On-line chandleries: how hard can it be? (rant)

[prv]

I've been surprised that in spite of offering a "contact us" email address, whenever I've raised a query about an item of stock, or measurement or pricing, none of the chandleries have bothered to reply.

I needed a specific model of access hatch last weekend - the dimensions were just right for what I had in mind. Force 4 had it on their web site, but there wasn't time for it to be shipped and I couldn't be sure they'd have one in my local shop. They don't publish individual shop email addresses, and obviously there's no point phoning late at night, so I emailed their general "sales" address. That was at 11:30pm on Thursday, and by the time I got into work on Friday morning I had a reply waiting for me. The lady in head office Sales had checked the stock system, my local branch did indeed have one, and she'd phoned them to ask for it to be put aside for me. I went in at the weekend and there it was behind the till with a label with my name on it.

Sometimes it does work.

Pete

 

[Seajet]

Did the label say ' for the annoying git who phones us late at night ' ?!

Seriusly I have nothing but praise for Force 4, an excellent outfit with excellent staff in my experience.

Dan, I never ever e-mail any company if I want a response, always the phone...

 

[prv]

Did the label say ' for the annoying git who phones us late at night ' ?!

Why would it say that - I never phone them late at night?

It might have said "for that bloke who is building a boat from scratch with the contents of our shop", as they occasionally accuse me of. That or setting up a rival chandlery

Pete

 

[Seajet]

Pete,

I was joking... you did say 11:30 at night, but on a second look it was by e-mail; even more of a miracle you got it then even by Force 4's standards !

 

[lustyd]

I needed a specific model of access hatch last weekend - the dimensions were just right for what I had in mind. Force 4 had it on their web site, but there wasn't time for it to be shipped and I couldn't be sure they'd have one in my local shop. They don't publish individual shop email addresses, and obviously there's no point phoning late at night, so I emailed their general "sales" address. That was at 11:30pm on Thursday, and by the time I got into work on Friday morning I had a reply waiting for me. The lady in head office Sales had checked the stock system, my local branch did indeed have one, and she'd phoned them to ask for it to be put aside for me. I went in at the weekend and there it was behind the till with a label with my name on it.

Sometimes it does work.

Pete

Sorry but to me this is still a huge fail. They clearly have a central stock database yet have no way for you to interrogate it without emailing them and waiting for a reply. This is not the 90s. Marine Superstore have a button on the website, you click it and it tells you how many they have in the shop. Living in 2014 I've come to expect things to work like we're in the future because we are in fact in the future! What you describe of Force4, although better than most, is a little like buying the latest music on iTunes but having to go to HMV to copy it onto your computer - it's still the crappy old system but they've made it look a bit futuristic.

Edit to add, it's probably only 100 lines of code to hook the web up to the shops!

 

[prv]

Sorry but to me this is still a huge fail.

Yeah, I know. Finding stuff on their website is not easy either, because they chuck everything into a few very broad categories and then only show you a handful at a time, and the search is fairly rubbish too.

I was specifically responding to Dan's woes about email, at which they seem acceptably competent, rather than praising their online facilities which are mediocre.

As I said earlier, I generally visit their shops rather than the site. I don't think I've ever bought anything online from Force 4.

Pete

 

[Greenheart]

In general I quite like Force 4 - although I have to be sure what I want before I go in, otherwise I may not have enough cash...and I can't trust myself with my card in there.

I've generally given an online purchase long thought before buying, whereas I could scarcely carry all the things I spontaneously rate as 'necessary', walking round a chandlery.

I'd like to name the chandleries which don't reply to my emails, but I haven't received the goods yet and as far as I know they've taken payment, so I'd sooner stay optimistic.

I may try phoning - although I've no actual complaint, just a creeping doubt...where their computerised systems require a human element, he or she is absent, idle or inadequate.

 

[lustyd]

I agree, Force 4 is a great shop I just get the same frustrations on their website. Since it's basically them vs MSS on our bit of the coast the website could ultimately be their undoing if they don't sort it before normal people want to be in the future with us IT folks

 

[Seajet]

LustyD,

I bet this is you in your white jump suit, champing at the bit, " they told me on Tomorrows World I'd have a rocket backpack, robot butler / girlfriend and a jet car by now ! "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB1k02yh43A

 

[FishyInverness]

Devil's advocate, look at it this way, which i'm sure is how the marketing strategists look at it, and why very few non-multi-national-internet-only-retailers are hesitant to use the Live Stock feature of E-commerce software:

You're looking for something online - Online Retailer A has it in stock, Online Retailer B Doesn't have it in stock, both use a live stock system - Online Retailer A have a very high order book and use a cheap courier which takes 3 days to deliver, Online retailer B have a top notch order processing system and can order the item they're out of stock of and receive it next day - You don't know any of this from your quick websearch, all you know is one have the item, the other don't......You'd still pick online retailer A, Hell, I know I would, even though both are likely to get me the item at the same time. Hence a reluctance to tell everyone "Hey, we don't have this, go elsewhere!"

 

[Angele]

Devil's advocate, look at it this way, which i'm sure is how the marketing strategists look at it, and why very few non-multi-national-internet-only-retailers are hesitant to use the Live Stock feature of E-commerce software:

You're looking for something online - Online Retailer A has it in stock, Online Retailer B Doesn't have it in stock, both use a live stock system - Online Retailer A have a very high order book and use a cheap courier which takes 3 days to deliver, Online retailer B have a top notch order processing system and can order the item they're out of stock of and receive it next day - You don't know any of this from your quick websearch, all you know is one have the item, the other don't......You'd still pick online retailer A, Hell, I know I would, even though both are likely to get me the item at the same time. Hence a reluctance to tell everyone "Hey, we don't have this, go elsewhere!"

