadly a far way away, especially for inventory that can occasionally die, hide, or multiply on its own. LOL anyone want to design SmarTank aquarium surveillance with fish recognition technology and patch it into Shopify?

[Streetwise]

No phone number for the Co-Op = sanity.

[Brett]

This makes perfect sense, except we're in a pandemic. Coming in to the shop to browse around seems dangerous at best. I'd really like to keep supporting your business, as well as pick up some really nice fish (all your fish are really nice). Can some kind of change or exception be made until we can comfortably be in person again?

[CT_]

Just need 1 webcam per tank 😉

[quikv6]

I'm curious to hear others' thoughts on this, in relation to the "no phone number" thing, which I completely understand, by the way. I just don't know if I agree with it or not, for this reason:

Is there a possibility it is inadvertently exclusionary to the elderly/non-tech population?

I know, I know....the percentage of that category of customers shopping at the co-op must be minuscule at best (possibly none), but I am mainly speaking based on principal.

I am a couple of years older than Cory, and I have noticed trend that has been bothering me for the last decade or so. Various business/public service/office/even food service stray away from personal contact, whether it be by phone or in-person contact. My mom is a senior in the non-tech category. She doesn't own a computer, and has no idea how to send an email by herself. She can't order at a touch screen, has had significant trouble booking a vaccine appointment, in addition to problems correcting mistakes related to her pension/social security, simply because everything is automated.

At the risk of continuing to "vent", I'll stop here. Yes, I am a bit nostalgic, but it's more about not isolating a vulnerable segment of the population that already has a propensity towards isolation. To me, that is principally the ethical thing to do.

But again, I understand the stance of the co-op.  I am just trying to picture my mom buying something at the co-op (or any other business that operates the same way...not pointing fingers whatsoever), having an issue with a defective product, and literally having no way to even have customer service available to her in a "language" she can understand.

 

 

[CT_]

My thought is that if you're in that category then either coop is your LFS and you just pop in for a looksie or it's not your LFS and you don't know they exist. 

[Jayci]

I work in a customer service job so I can agree with the no phone decision. I work a front desk and phone, and it's a no win situation: people get really angry when you don't pick up, not realizing you were already helping another customer. Some get angry at being put on hold longer than 2 minutes. Phone calls can also take a long time to address properly, so now the in-store customer is angry at having to wait. And if you've ever worked customer service, all it takes is one nasty customer to completely ruin your mood/day.

As popular as Aquarium Co-op is, I can imagine the phone ringing constantly. I respect the decision; you're never going to please everyone, but for the most part this addresses most of the customers and keeps employees happy and engaged where it matters most. A phone service would simply create more issues than they would solve.

[Brandy]

On 2/18/2021 at 5:39 PM, quikv6 said:

 

Is there a possibility it is inadvertently exclusionary to the elderly/non-tech population?

My mom is a senior in the non-tech category. She doesn't own a computer, and has no idea how to send an email by herself. She can't order at a touch screen, has had significant trouble booking a vaccine appointment, in addition to problems correcting mistakes related to her pension/social security, simply because everything is automated.

At the risk of continuing to "vent", I'll stop here. Yes, I am a bit nostalgic, but it's more about not isolating a vulnerable segment of the population that already has a propensity towards isolation. To me, that is principally the ethical thing to do.

But again, I understand the stance of the co-op.  I am just trying to picture my mom buying something at the co-op (or any other business that operates the same way...not pointing fingers whatsoever), having an issue with a defective product, and literally having no way to even have customer service available to her in a "language" she can understand.

 

 

I know what you mean here--my mom is very much the same way. However, there are worlds of difference between siloing vital services from a vulnerable population, and a basic retail experience. Comparing these two things is a little apples and oranges.

In my mom's case, you are right that she wouldn't know how to deal with an online order, or contact customer service online, but my mom would have gone to the store in the first place. And believe me, she has NO problem going back and reading everyone the riot act if she is unhappy about any little thing, So I think in this case the only people who can get online orders are also people who are saavy enough to figure out how to contact customer service online. In that way it is completely ethical. 

The whole online world is inacessible to my mother. Mostly that is a choice she made 20 years ago, that she now is unable to undo. Ironically, my 96 year old grandmother is likely watching a youtube video and forwarding emails to her facebook friends in Sweden this very moment.

[JettsPapa]

3 hours ago, Brandy said:

I know what you mean here--my mom is very much the same way. However, there are worlds of difference between siloing vital services from a vulnerable population, and a basic retail experience. Comparing these two things is a little apples and oranges.

In my mom's case, you are right that she wouldn't know how to deal with an online order, or contact customer service online, but my mom would have gone to the store in the first place. And believe me, she has NO problem going back and reading everyone the riot act if she is unhappy about any little thing, So I think in this case the only people who can get online orders are also people who are saavy enough to figure out how to contact customer service online. In that way it is completely ethical. 

The whole online world is inacessible to my mother. Mostly that is a choice she made 20 years ago, that she now is unable to undo. Ironically, my 96 year old grandmother is likely watching a youtube video and forwarding emails to her facebook friends in Sweden this very moment.

I'm curious.  Why is your mother unable to undo her decision to have the online world inaccessible?  If I could learn it as an adult (and I initially found it very intimidating) I don't see any reason others couldn't do the same.  Is she just unwilling, instead of unable?

And if this is none of my business feel free to tell me so.  I have thick skin.

[Daniel]

It is probably time to let this topic have a rest. So far so good, but how much longer before not so good.? I am tempted to lock this, but something tells me not quite yet.

[Brandy]

35 minutes ago, JettsPapa said:

I'm curious.  Why is your mother unable to undo her decision to have the online world inaccessible?  If I could learn it as an adult (and I initially found it very intimidating) I don't see any reason others couldn't do the same.  Is she just unwilling, instead of unable?

And if this is none of my business feel free to tell me so.  I have thick skin.

No worries, you are right mostly, she could have undone it for many of those years, but was largely unwilling. Now my mother is running into some age related memory issues that make learning new skills very difficult.

It is ok Daniel, I think we are good here. The question of whether it is unethical to silo a group of people is just a little weighty for a retail store to tackle, but I understand @quikv6's struggle with thinking about this. 

Maybe a good idea, since the topic has wandered quite a bit, would be to end this thread here, and if further discussion is wanted we start a new thread in the "Off Topic General" section. We can quote back to this thread to provide context to the new one.

[quikv6]

Fully understand if you'd like to lock it, Daniel. All good on my end. And Brandy...I completely agree with you about the apples and oranges thing, in regards to essential services/retail. I only made a connection simply because the general trend of going personless (for lack of a better term) for non-essential services seems to have bled into ALL services, and I think that is where my gripe is. It has been a broad brush trend, rather than case by case/service by service.

I appreciate everyone's input and opinion!