Force 4 Chandlery still in business? Do they want business?

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sfellows

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Ordered a new Autopilot from Force 4 Chandlery for £1400 online today. Order accepted, no messages regarding value of sale and my Credit Card debited the full amount. I have now received an email from "Sales" stating the order is cancelled because the "policy" for orders over £400 is that they must be paid by BACS or Paypal before they'll accept it.

I have previously ordered from Force 4. They say they tried to call me but they haven't – I have no missed calls. They say they sent an email with a quote - they haven't They don’t answer the phones (I made several calls yesterday and today) – it goes through to a voicemail. They don’t return calls or answer queries about products when you enter details on their website.

This sounds like a business under severe stress. Are they still in business? I doubt they will be much longer if this is the level of service provided.
 
I can't answer as to if they are under stress but the rates of fraud online have gone through the roof. My own business is quite specialist and I had multiple cases recently with high value items bought on cards - fortunately - and quite coincidentally , the greedy sods ordered from a competitor, the exact same item, not realising (and no one would ) that we also manufacture the goods for our competitor so effectively I saw two orders for the same part to the same person on the same day and did some more digging. (Turns out the street address they used for delivery was a self storage which is an immediate red flag that they tried to get around with leaving out the name and just using the address of the company)

I used PayPal and Stripe for card processing and PayPal flagged all the dodgy ones whilst Stripe did not - and for additional security checks wanted to charge more - so I understand why Force 4 would choose BACS (no claw back if its fraud) or PayPal (despite this being an expensive card processor in terms of fees) ... the lack of communication, lack of automated redirecting of payment options when placing the order is poor - but in fairness it may be a very recent policy that is taking time to fully integrate.

In 28 years of business we had no fraud because what we make are niche and not attractive to buy with a dodgy card and sell on Marketplace etc - in the last 6 months we've had multiple attempts so clearly the MO has moved from easy stuff like TVs and laptops and now would most definitely include chandlery parts.
 
sfellows said:
Ordered a new Autopilot from Force 4 Chandlery for £1400 online today. Order accepted, no messages regarding value of sale and my Credit Card debited the full amount. I have now received an email from "Sales" stating the order is cancelled because the "policy" for orders over £400 is that they must be paid by BACS or Paypal before they'll accept it.

I have previously ordered from Force 4. They say they tried to call me but they haven't – I have no missed calls. They say they sent an email with a quote - they haven't They don’t answer the phones (I made several calls yesterday and today) – it goes through to a voicemail. They don’t return calls or answer queries about products when you enter details on their website.

This sounds like a business under severe stress. Are they still in business? I doubt they will be much longer if this is the level of service provided.
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Their accounts on companies house don't read like a company in trouble.
 
I quite frequently use the Force 4 store at Bursledon. Well stocked and well staffed. Helpful and knowledgeable. No signs of stress. But I haven’t spent four figure sums.
 
I have always had a telephone response and good service from the Plymouth shop, handy because it's local so I can order and collect.

Tho I don't use them for small items now as they have ceased taking cash.

.
 
I’ve had good service from the force 4 at deacons and the one at Plymouth. I’d put a bad experience down to intermittent incompetence at online retail rather than anything sinister. Go into a shop and I’m sure they’ll sort you out.
DrSpock said:
What autopilot were you after as there are plenty of other businesses cheaper than Force4.
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Depends on the product. Force 4 are cheaper than my normal electronics hawker for Raymarine i50s
 
laika said:
. I’d put a bad experience down to intermittent incompetence at online retail rather than anything sinister.
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Their online ordering is pretty frustrating. I assumed if I ordered for collection in store they'd just give me the one they had in stock - doesn't work like that. 😡

None the less as a physical shop they work well, mostly at amazon/Ebay prices.
 
laika said:
I’ve had good service from the force 4 at deacons and the one at Plymouth. I’d put a bad experience down to intermittent incompetence at online retail rather than anything sinister. Go into a shop and I’m sure they’ll sort you out.


Depends on the product. Force 4 are cheaper than my normal electronics hawker for Raymarine i50s
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You're looking in the wrong place then.
 
DrSpock said:
You're looking in the wrong place then.
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I’ve not found a new i50 depth display cheaper anywhere I’d trust with my credit card. As a physical shop I don’t need to muck about with deliveries and if it’s faulty I’m confident they’ll take it back, again without the hassle of going to a post office. If that makes me a dunce at retail acquisition then so be it
 
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I do a fair bit of ordering using the force4 online shop and frequently use the Plymouth branch, I always pay using my credit card. If the product is out of stock at store , the backorder process normally takes about 4-5 days and a force4 guy turns up in a white truck from central stores with the products bagged up with a copy delivery note with my details inside , I get a notification from the store by text or a phone call to inform me that it has arrived. So personally I am actually very satisfied with the service.
As a general observation the store is very well stocked and fully staffed with knowledgeable and friendly people. The impression I have is that they enjoy a good workplace. If things were about to go wrong financially then I feel none of this would be the case. If I were to purchase £1400 product I would normally go in and pick it up personally though.

On board Wolke
 
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