TERRIBLE online service from Noel Leeming

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#1913067 5-Dec-2017 08:53

As much as I hate to say this, the best way to contact a company these days is through their social media platforms. They are much more likely to respond to a public tweet than they are to a private email.

Quinny

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#1913152 5-Dec-2017 10:26

Senecio:

As much as I hate to say this, the best way to contact a company these days is through their social media platforms. They are much more likely to respond to a public tweet than they are to a private email.

Depends. Huawei just feed you "dog dung" or ignore on social media as well. So yeah even that can be impossible to resolve things.

xpd

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#1913197 5-Dec-2017 10:50

If you use social media to make a complaint, I find putting it on multiple platforms tends to get their attention....... Twitter is great because its so public straight away, they cant delete it or deny it, and post the exact same message into the FB page. (Thats if the store your'e dealing with has Twitter/FB obviously). Keep it public until they actually acknowledge the issue and start helping.

XPD^ / DemiseNZ

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BTR

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#1913216 5-Dec-2017 11:07

Senecio:

As much as I hate to say this, the best way to contact a company these days is through their social media platforms. They are much more likely to respond to a public tweet than they are to a private email.

A lot of companies now are making their social media pages so you can only message them and not post publicly anymore.

dafman

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#1913227 5-Dec-2017 11:35

Handsomedan:

Recently decided to pull the trigger on an upgrade of my aging Apple Watch and as the Series 3 is not available in NZ in Stainless Steel (due to it being Cellular-only) I decided to search for a retailer that would have the Series 2 in their old stock and available for immediate purchase.

Found one on the Noel Leeming website - no notes about it being low stock or special order - and it was heavily discounted. Great stuff!

Ordered on Click & Collect and duly waited the prerequisite 1-2 working days for it to arrive in store for me to pick up.

After several days, no notice or info was forthcoming, so I decided to use the contact form on their site (at which point a chat "bot" asked if I wanted to talk about my query).

I proceeded to politely ask if there's an ETA on my order...a long wait (and a prompt from the site that I might want to type something further as it appeared I was inactive) later and my ? was answered with "I'm looking into it".

After 10 minutes of basically silence, I asked for a progress update and got told this: "the item you ordered is on prevent order which means it's unlikely we'll be getting the order in any time soon".

So...not only was the chat bot not a bot, but the lack of timeliness and the responses given were apalling.

And the chat took 20 minutes fro start to finish, with just 3 responses from the "bot". I think if it had been a real bot, it likely would have been quicker.

Needless to say, I got a refund and went to PB Tech (paid slightly more but still discounted and I got what I wanted within half an hour).

TL;DR

Noel Leeming online BAD, PB Tech GOOD.

I had exactly the same poor service from a Noel Leeming on-line purchase. I bought a pair of Sony headphones - also heavily discounted, and no notice of low stock. After several weeks of hearing nothing other than 'order completed' on my account on website, I finally managed to get hold of someone via online chat who eventually advised low stock, expect delivery in about a week. Another two weeks later - nothing, but their Wellington store had stock - so I walked into store and refused to leave until I got my headphones (it took 20 mins in store but I succeeded).

Recently, they had another product I wanted, again heavily discounted. Before purchase, I emailed them to advise me on the stock availability for that particular item. I got back a general email saying that if a product was was not in stock, they would order it in. I didn't bother going ahead with the purchase and am unlikely to use their online service again.

Geektastic

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#1913811 6-Dec-2017 11:42

OK so JB have redeemed themselves to some extent.

I got a phone call from them apologising for the delay, advising that they would send the correct item and courier labels for the return and would include a gift card by way of apology.

So, credit where it's due - the resolution was good, even if the initial response (and the fact that there is no chat or phone to get in touch in real time) was not particularly an appropriate way to do business in 2017.

bmt

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#1914128 6-Dec-2017 21:23

Similar experience with Noel Leeming recently. Bought a laptop in an online only deal, best part of a week later the stock bar started going down and eventually out of stock so was obviously well in stock when I bought.

Did Click and Collect from my local NL (<10 mins away), ordered hadn't progressed after a few days so called up. Turns out the store had none in stock, they have me on hold on and off for about half an hour ringing around Auckland stores to find one. None in the whole city, eventually find one in Lower Hutt.

Takes over a week to ship up, I call again and turns out they sent it to the wrong store in Auckland. I go and pick it up that day.

At the end of the day it's a lot easier to moan about bad service than compliment good service :)

quickymart

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#1914163 6-Dec-2017 22:38

Geektastic:

OK so JB have redeemed themselves to some extent.

I got a phone call from them apologising for the delay, advising that they would send the correct item and courier labels for the return and would include a gift card by way of apology.

So, credit where it's due - the resolution was good, even if the initial response (and the fact that there is no chat or phone to get in touch in real time) was not particularly an appropriate way to do business in 2017.

Did you feed that back to them? If so, what did they say?

CJC

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#1914351 7-Dec-2017 08:44

quickymart:

I guess if you're going in in person to say "hey, this doesn't work" they can't really ignore you, but an e-mail can be fairly easily ignored...

Not sure if it's just our local NL store, but they will.

After checking out some dishwashers in a store near work we purchased one online and arranged for delivery. It was easier than getting back to a store. The store nearest to our home got in contact once it arrived there and it was delivered with no issues. Had it hooked up, but it never completed a single wash without alarming for a leak. The process to diagnose the issue all went fairly well, until we needed to get a replacement. Was told by the online staff to go in store and organise it, it'll be quicker as they have some in stock. The manager of the store (who we were told to go see directly) pretty much waved off my wife to one of his plebs without even saying a word. Bad move mate. She doesn't take that s***. The poor staff member told her to contact the manufacturer ... umm isn't that your job!? Oh it was an online order, go back to the online team then, I have to run away over here. She walked out after that vocally telling everyone near the store how useless they were.

