The Joy's of Internet Shopping

[Lo Scannacristiani]

Recently I have been increasingly annoyed by the state of internet shopping and for paintball equipment in particular. This is not the case for all online paintball stores as some I have dealt with have been top class from start to finish but others have just been appalling.

My problem is the lack of communication from the site you are buying from and you the customer. For example if you walk into a shop pick up an item to buy and take it to the checkout you will be told whether or not that item is in stock. The person behind the till will not take your money and then leave you to wait for god knows how long before you get your product without saying a word. But this happens a lot on the internet. I have now been waiting for two months for a single piece of equipment. I have sent numerous emails and made many phone calls regarding my order and the replies are always ‘it will be with you by the end of the week.’ And it never arrives. It would seem that recently I have had to fight and chase up people to get my orders sent out and this game is beginning to get a boring.

The simple solution here would be for the sites to keep customers informed about what is happing with their orders. Sites could also update there stock lists faster. As I said above my comments do not apply to all sites just a select few but those few are supposed to be the best in the business and if that’s the case then god help us all.

 

[Skeet]

Some sites have barcodes on each product, that way..everytime they take something off a rack, to postout, it gets scanned and bobs your uncle, one less on the system, live stock checking...very useful.

 

[BrutalSy]

Yep i know wot u mean there is 1 i can think of who have never had the stuff in that i have ordered but then again they always call up and explain, but it is annoying wen you order something and then your expecting it and then a few days later they tell you youve gotta wait a couple of weeks for them to get more stock.

 

[KitsuneAndy]

I've always had fairly good service from online shops regarding paintball stuff, some better than others to be honest.

The only time I've ordered something that hasn't been in stock, the shop in question called me about it straight away and sorted out an alternative for me and chucked in a couple of freebies for the trouble.

 

[Lo Scannacristiani]

Originally posted by Skeet
live stock checking...very useful.

Dam right i worked in retail for 3 years and ran a similar low tech system. Worked wonders.

AndyDane - Like you say some sites will go out of their way to insure you get your goods and they keep you well informed. But then there are plenty more out there who are willing to make you wait for your goods without any form of comunication or just tell you what you want to hear on the other end of the phone.

Just out of interets whats the longest anybody has had to wait for there gear to arrive off the net?

 

[blackhawkjac]

to save people the aggrevation of having to wait sometimes a ridiculous amount of time for their items, maybe the online stores should consider not allowing ppl to buy items that are currently out of stock...etc,etc.

 

[PaintballBudgie]

Once bought an Empire barrel kit, 6 backs and 5 fronts.

Discovered that one back had been duplicated and had 2 the smallest bore and non of the most useful.

I rang the store who told me to send one back and they would get a replacement right out to me.

3 weeks later I phoned them and someone had to wait until they got back from the World Cup.

I rang every month initially then every 2 months, then 3 months and finally 18 months later i gave up.

On a seperate point if you think you get poor service from online paintball shops, try getting your boiler fixed by British Gas. They wouldn't know customer service if it bit them on the ass!

 

[Mario]

Customer loyalty is where its at. Whilst you may want the cheapest deals, you might not get the best service.

God bless planet!!

 

[Lo Scannacristiani]

Originally posted by Mario
Customer loyalty is where its at.
God bless planet!!

True and does loyalty not deserve some kind of recognition even if that recognition comes in the form of a simple emial to inform you of the honest status of your order and non of this 'it will be with you by the end of the week' bull.

Budgie - Did you ever get that resolved mate. Thats appalling you woundnt get that in shop so why suffer it online?

I personally believe that some sites out there need to seriously get there act together. How can UK paintball evolve to the same standard as the US if the stores cant meet the demand or in some cases even try to meet it?

 

[John C]

Unfortunately it does not make business sense for the small online reseller to invest in large amounts of stock.

Paintball 'technology' moves so fast something that sells very well one week could be very hard to shift the next week.

The only way to get around this is to have very little in stock, then when you receive an order you get the manufacturer to send the product out.



If paintball gets big enough in europe, we might get an actionvillage style site over here, where not only is everything in stock, but their buying power allows them to undercut everyone else.

Its a while off yet though...




Dam Budgie beat me, my friend was waiting for a pot rocket for 8 month, I thought that was a world record.