Is this normal? Re: order with bullion company.

[Silverhunter]

Atkinsons next day dispatch 

[CosmikDebris]

2 minutes ago, Silverhunter said:

Atkinsons next day dispatch 

My first choice...always! To date, £5000+ in orders without a hitch!! (Not all for me )

[WealdenWoodsman]

12 minutes ago, Silverhunter said:

Atkinsons next day dispatch 

And free postage.

[Cornishfarmer]

1 minute ago, WealdenWoodsman said:

And free postage.

Paying for postage in price,    You buy 10 they will make more money from you than 10 individually 

[WealdenWoodsman]

11 minutes ago, Cornishfarmer said:

Paying for postage in price,    You buy 10 they will make more money from you than 10 individually 

Yes but I was referring to there policy of free postage postage on all orders (no matter how small). This is something Chards do not offer.

[Paul]

Any "FREE P&P" offer is factored & tied up in the unit price you pay in checkout.   

[Pete]

Wholly unacceptable from a main seller with a good reputation on this Forum.

If the price has since dropped and you could buy cheaper then I would demand compensation as goodwill or cancel the order.

Sharing the experience with Atkinsons - ordered late yesterday, shipped today, will receive tomorrow.
All communications by email.
Also quite a bit cheaper than HGM for a new gold 1 oz coin compared to used for exactly the same coin.

Got to stay sharp these days and don't assume your once favourite supplier is offering the best deals.

[Silverhunter]

1 hour ago, Cornishfarmer said:

Paying for postage in price,    You buy 10 they will make more money from you than 10 individually 

There is a 6 pound difference per coin  from 1 -10rate  p+p going to be 6 quid?

[Cornishfarmer]

10 minutes ago, Silverhunter said:

There is a 6 pound difference per coin  from 1 -10rate  p+p going to be 6 quid?

Think big postage users can get for about £4.50 but others will know more than me

[Goldmember]

1 hour ago, Pete said:

Wholly unacceptable from a main seller with a good reputation on this Forum.

If the price has since dropped and you could buy cheaper then I would demand compensation as goodwill or cancel the order.
 

 

Yes, I could have bought cheaper several times in the last 10 days.

 

Just took another look at the email I was sent today, not even an apology. They just say that they have to wait to buy secondary market sovereigns off people and that they already have a large order to fill for another customer.

Their website is still showing that the coins are available as it was when I ordered 10 days ago!

[Martlet]

Its not really acceptable from any business, number one rule of customer service is to communicate.  If theres a problem, people want to know what the status is. 

[ChardsCoinandBullionDealer]

Hi, I'm here to listen and to help sort out problems.  

The secondary market sovereigns are coins that we buy from customers. These are our cheapest bullion sovereign (not including the Grade C as these are not the same quality) and are extremely popular. There are times when we have over 500 in stock and times when we experience a delay in fulfilling orders. When placing an order for certain items - these bullion sovereigns in particular - there is a statement in red that says "PLEASE NOTE: YOUR PRODUCT WILL BE SOURCED FROM THE SECONDARY MARKET AND YOU MAY EXPERIENCE A DELAY IN DELIVERY". (Please excuse the capitals, this is how the message appears). The spot price obviously fluctuates and whilst you may have fixed at one price we will honour this whether the price stays the same, goes down or goes up. 

I have asked management if we can put a system in place a better way of keeping in touch with orders that are not fulfilled immediately. Communication between ourselves and our customers is important and we will look into this. We are not open until Monday - excuse the delay in seeing this first post, I was off and have only just seen this. @ Goldmember if you could send me your number by private message I will call you on Monday.. 

[Roy]

Is this normal? Re: order with bullion company.

A personal message @10.30pm on a Friday night? 

[LittleJohnSilver]

1 hour ago, ChardLizzie said:

Hi, I'm here to listen and to help sort out problems.  