Maybe. But, then again, if an online retailer's system reliably said "In stock" then I would be more likely to order from them, rather than wait until I'm next down at the boat and passing my branch of Force 4.

 

[lustyd]

Devil's advocate, look at it this way, which i'm sure is how the marketing strategists look at it, and why very few non-multi-national-internet-only-retailers are hesitant to use the Live Stock feature of E-commerce software:

You're looking for something online - Online Retailer A has it in stock, Online Retailer B Doesn't have it in stock, both use a live stock system - Online Retailer A have a very high order book and use a cheap courier which takes 3 days to deliver, Online retailer B have a top notch order processing system and can order the item they're out of stock of and receive it next day - You don't know any of this from your quick websearch, all you know is one have the item, the other don't......You'd still pick online retailer A, Hell, I know I would, even though both are likely to get me the item at the same time. Hence a reluctance to tell everyone "Hey, we don't have this, go elsewhere!"

Nope still missing it. I don't even check the website without stock info so it's not even in the running. That is a lost sale of something in stock. The site that's out of stock with a good website already has my loyalty and may win regardless. Obviously the shop with stock and great web wins every time.

 

[lustyd]

LustyD,

I bet this is you in your white jump suit, champing at the bit, " they told me on Tomorrows World I'd have a rocket backpack, robot butler / girlfriend and a jet car by now ! "

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB1k02yh43A

You been filming me at work? I'll be honest, a lot of my sales are based on explaining how old fashioned some peoples IT is and the phrase "this is what the future looks like" features heavily

 

[chewi]

In general I quite like Force 4 - although I have to be sure what I want before I go in, otherwise I may not have enough cash...and I can't trust myself with my card in there.

I've generally given an online purchase long thought before buying, whereas I could scarcely carry all the things I spontaneously rate as 'necessary', walking round a chandlery.

I'd like to name the chandleries which don't reply to my emails, but I haven't received the goods yet and as far as I know they've taken payment, so I'd sooner stay optimistic.





I may try phoning - although I've no actual complaint, just a creeping doubt...where their computerised systems require a human element, he or she is absent, idle or inadequate.

10yrs ago we bought a pc from Sony complaints dept., discounted because of our complaint. but they never processed the credit card, so it was free in the end. incompetence can work in your favour!

 

[Greenheart]

That sounds ideal...but as yet, I haven't a complaint to make. They'll hear from me soon if I don't see the items or hear a reason why they haven't sent them...

...if they're just waiting for a delivery of stock before they can send me the small pieces I need, I'd expect to have been told.

I'd be perfectly content to wait if that is the case, but if they just couldn't be bothered to let me know, I'll aim at getting the money back.

 

[chewi]

That sounds ideal...but as yet, I haven't a complaint to make. They'll hear from me soon if I don't see the items or hear a reason why they haven't sent them...

...if they're just waiting for a delivery of stock before they can send me the small pieces I need, I'd expect to have been told.

I'd be perfectly content to wait if that is the case, but if they just couldn't be bothered to let me know, I'll aim at getting the money back.

My complaint was only that they had given bad info, causing us wait for a product they said would be available, but in fact was bnever even planned , so we lost other opportunities while waiting. It's not as if I had a faulty product I was complaining about, just bad info. Your delivery promise seems lile bad info in the same way.

 

[Greenheart]

Sad to admit my own naivety, but it's only recently that it occurred to me buying online might disappoint. Actually I bought DVDs before Christmas and assumed after ten days that I'd been misled or worse; then the package turned up, doubtless delayed by the seasonal rush. I don't care if the chandlers use cheap, slow mail; and I've said, I won't even object if they have to wait a week for the stock to arrive...but stating on the site that they have the items, then not bothering to inform customers of an unavoidable delay? That won't do.

Few places are exclusive outlets for what we need...so if we vote with our feet (or our credit cards) there's some hope suppliers will see that we'll only be loyal if they'll be honest.

 

[mjcoon]

... No card details are stored on computers or paper these days.

Glad to hear it; I believe them's the rules (or were, aside from legal requirements for transaction logs, a few years ago when I worked on the UK Post Office's previous chip-and-PIN system).

Mike.

 

[theguerns]

I simpathise with you all on this problem. When I worked for a local chandelery in Guernsey I was always asked when the customer could expect his items to arrive. I made it realy clear to the people we bought from that when we placed an order if the item did not arrive in 3 days they would loos oue business and not get it back. After the first few months we had sorted out the bad ones and eept the good ones. I cant name them all but one of the chandeleries we used and had brlliant service from was Marinescene, ask for Sarah she realy is very good at whta she does and cares about her customers. I have been buying LED's from a chap in the UK for a while now and have had realy good service. SO they are out there you have to look.

 

[Greenheart]

I must update, to ease my conscience. Having heard not a word from Classic Marine, I took time to call the place today and spoke with a very helpful fellow who had been trying to email me. Twice! For some reason both attempts had gone unread, straight to my junk file...I've no idea why - anything with 'Marine' in the title would have been opened by me, and the email-system could hardly have reasoned that I wouldn't choose to read it. Anyway the chap was very patient and helpful and my keel-band should now be in the mail.

Meanwhile, Pinnell & Bax...money paid nearly two weeks ago...no emails yet except original confirmation of the order on February 17th...no delivery, nor any contact (I checked 'Junk') to explain what the issue is. I'll call tomorrow. I really hope there's a good reason once again, because P&B seem to stock lots which isn't widely available.