Hmm potential problem

[HOmERCIdAL]

Hi

Placed an order this morning for delivery tomorrow Sat the 14th. Got email as you do that est. time was Monday, so on the blower I went.

After to speaking to the girl on the phone, she said its guaranteed delivery for Sat and that despite many requests many emails still show this and course I paid the pretty dear rate for such a service.

Now onto my main querry/worry, sorry.

After leaving for work and coming home just after 6pm I noticed an email saying that a particular item, in this case a sharkoon fan was out of stock and gave me 2 options. I tried to phone and you were closed. I left a webnote on the website, no reply.

I REALLY need to know that I am still going to get my order. I am not being funny but whilst I know I am not going to die if I dont get it but my wife and I promised our kids a new computer this weekend after a very difficult time and really this could cause un-necessary agro.

Sorry for the rant but I am just looking for feedback from the scan staff.

My Querry number on the site was OLQ and invoice number was E******

Thanks

[Yosh]

The "Monday Delivery" part in the email is standard, i was told the same when my delivery was upgraded to Saturday for an order i made.

Afaik if an item is out of stock and no contact is made the items will be held for Monday despatch providing you contact them on Monday.

I'm sure someone from Scan will confirm this later for you, but it might be best to think up an excuse now to save aggro from the other half.

[Mossy]

I have arranged for customer services to contact you via mail. Please keep me informed sorry about the delay

Regards

[HOmERCIdAL]

Well Im pretty hacked off I must say.

It was only my 2nd order with scan after a not so great experience with the first.

I emailed your site at 6:30pm last night hoping, since you state that your still sending items out until 8pm that someone would make the arrangement and send my stuff out.

I now have to wait until Tuesday now and I aint going to be in. Also you have taken my money from my account which basically forces me to go ahead with this purchase as a refund would no doubt extend the period I am without said parts

What really feels like a kick in the teeth is that I had the same items listed on a competitor and it was also £20 cheaper. The difference was they didnt stock the Thermalright HSF just a Noctua which is a good also. sigh.

I am as you can guess really disappointed. All the parts were listed as in stock. I even made a phone call to yourselves 30 minutes later and told its guaranteed for Saturday delivery. Unfortunately I was working later that day but real common sense has to play its role when a £6 fan holds up a order of several hundred pounds. Come on

[Koolpc]

This is one thing that 'REALLY' bugs me about Scan. The supposedly 'In Stock' item when you pay and then getting the dreaded email, when the shop is closed, stating the item is out of stock!!

Why can't they get the stock system updated?

I bought an item from CCLonline the other day and it had one in stock. As soon as i pressed order complete that item was automatically assigned to my order. This was confirmed when i talked to them. That is the system Scan should have.

Come on Scan, this side of the business sucks!!

[Mossy]

The customer was emailed at 12pm friday about the stock issue and that we could not send until we changed the item in question. The customer replied after woriking hours as office staff finish at 5.30pm

Scan have tried to inform the customer in good time to arrange a replacement unfortunately we can not change this out of working hours.

[Mossy]

This is one thing that 'REALLY' bugs me about Scan. The supposedly 'In Stock' item when you pay and then getting the dreaded email, when the shop is closed, stating the item is out of stock!!

Why can't they get the stock system updated?

I bought an item from CCLonline the other day and it had one in stock. As soon as i pressed order complete that item was automatically assigned to my order. This was confirmed when i talked to them. That is the system Scan should have.

Come on Scan, this side of the business sucks!!

KOOLPC

How can you say this and why should it bug you?

99% of your orders are PM to me which I make sure go out next day which is a day earlier than you select online? How should this customers issue effect you when you know full well it hasnt?

what is the point of your mail?

Please explain.

Regards

[Koolpc]

So, i am not allowed to put my view across on this issue?

I have been affectd by 'In Order' 'Out of order' items. So, i feel i have a right to put my views across.

Not quite 99% of my orders get PM'd to you Paul. I do PM if it is urgent for me, yes. My orders go out as estimated online anyway. This is not what the thread is about though. The thread is about Scan's outdated stock ordering / allocating system.

It normally works 100% for me but on the occasion it doesn't then that is very annoying!

I was just making a point that it was about time Scan did something about it. We were promised a couple of years ago that with the new Warehouse etc this problem would be rectified. Obviously it hasn't. A better allocation system needs to be implemented.

I for one always praise Scan, especially you Paul. Nothing wrong it postive criticism though.

