Hello everyone - it’s a nice morning 
I’d like to know about positive/negative experiences you guys had - I hope they are all positive though
I’m thinking of getting a whistle or 2 from them…
I’ve sent a huge mail msg to the shop I’ve mentioned and haven’t got any response yet - 4 days allready. And anything like that is kinda alarming to me - about shopping over the internet. I hope I’m just being paranoic.
Thanks alot,
Philip
I’ve dealt with Thom many times over the years and he’s always been a quality guy. My guess is that things just fell thru the cracks with your msg. He’s trustworthy.
Allrighty then 
I’ll try again - thanks.
Hi Trip-
I’m sure the whistle shop is working on it - keep in mind that they have been going for a while and have, most likely, collected a huge email audience that must get a considered level of attention!
In my experience, the good shops (and makers) will take the time rather than reduce the quality of their attention.
I know I sound like a broken record on this, but it’s important and not many people seem to know it, so I’m posting it again.
Email is, by design, not a guaranteed-delivery system. Even emails to good addresses sometimes just disappear. And it’s made that way on purpose, and for a good reason.
Thom may have never gotten your email.
Emails, even to valid addresses, “fall off the wife” all the time. There are different reasons why they do–a server may be down or in an unstable state, for instance, or a critical link may be down.
The reason that it’s designed this way is to prevent the disaster that one email with a bad address could cause. If it were guaranteed delivery, that one email would start bouncing around all over the place until the network was so busy trying to find that one bad address that it couldn’t service anything else: a situation called a broadcast storm.
So if in doubt, don’t rely on email. Call, or even post a letter.
By the way, I have ordered from Thom (thewhistleshop.com) many times. I have always found him to be safe, prompt, and accurate. I would order from him anytime.
–James
Thom is normally a very quick answerer but sometimes besides what James wrote with emails getting lost, which actually does happen, it also can be as simple as that he could be/have been on holiday for a change or has been ill and then everything gets delayed. I am not sure but I believe he does it all mainly by himself with a little help from someone and that is not easy to cope with at times.
Brigitte (“rubbing my nose here heavily” as I am in the middle of a heavy email delay struggle 
)
actually, emails should never ‘disappear’. the rfcs for email standards are pretty solid where they deal with managing the routing and accounting of messages. A well designed email system never loses a message, however the message may get dropped into a badmail directory due to malformed header info, authentication issues, filtering etc. Back in the day, before email viruses, we used to be able to effectively use delivery and read receipts on messages. Now most email clients make this difficult in order to ‘protect’ us from viruses that my take advantage of this process. Anti-Virus software for email servers has pretty much ended the mail storms of the past. Prior to spam and email viruses, sub-second email delivery was common.
BUT in the here and now, when in doubt, a phone call is still the best method…just wish there were a paper trail created…
Thom is pretty amazing at the whistle shop. He’ll do right by you.
actually, emails should never ‘disappear’. the rfcs for email standards are pretty solid where they deal with managing the routing and accounting of messages. A well designed email system never loses a message, however the message may get dropped into a badmail directory due to malformed header info, authentication issues, filtering etc.
Well, if you are saying email works well, I’ll agree enthusiastically.
If you are saying email works well the vast majority of the time, I’ll still agree, albeit less enthusiastically.
However, if you are saying that I am mistaken and that email is a guaranteed-delivery medium, I’ll say “Please cite your source,” because that’s not true.
–James
A friend of mine where I used to work ordered a Meg from the whistle shop. 3 weeks went by and he hadn’t gotten his whistle. I kept telling him “call Thom…he’s a good guy, he’ll tell you what’s up”.
The friend kept saying “Eh, it was $3.00..I’ll get around to it” but never did.
I quit that job before I ever found out what happened to that whistle.
For what it’s worth, Thom has always been quick to ship orders that I’ve personally made (90% of them using the standard order form online), and I’ve bought there seven or eight times, though it has been over a year since the last time I made an order.
