Not a rant. A vent maybe.

[sacc51]

I very rarely buy anything from Australian sellers. Australian sellers just don't seem to understand what good service is about. Order something, if your lucky they may dispatch it in a few days time, or a courier gets a hold of it and drops a slip in the mailbox saying you can pick it up at their depot, they don't even bother knocking on the door. If you have a problem with an order, tough, they simply don't want to know.

Now if you buy something from China it may take a while to get here, but they do usually dispatch the item straight away. The biggest plus though is their attitude, if it doesn't arrive on time they send another and you end up with two. If it's damaged, take your pick - refund or replacement. Poor quality, no problem -refund. Leave negative feedback and they will bend over backwards to assist. There are some Chinese sellers who have warehouses in Australia, same story, excellent service. I'll be happy to pay an extra 10%, far better than shopping in Australia. The markups by Australian sellers is extraordinary, their argument is they have overheads, shopfronts, warehouses, staff, etc. Someone should enlighten them, the Chinese sellers have the same overheads with the exception, in some cases, of no shopfronts.

[Sawdust Maker]

On the otherhand I just returned an expensive graphics card to an Aussie online PC parts retailer after the card died
They've given me a full refund and have also agreed to pay the return shipping

No 1 son is happy he gets a new video card, probably marginally better than the one that died

[bueller]

Yeah I actually had some great service out of Timbecon this past week. Late Thursday night I bought some panel clamps and a couple of turning tools that were on clearance and had a parcel on my doorstep Friday morning before midday. Unfortunately one of the turning tools was the wrong size and the other was missing altogether, told them about this and they shipped them both out right away and told me to keep the one they sent by mistake. Wound up paying $60 for three unhandled crown cryo turning tools in the end, can't complain about that.

[woodPixel]

Bueller, perhaps return it when next at the store?

Another thing that annoys the HELL out of me is online ordering. Both Carbatec AND Timbecon have online ordering capabilities but no option for local pickup in Perth. So any potential savings I might have made buying with them are out the window because I have to add on shipping. And I know I could just go in an buy it at the counter but that doesn't account for their online only sales and issues with stock not being available in Perth when I need it (a FREQUENT PROBLEM HERE). Other companies will happily take my money and have the stock shipped between branches so I can pick up, if they're out of stock it's either pay for shipping or miss out entirely.

...Even called ahead once, got the A-OK and then arrived to find nothing. Could have had them months ago if I was willing to pay shipping on them, nearly ordered them on sale a few weeks ago but I just couldn't justify paying shipping on something that I know should be available locally. It's infuriating.

Why not order online and specify the store as pickup?

[bueller]

I was more than happy to return but they told me to keep it, they were a clearance item though so I guess they had trouble selling them.

As for ordering online and picking up neither Timbecon nor Carbatec have this for the Perth branches. Thought it was coming for Carbatec when they brought the Perth branch under the national banner last year but it's still listed as coming soon.

[woodPixel]

I was being more obtuse! When asked for the delivery address, literally put thier own!

[bueller]

Ah I hadn't thought of that! Although they'd probably still whack a postage charge on it.

[dwcon1431]

I know this has the potential to turn into another one of "those" threads / posts, but i need to vent.

I ordered a few small tools, in-stock, at a familiar large local&online tool retailer that we all know on Monday. I figured it wasn't unreasonable to expect delivery by Friday / today.

Well I just got an email saying "your items have shipped" this morning. In the meantime, my friend ordered a tool from a retailer in the UK on the same day and he now has his item.

If a local retailer is going to charge more for their products, then they really need to at least focus on adding value through superior service. Shipping items quickly is probably one of the major potential value-adds and sources of competitive advantage that local retailers have vs international online sellers. It can't be that hard, surely.

Now, some if not most Australian retailers are really good, particularly the smaller ones, but this isn't the first time this major retailer has taken a long-time to ship goods and I think it's hurting their business more than they think.

I'm happy to pay a premium to buy local for the same overseas-made item, but not if it means receiving worse service on top of the premium price - I'm then paying more for less.

Ok, rant over. Sorry. Needed to vent.

Sometimes the ' locals ' think they already have you hooked because they are local. However, I'm with you. If you pay a premium for better service, they're obligated to provide it, whether they think have to or not.

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