On Sat, 27 Aug 2005 18:46:02 -0400, Brian Lawson wrote:

Hey ME,

Well, I think maybe you should consider the time it took the local guy
to reply in the first place. I understand "the day after ordering
it" to be one day. But how long is "Several days"? If all these days
you mention add up to one week or more, then maybe they are not trying
to "diss" you by saying they can't look for "at least a week", but
merely being truthful about their work schedule.

You know, I really try to give people the benefit of the doubt, and would
like to think that the week before looking at it is simply because they
are busy/understaffed. Unfortunately, that is difficult to do when the
counter person actually told me that if I had bought it there, they could
have gotten it in "right away."

I do think that had I been you, I would have gone directly to the local
dealer on day one, instead of using the Miller RTQ page. I assume (and
it appears so from your text) that Miller merely passes it along to the
nearest ZIP code local dealer to you, for that dealer to reply with a
price.

Yes, after selecting the desired model(s) and inputting the zip code,
Miller's site lets you select one or more dealers from a list based on
location. They then pass the request on to the selected dealer(s).

I also know that any really good business will give you better service
in person face-to-face than via a phone call or email. They could spend
the next ten years giving over-the-net on-line quotes to mere
tire-kickers, and go broke providing the very best service at doing that.

Yes, if I could turn back the clock and do it again, I would have walked
in and asked for a quote. The fact is that I didn't. Miller offers the
online service for potential customers to use, and I tried to take
advantage of it. I may be surprised at the actual numbers, but how many
requests from tire-kickers do you think this shop in a town of 30K people
receives? Somehow I don't think there are alot of people surfing Miller's
website, requesting quotes just for kicks, and of those few warped
individuals who have nothing better to do, I doubt many would actually
select this store in the middle of nowhere. (I'm not trying to be a
smart-@$$ here, I simply doubt that they have ever received more than a
small handful of bogus requests.)

Try walking in the front door and see how it goes. Hey, who knows, you
night even get a loaner, or a break from Miller on a rental, until yours
is fixed.

Every contact that I have had with this business, except for the single
quote request, has been in person. There was no offer for a loaner,
although I didn't specifically ask. I know they wouldn't have had a loaner
of the same or similar model though, since they told me they've never had
one in the shop before, for sale or repair.

Take care.

Likewise...


Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
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