talkmagic.co.uk

I would just like to thank John at Magic Magic and Matt at The Card Collection for their outstanding customer service recently. We usually hear about people having bad experiences with dealers but rarely about the good experiences; if dealers are to be criticised in public for doing wrong, they should also be praised when things go right. Good customer service is rare these days and in a niche market like magic, it's very important not only to attract new customers but to retain existing ones. Dealers cannot afford to lose customers by giving shoddy service and I think dealers like John and Matt understand this and as a result will retain a loyal customer base, me included. Thanks, guys.

(And the fact that Magic Magic in particular have such competitive pricing is the icing on the cake).

I heard a good story about World of Magic from a friend the other day. He ordered some bits but they never arrived. He contacted them and it turns out there had ben a problem with paypal, they dispatched eveything quickly and even threw in a few freebies.

I've always found cards4magic and Magic Box to be really good. I don't dare phone Magic Box up anymore, last time I did that I was chatting to the guy about magic for about half an hour

i order a fair bit from eddie burke's site - on the rare occassion something is out of stock, i get either the choice of a refund, or to wait - a note in my order saying "sorry"...and i always get a free gift too...

how's goods that eh?

makes a change from ordering from some sites, only to find out that what they have isn't in stock - you just get scrawled on the note "to follow"...and no idea as to when it will turn up...

Just to say Tam Shepards are awesome!
Really friendly and Mr Walton, If hes not busy, has no problem helping eager newbies like myself.
Also the magic cave (i think) in Bolton is Awesome as well!

I'm gonna pipe up and post my praise of MagicBox, too. They're fabulous.

NUMS gets the EckoZero 5 Thumbs Up Award for me.

I ordered from outlaw over two months ago and I am still waiting. Roth has been in touch over this forum and has promised it was sent but unfortunately nothing has yet turned up. I'm sure it will eventually get here but it seems like forever.

On a more positive note I have never had problems ordering from Alakazam or Magic Box.

storm01, if you've been waiting two months there is always the possibility that your order has been lost in the post. It does happen, albeit rarely. If it hasn't arrived by now, it's unlikely to arrive at all; I've ordered stuff before from the US and Japan that arrived within a week.

In any case, Roth seems like a good guy and I would imagine he will resend it if necessary.

Il sing the praises of Magic Box too! Threw ina c ouple of decks when my next day delivery took 3 days to arrive!! Cheers!

ill second tam sheperds.............outstanding (and with a resident legend)

I'll give my first thumbs up award to Dude That's Cool Magic - Mike always takes time out to answer any queries I have and he provides an excellent service. I haven't had any problems in two years.

Second thumbs up award goes to Rick at Outlaw. I too was waiting a long time for a product. I sent an E mail and Rick responded very quickly and sorted out the problem straight away.

Keep up the good work guys!!!

I think the only dealer I've not had any problems with is Top Secret Magic. As far as I can recall, everything has been in stock when I've been told it was, everything has gone out when I was told it would, and I can't remember ever being sent the wrong item, or something being left out.

I don't expect everyone to be perfect; the real test is how the problem is sorted out.

I have found Magicbox to be very fast to sort out mistakes (although thinking about it, I might have had proportionately more things go wrong with them than other dealers).

I know some people have had difficulties with Alakazam, but they've always been quite helpful to me, and things get sorted out.

I think a lot of people have had trouble with items going missing in the post, but where I live, the service is fairly reliable (apart from a suspicious lack of post on certain days). Couriers, however, have caused me quite a lot of grief. Turning up at odd hours, possibly not ringing the bell (had that with the postman, too), depots miles away, so you can't collect the package yourself, no indication of if the re-delivery will be morning or afternoon, and even ignoring the re-delivery date specified, then bringing it the next day! And yes, a whole day was wasted waiting in for it.

EDIT: On the subject of Outlaw, I've had some horrific waiting times too, but I don't treat them as regular dealers. To me, they're prop creators, and sometimes it is a very slow process for them to meet the orders. It's still a shame to be kept waiting for a long time, especially when others seem to be getting their items weeks earlier, but Rick is helpful, and he replies to e-mails, unlike some dealers.

Don't get me started on couriers! Completely and utterly useless. How hard is it to deliver something on the day you're supposed to? How hard is it to actually ring the doorbell instead of just leaving the item on the doorstep? Obviously too hard for these people, whose sole job it is to make deliveries. It ain't rocket science, or so I thought.

I will sing the praises and give a huge thumbs up to Mike Danatas Magic Studio. Excellent service,support and advice. Thank you.

In the US, I will say that themagicwarehouse.com and whenyouwishmagic.com are both great services. The latter offers some odd collectibles along with the magic, but hey, that's their choice. If you're in the US and want a decent selection with good service, I recomment these two.