Thread: Don't you hate...

I agree, it also gets up my nose when a company advertises free cattledogs and when you fill in the form there's no reply. Just before Xmas I filled in all the details for a Japan Woodworks Cattledog as I wanted several Japanese chisels and SWMBO wanted 3 Japanese knives, no reply so they missed out on about $500 bucks.

When a company is setting up a website. They would try to make it as user friendly as possible. Things like “About us”, “Contact us”, “Product search”, etc.

But a lot of them don’t work. It is because they probably don’t have the resources or knowledge to take advantage of the internet technology.

Try the “contact us” on some websites see if you can get any replies.

Try XXXXX-XXX

I'm so in agreement with you.

I do it quite regularly - ie I point out where they have problems on their website or something like that and I very rarely get a response or even an acknowledgement.

Examples I have done recently:
Selleys - I tried to find out about their new glue durabond. They have a fancy website that allows you to select what you are trying to stick together and tells you the glue they use. They launched durabond in the shops and on the tv but it wasn't on theri website. I tried the "contact us" page on their website and it gave an error. I then trie dthe "link to the orica corporate site" and that errored too. So I sent them an email to the webmaster.
Selleys response: Delivery failure, username is not unique!!
So I emailed webmaster at orica at got the following response: This email address is only checked on a monthly basis. Any urgent enquiries shoul dbe made via the Contacts Us section of the website.
I never heard any more - but they fixed the website not long after.

melbourne.citysearch.com.au
Sent them an email saying their weather reports were a week old (very confusing). They replied and apologised and said they would look into it. Another week went by and now the link to th eweather just doesn't work. It's been like that for a month now.

Westpac
Sent them an email saying that business online wasn't working and I could onl'y access Business Internet Banking. I didn't get a reply so I sent another email saying it again and that I hadnb't got a reply the first time. They acknowledged there was problem with Business Online and told me how to use Buisness Internet Banking.

These are three of Australia's biggest companies: Orica, Telstra and Westpac. If they can't run their websites, they shouldn't try and make them so fancy.

well I was speaking generically, cos I have been having this problem with a few places lately.

However, I am still waiting on a repsonse from XXXXX-XXX that I sent through there 'contact us' link which sends a e-mail to there sales group.

Call me impatient or unreasonable but it wasn't a partularly difficult request and I still don't have a reply after 26 hours. So thats whats starting to get my goat now.

Other places I never heard back from at all. Obviously they don't get my patronage.

I hate the sites that insist that if you want to give them some feedback you have to fill in all of your information - name, street address, phone number, email address - presumably so they can flog it on to someone else.

Mostly the checking programs only check did you put something in the field not whether it makes sense. I suspect that a lot of junk mail goes to 123 None Of Your Business St )

I reckon I have a less than 10% response rate to email requests for product information.

Where supplying details makes sense I always specify that my details are supplied for the purposes of responding to the query and not for other use.

There are companies out there who ARE grateful for your feedback and send lovely responses thanking you for telling them there is a problem.

There are companies who respond promptly and helpfully ( Bluescope Steel take a bow ).

But I agree that there are a lot of companies that wouldn't recognise a sales opportunity if it bit them on the bum.

Originally Posted by jackiew

There are companies who respond promptly and helpfully

I'd nominate Lee Valley as one of the better companies I've dealt with in a long time. While I've only contacted them twice, I got immediate answers and more importantly, the answers were complete and needed no further follow up etc.,

In the few enquiries Ive made to them, Timbecon have been prompt and provided appropriate levels of information. Pity their website is (mostly) not available till early March...

While I sympathise and agree with your gripe, some web sites do really well.

I'm thinking of Mik for one. Rarely have I had to wait more than two hours for a reply from them and it's usually much less than that.

I think that some companies just have a web "presence" so that If someone tries to look them up they don't draw a blank. They don't really "do" ebusiness.

The other one I love is "we'll have to order it it. It'll be here in a week's time"

Pah. I don't expect shops to stock absolutely everything but when I hear this sort of *****, I'm always reminded of Yamaha Pitmans here in Adelaide. All the Yammy bits came from Melbourne except for a supply of popular bits. Recipe for angst? No, because if you ordered the bit before 5 pm (when the Yamaha closed in Melbourne), it was ALWAYS there the next day.

Of course, the sad question is: how did I become so familiar with ordering Yamaha parts? Tis a long, sad story of a couple of motorcycles that proved that buying cheap isn't always the cheap option.

Cheers
Richard

Two months ago I sent an email enquiry to Leda in Adelaide about their tablesaws and a follow up email 4 weekls later. Still waiting for any reply from them. :mad:

Needless to say they missed out.


Peter.

Try ANZ Bank, they have a contact us to tell us how great we are, it works, gripe site, page unavailable.
I sent a grizzle to the pat on the back page advising that the Ombudsman was becoming involved in a matter of a few seconds (they failed to put about $20k in my account as it would take 5 days to clear, the deposit was cash) and I had a response by phone in a matter of minutes.
My cash turned up but I wrote to the Ombudsman anyway.
Most US companies are good and Northern Machinery (I think, they sell Avenger gear and the Grrripper) in Brisbane must work around the clock as I have had responses in a matter of minutes, even on a Sunday when I have sent emails not expecting results until MOnday.

Originally Posted by craigb

I'm thinking of Mik for one. Rarely have I had to wait more than two hours for a reply from them and it's usually much less than that.

I wonder why I am still waiting for a reply to a pricing request for LV smoother plane that I sent over two weeks ago.

I have given up and will go directly to LV. You try and do the right thing, but .........

Cheers

Originally Posted by Daddles

Of course, the sad question is: how did I become so familiar with ordering Yamaha parts? Tis a long, sad story of a couple of motorcycles that proved that buying cheap isn't always the cheap option.

Cheers
Richard

LMAO here, Richard it's not just the cheap ones either, every Yamahahahahaha I've ever owned,(SRX, FZR, IT's, YZ's, Xt's, TT and my personal moby dick, the Kenny Roberts rep RZ500) whether new, secondhand, rebuilt, whatever, has blown up most spectacular (read lotsa $$$$$$) fashion all over the countryside. Which is why I am no longer a big fan of the tuning forks brand.

Originally Posted by numbat

I wonder why I am still waiting for a reply to a pricing request for LV smoother plane that I sent over two weeks ago.

I have given up and will go directly to LV. You try and do the right thing, but .........

Cheers

Have you tried emailing them again?

I can only speak from my experience but I've never had a problem with them.

In any case, maybe you should let them know that your query hadn't been addressed. They seem to a customer focused lot normally.