Delayed orders again...

Got the inevitable 'delayed order' e-mail today when I was expecting my delivery.

I placed an order for a couple of bits from E-Buyer last Sunday and the bits arrived yesterday (Wednesday) - within 3 working days. The total postage cost was £2.49.

I placed an order for a Today Only item with Scan on Tuesday and was expecting 'next day' delivery today (Thursday) but got the 'delayed order' e-mail.

The irony within the e-mail is astonishing: "Your order has still been booked for a next working day delivery from the point of despatch and we will send further emails to confirm this". Now, having paid £7 for next day delivery (on a £40 product), how can Scan say this is still next day delivery?

I also notice that a sticky posting about delivery problems from late January is still there. When will these problems be resolved as we are now in late February? Either Scan have stock of items and can provide true next day delivery (as they used to) or they cannot provide next day delivery and should not charge for it. E-Buyer only charge a nominal fee for delivery and usually beat the expected date. So far I have placed five orders with Scan in the last two months and every single order has been delayed.

I have placed three orders with E-Buyer and every single order beat the expected delivery date. My two orders with MicroDirect both beat the expected delivery date. My two Tekheads orders beat the expected delivery dates or were on time. All my Komplett orders have been on time.

Come on Scan, please improve the service or stop charging for next day delivery when it's clearly not going to be next day.

Are the delays still happening? I've put an order in a few hours ago, and really could do with it arriving Monday. :)

At the current moment any orders placed after 12pm today are down for dispatch Monday for Tuesday (as the cut off time was 12pm)

With regard the comments:

Now, having paid £7 for next day delivery (on a £40 product), how can Scan say this is still next day delivery?

The delivery charge is from point of dispatch therefore if we dispatch the items on monday and you get them on tuesday you are still getting the next day delivery service from our couriers which the charge is for.

As previously stated if anyone wishes me to check the status of there orders then please PM me with you name, Invoice number and also delivery postcode..

Taz, I can see you frustrations and I shall be in contact further to discuss these in depth, please can you provide me with name and postcode via PM and I shall be in contact during the course of Monday


Regards.

the attitude of e-tailers lack of responsablity with postage companies is a disgrace.

Scan used to be VERY bad with this "I suggest you take it up with city link" "if your product is late I suggest you take it up with city link" "if you want a refund I suggest you take it up with city link"

From reading....Scan are still very bad at this although they seem keen to improve customer relations which is good.

I feel quite justified in not using scan now for around a year I think.

The etailer that takes responsablity for end to end delivery in my view will take a massive share of the market - quite quickly

Ikonia
We are stating the facts, the delivery is next day from us, i personally have never told a customer to contact city link with any delivery issue and i know most of my collegues haven't also, if there is a problem with someones order then we would contact city link on there behalf unless told otherwise the the customer, we have a good relationship with our courier and issues are often solved very quickly,we take responsability for all our orders what ever or who ever is at fault and that is why we won an award for retailer of the year.

Hi Steve,

thanks for an interesting response. I'm not trying to slate Scan at all, I used to use you guys all the time, but I too am stating facts

If I purchase an item from scan or any other etailer and they say "next day delivery" that means to me next day after I ordered it (unless its late in the day of course) Scan and other etailers should take responsablity from the order from end to end eg: if the order is not delivered next day - scan should compensate the customer or refund the shipping, however I appriciate this is out of your control.

I'd suggest a more blatent statment on your website that next day means "next day after however long it takes to dispatch" I know from personal expereience that the line " not out problem - try city link" and "if you want a refund try city link" etc etc was used on me.

While I have a lot of respect for etailers, I did loose faith and respect from Scan which is why I stopped using you guys. Reading the comments on this board and the trader raitings you certainly do get it right most of the time, but I've never personally been happy with how you delt with bad issues, although reading this forum I've read some excellent responses (how you delt with the stolen hard disk batch was excellent)

I read little into the awards you can get (not just you) because there are so many magazines, and clubs that are dishing out awards left right and center.

your today only items are superb normally and I may try scan again after a year away as I feel gutted on missing out on the today only items, but from my experience a transaction with scan has rarley been a painless experience

iKonia
I understand what you are getting, my response is not meant in an provacative way i am just trying to explain it from a sales persons point of view obviously it is impossible to keep everyone 100% happy if any company says anything different then there are fooling themselves aswell as there customers but to be fair we are honest with our customers as we never 100% garantee deliverys for next day, but im sure that if your were to use scan again then you would realise why we are considered one of the best retailers in the UK, we are always looking for ways to improve our service and will continue to do so from feedback we get from our customers, and i do thankyou for your views.

good response.

Its a pretty good/bold move to have someone from scan speak out on these forums.

I'll be following the comments on scan, and maybe a good today only offer will tempt me back

Perhaps there is an element of "victim of their own success". You only have to look on a site like Romulus 2 to see the top scoring companies whose pre and post sales service never seem to arouse comments such as are in this thread. In defence however, those companies are smaller and - for a lot of mainstream items - noticeably more expensive. You pays your money...

Actually, none of these problems were due to CityLink. The problems were simply the inability of Scan to put the product in a box and have it shipped by the date that they said they would. CityLink have delivered every single order that I have placed with Scan this year by the next working day from when Scan have boxed it up (which itself has usually been several working days after I have placed the order). I wonder if this is down to not having stock? The following intrigues me from the Today Only page:

"Remember when buying or comparing prices - STOCK! Many of our competitors are completely e-tailers only and advertise with crazy prices because they have no stock or show only stock held by their suppliers and thus able to advertise thousands of products. This is a tactic only to get people on their web sites via price comparison websites in the hope you may order something else."

Well, if Scan have stock then why does it invariably take a few working days to put a product in a box? It really cannot be down to the volume of orders being received as this was the excuse used over the Xmas and New Year period. We're now in March! The biggest issue I personally have is that Scan set a high expectation and repeatedly fail to meet that expectation.

It frustrates me having to criticise the service provided by Scan as I've been a customer of theirs for around five years now and, until recently, have received superb service from them.

Taz
Surely you can understand that we basically work on a cue base system, if you order before 1pm then 99% of time it will go that day(Stock Permitting), dont forget that when people get home from work and order online then the order doesnt get seen/dealt with so in the morning we have all the e-orders from the night before so it not just the orders we take in the morning that there is to contend with, we always try to get as much out as possible and will continue to do so - all i would advise is is that people try and get there order before 1pm and the chace are they will get there goods the next day.