Novatech - lost the plot?

"News@PlusNet" wrote in message
...

Fair enough. It was their attitude that made me decide to stop dealing
with
them, not this (potentially) isolated case.

Seems my experience of Amazon weren't isolated cases either. This report
(http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/retailer/2137/reviews) seems a dead ringer of
what happened to me:

"DO NOT BUY ANYTHING OF THIS RETAILER IF YOU NEED IT DELIVERED QUICK.
Ordered a pc game for my young child which i waited to arrive for 3 MONTHS.
Each time i logged on to track my delivery, the date was put forward, ended
up cancelling the order and instead ordered it from Woolworths website and
it arrived within 3 days. Also no helpfull communication from the company
itself. It would'nt have bothered me so much if it was'nt for my child."

Except I was lucky enough to have mine arrive after 3 months but busted.
And loads of delivery problems.

Bagpuss in boots
wrote:

Personally I think Amazons standards have slipped a bit. ON the mail
order games side, you would usually get the game on release date
(typically a friday). These days its the following Monday. It doesn't
seem much but they used to arrive on the release day or sometimes the
day before.

That's hardly a reflection of their customer service though, is it?
After-sales service is still top-notch, or at least was when I last
had cause to use it a few months ago.

--
iv Paul iv

"News@PlusNet" wrote:

I have dealt with Amazon on at least 20 occasions over the last few years -
mostly for books etc, but recently for electrical stuff as well, and never
had any problem. On the one occasion where a month after sending a friend a
birthday present I realised that it has never actually arrived they
immediately despatched a replacement and grovelled for a few minutes on the
phone. I might have just been lucky, but I somehow don't think that I am
the exception.

I place several orders a month with them in one capacity or another.

Had problems with three orders that I can recall, two of which were
down to the carrier, all of which were dealt with quickly and
efficiently.

The fact they even accept phone calls and proper faxes is quickly
becoming a rarity in this business!

--
iv Paul iv

"News@PlusNet" wrote:

A major hard disk crash meant that I had to order a new one in a rush.

I placed an order with Novatech online last Thursday morning for delivery on
the Friday. I even confirmed over the phone that the item was in stock, and
that it would be with me before the weekend.

It's still not apparent from this or your subsequent posts if the
delay was the fault of Novatech or their carrier, but either way
mistakes happen.

Mail order or online simply isn't appropriate for anything you need
"in a rush". Delivery to any timeframe can not be absolutely
guaranteed, outside walking into a shop and leaving with the goods in
your hands.

Took the day off work, and waited, and waited... etc. 16:45 on Friday I
phone them to check what was happening (Securicor Omega Express website
tracking system was constantly unavailable on both Thursday and Friday). I
was informed that they had no idea where my parcel was, and that since the
courier was closing shop at 17:00, they would chase them on Monday, and then
decide what to do next. When I suggested that this was not what I had in
mind when I paid for a next day delivery ....

Quite probably not but we're all at the mercy of couriers. I'd
suggest it might not be unreasonable to expect a refund of your next
day delivery charge but outside that there's little they could do to
resolve it other than chase the carrier, which Novatech seem quite
happy to do while other mail order organisation often can be arsed to
do even that!

.... I was informed by their CS rep that
if I was going to be rude over the phone then they would not deal with me at
all.

.... which I doubt they would of said had your attitude towards them
not warranted it. There is little or no excuse for rudeness and you
can hardly be surprised if they're unaccommodating if you're unwilling
to deal with them in a reasonable manner.

When I suggested that since the fault was on their part (well, their
courier) they should consider sending a replacement immediately for Saturday
delivery, and sort out their problem with the courier at their own time, I
was told that this was not possible.

I don't know any vendor who would do this. Besides, as you called
them at 16:45 on a Friday it's extremely unlikely they'd be physically
able to get product delivered to you for Saturday AM, assuming they
even hold them in stock.

This was also reiterated to me by their
CS manager. Oh, and I cannot recall the word 'sorry' mentioned even once
during the 20 minute conversation (on which they made around £1.20 profit on
their 0870 number...).

