In praise of customer services.

[papasmurf]

Frankly that's your inability to understand the concept. Screwfix and Toolstation and others work on supplying customers actually doing their part by identifying exactly what they want. If you want to browse and wander (and pay more for the privilege) go to associated activities like B&Q, Homebase, Travis Perkins, Wickes, etc...

Quite, they deliver quickly to where a builder/trades person/Destroy It Yourselfer needs it with out the need to spend hours a day travelling to and from.

(They also seem to issue a trade card to anyone.)

If their website goes down that causes very serious problems not only for them but for customers.

[patman post]

I do it all electronically, because I use Ebay. It's much easier and cheaper that way. My experience is British firms screw up more than the others. I find Screwfix a weird firm. You go and buy something and they want all your information and from you to open an account. Once when i had not got the order number and simply asked the blonde for some M6 screws about so many mm long she didn't have a clue. How ironic that they work for Screwfix and do not know what a bloody screw is.

Frankly that's your inability to understand the concept. Screwfix and Toolstation and others work on supplying customers actually doing their part by identifying exactly what they want. If you want to browse and wander (and pay more for the privilege) go to associated activities like B&Q, Homebase, Travis Perkins, Wickes, etc...

[papasmurf]

It was the first time ordering anything over the internet something has arrived broken to bits, and it was not the fault of the delivery service.

There was no damage to the box. The problem was there was no supporting packaging inside the box.

Mostly when I order something by internet it arrives packaged so well that if you dropped it from 30000 feet without a parachute it would not get damaged.

[Wiggles]

The Ebay email system always works for me, and when dealing with China, I have never known of an instance where I nor my friend who also orders from there, has ever lost out. The general crack is that if it arrives damaged, you send a picture of it and they refund immediately. It's not the same for British firms, where one I was promised a refund about 2 months, and after many reminders I am now being ignored. That's not to say there are some very fine British firms as well, but statistically the record is poor.

I buy and sell using eBay. In my experience the buyers are a much bigger pain the sellers. I sold a quartz watch not long ago, and the idiot who bought  it didn't push the crown in. He put in a returns claim without contacting me first. I told him what he needed to do and asked him to withdraw the claim. He didn't, and it took me nearly two months before eBay would release the funds. I have several other examples as well.

[Baron von Lotsov]

That was not possible in the two instances I had today. The first instance failed when printed out the returns label.

Sending a largish box from West Cornwall to China would have cost more than the item in it, and getting a refund for the item and the postage would be I suspect be difficult.

In the second instance the website was non-functional.

The Ebay email system always works for me, and when dealing with China, I have never known of an instance where I nor my friend who also orders from there, has ever lost out. The general crack is that if it arrives damaged, you send a picture of it and they refund immediately. It's not the same for British firms, where one I was promised a refund about 2 months, and after many reminders I am now being ignored. That's not to say there are some very fine British firms as well, but statistically the record is poor.

[papasmurf]

I do it all electronically,

That was not possible in the two instances I had today. The first instance failed when printed out the returns label.

Sending a largish box from West Cornwall to China would have cost more than the item in it, and getting a refund for the item and the postage would be I suspect be difficult.

In the second instance the website was non-functional.

[Baron von Lotsov]

I do it all electronically, because I use Ebay. It's much easier and cheaper that way. My experience is British firms screw up more than the others. I find Screwfix a weird firm. You go and buy something and they want all your information and from you to open an account. Once when i had not got the order number and simply asked the blonde for some M6 screws about so many mm long she didn't have a clue. How ironic that they work for Screwfix and do not know what a bloody screw is.

[papasmurf]

Today I have had cause to contact two customer services departments by phone, got through quickly in both cases.

In one case, (Amazon,) to complain because something I had ordered was a pile of scrap in the box when I opened it. (Not the fault of the delivery company.) Not only did I get a refund I got twice the amount I had paid.

The second time was  Screwfix who are having major problems on their website at the moment. (I initially phoned customer service to see if they knew that.)

The lady was able to process my order over the phone (luckily the product I wanted was "mirrored" elsewhere on the internet.) Will be delivered Monday no delivery charge.



It made a welcome change to able to get through to two human beings quickly and with no problems.