I realize that breeders have other responsibilities than just responding to clients. I mean-breeders are human!. They have kids in school, errands to run, groceries to buy, etc. They get sick, have kids who get sick, other clients to deal with. I am not trying to be real "pushy" in getting a response. Yet, what is an acceptable period of time to give a breeder to respond to an e-mail?
Emails go astray. I would give it over a week and then resend a copy with a note asking if it got through. After a similar period, I would call.
I would also say around a week. I know how much e-mail I get on a regular basis and if I have not read/responded to something within a few days, it does tend to fall behind and then get lost amongst all the other stuff in my inbox. Depending on what sort of questions you have, it might be good to call.
For me reasonable is within 3 days but usually less. I recently had an email come back to me as undeliverable from a potential client who I had responded to. Sometimes servers do strange things. If they are on vacation perhaps a week is reasonable.
The problem I have in calling is that I do not have long distance on my phone. I e-mailed and explained that to the breeder. She said that it was alright for me to e-mail. However, I will take your advice. If I do not get a response within a week, I will e-mail again. Maybe I can get a phone card or something so that I can make a long distance phone call.
By courtesy any correspondence should be replied to within 2 weeks.
It probably depends on the lifestyle of the breeder (as well as vacation schedule, especially considering that it's August). While one would expect someone to reply in a timely manner to a customer, the definition of "timely" varies. So if it seems like your breeder checks e-mail significantly less often than you're comfortable with, and it's a pattern rather than a one-time deal like a vacation or family emergency, then it might be worth it to get a phone card and try communicating via phone instead just for your peace of mind... but then again e-mail is easier in that both parties can reply at times that are good for them, so it depends on how crazy you're being driven by the lags in response time! That's what I do! Most of the people with whom I deal on a regular basis follow a timeline of (more or less) replying within one day for work-related e-mails and 2-3 days for others, even if just to say "got your e-mail, will reply more fully soon", but there are a few people who are consistently lax about checking or replying to e-mails. So whenever something important comes up which requires an answer from them I just pick up the phone and call them and it usually takes maybe 5 minutes and saves a LOT of stress (and saves a lot of time that would have been spent on stressing about it)! (I'm not saying that your breeder should reply within 1-3 days, I'm just giving an example...)
But again, it depends on whether this is a pattern or not, and how time-sensitive things are. So for now, in case your breeder is either away on vacation or something else is going on, I'd give her a week and then follow up with an "In case my original e-mail didn't go through or it fell through the cracks, I wanted to follow up..." type of e-mail or phone call. Or another option could be asking the breeder how often she usually checks and replies to e-mails, if you think that just knowing her timeframe might make it easier for you.
[quote=WinstonsandOlliesMom]
It probably depends on the lifestyle of the breeder (as well as vacation schedule, especially considering that it's August). While one would expect someone to reply in a timely manner to a customer, the definition of "timely" varies. So if it seems like your breeder checks e-mail significantly less often than you're comfortable with, and it's a pattern rather than a one-time deal like a vacation or family emergency, then it might be worth it to get a phone card and try communicating via phone instead just for your peace of mind... but then again e-mail is easier in that both parties can reply at times that are good for them, so it depends on how crazy you're being driven by the lags in response time! That's what I do! Most of the people with whom I deal on a regular basis follow a timeline of (more or less) replying within one day for work-related e-mails and 2-3 days for others, even if just to say "got your e-mail, will reply more fully soon", but there are a few people who are consistently lax about checking or replying to e-mails. So whenever something important comes up which requires an answer from them I just pick up the phone and call them and it usually takes maybe 5 minutes and saves a LOT of stress (and saves a lot of time that would have been spent on stressing about it)! (I'm not saying that your breeder should reply within 1-3 days, I'm just giving an example...)
But again, it depends on whether this is a pattern or not, and how time-sensitive things are. So for now, in case your breeder is either away on vacation or something else is going on, I'd give her a week and then follow up with an "In case my original e-mail didn't go through or it fell through the cracks, I wanted to follow up..." type of e-mail or phone call. Or another option could be asking the breeder how often she usually checks and replies to e-mails, if you think that just knowing her timeframe might make it easier for you.
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This is the third business day. I plan to wait til later on in the day. Then, I will send an e-mail beginning it with "in case my e-mail fell through...." WinstonandOlliesmom, thanks for that suggestion!
I went to the breeder's website just now and made a payment on Gabriel. Maybe, she will see that and be reminded of my last e-mail.
The only way that I would get a response from an e-mail is to send it twice. So, I called on my cell phone today. With the time difference, it ended up being early evening where my breeder lives. However, I was so busy at work that I did not have a chance to call earlier. That has really been my hesitance in calling her before now. We only spoke briefly. However, she was very friendly and informative. Next time, I will call again. Yet, I will do my best to call earlier in the day.
She told me that she would send me some pictures soon and that tomorrow she would be taking Gabriel, Gabbie and their litter mates to the vet for shots.
It's always great to get an update. I'll be looking forward to seeing pics!