[Chris P]

Koolpc

Lets start with saying that ANY reatiler shipping thousands of parcel's per day will unfortunately find itself in a position where an order is delayed for:

1) Stock shortages
2) Stock discrepancies for lost products in a large warehouse
3) High Volume of order's

We try to minimise delays as much as possible - In this case it seems that the order could not ship becuase of a stock discrepancy ( Something that I will confirm when I'm in the office on Monday).

We understand how extremely annoying this is for our customer's when an order is delayed as it is for us, we want the order's shipped out the door as quickly as possible as well.

Where you are misguided is when an order goes wrong it's suddenly as if every single order we take is delayed and particular comments such as "Scan's outdated stock ordering / allocating system" spring into life.

The fact is the number of complaints we receive particularly for delayed order's has dropped significantly and we have been lucky enough to see the positive feedback we receive has increased - Too imply that the whole system is out dated becuase an order is delayed is rediculous, especially when the systems we use notified the customer of the problem with the order Friday 12pm.

% 98 of order now ship for next day delivery - This is a FACT, we provide shipping for FREE.....Not forgetting we update our customer's at every stage of the ordering process, in this case we contacted the customer by e-mail during working hours giving plenty of time, informing of the stock problem, even though unfortunate that the customer did not come back to us during working hours to reply, the fact is we contacted the customer to inform of the issue, preciselly to avoid problems such as this!

Koolpc - The warehouse expansions has given us the extra space to part pick all order's. The improvements to our systems has improved the efficiency of our ordering and stock system resulting in the extrmely high number of order's shipping on time and the number of delays minimul.

We know we are NOT perfect and we are always listening to the feedback we receive but unfortunately the feedback you provide and the way it's put accros it's difficult to take seriously when the facts are clearly ignored. I'm not trying to dismiss your opinion simply telling you that massive improvements have been made but it is not possible for iradicate problems from happening completely.

You need to look at the bigger picture and not judge SCAN on a thread by thread basis.

This stock isue will be resolved as soon as possible, if not already and to reiterate we found the issue on Friday and contacted the customer @ 12pm but did not receive a response before close of Business 5 hours later.

The service we provide is improving all the time, we are a Company who has proven itself over the Years by offering good service at a good price more often than not to the satisfaction of our customer's.

We are always working hard in the background to improve SCAN as a whole.!

Best Regards

[Koolpc]

Koolpc

Lets start with saying that ANY reatiler shipping thousands of parcel's per day will unfortunately find itself in a position where an order is delayed for:

1) Stock shortages
2) Stock discrepancies for lost products in a large warehouse
3) High Volume of order's

We try to minimise delays as much as possible - In this case it seems that the order could not ship becuase of a stock discrepancy ( Something that I will confirm when I'm in the office on Monday).

We understand how extremely annoying this is for our customer's when an order is delayed as it is for us, we want the order's shipped out the door as quickly as possible as well.

Where you are misguided is when an order goes wrong it's suddenly as if every single order we take is delayed and particular comments such as "Scan's outdated stock ordering / allocating system" spring into life.

The fact is, which you should understand is the number of complaints we receive particularly for delayed order's has dropped significantly and we have been lucky enough to see the positive feedback we receive has increased - Too imply that the whole system is out dated becuase an order is delayed is rediculous.

% 98 of order now ship for next day delivery - This is a FACT, we provide shipping for FREE.....Not forgetting we update our customer's at every stage of the ordering process, in this case we contacted the customer by e-mail during working hours giving plenty of time, informing of the stock problem, even though unfortunate that the customer did not come back to us during working hours to reply, the fact is we contacted the customer to inform of the issue, preciselly to avoid problems such as this!

Koolpc - The warehouse expansions has given us the extra space to part pick all order's. The improvements to our systems has improved the efficiency of our ordering and stock system resulting in the extrmely high number of order's shipping on time and the number of delays minimul.

We know we are NOT perfect and we are always listening to the feedback we receive but unfortunately the feedback you provide and the way it's put accros it's difficult to take seriously when the facts are clearly ignored. I'm not trying to dismiss your opinion simply telling you that massive improvements have been made but it is not possible for iradicate problems from happening completely.

You need to look at the bigger picture and not judge SCAN on a thread by thread basis.

This stock isue will be resolved as soon as possible, if not already and to reiterate we found the issue on Friday and contacted the customer @ 12pm but did not receive a response before close of Business 5 hours later.

Nice reply.

But, if you look at the problems that customers have with Scan it is always the above one. It comes up again and again.