An apology might be warranted but, based on the undertones and your
own apparent admission of rudeness, hardly deserved.

Needless to say that I cancelled my order there and then, and placed it
elsewhere. Despite spending thousands with them over the last few years, I
will not be dealing with them again.

If you're choosing not to do business based on this experience alone
you'd better strike every mail order and online vendor off your list
and start using PC World as your preferred supplier!



--
iv Paul iv

"Paul Hopwood" wrote in message
...
"News@PlusNet" wrote:

A major hard disk crash meant that I had to order a new one in a rush.

I placed an order with Novatech online last Thursday morning for delivery
on
the Friday. I even confirmed over the phone that the item was in stock,
and
that it would be with me before the weekend.

It's still not apparent from this or your subsequent posts if the
delay was the fault of Novatech or their carrier, but either way
mistakes happen.

Agreed - if you read my comments carefully you will notice that I never
accused them of anything but (potentially) making a mistake. However, my
dealing is with Novatech, and not with their chosen courier. If the courier
is at fault they should sort it out with them AFTER they ensured that their
own customer is happy. This is how I treat my customers.

Mail order or online simply isn't appropriate for anything you need
"in a rush". Delivery to any timeframe can not be absolutely
guaranteed, outside walking into a shop and leaving with the goods in
your hands.

Agreed again. I never expected it to be guaranteed, but I did expect them to
make every effort possible to satisfy their customers, which they didn't.

Took the day off work, and waited, and waited... etc. 16:45 on Friday I
phone them to check what was happening (Securicor Omega Express website
tracking system was constantly unavailable on both Thursday and Friday).
I
was informed that they had no idea where my parcel was, and that since
the
courier was closing shop at 17:00, they would chase them on Monday, and
then
decide what to do next. When I suggested that this was not what I had in
mind when I paid for a next day delivery ....

Quite probably not but we're all at the mercy of couriers. I'd
suggest it might not be unreasonable to expect a refund of your next
day delivery charge but outside that there's little they could do to
resolve it other than chase the carrier, which Novatech seem quite
happy to do while other mail order organisation often can be arsed to
do even that!

I agree in part. Novatech's responsibility is to satisfy their customers. If
their chosen courier makes a mistake they should endeavour to first make
their customer happy, and only then sort out the issue with their courier.
This is what Amazon for example do, so it can be done.

.... I was informed by their CS rep that
if I was going to be rude over the phone then they would not deal with me
at
all.

... which I doubt they would of said had your attitude towards them
not warranted it. There is little or no excuse for rudeness and you
can hardly be surprised if they're unaccommodating if you're unwilling
to deal with them in a reasonable manner.

What I wrote in my original message were the exact words that I used. If you
think that that was rude or unreasonable then we will have to agree to
disagree...


When I suggested that since the fault was on their part (well, their
courier) they should consider sending a replacement immediately for
Saturday
delivery, and sort out their problem with the courier at their own time,
I
was told that this was not possible.

I don't know any vendor who would do this. Besides, as you called
them at 16:45 on a Friday it's extremely unlikely they'd be physically
able to get product delivered to you for Saturday AM, assuming they
even hold them in stock.

I called them at 16:45 because that was the first time since I had placed
the order that I managed to access their courier's tracking system. Only
then did I realised that nothing has happened since I had placed the order.
Indeed, perhaps nothing could have been done before Monday, but their
unwillingness to address the problem at all was what p****d me off.


This was also reiterated to me by their
CS manager. Oh, and I cannot recall the word 'sorry' mentioned even once
during the 20 minute conversation (on which they made around £1.20 profit
on
their 0870 number...).

An apology might be warranted but, based on the undertones and your
own apparent admission of rudeness, hardly deserved.

Admission of rudeness???


Needless to say that I cancelled my order there and then, and placed it
elsewhere. Despite spending thousands with them over the last few years,
I
will not be dealing with them again.

If you're choosing not to do business based on this experience alone
you'd better strike every mail order and online vendor off your list
and start using PC World as your preferred supplier!

???

"News@PlusNet" wrote:

It's still not apparent from this or your subsequent posts if the
delay was the fault of Novatech or their carrier, but either way
mistakes happen.

