Let down by Scan - part 2

I'm really sorry to have to tell another tale of woe with Scan. I have used Scan for over 5 years and have generally been very happy with them. My first order this week contained a damaged item. At least Scan have managed to send me a replacement that I hope to receive tomorrow.

Now, on to the second let-down in the same week. After much discussion on these forums regarding a graphics card, I was loyal enough to take Scan's word that they will usually be the first to stock the GT8800 cards. Hence, I put myself down for a pre-order. I got an email yesterday (Thursday) advising me that the item is now in stock. I immediately ordered the item - it was still showing as in stock at the time that I ordered it.

I expected next day delivery and was a little concerned that it estimated my delivery to be next Monday. No matter, only a few days delay and I can build the rest of my system and plug the card in on Monday. Lo and behold, i've just received the infamous 'Delayed Order Notification' email with no indication of when I can expect delivery.

I fail to understand how Scan can reassure customers that they will have stock of an item, send me an email telling me the item is in stock, display the item as in stock when I order it and then send me a 'Delayed Order Notification'.

So, there we have it. Two out of two orders bodged up in the same week. This standard of service is simply not good enough.

This is one area they really need to get sorted asap. So annoying!!

It's such a shame they can't pluck this fly from the ointment.

To be honest, what's more than likely to have happened is the same as when I was waiting for a Wii. Stock turned up and in the time it took to get told this, they'd sold out.

Only way to avoid this is to give them your money and get placed on the pre-order queue! Stock is *that* limited atm that I don't think there's any other way to be sure.

What I dont understand is why they sent Taz an email to tell him they had stock before they had dispatched my order?

No offence but I have ordered and PAID for an 8800gt over a week ago and its still awaiting stock.

Its just seems to me that if Scan got some into stock they should have dispatched them to everyone that had already ordered/paid one before emailing prospective buyers with adverts!

Rant over.

Sorry Taz....that rant was entirely not aimed at you.

Just itching to build my new system.

to be fair i dont think that anyone can fulfill the back orders... lots of retailers out there have promised dates for 8800gt's but the stock just didnt arrive so they cant ship..

not really the retailers fault.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Etrigan

What I dont understand is why they sent Taz an email to tell him they had stock before they had dispatched my order?

No offence but I have ordered and PAID for an 8800gt over a week ago and its still awaiting stock.

Its just seems to me that if Scan got some into stock they should have dispatched them to everyone that had already ordered/paid one before emailing prospective buyers with adverts!

Rant over.

Sorry Taz....that rant was entirely not aimed at you.

Just itching to build my new system.

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No offense taken! I entirely agree with you. Scan should not have emailed me advising me that the card that I wanted is in stock and can be ordered. They now have my money and I have no graphics card. I had the option to order an 8800GT from several other retailers (or even the new ATi card which I would be more than happy with). I took Scan's email at face value and ordered from them based on my previous positive experiences. It's such a shame that a great retailer like Scan cannot simply have a more robust shopping cart system - one that truly reflects stock levels.

I would like to assure you that our online stock levels are accurate and do reflect real-time the saleable stock levels on our database internally. However, it is possible for stock levels to diminish quickly if there is a huge demand for the same product at any one time. I will try to give you a scenario which should illustrate my point:

Our website shows “in stock” for an item which we have 5 saleable stock for, then 10 people order this product around the same time during the day. The orders all progress chronologically through our systems to the payment stage within a few hours, which is the stage where our database allocates stock or back order stock to invoices. The first 5 customers whose payment is successfully taken are allocated the 5 pieces of stock we have on the shelves and the other 5 would have stock allocated on a back order, in anticipation of new stock arriving in the building. These 5 customers would be emailed with a “delay notification” email later that evening, which will include a lead date for new stock to arrive in from our suppliers.

The stock indicators on the website are there purely as an indicator of what we have physically available at that moment in time. We did have stock at the time when we e-mailed but due to the massive demand stock depleted before your order was processed.

We give our customers correct information, to the highest degree of accuracy possible in such a fast paced and fluctuating environment where stock turnover during the day is massive. I would like to assure you that stock issues of this nature are rare although unfortunately a largely unavoidable hazard when dealing with such unpredictable sales demand. We base our stock levels internally on estimated turnover of stock but if this demand is higher than expected, then out of stock items can occur. However, as we have excellent and efficient connections with many suppliers and distributors across the UK and internationally, we are usually able to replenish our stock very quickly where needed. In this case clearly there has been massive demand for this card resulting in stock diminishing faster than expected...


