OPEN LETTER TO THE ON-LINE MARINE RETAILERS.

[Guest]

A day ago I e-mailed/used their own enquiry form several outboard engine retailers. My message was quite specific, stating I wanted to buy [now, today, as we speak sort of thing,credit card waiting etc etc] a 4/5hp engine to use on a displacement cruiser of 20ft, and requesting info' on the best current deals. As of now I have only had one reply from a company telling me they can supply anything of any make and would I phone them!! when I had made up my mind. Obviously the phrase " I want to buy a 4/5hp long shaft O/B what deals have you got" must leave some doubt in their mind.
My questions are WHY DO YOU GUYS BOTHER ! You spend hundreds of pounds setting up web pages often so full of self praise that you miss the point that we customers don't give a damn about how good you think you are. We are looking for a product and a PRICE. Why does it take you so long to reply, how many hundreds of responses do you get a day? Why send trite responses proving that you obviously think the enquiry is too trivial to read fully. If this is what your like to buy something from what chance do we customers have of getting a reasonable response to a complaint? I suppose as far as you guys think there is a bottomless pit of customers out there so why make the effort. I hope that the manufacturers and importers that trust that their appointed agents represent their products properly see this letter and that they too will start to question the ability of these unprofessional commission agents.

 

[Guest]

response from [url]www.yachtbits.co.uk[/url]

I know that this statement is not directed at us, but I feel I should comment anyway. I am the principle of a smallish "webshop" at www.yachtbits.co.uk. This website is just part of our business. We are an electrical/electronic engineering business that specialises in the marine sector. (but not just yachts).
It saddens me to hear such critisim of the e-commerce industry but I fully understand some of the comments.

What you requested was straight forward and at least deserved a response.

I will also state though, that occasionally it gets frustrating from my side when customers are requesting price matching and price cutting to a level where gross profit margins are only 1 or 2%. Anyone in business knows this is crazy and not sustainable, but the customer sometimes gets upset when I decline to quote or quote a higher price than one or two of the big stores who sell leading products at trade cost just to get you in the site. A bargain for you, but will they offer any support?

If this practice of heavy discounting is good business, why has Cruisermarts & Yachtpeople.com's parent company had its shares suspended from the London Stock Exchange after 2 years of continual falling?

Additionally, I find that we are getting let down more and more by distributors, manufacturers and worst of all are couriers. (worst is parcelforce, 22 days to make a 4-day service delivery!!) And the number of couriers I have asked for quotes to send a liferaft to the USA, and not received a response from is almost unreal. After a week of trying I still can not quote shipping to my customer. (we don't normally do liferafts, but he is a regular customer. its called service)

I've emailed YBW.COM twice about banner ads on this forum and they don't respond either!

What is the point I'm trying to make? We are not all venture capital supported operations with high paid programmers, and a budget that allows loss making. Some of us are genuine established engineering companies that retail through the web. We need to make a profit to operate. What you the customer needs to accept is the cheapest price doesn't always include service.

Maybe accepting prices as stated from a supplier you are familiar with is a better way to get the bits you need quickly.

kev smith
www.yachtbits.co.uk
ps - I don't know enough about outboards to supply them, but if email me though our website I will at least reply!.

 

[Guest]

Another reply, this one from Wooden Boat Fittings

Mike, while we certainly can't help with your outboard, I'm sorry to hear about your experiences.

What we've been finding here recently is that a several of our emails haven't been getting through to customers. (And somethimes theirs don't get through to us, either.) It's happened often enough now to make me quite concerned for our reputation. (Indeed, for one UK customer recently, we had to resort to emailing through a third party.)

Do you think there's a chance that some suppliers didn't get your request, or that you haven't received their reply?

I hope you can find what you're looking for. Mike.

 

[Guest]

Lost in Cyberspace

The greater part of my working day is spent on e-mail both inside and outside our company. It's surprising how many reasonable sized organisations set up Web sites and e-mail enquiry address and apparently ignore them. Recent unanswered that come to mind are Kodak and Kenning SixT. I now have a "feel" for those that will be a waste of time. At least when you build up an address book of those that answer, you will be dealing with companies that are well enough organised and therefore reliable. True some e-mails get "lost" but I bet yours didn't. It's also true what Kevin says about margins. The best price you can get is the best price a company can give and still be around to help you afterwards. However it's no excuse not to answer because your enquiry just isn't interesting enough.

Kevin, I've been there and back several times with couriers and import/export freight. I'll e-mail you through your Web Site

 

[Guest]

more from [url]www.yachtbits.co.uk[/url]

And now we are being let down by our domain hosts. Both our sites and our email routing is all down.

If anyone has emailed us or tried to visit us, we are still here! please call again tomorrow!
I will get your mail and I will respond to it!!

If its not fixed tomorrow, I might just go sailing!

kev
yachtbits.

 

[Guest]

Marine eCommerce

So there you have it - indisputable proof that this chat room is the only effective medium for eCommerce in the Marine industry; and it even beats yellow pages for shipping services!

 

[Guest]

quite apart from the issue of service, it is surprising that prices from the on line retailers are often more expensive than tyhe shops. the advantage of on line sales is that the back office operation can be in some cheap industrial estate rather than in ane xpensive marina / city center shop with the cost savings being used to give lower prices and higher volumes. so why hasnt it happened? could it be the attitude of importers to discounting? ie resale price maintenance?
i once had a boat show stand rep for one of the big importers make it quite clear to me that they controlled the level of prices their uk customers would quote, and would not allow parrallell imports to disturb that situation.