For you that aren’t on GHLs Facebook group: A request for an ION D video

[AZMSGT]

Guys, @Vinny@GHLUSA will most likely NOT respond to this topic. GHL has given you their latest update and thats as good as it will get. Can’t blame him really for not chiming in. This topic is to much speculation and a hot topic.

I’m glad I got my money back and at this point.

 

[Sisterlimonpot]

It’s a cultural thing. Shortly after moving to Germany they opened up an outback steakhouse just outside of one of the American military bases. If you ever lived outside the U.S. for a long period of time, you'd know that a little taste of home means everything. News traveled fast for us Americans and we patiently waited for the place to open. My buddies and I traveled almost 2 hours to dine there, it became a monthly ritual.

That ritual was short lived because the last time we went the waiter said that it was going to close after about 6 months of being in business. And I was baffled as to the reason why. The story went that outback had a policy that the waiting staff had to engage the customer, get on eye level when taking orders and constantly checking up on patrons reminding them that they are ready and willing to cater to their dining needs. Pretty normal for American dining. Germans hated that.

And to drive home that sentiment, after roughly 6 years of living in Germany my brother and his family came to visit. I took him to a local restaurant in the next village over and after engaging the waitress and upon her walking away my brother felt it necessary to point out how rude I was, I never looked up to greet her, I wasn’t pleasant with how I spoke, I was curt and straight to the point. Right then and there it dawned on me why outback closed so many years ago. I’ve slowly grown accustomed to living in Germany and picked up their mannerisms to fit in. Never did I realize how much a difference it was until my brother being enthralled by the situation and saw it through an Americans perspective.

From my experience, I can tell you that the relationship between a business and its customers wasn’t so much “let me make you completely comfortable so that you have a pleasant experience” it was boiled down to the essentials, “I have a product, use it if you’d like… or don’t”.

What outback failed to realize is that the business model that worked so well in America wasn’t going to work in Germany. And if they had someone to help them understand that then they wouldn’t have ostracized the locals and probably stayed in business.

Same can be said with GHL, although they’re attractive to European customers, when they open their business to American customers they need to adopt the American business/customer relationship model. They need to treat Americans the way we’re conditioned to be treated. Forcing American customers to fit the European model is extremely foreign to us.

 

[BZOFIQ]

“I have a product, use it if you’d like… or don’t”.

This is so on point it's not funny. I couldn't agree more with your whole post. Been there, done that.

 

[vangvace]

It’s a cultural thing. Shortly after moving to Germany they opened up an outback steakhouse just outside of one of the American military bases. If you ever lived outside the U.S. for a long period of time, you'd know that a little taste of home means everything. News traveled fast for us Americans and we patiently waited for the place to open. My buddies and I traveled almost 2 hours to dine there, it became a monthly ritual.


And to drive home that sentiment, after roughly 6 years of living in Germany my brother and his family came to visit....

I remember being excited about going to one of the Army Bases a few hours away from where I was stationed because they had a Subway. I also remember when the first Taco Bell opened up on base. 2-3 hours waits were common for the first month or so. Lastly when in Greece, MWR would be sure to note that the trip was going to hit McDonalds on the way back home. McDonald's was the only American fast food and about 2 hours from the base.

I came home to visit once and my mom asked me to pick up Ketchup... during the colored Ketchup craze of the late 90s. I was so very, very confused on why there was 235943259-36502965 different bottles at the store. Then muttered about needing to go back overseas.

 

[r21]

It’s a cultural thing. Shortly after moving to Germany they opened up an outback steakhouse just outside of one of the American military bases. If you ever lived outside the U.S. for a long period of time, you'd know that a little taste of home means everything. News traveled fast for us Americans and we patiently waited for the place to open. My buddies and I traveled almost 2 hours to dine there, it became a monthly ritual.

That ritual was short lived because the last time we went the waiter said that it was going to close after about 6 months of being in business. And I was baffled as to the reason why. The story went that outback had a policy that the waiting staff had to engage the customer, get on eye level when taking orders and constantly checking up on patrons reminding them that they are ready and willing to cater to their dining needs. Pretty normal for American dining. Germans hated that.

