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What is a reasonable amount of time to wait for email

 
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ArgonEmpire



Posts: 124

PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:33 am    Post subject: What is a reasonable amount of time to wait for email Reply with quote

I admit it, I'm an email junkie.

I have several email addresses that I check every day and our store email is monitored by 2 other people as well. Not an hour goes by (unless we are all asleep) whitout someone checking and responding to emails.

That is from a sellers point of view.

As an online shopper, I have noticed that I hardly every receive an anwser to an email on the same day (unless its an automatic 'Thank you for your question, we will get back to you" email). It usually takes 2-4 days and sometimes a week Shocked for me to get an answer! I find this frustrating (especially if it's been more than 2 days) and often, by the time I get an answer, I have already found something else.

Am I being unreasonable to expect a response within 48 hours?
What do you consider a "reasonable" amount of time to wait for an answer?
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vintagemoonbeams



Posts: 1002

PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:46 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I answer buyers' emails immediately. A potential buyer who takes the time to type and send an email question is looking at your item at that moment, and wants to know right away. They will most likely move on anyway, but if you answer asap you will stand a good chance of selling your item.

I do exercise some caution on emails as far as strange or totally "off the wall" type questions. You never know for sure if the email is someone fishing for your email address or other information. There have been one or two emails that I did not answer. Sometimes my email answers - which often take me a lot of time - result in no response. But sometimes I sell an item.

One time an email from a buyer went into my "spam" file. I always look at the email title in spam before I delete it. This one was regarding a product that I had a large quantity of. The buyer was inquiring about buying 100 of them. I decided to respond - don't know why the email went to spam. Made a $900 sale from that email, and then they came back and bought all the rest of the product that I had for another $100.

So, you just never know.

I agree with you - the professional way is to respond to emails immediately. If I am a potential buyer and I don't get an answer for more than a day, I would have to really want the item a lot to buy it with that type of slow response.

Have a wonderful afternoon!

VintageMoonbeams
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Periwinkles



Posts: 2907

PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 8:53 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I also answer emails promptly. If this is their business you will answer right away but if it is only a way to get extra money sometimes they don't check daily. I would wait a couple of days and if I didn't get an answer try to find the item on someone else's store and buy it there.
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thelivesandlovesofmaggiethecat



Posts: 10158

PostPosted: Tue Aug 04, 2009 5:48 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm always amazed at the slow or no response to my questions from here or any where else on line. Evidently such negligence is routine as when I respond within hours, I always get a response back, "thanks for responding so promptly."

I shop on line to the tune of several hundred $ a month. If a huge company can answer me within 24 hours, I see no reason a retired person or a stay-at-home mom can't. For me, no response means no sale. It is that simple.
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wtcollectibles



Posts: 2728

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 9:36 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think 24 hours is fair. While retired from one job, I still work at another one and can't be on here 24/7, so I can't guarantee instant replies. I try to make sure that all the necessary info is in my ads and that everything is set up so that buyers can just buy, checkout, pay, etc. and I ship.

I would love to get those emails offering to buy more things, but I either get orders or dumb emails, i.e., the ones asking me to personally read to them what's already in the ad, to lower my price or make the shipping free, to ship to them in the forest of Podunk and lie on the customs form. I try to be polite, nice, helpful, all that jazz, but frankly I would be happy to do without any emails.

I too do almost all my shopping online except for groceries, and I can't remember the last time I emailed a company to ask them something. If I couldn't find all the info I needed to place my order, they just lost my sale.

I guess I'm the opposite of an email junkie--email phobe? Email avoidant? But back to the original question, I do reply and it's generally the same day or no longer than 24 hours.
Becky
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momsretro



Posts: 844

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 2:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I think 48 hours is plenty reasonable. Unless it's is a holiday weekend or something, or the email got trapped in a spam filter, I can't see taking that long to respond.

I try to respond immediately. VintageMoonbeams is right. They're thinking about you at that moment. If you wait too long chances are they're off on someone else's site!
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kjscreations



Posts: 1727

PostPosted: Wed Aug 05, 2009 3:00 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I try to answer right away BUT if something requires research... I quick finish looking at other emails & TOTALLY get side tracked! So "stuff happens". I would just send another email in case it got "lost in the mail" LOL
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