I know this is an old thread but I felt THIS needed to be addressed.
"On a related note: With Jeff, he's like the "soup nazi" on Seinfeld. You get what you get. If you're not happy with the way he conducts business, I'm pretty sure he'd be the first to suggest you buy your light from a company that gives you a better feeling. Whether that's a good or bad strategy may be debatable. But, probably not with him. He'll just tell you to buy elsewhere. (I've seen it a coupe times.).
I'd tell any business that told me that to put it where the sun doesn't shine! As a former business owner I can tell you there is 2 requirements for a successful business, 1. Customer Service 2. COURTESY! The best product in the world will fail if you don't care about the people you intend it sell to! I put a competitor out of business just based on my customer service!
I worked for Hewlett Packard as a field service tech. And the best thing I learned from that job is NEVER tell a customer, you can't, or that's not possible! Why? Because there is always a solution. If YOU don't have it, refer the customer to someone who does! Hell, I made HP do things for customers they didn't want to, that will teach them to give me the phone number of the head of Customer Satisfaction!
So why defend a jerk like this? you know his attitude is going to bite him on the ass! Buy from him if you wish, personally I'd tell him to shove it!
But then Jeff would have to staff someone at the phone during business hours. That would be an expense reflected in the price of his lights.
Don't say it could go to answering machine if Jeff & co are busy. Inevitably someone would complain that they call and nobody answers. This would be presented in context of some unresolved problem -- the unanswered phone being *proof* the customer is being jacked around.
Even if we accept that it's not a typical 9-5 phone number, then at best it could only be expected to be a "leave a msg, we'll call you back" phone number. That's basically what you have with email right now. Explain you're more comfortable talking on the phone and ask if they'll call you.
On a related note: With Jeff, he's like the "soup nazi" on Seinfeld. You get what you get. If you're not happy with the way he conducts business, I'm pretty sure he'd be the first to suggest you buy your light from a company that gives you a better feeling. Whether that's a good or bad strategy may be debatable. But, probably not with him. He'll just tell you to buy elsewhere. (I've seen it a coupe times.).
I'm just trying to save you some aggravation. If you want one of the best lights you can have from an apparently stand-up guy, buy one. If you're gonna get nervous about phone calls and the "warmth" of communications (i.e., stuff that doesn't matter), you probably want to look at other lights.