And to drive home that sentiment, after roughly 6 years of living in Germany my brother and his family came to visit. I took him to a local restaurant in the next village over and after engaging the waitress and upon her walking away my brother felt it necessary to point out how rude I was, I never looked up to greet her, I wasn’t pleasant with how I spoke, I was curt and straight to the point. Right then and there it dawned on me why outback closed so many years ago. I’ve slowly grown accustomed to living in Germany and picked up their mannerisms to fit in. Never did I realize how much a difference it was until my brother being enthralled by the situation and saw it through an Americans perspective.

From my experience, I can tell you that the relationship between a business and its customers wasn’t so much “let me make you completely comfortable so that you have a pleasant experience” it was boiled down to the essentials, “I have a product, use it if you’d like… or don’t”.

What outback failed to realize is that the business model that worked so well in America wasn’t going to work in Germany. And if they had someone to help them understand that then they wouldn’t have ostracized the locals and probably stayed in business.

Same can be said with GHL, although they’re attractive to European customers, when they open their business to American customers they need to adopt the American business/customer relationship model. They need to treat Americans the way we’re conditioned to be treated. Forcing American customers to fit the European model is extremely foreign to us.

nice story but I’m English living in the UK and I whilst don’t expect perfection I do expect that a representative of a company I’ve purchased a product from is asked a polite and reasonable question I don’t expect to be ignored.
I don’t think not answering is anything to do with culture, I think GHL are at best rude and ignorant.
I hope it works out for the people who stick with it and wait for the product but I‘ll be sticking with my Apex despite its faults

 

[robbyg]

I won’t quote @r21 in case you change your mind and edit the post, but we all need to keep in mind that Vinny is only an employee and he cannot respond to our questions without some kind of guidance from his boss. I would rather get relevant info than have someone BS on me with stories designed to calm me down. This is basically the time when they are making it clear to you either take it or leave it but they are not going to give an inch under pressure.
It makes no difference to me as this has gone on for so long that I would never buy one until it’s gone through testing by a respected group of members and they give the go ahead. If you have pre order money being held you either hold or fold.

 

[Herbster]

There is definitely a difference between the perception of customer service in Europe and the US. In the UK there is a longstanding joke about "Have a nice day." Yes, there was a beaming glistening white smile but it's just part of a scripted routing without any conviction. For most brits (and I guess other Europeans as well), if you don't mean it, don't say it.

Personally I'm used to common courtesy where we say please and thanks not because it's a script we've learnt, but because it's what we say and it's natural. For me a scripted "please/thanks" is worse than none at all.

 

[IKD]

There is definitely a difference between the perception of customer service in Europe and the US. In the UK there is a longstanding joke about "Have a nice day." Yes, there was a beaming glistening white smile but it's just part of a scripted routing without any conviction. For most brits (and I guess other Europeans as well), if you don't mean it, don't say it.

Personally I'm used to common courtesy where we say please and thanks not because it's a script we've learnt, but because it's what we say and it's natural. For me a scripted "please/thanks" is worse than none at all.

So what I hear you saying is GHL is being polite by not responding because they really don’t give a crap about the questions and saying anything would be insincere.

 

[MabuyaQ]

nice story but I’m English living in the UK and I whilst don’t expect perfection I do expect that a representative of a company I’ve purchased a product from is asked a polite and reasonable question I don’t expect to be ignored.
I don’t think not answering is anything to do with culture, I think GHL are at best rude and ignorant.
I hope it works out for the people who stick with it and wait for the product but I‘ll be sticking with my Apex despite its faults

So why are you barking at the distributer of the US market who is probably already busy dealing with US customers? Wouldn't be appropriate for you to be barking at the UK importer/distributer instead?

 

[vangvace]

So why are you barking at the distributer of the US market who is probably already busy dealing with US customers? Wouldn't be appropriate for you to be barking at the UK importer/distributer instead?

