shopping by email

While I'm not able to tell someone how to run their business, as a consumer, I can certainly pick the businesses that I like best based on the way they treat me.

Lately, I've been getting bids on typical farmed out homeimprovements and services by creating an email that specifies the details of the job I want done and send it to the top 5 on Angie's List requesting an estimate. It's much faster than calling and going through their cryptic mazes of finding the right person to talk to. Usually 2 out of 5 respond nearly immediately and the other 3 get back whenever they feel like it. Best price for easy jobs wins; after one volley of email to clarify the details of the job, it's scheduled at my convenience. It works well for the easy jobs so far.

The part I don't understand with any business who places an email contact on their site. Email inquiries to business are often not acknowledged. Tough to understand in a tough economy.