Hearty endorsement for Thom and The Whistleshop! I also have just sent an email via their website to a trusted merchant and haven’t heard back (coincidentally 4 days also!) The best thing is to call, or write again.
The Whistle shop has an 800 number also. If you sent an order you should have a re. number. Call or send an e mail with the re. number as the subject.
If all you sent was an email, it may have gotten overlooked as spam. They receive a lot of it there.
I recently ordered something from a small internet costume shop that
I needed within a few weeks. I didn’t get a shipping message for a
week, and got worried, so I emailed them. They called me that night
and explained that they had been at a convention during that week,
and had technological problems that prevented them from handling
orders effeciently. They then overnighted the item. So, I always try
to remember that some internet shops are not huge corporations,
they are often family businesses, maybe with a couple employees,
and they often have other things to do to promote their businesses.
Therefore, cut a little slack for small internet businesses, resend your
messages in case they were missed, and get the whole story before
going to the Better Business Bureau.
I’ve dealt with Tom happily through the years, but only once recently. I ordered an Overton which wasn’t then in stock and forgot about it; six months later (his estimated date), I got an e-mail advising that the whistle had been reserved for me - I got it a few days later. Very dependable in my experience.
Philo
I ordered something from them and had no trouble getting it in a timely manner. However, when I sent an e-mail to ask if it could be returned (just a few days after receiving it), I got no response. Ever. So, I guess if you like what you buy - no worries. Otherwise, if there is a possibility that you might want to return it, you may want to call in your order and ask questions first.
Carolyn
Ive bought both of my Dixons from The Whistle Shop, and both got to me quickly and in excellent shape. I’d highly recommend them.
I sent Thom an email about his low D stock a few weeks ago and never got a response. It’s not a big deal, so I haven’t followed up on it.
However, I’ve ordered from him twice and got good and fast service both times.
The first time, a small tune book I had ordered was out of stock. But it showed up my mail a few weeks later.
My second order I actually just received yesterday. I think I ordered it Friday, so it was a pretty quick turnaround. I got everything exactly as I ordered it.
Thanks,
Jason
I had a great experience with The Whistle Shop.
My sister ordered a MellowDog from them for me as a Christmas present. She had a little trouble getting the order right, but it got to me soon enough. Well, I already have a MellowDog, so I had to send it back. I was going to order a different whistle from them and spoke with Thom by email and phone. While I’m sure he was irritated at my indecision, he never let it show. I finally wound up asking for my (sister’s) money back, and he sent it right off.
He doesn’t always have things in stock - sometimes it takes a while before he can send off your order. If you are worried, give him a call and he’ll do right by you.
And if that’s not good enough, take it from Mitch, owner of OZ Whistles. A good word from your competition is worth 1000 words from me.
Thom has had so much trouble with spam that he’s had to change his email address twice in the time I’ve been doing business with him.
My recommendation would be not to put the burden on Thom if he hasn’t responded to an email you sent, but call him on the phone, or at least go to his website, double check that you’re sending to his currrent email address and try repeating your message.
It can take a few tries to reach him by telephone, as his phone line is very active, but I can assure you he’s one of the most considerate, reliable people I’ve ever done business with. Thom’s a gem.
Best wishes,
Jerry
There’s another possibility, that if you sent a hugh email, it scared him off, or just overwhelmed him with a lot of questions, and he’s working up the strength to answer it!
I know I’ve sent long emails like that at times, not realizing how hard it would be to actually answer, and how much time it would take to do so.
If you have a bunch of questions, it’s OK to send it, and have the person read it, think about it, and then give him a call so it doesn’t take forever for him to answer it-things are so much easier to answer in person, than in emails, especially for busy shop owners.
Hope this gives you another perspective on the matter.
Thom is a good guy-no problems there.
you might try checking your spam folder. that happened to me. the whistle shop responded to my order but i was with aol at the time and aol automatically spammed his message. tom was really good in explaining that to me and that’s where i found his e mail that had already been sent.