medders

Well, I thought i'd give them a second go after their last poor customer service.
Things may have improved along with their new website.

One of the bulbs in my Cibie Oscar SC driving lights has gone. Thought I'd give them a ring to see what type of bulb I should use in case its a special one. Bearing in mind they come with the set.

me: ive got blah blah, bulb has gone.....do you know what sort of bulb they use.

sm: No

pause

sm: we just sell the kits.

me: thanks for your help

Twice bitten, won't be going back there again.

You may have a nice new website, but you're customer skills are sh1te.

Paul

CraigH

Could you not just have taken the bulb out and looked for yourself?

Not rocket science is it?

Mike Tuckwood

Not all of our staff have the depth of knowledge down to individual bulb level. (including me).

We are a small company with a HUGE (and still growing) range of product, you will see from our new site that we don't sell bulbs, so it's not a question we get asked a lot.
Sorry you weren't helped on the spot. <pun intended> ;-)

They are (from memory) H1 100W bulbs.

medders

craigh - I have now. Thats not the point of my post. Thanks for your input nonetheless. I hadnt thought of that.

Mike - Thanks for your reply. I'm glad the boss is bothered to look here.

My complaint wasn't really with the fact that you didn't know what bulb it is (I doubt it was you I spoke to, so "you" refers to SM). It blew on the way to work, and I thought "I can't take my lamp off in the car park at work in my suit to see what type of bulb it is, so I'll quickly see if I could phone the helpful staff at SM, as they'll probably know and then i can order one from them maybe"

The response and tone of reply I got from the chap who answered the phone was basically "i'm not in the slightest bit interested in speaking to you" - or at least thats the impression I got.
I'm sure he could've found out easily for me or maybe told me where to look - I searched the net to no avail.

This reinforced my first experiences with your staff when I bought the lamps.
I ordered the lamps over the phone. It took many, many weeks for them to come. Fair enough if theres a problem, but all I kept being told was "They'll be here on Monday" or "They're expected in any moment" for over 8 weeks.
If theres a problem, fine. Tell me. I'm reasonable. Don't fob me off with some uninterested excuse.

If you're happy with the response i got then thats fine.

Which reminds me i also emailed you site with a question regarding lamp covers, but that wasn't replied to either.

You've probably got loads of happy customers. I'm probably just being difficult expecting this level of after sales service.
But I do expect this and thats why i'm posting. If everyone else thinks its fine then great. I'm not happy with your service on 3 occasions and I've said my bit.
If you think I've got a point then you'll maybe do something about it, in which case my doing this will help your business (imo of course)
At the end of the day, I am a customer who's contacted you 3 times, and each time has come away unhappy with the experience.
If you don't think I've got a reason to grumble then fine.

Not a personal attack at you Mike and thanks again for reading and bothering to mail me which makes me think you do care what people think.

Regards

Paul

medders

And thanks for finding out for me

AJT

Paul - good to see some constructive 'un-emotional' critisism. Just goes to show we can all have our say without things turning into a slanging match (which is all too common on SN these days).

Unfortunate that you can't get the human touch without the human failings to go with it !

Alex

Mike Tuckwood

I (as you now know) am concerned, but it can be a long journey when there are staff involved.

As I've said direct, we all have off days and learning is a curve, and we're all somewhere on that curve.

We receive around 80 phone calls a day and around 100+ e mails, sometimes we miss a few, sometimes we're trying to do multiple things at once, sometimes we don't even get a chance to pick up or read the mail (so that's 160 to deal with the next day).

No excuses, but you can't avoid the 'human factor'.
Criticism is fine, it helps me/us look at what we're doing overall and that's where improvements will come from.

Mike.

Charlie H

Just want to say thanks to them for sorting out a sump plug for my oil temp gauge. Rang them tuesday pm to enquire, got the info I needed straight away and it was in my letterbox wednesday am. Found them very helpful but as Mike says, every enquiry is different and it's always hard when staff are involved.

DAVE-W

Well my AFR gauge didn't arrive today as promised so lets see what happens tomorrow...........

I actually mean today cos its gone midnight

Dave

[Edited by DAVE-W - 3/22/2003 12:13:16 AM]

medders

Let us know what happens dave......

Interesting to see this, what with janne248's post as well now.

DAVE-W

Didn't arrive Saturday either but a phone call promised that they will send it out on Monday for Tuesday delivery.

Me thinks I will call them again on Monday....that'll be today then

Dave

medders

LOL - I remember this soooo well. They'll be sent out monday ! The trick is they dont say WHICH Monday !

Sorry - shouldn't laugh - I of all people know how annoying it is to be lied to.

Hope they come soon !

Paul

Mike Tuckwood

Hmm, "lied" is a rather strong word, we are very busy and do our best to get stuff out immediatley. We manage this most of the time but not all the time, I really hope that does not make us "liars", overly optimistic maybe?

We send out literally hundreds of orders per week, and we are looking into these to find out what has caused the hold-ups.

With regard to some of the extended delays, these are (usually) caused by our suppliers on the other side of the world for which we also apologise.

Mike.

medders

Mike, you seem to have a problem associating what the customer *thinks* and your side of things.

If someone rings up and is promised that an item will be delivered and then isn't, we think you're taking the p1ss.
There may be 101 reasons why the stuff doesn't arrive. Thats fair enough. If you cant rely on your suppliers / deliverers and god knows who else may be in the loop, why do your staff promise things you cant deliver ?