After another call to a more competent call center staff member a new dishwasher was on the way. The delivery guys swapped it over with no fuss and weren't surprised by our experience.

freitasm

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#1914366 7-Dec-2017 09:10

Noel Leeming Featherston St, Wellington. I wanted a Bose part, they had it listed but not in stock. The person asked to send him an email so'd remember to check the stock. I type his email address and he checked. I enter the product name and code copied from his terminal. Pressed SEND in front of him. Never got a reply.

smalltrader

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#1914367 7-Dec-2017 09:12

CJC:

quickymart:

I guess if you're going in in person to say "hey, this doesn't work" they can't really ignore you, but an e-mail can be fairly easily ignored...

Not sure if it's just our local NL store, but they will.

After checking out some dishwashers in a store near work we purchased one online and arranged for delivery. It was easier than getting back to a store. The store nearest to our home got in contact once it arrived there and it was delivered with no issues. Had it hooked up, but it never completed a single wash without alarming for a leak. The process to diagnose the issue all went fairly well, until we needed to get a replacement. Was told by the online staff to go in store and organise it, it'll be quicker as they have some in stock. The manager of the store (who we were told to go see directly) pretty much waved off my wife to one of his plebs without even saying a word. Bad move mate. She doesn't take that s***. The poor staff member told her to contact the manufacturer ... umm isn't that your job!? Oh it was an online order, go back to the online team then, I have to run away over here. She walked out after that vocally telling everyone near the store how useless they were.

After another call to a more competent call center staff member a new dishwasher was on the way. The delivery guys swapped it over with no fuss and weren't surprised by our experience.

We only buy in stock small items at NL physical stores which we have good experience in general.

For large whiteware, we use the NL Online and we also have good experience with the online team. Last year, we bought quite a high end F&P washing from NL Online. It was dead within one week (would not turned on).

Contacted F&P Service and was told it could take up to two weeks to get parts and repair done. I told F&P that is not acceptable as I will be left without a washing machine for two weeks. F&P call center could not offer anything else. I then contacted NL Online and washing machine was replaced immediately. I was pissed off with F&P was NL Online did the right thing.

Yes. It is easier to complain for getting bad service then to offer compliments for getting good service. I did email to NL Online and gave compliments to the staff involved.

tripp

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#1914377 7-Dec-2017 09:35

I think its the whole group of companies (i.e. noels, the warehouse etc) that have bad service for online.

My last one was purchased lego ($250 set) for $99 on red deals a few weeks ago, had to keep click to get it into my cart. 3 hours later was able to get it and paid. It then shows out of stock, next day the price goes back to up to $200 and they have stock again. After a week I call in and they tell me they don't have any and it's on back order (while still for sale on their site). 5 days later i get a email saying they can't get it and refunding. It drops off their site again. Then after emailing them asking why are they selling a product they don't have stock for I get an email explaining how "sales work" being almost 40 I think I already know how sales work. 2 days later it's back on the site again (and included in their email out for xmas gifts) at a higher price. I call in they check their system and showing 3 in stock. The staff member from their online team then rings around the stores etc showing stock but no one can find the 3 they have. Told them then maybe they need to remove it from their site. Still there this morning.

amiga500

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#1914782 7-Dec-2017 17:18

When Dick Smith was in its death throes it was scoring about 1.8 stars out of five for customer satisfaction on the Aussie product review site. (forget its proper name.) However, other companies such as Harvey Norman were not doing much better maybe 2.5 stars out of five.

As for click and collect in NZ do any of these companies have a good enough system in place that matches orders with available stock in real time?

Want a laugh? Smiths City in Ch.ch have a clearance Seagate 1 tb desktop drive marked down to $169.00 from $229.00. Not only is it an outrageous price even at $169.00 it is a really ancient one with a sloping front design.

Amazon is going to demolish some of these 'retailers.'

dickytim

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#1915322 8-Dec-2017 14:29

I had this thread linked from a post where I have advised not to use Dick Smith.

I ordered a monitor from their Trademe store, it arrived with significant damage so I e-mailed them straight away, a few days later no response. I logged with their website, still nothing, after reading this I went to slam them on their facebook page, but found a phone number, called and was cut off 3 times, then selected a sales option, which only took 10 min to get through to. Was then transferred to the support team, another 10 min on hold, when the support person answered they had my e-mails up and in about 30 seconds had the information I need to proceed with getting a replacement.

I am quite frustrated not as much for the damage but for how hard it is to get in contact, only finding a phone number by accident on Facebook, and how slow the response is.

I need the monitor to be able to work from home as I can look after my daughter, as soon as they agree a refund I am off to PB Tech!

muppet

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#1915361 8-Dec-2017 16:08

I've found a great way to remedy these poor customer service interactions, and to get a prompt reply with loads of detail and information.

Rather than contact the retailer to complain, going down that annoying bot-ridden, muppet invested route, I just write up a quick forum post on www.geekzone.co.nz explaining what happened, how I felt, how I'm (usually) never shopping THERE again etc. It can help too if you add the second place you shopped at that didn't have the problem, and add some details about how much better than second place was.

Before you know it, you get a lot of helpful responses from all manner of people, and the situation is resolved.

Has the OP tried that?

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