Agreed - if you read my comments carefully you will notice that I never
accused them of anything but (potentially) making a mistake. However, my
dealing is with Novatech, and not with their chosen courier. If the courier
is at fault they should sort it out with them AFTER they ensured that their
own customer is happy. This is how I treat my customers.

I don't disagree; I think the supplier should sort out problems with
their courier, although unfortunately not all vendors see it that way.

As far as I can work out Novatech weren't refusing to help. They
can't be expected to resolve the problem there are then without any
investigation. The fact the goods were probably with the courier so
phone call between the supplier and courier would probably bring about
the quickest resolution. It would be at least reasonable to allow
them to investigate then give them the opportunity to decide how best
to resolve the issue.

Mail order or online simply isn't appropriate for anything you need
"in a rush". Delivery to any timeframe can not be absolutely
guaranteed, outside walking into a shop and leaving with the goods in
your hands.

Agreed again. I never expected it to be guaranteed, but I did expect them to
make every effort possible to satisfy their customers, which they didn't.

I'd expect them to make a reasonable effort, not necessarily "every
effort possible". Had you contacted them earlier I'd of expected more
action but there is probably very little they or the courier could do
at 16:45 on a Friday afternoon.

I agree in part. Novatech's responsibility is to satisfy their customers. If
their chosen courier makes a mistake they should endeavour to first make
their customer happy, and only then sort out the issue with their courier.

Little they can do without first ascertaining the whereabouts of the
consignment though.

This is what Amazon for example do, so it can be done.

They do, but the couple of times I've chased them they have insisted
on waiting a reasonable amount of time to give the carrier opportunity
to deliver and then they have attempted to trace the parcel before
sending a replacement.

I don't know any vendor who would do this. Besides, as you called
them at 16:45 on a Friday it's extremely unlikely they'd be physically
able to get product delivered to you for Saturday AM, assuming they
even hold them in stock.

I called them at 16:45 because that was the first time since I had placed
the order that I managed to access their courier's tracking system.

Fair enough, but hardly Novatech's fault. And you didn't *need* to
wait to access the tracking system before contacting Novatech - as
you've said yourself it's up to them to sort it out, not you.

An apology might be warranted but, based on the undertones and your
own apparent admission of rudeness, hardly deserved.

Admission of rudeness???

I did say apparent... the representative on the phone evidently
thought you were being rude which might suggest you were. I felt the
undertone of your OP to be a little aggressive so if you adopted the
same stance with them it may be you came across as rude.

Could also be that you only came across that way as your posted after
the event while obviously unhappy with the situation or, equally, I
could be misinterpreting the posting. It wasn't an acquisition; only
you and the Novatech employee(s) were parties to the conversation and
in a position to comment on the content and tone.

Needless to say that I cancelled my order there and then, and placed it
elsewhere. Despite spending thousands with them over the last few years,
I
will not be dealing with them again.

If you're choosing not to do business based on this experience alone
you'd better strike every mail order and online vendor off your list
and start using PC World as your preferred supplier!

???

....on the basis their response was good, if not better, than you can
expect from most other mail order/online vendors. The fact you could
even get through to speak to someone at all, let alone at 16:45 on a
Friday, puts them above most of the competition.

If you're unhappy with how they dealt with it then you're probably
going to be disappointed if move suppliers and get a similar problem
unless you confine your buying to the high street.

--
iv Paul iv

On Tue, 21 Sep 2004 19:52:04 +0100, Paul Hopwood
wrote:

Bagpuss in boots
wrote:

Personally I think Amazons standards have slipped a bit. ON the mail
order games side, you would usually get the game on release date
(typically a friday). These days its the following Monday. It doesn't
seem much but they used to arrive on the release day or sometimes the
day before.

That's hardly a reflection of their customer service though, is it?

Well yes, they used to be top notch for shipping on time. Now they are
despatching what would normally turn up on a friday to turn up monday
tuesday. This is for stuff pre-ordered months before, not just the
night before. It is _a_ part of customer service play.com do it fine.
Its just a pitty that amazon have started to slip. I guess its just
that the volume or orders are getting too big for them to ship on
release dates.