Its not a matter of looking at the bigger picture and judging SCAN on a thread by thread basis. Scan have only one week link in their chain. That is the Stock / Allocating problem that keeps coming up all the time. Otherwise, Scan are awesome.

[Chris P]

Koolpc

We know this is an area that still need some find tuning .. We are doing this.

Looking at the bigger picture is looking at the number of order's shipped on time compared to the number of delayed order's.

Massive improvements HAVE been made and continue to be made, precicely to improve our service. Massive companies are falling, we are not... Instead we keep investing.

We have the Bond with our Customer's and Suppliers, we launched this forum so our customer's can tell us what they think of our service, we listen to all the feedback, which has helped us to get to the position we are today, which is one of the best etailers in the Business..

I'm going to say it again , %98 of order's now placed with SCAN ship on time... but be assured we are not saying we are perfect and we won't become complacient. It is disheartenig when a thread appears telling us we have failed, we take it on the chin fix the problem and continue to move forward and improve..

[Rebel]

Koolpc

We know this is an area that still need some find tuning .. We are doing this.

Looking at the bigger picture is looking at the number of order's shipped on time compared to the number of delayed order's.

Massive improvements HAVE been made and continue to be made, precicely to improve our service. Massive companies are falling, we are not... Instead we keep investing.

We have the Bond with our Customer's and Suppliers, we launched this forum so our customer's can tell us what they think of our service, we listen to all the feedback, which has helped us to get to the position we are today, which is one of the best etailers in the Business..

I'm going to say it again , %98 of order's now placed with SCAN ship on time... but be assured we are not saying we are perfect and we won't become complacient. It is disheartenig when a thread appears telling us we have failed, we take it on the chin fix the problem and continue to move forward and improve..

Well said, I am a new customer to Scan, but its replies like this that do give me some confidence, at least you are prepared to acknowledge when there is a problem and "take it on the chin", unlike so many others.

[Mossy]

KOOLPC

I understand you like to express your views on things this is not the issue, You mention that if we look at the problems that people are having with Scan being the above issue it would be foolish for us to ignore this which we are not. You have to remember this is a care forum and issues like this will be posted here, as I mentioned above we tried to contact the customer in good time we have no control over the customer replying to us. It would be foolish of you to think that other companys do not have issues with stock the reason you dont read them on other companys care forums is either because its deleted or they simply dont have a forum at all.

Also to back Chris up a high percentage get shipped on time I am sorry if we cant be a perfect as you would expect us to be

Regards

[GoNz0]

im with kool pc on this, its gone on for too long scan, how many times over the past 2 years have i heard the same reply.

ive never had this issue with other large esellers, only the ones working out a small unit or there garden shed, and thats to be expected.

this should have been sorted when you built onto the warehouse, its not good enough and has driven a lot of cutomers away no doubt, this is why your one of my last choices nowdays when it comes to online goods.

[Blackbadger]

As a customer who has on occasions been unfortunately hit by "in stock" when it isn't really issue.

I wish to commend scan for pushing the recently quoted 95% of all orders going out on time to 98%
Before 1 in 20 customers were disappointed, now 1 in 50 a good improvement !

However I think Chris Rock did a perfect sketch on what is half the problem here.
"What we are supposed to do" (NSFW, he is a bit vocal, all light hearted though, I hope it brings a smile).
Basically blowing your own trumpet for things we are supposed to-do isn't really worth bragging about.


Anyway as we all know nothing is perfect, but the problem with the current system is that it takes your money when a item is advertised as being "in stock". If the item is for whatever reason unavailable, you find out when it is too late, and have little options.

So here are some suggestions as a customer I feal would assist to eliminate the frustration caused when items turn out to be unavailable.

Maybe if money was taken when the items are picked. Then customers have a option to either wait, or go elsewhere if they need the item urgently.

Maybe have a option when a item is found to be unavailable, offer a immediate refund (as the money was immediately taken, not make customers wait weeks as it is currently).

Maybe give a option when ordering to dispatch packages on time regardless of missing items. (A option on the order screen, asking the customer for example "If for a unfortunate reason beyond our control we are unable to dispatch your whole order, do you wish to delay it or send what we have?"
Although this is probably a bad idea thinking more.. as you could end up with a cpu and no motherboard... not much use.. Unless you could tag items together.. a bit complex which would probably cause more problems than solve.

[Mossy]

this is why your one of my last choices nowdays when it comes to online goods.

Why because we hit 98% of orders out on time or because you maybe had an issue with one of your orders? What people seem not to be able to grasp on this forum is tha FACT its where people come to vent their issues. So its not unlikely to see more issues than priase.