The secondary market sovereigns are coins that we buy from customers. These are our cheapest bullion sovereign (not including the Grade C as these are not the same quality) and are extremely popular. There are times when we have over 500 in stock and times when we experience a delay in fulfilling orders. When placing an order for certain items - these bullion sovereigns in particular - there is a statement in red that says "PLEASE NOTE: YOUR PRODUCT WILL BE SOURCED FROM THE SECONDARY MARKET AND YOU MAY EXPERIENCE A DELAY IN DELIVERY". (Please excuse the capitals, this is how the message appears). The spot price obviously fluctuates and whilst you may have fixed at one price we will honour this whether the price stays the same, goes down or goes up. 

I have asked management if we can put a system in place a better way of keeping in touch with orders that are not fulfilled immediately. Communication between ourselves and our customers is important and we will look into this. We are not open until Monday - excuse the delay in seeing this first post, I was off and have only just seen this. @ Goldmember if you could send me your number by private message I will call you on Monday.. 

That response is shocking.

The entire post is full of excuses and non important information a customer quite frankly doesn't give a monkeys about, and is utterly devoid of any empathy, acknowledgement, apology or resolution timescales - just more waiting for the customer. Outside of the military and current employment, I spent many years as a team leader within a major blue chip telecoms company dealing with customer care/resolution on an almost daily basis, and there is no way we would have responded like that. In fact, advisors would have eventually been sacked for behaving in such a manner. Just sayin'.

What that very first line should have read is "Please accept our apologies for the delay in fulfilling your order. Your valued custom is very important to us, and we will begin to rectify this situation immediately".

It then goes on to read:

1 hour ago, ChardLizzie said:

When placing an order for certain items - these bullion sovereigns in particular - there is a statement in red that says "PLEASE NOTE: YOUR PRODUCT WILL BE SOURCED FROM THE SECONDARY MARKET AND YOU MAY EXPERIENCE A DELAY IN DELIVERY".

That above anything else is incredibly belittling to a customer. By posting that "statement" you've basically just accused him of being impatient and wrong in bringing the matter up. Never make your customer feel like the villain.

A business that treats it's customers in such a manner, is a bad business with no clue about customer service.

Based on this example, I'll not be buying from Chards.

[Pipers]

I have bought from Chards, It does say there can be a delay  in sending the coins out. 
I Do not mind waiting for delivery or paying £1 more for delivery. 

I usually phone to make sure everything is ok.   I have always found them very helpful.

[Coincollector]

The website is showing the coins as Available and they are actually out of stock is unacceptable.

[WealdenWoodsman]

11 hours ago, ChardLizzie said:

Hi, I'm here to listen and to help sort out problems.  

The secondary market sovereigns are coins that we buy from customers. These are our cheapest bullion sovereign (not including the Grade C as these are not the same quality) and are extremely popular. There are times when we have over 500 in stock and times when we experience a delay in fulfilling orders. When placing an order for certain items - these bullion sovereigns in particular - there is a statement in red that says "PLEASE NOTE: YOUR PRODUCT WILL BE SOURCED FROM THE SECONDARY MARKET AND YOU MAY EXPERIENCE A DELAY IN DELIVERY". (Please excuse the capitals, this is how the message appears). The spot price obviously fluctuates and whilst you may have fixed at one price we will honour this whether the price stays the same, goes down or goes up. 

I have asked management if we can put a system in place a better way of keeping in touch with orders that are not fulfilled immediately. Communication between ourselves and our customers is important and we will look into this. We are not open until Monday - excuse the delay in seeing this first post, I was off and have only just seen this. @ Goldmember if you could send me your number by private message I will call you on Monday.. 

Seems like you have skirted around an apology. We're not talking about a small order here, £2000 is a lot of money to most people (myself included) and the fact that you have failed to address why there was such a lack of communication is shocking. I could understand a 24hr delay in contact, but 10 days is unacceptable.

I know myself and others were waiting with interest to see how this was handled, at the moment I am not impressed.

 

[AlphaBeast]

I do not understand why you need to ring up to make sure everything is okay?