On a positive note, now your order has been placed on ack order as soon as we receive new stock due November 19h your order will be immediately dispatched.


I hope the information I have given to you is helpful and, of course I truly hope your faith has not been dented beyond repair as we certainly do not wish to lose you as a customer. Our growth and development over the past 20 years has been largely due to return business from long-standing customers, who are all greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time out to email us and please rest assured that your comments have been read, understood and are being acted upon already in the background.

Etrigan

Please can you PM me your invoice number so I can check your order

I would love too but I have no idea how to private message. It says I do not have access to the page?

I only registered on the forums this morning.

"Etrigan, you do not have permission to access this page. This could be due to one of several reasons:

Your user account may not have sufficient privileges to access this page. Are you trying to edit someone else's post, access administrative features or some other privileged system?
If you are trying to post, the administrator may have disabled your account, or it may be awaiting activation. "

I think you need to have a certain number of posts first?

Any idea how many?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChrisP

I would like to assure you that our online stock levels are accurate and do reflect real-time the saleable stock levels on our database internally. However, it is possible for stock levels to diminish quickly if there is a huge demand for the same product at any one time. I will try to give you a scenario which should illustrate my point:

Our website shows “in stock” for an item which we have 5 saleable stock for, then 10 people order this product around the same time during the day. The orders all progress chronologically through our systems to the payment stage within a few hours, which is the stage where our database allocates stock or back order stock to invoices. The first 5 customers whose payment is successfully taken are allocated the 5 pieces of stock we have on the shelves and the other 5 would have stock allocated on a back order, in anticipation of new stock arriving in the building. These 5 customers would be emailed with a “delay notification” email later that evening, which will include a lead date for new stock to arrive in from our suppliers.

The stock indicators on the website are there purely as an indicator of what we have physically available at that moment in time. We did have stock at the time when we e-mailed but due to the massive demand stock depleted before your order was processed.

We give our customers correct information, to the highest degree of accuracy possible in such a fast paced and fluctuating environment where stock turnover during the day is massive. I would like to assure you that stock issues of this nature are rare although unfortunately a largely unavoidable hazard when dealing with such unpredictable sales demand. We base our stock levels internally on estimated turnover of stock but if this demand is higher than expected, then out of stock items can occur. However, as we have excellent and efficient connections with many suppliers and distributors across the UK and internationally, we are usually able to replenish our stock very quickly where needed. In this case clearly there has been massive demand for this card resulting in stock diminishing faster than expected...


On a positive note, now your order has been placed on ack order as soon as we receive new stock due November 19h your order will be immediately dispatched.


I hope the information I have given to you is helpful and, of course I truly hope your faith has not been dented beyond repair as we certainly do not wish to lose you as a customer. Our growth and development over the past 20 years has been largely due to return business from long-standing customers, who are all greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time out to email us and please rest assured that your comments have been read, understood and are being acted upon already in the background.

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Hi Chris. I know you guys have gone out of your way to help me with the issues this week and I very much appreciate that. Despite my issues this week, I will still turn to Scan as the first port of call for new orders. I hope my comments are taken as constructive criticism in areas that Scan needs to improve. It's very important that the service from Scan improves based on feedback from customers.

The quality of service is more important to me than the cost of the items.

Usually you can post the invoice number and the mods will delete it once they have seen it on the forum. I did it a couple of weeks ago although I'm not sure of the security implications.

I think its 25 posts for PM

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Taz

Hi Chris. I know you guys have gone out of your way to help me with the issues this week and I very much appreciate that. Despite my issues this week, I will still turn to Scan as the first port of call for new orders. I hope my comments are taken as constructive criticism in areas that Scan needs to improve. It's very important that the service from Scan improves based on feedback from customers.

The quality of service is more important to me than the cost of the items.

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Taz

We appreciate your feedback and can assure you we do take all comments as constructive, as you say this is how we improve our Business by listening to the feedback from our Customers ... as they say, it's not so much the problem but the way you sort it that counts the most, and this sentiment very much reflects the Scan philosophy!

Etrigan

If you can post your Invoice number please

Thats one thing with Scan, they do listen to their Customers and try to resolve issues that arise. You all know i have moaned on here too, i am only human (Was the last time i checked).