After-sales service is still top-notch, or at least was when I last
had cause to use it a few months ago.

I've never had a problem with their after sales though.

Paul Hopwood wrote:
"News@PlusNet" wrote:


It's still not apparent from this or your subsequent posts if the
delay was the fault of Novatech or their carrier, but either way
mistakes happen.


Agreed - if you read my comments carefully you will notice that I never
accused them of anything but (potentially) making a mistake. However, my
dealing is with Novatech, and not with their chosen courier. If the courier
is at fault they should sort it out with them AFTER they ensured that their
own customer is happy. This is how I treat my customers.


I don't disagree; I think the supplier should sort out problems with
their courier, although unfortunately not all vendors see it that way.

As far as I can work out Novatech weren't refusing to help. They
can't be expected to resolve the problem there are then without any
investigation. The fact the goods were probably with the courier so
phone call between the supplier and courier would probably bring about
the quickest resolution. It would be at least reasonable to allow
them to investigate then give them the opportunity to decide how best
to resolve the issue.


Mail order or online simply isn't appropriate for anything you need
"in a rush". Delivery to any timeframe can not be absolutely
guaranteed, outside walking into a shop and leaving with the goods in
your hands.


Agreed again. I never expected it to be guaranteed, but I did expect them to
make every effort possible to satisfy their customers, which they didn't.


I'd expect them to make a reasonable effort, not necessarily "every
effort possible". Had you contacted them earlier I'd of expected more
action but there is probably very little they or the courier could do
at 16:45 on a Friday afternoon.


I agree in part. Novatech's responsibility is to satisfy their customers. If
their chosen courier makes a mistake they should endeavour to first make
their customer happy, and only then sort out the issue with their courier.


Little they can do without first ascertaining the whereabouts of the
consignment though.


This is what Amazon for example do, so it can be done.


They do, but the couple of times I've chased them they have insisted
on waiting a reasonable amount of time to give the carrier opportunity
to deliver and then they have attempted to trace the parcel before
sending a replacement.


I don't know any vendor who would do this. Besides, as you called
them at 16:45 on a Friday it's extremely unlikely they'd be physically
able to get product delivered to you for Saturday AM, assuming they
even hold them in stock.


I called them at 16:45 because that was the first time since I had placed
the order that I managed to access their courier's tracking system.


Fair enough, but hardly Novatech's fault. And you didn't *need* to
wait to access the tracking system before contacting Novatech - as
you've said yourself it's up to them to sort it out, not you.


An apology might be warranted but, based on the undertones and your
own apparent admission of rudeness, hardly deserved.


Admission of rudeness???


I did say apparent... the representative on the phone evidently
thought you were being rude which might suggest you were. I felt the
undertone of your OP to be a little aggressive so if you adopted the
same stance with them it may be you came across as rude.

Could also be that you only came across that way as your posted after
the event while obviously unhappy with the situation or, equally, I
could be misinterpreting the posting. It wasn't an acquisition; only
you and the Novatech employee(s) were parties to the conversation and
in a position to comment on the content and tone.


Needless to say that I cancelled my order there and then, and placed it
elsewhere. Despite spending thousands with them over the last few years,

I

will not be dealing with them again.


If you're choosing not to do business based on this experience alone
you'd better strike every mail order and online vendor off your list
and start using PC World as your preferred supplier!


???


...on the basis their response was good, if not better, than you can
expect from most other mail order/online vendors. The fact you could
even get through to speak to someone at all, let alone at 16:45 on a
Friday, puts them above most of the competition.

If you're unhappy with how they dealt with it then you're probably
going to be disappointed if move suppliers and get a similar problem
unless you confine your buying to the high street.

I live a few blocks from Novatech so naturally I always collect my kit.
I've still had to wait longer then a day or so even when stock has been
plentyful!

But the cheap prices always keep me coming back, plus I hate waiting for
things, easy to run down the road and grab stuff.

--
Payne747
http://www-the-serpent.co.uk

Change 200 to 747 to reply to email.