Because Liverpool. XD

 

[Herbster]

nice story but I’m English living in the UK and I whilst don’t expect perfection I do expect that a representative of a company I’ve purchased a product from is asked a polite and reasonable question I don’t expect to be ignored.
I don’t think not answering is anything to do with culture, I think GHL are at best rude and ignorant.
I hope it works out for the people who stick with it and wait for the product but I‘ll be sticking with my Apex despite its faults

So what have you exactly purchased from GHL? You say you have an Apex so a bit confused about what GHL equipment you do have

 

[Herbster]

So what I hear you saying is GHL is being polite by not responding because they really don’t give a crap about the questions and saying anything would be insincere.

Nope, I was just commenting on the previous posts about the difference between the US and Europeans....

 

[Lasse]

So what have you exactly purchased from GHL? You say you have an Apex so a bit confused about what GHL equipment you do have

Maybe this from another thread give some indications how much experiences this guy have with GHL.

Sincerely Lasse

 

[Herbster]

Maybe this from another thread give some indications how much experiences this guy have with GHL.

Sincerely Lasse

Just smells a bit to me - he says he already has an Apex, so why buy a Profilux 4? And if he's unhappy with his Profilux 4 why is is jumping into the ION Director thread?

 

[jim_fitz]

because he has paid for one

 

[r21]

I won’t quote @r21 in case you change your mind and edit the post, but we all need to keep in mind that Vinny is only an employee and he cannot respond to our questions without some kind of guidance from his boss. I would rather get relevant info than have someone crap on me with stories designed to calm me down. This is basically the time when they are making it clear to you either take it or leave it but they are not going to give an inch under pressure.
It makes no difference to me as this has gone on for so long that I would never buy one until it’s gone through testing by a respected group of members and they give the go ahead. If you have pre order money being held you either fold or hold.

I don’t need calming down I’m not angry, I just wanted an update on where the patent was, if the reply had simply been “there is no update yet” then fair enough, can’t say I’d be impressed but as you say you take it or leave it. It’s the sheer arrogance that the question was ignored that tells you a lot about the people working for GHL

 

[r21]

There is definitely a difference between the perception of customer service in Europe and the US. In the UK there is a longstanding joke about "Have a nice day" . Yes, there was a beaming glistening white smile but it's just part of a scripted routing without any conviction. For most brits (and I guess other Europeans as well), if you don't mean it, don't say it.

Personally I'm used to common courtesy where we say please and thanks not because it's a script we've learnt, but because it's what we say and it's natural. For me a scripted "please/thanks" is worse than none at all.

There certainly is the Level of customer service by Floridian Disney staff compared to Parisian Disney staff is one example I've personally experienced

 

[r21]

So why are you barking at the distributer of the US market who is probably already busy dealing with US customers? Wouldn't be appropriate for you to be barking at the UK importer/distributer instead?

Simply because I like this forum, it’s very active. The GHL forum is very quiet and I dont think there is a representative on the uk forum. I’ve asked the uk distributor they couldn’t help, I’ve asked on GHLs Facebook page and wasn’t answered as well. I’m not barking at anyone, it was just a simple question that GHL chose to ignore, that’s fine they are entitled to do so but personally I don’t want to invest in a company that behaves in that manner

 

[Herbster]

There certainly is the Level of customer service by Floridian Disney staff compared to Parisian Disney staff is one example I've personally experienced

So do you have an Apex or a Profilux or both? Do you have a KHD? Have you ordered an IOD ? There are so many mixed things coming from your posts I'm unsure exactly what your position is.

I haven't see any posts resembling the issues you have had on the most popular UK reefing forums.

 

[r21]

Maybe this from another thread give some indications how much experiences this guy have with GHL.

Sincerely Lasse

Youre perfectly correct I have little experience with GHL, I chose to give them a go for a number of reasons, build quality, form factor, reliability, not biased towards the US market and in many ways their product is good, some of it excellent, the ION director maybe an absolute game changer However none of that has any relevance to my recent posts, if GHL cant respond to a simple question and show utter contempt for a paying customer I don’t want anything to do with them