Scan will always be my first choice. Not just because of the superb prices and offers, i.e, Today Only, Carriage Offer, but also because of the excellent representation they have on here with the Guys from Scan who have to put up with our moans and requests, day in, day out!!

At least Scan have the balls to let people come on here and express their views and answer any queries, not like one Online Computer shop, cough cough....OcUK, cough cough.

Keep up the good work Scan.

Sorry ChrisP... been busy.

+edited+

The explaination doesnt add up.....

Taz got an email on 16th saying they were IN stock and he ordered one.

As ChrisP has explained by the time his payment was processed the saleable stock was all gone. But there must have BEEN saleable stock on the 16th yes?

This is assuming saleable means available to be sold and not all stock that comes in despite it being on back order.

So if Scan had enough stock to be sending out emails to encourage people to order then they must have had one of them should have gone out to me before being offered for sale.

I ordered and paid on the 8th.

For clarity...

what I mean to say is this....

If Scan have 50 people who have ordered and paid for a product... and they get 35 in... then they should list on the site that they basically still have ZERO stock available... because to all intents and purposes thats what they have still for sale.


*EDIT*
The website right now says "in stock". If my card isnt shipped tommorrow then its pretty obvious Scan are advertising stock as "in" when in fact its already sold.

I love Scan and therefore I hope me card ships tommorrow!!

Now i'm really confused!

The Scan Web site says that the 512MB XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog XXX is in stock. I have ordered and paid for this card on 15/11/07 but it has not been picked or shipped.

What is going on Scan? This whole episode is incredibly frustrating. I have all the bits for my PC except my graphics card. :(

And now the xfx 8800gt is "out of stock" and awaiting an ETA from the manufacturer.

So...how many did Scan get in today?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Etrigan

And now the xfx 8800gt is "out of stock" and awaiting an ETA from the manufacturer.

So...how many did Scan get in today?

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Yes, that one has gone out of stock. The one that I ordered is still showing as in stock at 21:24:

Computer hardware and software at amazing prices, available online from Scan Computers UK

This is all extremely frustrating as it suggests that Scan have stock of this item, yet my order still hasn't been picked.

seems like Scan needs to fix their system pronto

Or, Taz & Etrigen have ordered different cards, but both are 8800gt based ones - hence the confusion.

No Dave87.

I mean.. yes, in that we have both ordered different cards but the situation is identical for both. I have ordered the XFX 8800gt Alphadog and Taz has ordered the Alphadog XXX.

Both of us have paid and both cards (last night) were shown as "in stock" on the website. Well..rather that say "in stock" should not those cards be in a jiffy bag with our names on them?

No confusion.

Taz,

your order is currently in a queuing system, waiting to be picked by our warehouse staff. We are experiencing a large backlog at the moment due to unexpectedly large volumes but I can assure you that our picking team is working as efficiently as possible to clear through the backlog of orders and your order will be picked and despatched as soon as it possibly can be.

Please check your emails over the next 3-4 hours for confirmation of successful completion and despatch.

Best Regards

Etrigan

I still your invoice number ?

I posted it on the 17th and you edited it out . I do not have enough posts to private message so I will post it again.

Invoice *edited*
Date 08/11/2007 13:49:34

Ah hah

I literally have just received an email saying my card has been picked for dispatch. I now love Scan again and all is well.

Sorry for moaning like a spoiled baby.

Etrigan

My apologies ....

I can confirm your order has been Completed and will ship for delivery tomorrow

:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChrisP

Taz,

your order is currently in a queuing system, waiting to be picked by our warehouse staff. We are experiencing a large backlog at the moment due to unexpectedly large volumes but I can assure you that our picking team is working as efficiently as possible to clear through the backlog of orders and your order will be picked and despatched as soon as it possibly can be.

Please check your emails over the next 3-4 hours for confirmation of successful completion and despatch.

Best Regards

---

Thanks for the info, Chris. I'll wait for the emails.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ChrisP

Taz,

your order is currently in a queuing system, waiting to be picked by our warehouse staff. We are experiencing a large backlog at the moment due to unexpectedly large volumes but I can assure you that our picking team is working as efficiently as possible to clear through the backlog of orders and your order will be picked and despatched as soon as it possibly can be.

Please check your emails over the next 3-4 hours for confirmation of successful completion and despatch.

Best Regards

---

Hi Chris, I waited all day and no emails. :( My order still hasn't been picked. Any idea on what's going on at Scan?