I'm a detailer in Hong Kong and while I love AG and always loyal to order from them, I can't always meet the minimum amount order for international shipping, especially if it's just to test a single product. So lately I've been researching Opti-seal and Zaino Z-CS, Opti-seal overall got much better reviews and I wanted to try it for myself before I pushed it on my customers. After contacting 3-4 distributors in the UK and even one in Singapore (who was the only one to reply but only to ask if there was a closer distributor) I went to Optimum directly who out me in touch with a local Hong Kong distributor. At 10:55 this morning I provided my info including the specific item I was interested in and asked for pricing. The distributor replied that they would contact me by today. Come end of the business day and I still didn't hear from them so I gave up on the product and let Optimum know that my experience was disappointing. The distributor being cc'd on the email immediately emailed me and gave me some excuse that they tried to call me and had left a voicemail but checking my phone it shows none.

I really wonder where customer service has gone lately, especially as a distributor, while I'm glad Optimum out me in touch with the HK distributor, I wish they had at least asked which ones I was having trouble reaching and looked into it. As most detailers know, time is money, the sooner we can get our hands on a product the sooner we can decide if it's something we can make money with.

I guess I'll be saving my orders for AG in the future but it'll have to be when I'm making bulk orders, it'll also probably mean I'll miss out on some opportunities to introduce products to my clients but I'd rather that than deal with distributors who have no interest in doing business.

End rant.