Delayed Order Notification

[Shameless]

Hi guys, I regularly order from Scan paying full postage cost or Q-collecting when possible and until now have been relatively impressed with scans performance, but of late Ive had a few problems with Scan which I feel I need to get off my chest.

No doubt this will wont go down well with some people who have always been treated well by Scan ( and believe me, it pains me to write this! as Ive recommended scan to dozens of people in the past) but lately ive had problems and have felt like ive been "FOBBED OFF" with excuses time and time again... But the most recent problem I wont grin and bare! I don’t want to contact customer services AGAIN as i know I’m going to be "FOBBED OFF".

Ive recently ordered from scan, purchasing an optical mouse for my notebook... The item arrived perfectly on time, BUT... the item I thought I was ordering was not what was sent! I was sent an OEM version (website did not state that the item was OEM) and the item was a different colour than shown (Again, no indication that the actual colour may vary)... To this i contacted customer support... Only to be told that "Scan sells mostly OEM items and that i should have assumed/expected the item to be OEM"

NICE!

I grinned and bared it, i needed the mouse for a business trip so took the black mouse (should have been silver to match the laptop)

My most recent order... which happens to be a shared order with a friend ( we regularly combine orders to reduce our postage costs) has suffered what scan are calling a "Delayed Order Notification", what is the reason for this? Apparently...

"Due to unexpected volumes in our warehouse" ?????????????????????????????

'Volumes' ... Music Maybe? Hmmm not so sure..., sorry for my sarcasm... but to email a customer at 20:09 the night before an order is due (particularly when ordered 3 days prior) is a little disappointing... why accept the orders? give advance notice an order might be delayed? I’m sure Scan can come up with a excuse... but I’m afraid it will fall on deaf ears (due to unexpected volumes in my ears)

Thanks Scan, it was great while it lasted and wish you all the best for the future...Its a pity our paths wont cross from now on.

[Disturbedguy]

First give them a chance, wait until morning.

They cant say oh yes an order will be delayed, as they have no idea how many orders they will recieve.

SCAN dont make excuses, they tell the truth, why would they lie to customers?

SCAN do state the dates are estimates, they are not set in stone.

And imo, making sarcastic comments isnt needed.

[Saracen]

.....

My most recent order... which happens to be a shared order with a friend ( we regularly combine orders to reduce our postage costs) has suffered what scan are calling a "Delayed Order Notification", what is the reason for this? Apparently...

"Due to unexpected volumes in our warehouse" ?????????????????????????????

'Volumes' ... Music Maybe? Hmmm not so sure..., sorry for my sarcasm... but to email a customer at 20:09 the night before an order is due (particularly when ordered 3 days prior) is a little disappointing... why accept the orders? give advance notice an order might be delayed? I’m sure Scan can come up with a excuse... but I’m afraid it will fall on deaf ears (due to unexpected volumes in my ears) .....

I don't speak for Scan, but as I understand it, most orders go out same day or next day, and are then on a next-day delivery service from CityLink.

So if your order goes in early enough to be picked and shipped that day, but the delivery date is set 3 or 4 days in advance, there will be a reason for that delay, which may well be something like stock being due in or the day it is estimated to be dispatched. And that's where problems can occur, for instance, when either the stock expected doesn't arrive, or has shortfalls, or when orders exceed available stock.

Internet-based order systems can't be entirely realtime. There is a potential for too many people to be hitting the purchase button at the same time. Suppose 20 of an item are due in in a couple of days, and there are already 17 orders. When the system does a stock lookup, it sees 3 available and estimates delivery based on that availability. But before you order, 4 more have been ordered. There's going to be a shortfall.

Complicating that further is that most such stock systems have an anticipated leadtime between ordering from supplier and stock arriving, and a history file which shows typical daily sales levels. Stock systems use that expected sales level to predict how long existing stock will last, and the leadtime then tells the company when to reorder. And, generally, some leeway is built-in. But sometimes, sales are unexpectedly high, stock goes faster than expected and a gap appears between running out of stock and replacement arriving.

