Loosing Faith in Scans "updated" warehouse

[ikonia]

I've noted a lot of threads on this forum about stock issues recently.

While these things happen its starting to get a bit silly now.

I placed an order yesterday over the phone - so a stock level should have been "real time" to be told that today there is no stock.

This seems to be happening more and more that the system that tracks stock level is just not working for people.

I'm a bit annoyed as my past scan orders have been a joke.

I'm waiting for 3 refunds at the moment one that is over 2 months old.

1.) Full Saturday Delivery Refund
2.) Full Saturday Delivery Refund
3.) Order returned to scan due to inability to deliver package (not scans fault).

Now when I place an order to try to arrange my own delivery mechanism I'm told a day later there is no stock for the items I've ordered which means my planned work will now be delayed by a week.

It seems I am doomed to never actually get an order from scan, but seriously this "order out of stock" issue seems to becoming far too much of a problem.

[Chris P]

There are still issues are occurring, which is inevitable with any new major change.

However improvements have already been made, and these issues are being ironed out as they occur.

Things are moving in the right direction, it will take just a little bit more time ....

[ikonia]

It's been 6 month scince this was annouced looking at the date on the hexus thread and 4 months ago there was an update saying "excellent progress was being made". Things do take time, but expecting customer to persist with this for so far - 4 months, seems to be a big call, and every thread I see on this is reponded with "upgrades are happening".

This seems to be effecting a large ammount of people now, I openly admit this is the first time its happened to me so I count myself lucky, but as someone who normally champions scan to the N'th degree the service of late has been shocking,

The order managment system just appears to be not working for a good number of people
The accounts department do not seem to want to refund money at all
While the customer service and sales team are slogging their guts out to sell/service customer requirements they are being let down by the infrastructure and back office teams.

[Chris P]

I am not going to go into the length of time it takes to complete this MASSIVE change to Scan’s warehouse system, but its not going to happen over night guys and 6 months is NOT a long time for a major change such as this ..

The changes will not be rushed; we are proceeding well and moving in the right direction.

We apologies for the issues experienced, however we are making these MASSIVE changes to resolve the issues such as the points raised.


Best Regards

[markbrown83]

It's been 6 month scince this was annouced looking at the date on the hexus thread and 4 months ago there was an update saying "excellent progress was being made". Things do take time, but expecting customer to persist with this for so far - 4 months, seems to be a big call, and every thread I see on this is reponded with "upgrades are happening".

This seems to be effecting a large ammount of people now, I openly admit this is the first time its happened to me so I count myself lucky, but as someone who normally champions scan to the N'th degree the service of late has been shocking,

The order managment system just appears to be not working for a good number of people
The accounts department do not seem to want to refund money at all
While the customer service and sales team are slogging their guts out to sell/service customer requirements they are being let down by the infrastructure and back office teams.

Just think though, those who have had problems have been a very very small fraction of people who order with Scan. Scan receive around 1000 orders a day I heard. You may get 5 people (10 at most a week) complaining about orders not being received. Yes this may only be from the online community - those who don't know about Hexus, but I really do think it is only the minority.

I have been lucky like yourself, I think I have only had the email once. However, the times are extimated, and 99% of the time my orders go without problems.

I also feel most people have the tendancy to moan on the forums before giving praise, hence why you do see these sort of posts more often than usual.

No retailer is 100%, everyone has problems... lets hope the minority becomes even less

[ikonia]

I don't doubt its massive, and %100 appriciate that changes to a warehouse and associated system take amazing ammounts of time, I have no problem with it. The problem appears to be that this work is having a very negative impact on customer orders for a sustained period of time. Does the warehouse changes effect the back office / accounts team and their ability to refund money ?

[Chris P]

Of course as already explained in the sticky, problems will occur - This is inevitable

The fact is you have to take 1 step back before you can make 2 steps forward...

Even still only around 1% of orders are being delayed

Regarding the outstanding refunds, if you have the Invoice numbers to PM me I will ensure these are processed today if not already

Best Regards

[ikonia]

Markbrown - you'll find I'm very positive about Scan, and champion them a lot, however the infrastructure and back office service of late has been poor, very poor from my personal experience. Thats not to slate scan and say they are rubbish etc as they are not, thats why I'm doing every thing I can to still use them as a retailer, however I am providing feedback that as a customer the service of late provided by certain areas of Scans business have been very poor, and the warehouse work seems to be having a negative impact for a sustained period of time.

None of the feedback I've provided calls scan - it states my personal experience to be used as feedback, and I'd hope as someone who normally pushes scan and praises them, this feedback is deemed as genuine and not just a moan on a forum

[ikonia]

Of course as already explained in the sticky, problems will occur - This is inevitable

The fact is you have to take 1 step back before you can make 2 steps forward...

Even still only around 1% of orders are being delayed

Regarding the outstanding refunds, if you have the Invoice numbers to PM me I will ensure these are processed today if not already

Best Regards

Lynda is already dealing with the outstanding refunds again as I don't have the order numbers to hand, however note that I say the word "again" as this is I think - the 3rd time I've asked for the refunds that I'm told "are being credited by our accounts team now" and I think the 6th time I've asked for the refund that is two months old that I've been told 6 times now "its been credited by our accounts team now" so an assurance that it will be processed today is a bit thin for me at the moment. I do appriciate the offer though.

[Chris P]

ikonia

We appreciate your constructive feedback, we hear your comments and the changes are happening directly due to feedback like this

We listen to our customers and are investing heavily to resolve these issues

Best Regards

[chadders]

physical, allocated, reserved, in-pick, due-in, due-out, available.

All words that are now classed as profanties within the SCAN back-office I bet!! Don't dare say "Supply Chain Management" either!

p.s. you'll never eliminate "out of stock" issues on the website - always possible to take payment then see last item sold. But for telephone orders, you should definitely be able to lock stock until end of call.

[markbrown83]

It would maybe be helpful to see how many are left in stock. Ie to give the buyer an idea of how many are left - illustrating the chance the item may become out of stock.

<10 - posibility of the item going out of stock upon ordering (ocuk).

10+ - no chance.

Or maybe even the exact stock number (ebuyer).

If you see my meaning. Same as some other sites that are out there.

[nath.booth]

Yeah i think that would be a good idea. have specific stock values for less than 10 available otherwise 10+

[stormy]

Yeh, as I have just realised when I ordered a PSU this morning, it says in stock but all the people who ordered yesterday (its on Today Only) probably have not been allocated yet as they have not been 'picked'. I wonder if the PSU will change to out of stock by the end of today?

[nath.booth]

The system shoudl dynamically allocate stock as soon as the order is recieved surely and reserve it, it shouldt be allocated when picked thats asking for problems unless there systems architect was abit special.

[markbrown83]

I think I spoke too soon. I ordered a Samsung 226BW and a couple of other things today. Just received a Delayed Order Notification email and text (Samsung 226BW out of stock). Lead date is 8/8/07... but will it actually be.

Could one of you guys at Scan check the ETA for the monitor and let me know. If it is too late I may need to cancel my order.

Really wanted it by the end of the week.

Cheers,

Mark