DSF

JSR wrote:It's a frustrating business when things go wrong and it highlights only too clearly why we, as businesses ourselves, must have alternatives and options in place.

I try to do this but even I found myself running into problems this week. I know it'll take time to get sorted and I wish that I'd arranged an alternative supplier of the product before now so that I could reduce the impact it'll have on my business at this crucial time of the year. It's frustrating, yes, but I half blame myself for not having alternatives in place in this instance. I'm working on that now and hope to have something in place within the week.

You didn't say what your problem was, gstk, but if it's a product problem then maybe someone here could point you in the direction of an alternative supplier which would help alleviate the issue until the supplier in question is able to sort you out.

I do try and have an alternative to most scenearios. The item in question I normally keep a spare. The spare I purchased from elsewhere didnt have the same capacity and we realised in time. We ordered one from this supplier as a failsafe and one from the other supplier. Hoping we would have one. The Parcelforce 24 ended up 48 and when it arrived it was faulty. Fortunately the other one turned up in the post shortly after. I have no problem with the supplier and they do a good job and I will continue using them. I just think over a day to respond is poor - no matter how busy.

gstk wrote:The Parcelforce 24 ended up 48 and when it arrived it was faulty.

That makes things even worse, as I also found out. I ordered items by Parcel Force 24 on a Thursday and they didn't arrive until the following Wednesday. It wasn't until then that I could unpack and then I found the problem - so I was already a full week behind schedule and that just adds to the stress in finding an alternative.

In my case, I used this forum's PM to highlight the problem and I received an initial reply within three hours (at 7pm in the evening). Unfortunately, short of a black stick with white ends and careful use of magic, my issue isn't likely to be solved in a hurry.

I sympathise entirely with your situation. It seems that you did everything you could to reduce potential problems. I can only hope that you get the situation sorted as soon as possible.

I would have followed up with a phone call but it was set to answerphone

The messaging facility only kicks in when the mainline is engaged, it's not set to answerphone purposely, but the phone lines are extremely busy. That's why we have the messaging service and there is another number to call should the mainline be engaged for enquiries

I apologise for my error in putting BMS in my reply, when you had not mentioned them, i obviously read Martins reply.

I could see that your post was written at a time of extreme frustration, seeing that supplier had just made a reply on a post, but i still believe it should have been sorted out by PM before you posted your thread, if they had not reponded to the PM, then fair enough.

The weather has not helped in everything recently - we had an am priority delivery which we had paid over £20 for, after a customer we have been courting for some time, came to us with an impossible order fullfilment time the carrier informed us that our am delivery was not going to happen (at 10am on the morning it should have been delivered as the lorry had been stuck in snow, missing the hub switch over in Leeds, and arriving 48 hours later, in the meantime, we had driven to birmingham (no snow zone) to collect the same items, paying more for then, plus the diesel and lost time, but at least the order went out complete. At the time the supplier was not good at getting back to me at all, which was very frustrating, but i got a call 2 days later, telling me due to the extreme weather their staff had been reduced down to 4 somedays as people had literally not been able to get into work - no wonder they wern't answering the phone.

Martin

Thanks - only just got round to opening delivery - do you want old one back?

Not sure on the mugs taped one on top of other though. Have you run out of boxes?

Tony

Thanks - only just got round to opening delivery - do you want old one back?

Not sure on the mugs taped one on top of other though. Have you run out of boxes?

No you can dispose of/ use to hang Xmas cards up Yes been so busy sending out mugs that mug box outers ran out of stock and our suppliers had to re-order, so out until next week, but whilst it might look strange they should be fine