The problem is, holding stock is expensive. Most mail-order companies operate on relatively tight margins because it's a highly competitive field, and implicit in that is keeping overheads down by keeping stock levels to the minimum feasible. The result .... sometimes it comes unstuck.

Scan's system works by having stock picking going on, sometimes at least, until 8pm or thereabouts. Once picked and despatched, the couriers will generally hit the next-day delivery target (for that class of service). So if a problem arises due to the above type of issue, it is GOING to be the night before it's due to ship, because that's when the final check (on picking and despatch) occurs, so that's when a delay email is likely to go. It can't go before that if the problem isn't apparent before that.

In other words, while any company will try to keep that kind of thing to a minimum, it's a risk that is implicit in the mail-order model and you run the same risk anywhere .... unless you pick up in person from a shop. And I've certainly had occasions when I've rung (a local shop, not Scan), checked that items are in stock, reserved them, gone to collect only to find that they've been sold, or that the stock system says they're in stock but they aren't on the shelf in the warehouse .... or they are, but not in the right place. Even collecting from a shop in person doesn't guarantee problem avoidance.

[Hicks12]

also they tend to send it @ 12am latest too city link as ive seen. Shows that they do try...... as saracen said keeping stock will potentially cripple a business as it will result in a poor liquidity and with computer hardware changing alot in short times its not wise to keep loads of some things and then have trouble selling it.

Orders get delayed all the time, its life. There is no contract saying you must get it at X day but 30days from when you ordered(unless a pre-order). JUst be patient?.

The OEM thing is a bit bad i agree but try emailing them? tried the forum? it seems a good way to get a better answer imo.

[Shameless]

Saracen I fully appreciate what you are saying, and dont get me wrong... i totally understand that problems arise, but what ticks me off and something i cant forgive is consistant bad service... the two problems ive listed are two of the more serious issues ive had in a long list of failings that in my oppinion scan is responsible for.

I read that scan has been voted best etailer for 4 years running and that means alot... so maybe im just unlucky...

[Carlh]

Shameless.

Please PM me your invoice number and I shall check the status of the order for you.

Also please PM me your invoice number for the previous order regarding the mouse and I shall look into this as well

Regards,

[Chris P]

Shameless

Regarding the "Delayed Order Notification" - The e-mails defines the reason for the delay as "Volume Of Orders", which means exactly that. Our warehouse was experiencing a higher than predicted number of outstanding orders resulting in your order as being delayed. We understand the importance of timely deliveries and we ship as many orders as humanly possible per day.

This is why we "ESTIMATE" our deliveries dates and City Link only guarantee next day delivery from the point of dispatch coupled with the fact we did contact you by e-mail to inform you of the delay.

I am unfortunately out of the office today, however I have arranged for Carl H to contact you to look into your other issue, namely the mouse. If necessary we can amend the description of the mouse and arrange a return if you require.

We are aware our stock control system is not perfect, not that I am saying that this has caused your issue as I have not looked into this myself ( Carl will ). But we are working extremely hard and investing heavily to perfect our systems to reduce the already isolated cases of delayed orders even further.

You also mention other issues as well in addition to the issues already mentioned. Please feel free to highlight these issues with Carl if you wish so we can look into these issues for you.
Its unfortunate if you mean the words "Its a pity our paths wont cross from now on", but I am confident we can can restore you faith in SCAN.

Best Regards

[Shameless]

Just want to let everyone know that Carl from Scan has contacted me today and very kindly offered me free postage for my next order as an act of good will... Guess you guys are right ... their not to bad after all!

Cheers Scan!

[Saracen]

Saracen I fully appreciate what you are saying, and dont get me wrong... i totally understand that problems arise, but what ticks me off and something i cant forgive is consistant bad service... the two problems ive listed are two of the more serious issues ive had in a long list of failings that in my oppinion scan is responsible for.

I read that scan has been voted best etailer for 4 years running and that means alot... so maybe im just unlucky...

That's what surprised me .... if service was consistently bad. Scan, it seems to me, go to considerable lengths to ensure exactly the opposite ..... as in this case, it seems.