talkmagic.co.uk

I recently purchased an item from one of the magic suppliers in Britain. It was in stock at the time and still is. This was last Sunday so lets call it Monday as they wouldn't have looked at it till then. I still have not received it. I do a lot of my purchasing over the net as a lot of you do.
Why is it then that other suppliers can get you your goods the next day without paying extra for that luxury or within 2 days.
You would think the people running the shops/warehouses are magicians and they know that when we purchase something we want it yesterday not a week or more down the line.
My question is why can some British based stores supply quick and others cant. I know where I wont be shopping in a hurry again.

Rant over.....

mindpaul wrote:My question is why can some British based stores supply quick and others cant. I know where I wont be shopping in a hurry again.

I think you answered your own question there really.
We go back to the stores that give us the best service.
I prefer to think not that some places don't care about their level of speed / service but that others go above and beyond to provide; and they get my money more than once.

There is the conjecture that some online stores don't have the stock they say they have, and order on demand.

Hocus Pocus has this same habit. I've ordered things from them and they wouldn't tell you if it was in stock or not, So I had to send them a email asking them what the hell is going on (it took them a week before they told me it was out of stock.). The problem I have is that they still take your money and charge you for shipping.. On an item that isn't stock. To me that's incredibly stupid.

Elmwood tends to update their stock a lot and if your order something that goes out of stock that very day, they don't charge you for it.

I noticed this too.

I use Alakazam and the magic shop...all good! And go the extra mile in terms of customer service

well that's funny as it is magic shop that is in question here. I even called them to see where my goods were and they said on Thursday that it had already been dispatched. I still dont have it. Nice loose word that "dispatched" isnt it. What does it really mean? Get off the line?
They even boast a next day free delivery. Hhmmm?

Unfortunaltly it is just not the magic shops.

I am fed up with the number of on line magic shops that advertise something and don't have stock when I order. They should make it clear its to order and we then have a choice what to do.

I asked one dealer straight if they stock everything showing on their site and they said yes. Knowing the size of the dealers stock room I was surprised to receive this answer!

I now phone dealers (I doubt) before I order to check if they have stock which solves the problem of being told, sorry we have sold out the next batch will be in on Friday or whenever.

There is no excuse for this suppliers are making themselves out to be bigger than they are and giving us poor service as well.

I tend to use those that show the number they have in stock, I have never been caught out this way and in today's age they should all be able to do this or at least put the item is not stocked and a lead time.

as of today I still do not have my goods. I phoned magic shop and found out that when they say its been dispatched what that means is it has just left GERMANY. Yes i did say GERMANY. The item is in stock sir in our warehouse in GERMANY. I thought I was buying from magicshop.co.UK. It left there on THURSDAY and our mailing system got it at the weekend. So we are within our 5-7 days that we say it can take, even though they boast a free next day delivery. GERMANY???? whats wrong with a BRITISH warehouse for a BRITISH company. As you can tell I am very happy with the service . NOT.

mindpaul wrote:as of today I still do not have my goods. I phoned magic shop and found out that when they say its been dispatched what that means is it has just left GERMANY. Yes i did say GERMANY. The item is in stock sir in our warehouse in GERMANY. I thought I was buying from magicshop.co.UK. It left there on THURSDAY and our mailing system got it at the weekend. So we are within our 5-7 days that we say it can take, even though they boast a free next day delivery. GERMANY???? whats wrong with a BRITISH warehouse for a BRITISH company. As you can tell I am very happy with the service . NOT.

Is this a brick and mortar shop as well? I bet what happened is this is not a brick and mortar shop or if they are they don't carry a large inventory. In any case this is done to keep overhead down, many a shops do this (in many areas not just magic) and have the item dropped shipped to the customer when needed.

Sounds to me this is an item made in, or created in Germany and the supplier is in Germany and the supplier drop ships upon the magic shops request.

This is not an excuse just a possible explanation. There is absolutly nothing wrong with the practice providing the customer is informed of the actual shipping dates of which you were not.

I would not do business with them again. Because they were not straight forward to begin with. But that is just me.

I must have been lucky with the suppliers I chose and use. I find anything I order seems to arrive next working day. I can't speak to highly of the service you get from Alakazam, Magic Box and Mike Danata. If an item is not in stock the websites tell you so before you finalise your order and next day delivery is almost guaranteed.

If it's not a simple postal delay, then waiting a week might be down to the supplier only doing a post run once a week. It's rather naughty of them to say the product is dispatched, when in fact they've only allocated stock to the order.

Or it might be a case of drop shipping: You order from company A. Company A contacts supplier B with your order. Supplier B sends you the product directly.

Under current economic circumstances, the last thing any firm wants is to pay out for items which aren't selling. On that basis, and to minimise any cash flow, it makes commercial sense to buy a token stock, top up as and when the sales trend indicates it being worthwhile and if sales are slow, only order as and when customers place their orders.

Having said that, there's no excuse for not telling you the realistic delivery time - anything else is taking customer goodwill for granted.

It may not be entirely the supplier's fault. Some years ago an item I ordered, sent promptly by Royal Mail Standard Parcels (i.e. Second Class) took six months to reach me - from the other side of London.

Barry

One famous magic shop I bought from recently took 8 days for the order to arrive. Going home seemed an anticlimax as again repeatedly the postman didn't deliver the goods. So after 5 days I emailed, and two days later the reply was simply along the lines of "sorry, don't know how we missed this one! It'll get posted today"

I was hoping for a freebie (this has happened a few times in the past where there's been a problem), but no....

Was pleased with the purchase, and in fairness it was the cheapest place online for it, still I did miss out on having it earlier.