People will be a little more understanding if you were to be honest perhaps ?

Lie is possibly a strong word. Is mislead or misinform better?

Mike, you seem to be offering constant excuses as to why you are not delivering the service your staff promise on the phone.

The fact of the matter is people are getting fed up with the service they are receiving......

If your staff tell me something will arrive on a day and it doesn't and when I ring up wont tell me why, just another delivery date what am I supposed to think?

I have no doubt that the problems people are encountering are someone elses fault, but at the end of the day you are providing the service, and if you dont say any different to the customer, it's you're company thats going to get the flak. Everyday people dont know how your company works and dont care. They treat you like a shop where you go in, buy a product, and it arrives, especially as payment details are taken at the time.

unfair probably, but you're not doing anything to help (bar this thread)

Paul

Mike Tuckwood

OK, I understand your point as clearly now as I did initially, and my replies have not been as a defence, I have offered reasons for delays (which I see as different from excuses).

I have not said it's acceptable or that we are doing nothing other than replying in this thread. Lets keep things in perspective though, there are a few out of hundreds (if not thousands) of customers who have not been dealt with expediantly (regardless of the reasons for that).

The big delays are usually supplier faults, others are ours.

Each one of those is being pursued and I have had everybody in early to try to catch up with the backlog of orders/queries.

Mike.

[Edited by Mike Tuckwood - 3/24/2003 11:11:37 AM]

DAVE-W

Well my afr gauge arrived today which I guess is better than Tuesday .

I can only think that it was either sent out on Friday (the day it was supposed to be delivered) or on Saturday AFTER my phone call.

Can't say I wasn't dissapointed that I couldn't fit my new gadgets over the weekend but it's here now and I've not had a MAJOR delay.

Not sure if it was you I spoke to on Saturday morning Mike....if it was then obviously you did stand by your word and got the gauge out to me ASAP....thank you

I trust that I'll get free postage and packing on my next order as compensation

I CAN see it from Mike's point of view....I miss deadlines myself at least once a week in the office

Dave

janne248

Sooory for borrowing this thread for a while!
Mike, you say that you have problem with you sub-suppliers and I can understand that. It is a fair reason to deliver later then said over the phone. But I cannot understand how the staff at SM can say the suff is in stock and that it will be shipped during the week. But in the end it is not shipped at all?
Example two a friend of mine have tried since June 2002, to buy a couple of boost gagues and pods, still no delivery. Before you run away and check what have happend let me inform you that the order was cancelled last week.
I'm sorry to say but you are loosing customers. I for one will never try to buy anthing from SM again. Ok, loosing me as acustomer might not be so big deal, but as we say in Sweden..."Mean small creeks......."
//Jan-Erik

Gridlock Mikey

Mike actually missed sending out your orders because I went to him with a trivial thing (Just turned up) and he got his staff to look at the car there and then (Not for the first time). Now I doubt for a second that i'm the only person who gets treated like this.
Instances of on the spot help:
1) Clear lenses were fitted FOC while I had a brew. Not a big deal I know but when was the last time you saw YOUR MD doing something with a customer.
2) Boost problem, spent nearly an Hour on it. Sorted. FOC
3) Back box hanging off (See other threads, there's crap service I tell ya) Mike pulled a mechanic off a Engine job and fitted me backbox. I didn't even buy the back box from him! (Chiarks old one ) again FOC.
All in all, I consider that Excellent Service over the last 2.5 years.

Mikey

medders

That makes everyone else feel much better Mikey, thanks for that

Gridlock Mikey

My pleasure

Just incase sarcasm was intended (Hard to tell via PC's) There's ALOT more to running a business than making sure medders is always ok. Have you considered that maybe the reason the standard of service (In your opinion) was poor was little to do with Scoobymania?
Read into that what you will, but I'm sure the way you have dealt with this won't help YOU in the future.
If sarcasm was NOT intended then ignore the above

Mikey

Mike Tuckwood

Dave.

Glad you got your gauge OK. It was Sean that you spoke to on Saturday, it was sent out on the 21st (Friday), there is no Royal mail collection on a Saturday.


Jan-Erik.
You're correct, there is no plausible reason as to why an item that we keep in stock shouldn't have come straight out to you, I'm sorry that you were let down in this instance.

I hope that I'm looking at all of these issues in the manner that they deserve, it is the small things that make a difference and we will continue to look at these things and take pre-emptive action where possible.


Mike.

medders

Gridlock, read my posts more carefully. I haven't said that all the problems are down to SM. I have in fact said the opposite. What I have said (just to repeat myself ) Is the way the staff treat the customer knowing full well that the stuff isn't in stock.

Do you not agree with compaining if you dont get good service ?
You're defending your mate, fair enough. Why shouldn't I complain ?
Why won't it help ME in the future ? I won't shop at SM again. I've already gone elsewhere and received the level of service I expect.

Don't want to start a slanging match here Mikley but I'm entitled to my opinion and will post my feelings on this board

Your happy, I'm not, end of story.

This thread was dropping nicely. I'm sure Mike will thank you for pushing it back to the top

Kippax

branko at BRD has a 'different' telephone manner but if he's "putting it in the post", he's "putting it in the post". a very professional service.