A question to all you Arachnodealers

Do you find that the majority of people who order from your websites are the hardcore hobbyists who are "in the know" such as those who are members of this site? Or do you find that you get a whole bunch of people who really don't know anything about tarantulas, except for the fact that if they can scare a lot of people with them.

Because I was thinking that it must be really hard to deal with an uninformed clientel. I would guess that if you had a large customer base of people who only knew common names, that you would get people who order something by the common name only to complain when they got it because it was different that what they had asked for. They thought that it was your fault that they got the wrong spider. Now they are putting a chargeback on their credit card. You are out a spider and the money that you should have received for that spider. And the problem in the first place was a person who had their common names mixed up.

What other problems do you face as online/telephone dealers? Do you think that your problems are better or worse than a person who operates a physical petstore?

Thanks

Jon

i'm guessing that most online dealers also have physical locations to run their business at, and where people (at least locally) can come to get/look at their merchandise.


the person who is able to do business online has greatly expanded their market and i'm sure this fact alone makes up for a little extra attention that has to be paid to customers now and then.

i'm interested to see what the folks who run these things say (assuming they would respond and all).

Well I'm not one of the big boys, but in my experience thus far it has been a mix. Most of my on-line orders have been from experienced hobbyists on this site and a few others. Most of my show and face-to-face business has been with the less experienced. On my business card is the Arachnopets website address, so I hope they join quickly and benefit from the knowledge and experience that is on this forum.

Botar

I am not an arachnodealer but at one time I was clueless and turned to an individual that has a strong web presence and was taught so much and told that he was available at any time to answer questions. I truly appreciated his knowlege and willingness to share it. I would assume that this attitude is common among the arachnodealers. Been my experience anyway, in which case I would hope that they are looking to further knowledge of the newb, not dread the newb call!

Jennifer