There was a similar experience with Very, ordered a phone, expected it on the 6th, they even said I would get it on the 6th (website). The 6th came, no phone. I rang up to enquire. They said they were out of stock and wouldn't be available until 16th - I was livid. They apologised at least, all I could was wait. Phone arrived on 9th, surprised, but still disappointed with their delivery schedule.

Would I use them again? Not sure, unless they gave me a great incentive to. Only reason I used them as they had 20% off the phone which other companies were not offering.

Basics of ordering online

- You see that something you want is in stock
- You expect the item to be delivered within a certain and reasonable timeframe (especially if you are paying for delivery)
- You do not get the item within that timeframe (This is when I would call to find out what's going on)
- I'd expect an apology at the very least (and in some case, a compensation for the inconvenience)

If this was GSBE, you lot would be kicking up a fuss! 

And not to mention, take the piss out of Eva!

[Goldmember]

@ChardLizzie PM sent Lizzie.

[sovereignsteve]

 

1 hour ago, WealdenWoodsman said:

I know myself and others were waiting with interest to see how this was handled, at the moment I am not impressed.

Give her a break, it's the weekend and she was off work Friday. They are closed until Monday, at least give her a chance to go in and find out what went wrong.

[WealdenWoodsman]

 

37 minutes ago, MrGeorge said:

What is it wish these arse lickers on this forum ? seriously? You have a guy who’s clearly had horrendously bad customer service, theres not even a argument in it. Then you get a response from the company that a bunch of people like, really I genuinely want to know what there was to like from chards response? It was full of excuses and then goes on to belittle the buyer. So again what did you like about the reply ?

The only reason they have asked to sort this out by phone is because they have been called out on a public forum that is home to a bunch of there customers, i don’t recall the buyer being asked to send his number to have the issue resolved after 10 days of beeing mugged off funny how there so fast to reply when its on a public forum.

I'm sure if it had been another dealer they would not be flocking to there defence. 

Its not the first time someone has had an issue with this company on the forum and as soon as someone raises an issue with their order/service they are hounded into the ground by the 'regulars'. 

 

[WealdenWoodsman]

50 minutes ago, sovereignsteve said:

 

Give her a break, it's the weekend and she was off work Friday. They are closed until Monday, at least give her a chance to go in and find out what went wrong.

You changed your tune from your first post describing it as 'unacceptable', I don't suppose it has anything to do with the company in questions transpiring to be Chards? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what has went wrong here.

[Sovsaver]

1 hour ago, MrGeorge said:

What is it with these arse lickers on this forum ? seriously? You have a guy who’s clearly had horrendously bad customer service, theres not even a argument in it. Then you get a response from the company that a bunch of people like, really I genuinely want to know what there was to like from chards response? It was full of excuses and then goes on to belittle the buyer. So again what did you like about the reply ?

The only reason they have asked to sort this out by phone is because they have been called out on a public forum that is home to a bunch of there customers, i don’t recall the buyer being asked to send his number to have the issue resolved after 10 days of beeing mugged off funny how there so fast to reply when its on a public forum.

Maybe you should ask the OP @Goldmember what he liked about Lizzie’s response?

[sovereignsteve]

19 minutes ago, WealdenWoodsman said:

You changed your tune from your first post describing it as 'unacceptable', I don't suppose it has anything to do with the company in questions transpiring to be Chards? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see what has went wrong here.

I haven't changed my tune at all. I still regard it as unacceptable. I just believe you should give Lizzie a fair chance to look into it. If their response is inadequate, I will be the first to criticise.

I also resent the implication of "arse-licking" and favouritism and nowhere in this thread have I defended them. I realise that all companies can cock-up and it's how they deal with these issues that is their measure. When all the facts are out there, that's when individuals can judge and decide if they want to deal with them in future.

[Cornishfarmer]

I ordered what I considered a good value coin at 11.37am Friday and was here 10am Saturday. So I think that’s great service