SVC = No Communication

[Punk_Munk]

I recently ordered about $100.00 worth of stuff from SVC. I tried to leave a post but I had left a post 2 years ago when I ordered from them and when I updated it, the date that I posted it was not updated so my current review sits some 100 pages at the back of the reviews where no one will ever see it. (whoever works for resellerratings might want to look into changing that)

Anyways....back to the case at hand.

Rather than writing this all over again I will copy the post here:

I have placed an order with SVC on November 30th, 2004. They had initially sent me an (automatic) email stating that they have recieved my order and all of the details that go with that.

After 48 hours I clicked on a link that was in the email that took me to a yahoo page with the details of my order including the order number (if you can belive it the order number is 123456) This page said it would not be updated with any information about the status of my order so besides the order number it is pretty much useless.

I noticed on this page it states to contact them if you do not recieve the tracking numbers within 24 hours. So I sent them an email and waited another 4 days. Still no response so I sent a second email just asking them to at least recognize that the email reached their place of buisness. Still nothing.

I have tried calling but have not been able to get through. I have ordered from them before and it took 8 days to get what I ordered but I got it. I also have friends who usually have no problems when items are in stock. So I know they are a legitimate company.

I am not in a hurry and not worried about getting my package although I feel silly now paying extra for priority mail. I am sure they just ran out of something that I ordered. (none of the products I ordered were indicated "out of stock" when I placed the order).

There are a couple of things that they could work on though that might make customers a little happier...

1. Communicate with the customer & keep the website up to date. It would be nice to know if something was out of stock before I ordered it. This is not a difficult thing to do. I know you state to call your business before you order to check on availability but I called after I ordered and could not get through. It would also be nice if you sent me an email stating that a product was out of stock and maybe give me a chance to cancel the order. Or if there was another problem....let me know. As of right now I have no idea and you are not answering emails.

2. Create an online customer account database. All of the decent stores I have ever ordered from create an account for you so that you can log in and check the status of your order. This would cut down on the amount of work you would have to do responding to thousands of emails. And for security purposes as well. The last thing you need is someone spoofing your email addy and website to collect your customers personal data.

As of right now (December 8th) after 3 emails I still have not heard anything from SVC and will update this post as soon as I do. I am hoping they will respond to this post or at least read this and send me an email. sshanks@cfl.rr.com

Thanks!

I just wanted to let you all know that they finally sent me an email on the 9th stating that one of the items that I ordered was out of stock and that they held my entire order for 9 days without telling me anything. I think this is why you will see mostly good reviews from people who order from them(because the item was in stock) and then very bad reviews from them(from people who order items that are listed in stock but are not and then get thier items shipped to them 2 weeks later)

I think they should send the items they have and let you know about the items that are out of stock and give you the chance to cancel that item.

It is a piss poor way to run a company by taking peoples money and holding it while you wait for an out of stock item (that was listed in stock) to arrive.

They comped me 5$ but that does not make me feel any better about dealing with this company. The worst part is that I actually could have ordered from somewhere else for 2$ more and I would have been done with this project by now.

So if you order from SVC make sure you are in no hurry for your parts or you can try and call them on the phone to check if the parts are in stock(if you can get through) Or just say a little prayer and roll the dice.

-PunkMunk

P.S.> this is a copy of the response I finally got 9 days later to the first email I sent them.

Dear Valued Customer,



Your order has been backlogged due to the Enermax fan controller being backordered, however, we have received our Enermax shipment and your order has already been packaged. Your order will ship today and you will receive your order in roughly 3 business days. Also, we have credited back to your card in the amount of 5 dollars for the delay. We apologize for the inconvenience and we hope you will receive this order in a timely manner. Thank you.



Sincerely,



SVC Customer Service

www.svc.com



-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Shanks [mailto:sshanks@cfl.rr.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 02, 2004 3:54 PM
To: shipping@svc.com
Subject: Order Number: svcompucycle-123456



To whom it may concern,



I placed an order with your company 48 hours ago and the link in your email confirming that the order was received instructed me to send an email if I had not received a tracking number via email within 24 hours after the order was placed. So I am sending this email to request a tracking number if my package has been shipped. If it has not been shipped then an estimate of how long it will take until it is shipped would be nice. Just a reply to this email would be nice.



A Copy of the order number and the date the order was placed is in the bottom half of this email.





Thanks.



-Sean Shanks

[Punk_Munk]

The Email I Sent:

Mr. Weyman,



I will say that I have spent over $6,000 dollars online in the past year in my own business, mostly to do computer upgrades and repairs for customers of mine. I also work as a Technical Coordinator for Orange County Public Schools here in Central Florida as well as part time work for Essential Techworks setting up and breaking down Networking/Audio Visual/Computer Displays at conventions around the country.



Because my personal business is rather small I tend to order parts and pieces one at a time online rather than to keep a rolling inventory. Because of this I will occasionally try out different vendors to get competitive pricing for items that are difficult to find at most stores both online and local. Dependant on how these vendors handle business will increase future purchases from my company. I know from my experience in the business world that the number one “client killer” is a lack of communication.



There are a couple of things that SVC could work on that might make customers a little happier...

1. Communicate with the customer & keep the website up to date. It would be nice to know if something was out of stock before I ordered it. This is not a difficult thing to do. I know you state to call your business before you order to check on availability but I called after I ordered and could not get through. It would also be nice if you sent me an email stating that a product was out of stock and maybe give me a chance to cancel the order or at least the out of stock item from the order. It seems rather senseless to hold up a whole order because one item was out of stock. If there is another problem with my order besides this....let me know. Nine days after I ordered I had no idea why I was not contacted or what the status was on my order.

2. Create an online customer account database. All of the decent stores I have ever ordered from create an account for you so that you can log in and check the status of your order. This would cut down on the amount of work you would have to do responding to thousands of emails. This would not only benefit the customer but would be for security purposes as well. The last thing you need is someone spoofing your email address and website to collect your customer’s personal data.



These are just 2 of the things that you could do to turn your public image from a small time online dealer to a major online superstore.



Until such time that the communication from SVC can be improved I will not be able to order anything from your store for my business. I can not have my customers waiting for over a week with no update as to when their computers will be finished.



If at sometime in the future you do improve the quality of how you handle business at SVC please feel free to inform me and I will try SVC out again and see for myself if purchasing products from your company would benefit mine.



Thank you for your time.



Sincerely,



Sean Shanks.

The Reply:


Dear Mr. Sean Shanks,



I totally agree with you and I am also working to getting to completely redesign the website. I’ve been here for almost a year and I am doing everything in my power to improve our systems. However, due to the current software we are using (in conjunction with Yahoo Store), I need to wait until our owners get an e-commerce add on that I can use to have our store fully hosted with our current software. So you can be sure within the next few months our site will be completely different enabling customer login, online tracking, etc. All the features a “standard” every e-commerce site should have. I am a frequent online shopper myself and I know exactly what we need to change. (Getting the change to happen is the hard part with limited resources.)



And just like your order, our main problem right now is out of stocks. When we started originally, there was no need for inventory. But now, we need to implement one because it’s causing a lot of problems with our customers. I am manually entering the inventory data for various products one by one. I have about 200-300 items tracked so far. You’ll notice it when you try to order and it limits the number you can buy or tells you there is 0 available.



The out of stock problem then translate to significantly more work for the customer service team, which then affects the time it takes them to respond to emails. As for phones, I guessed you called at a bad time. We currently have 4 lines and usually have no problems answering the phone. But you know how it is in any business; it’s either real slow, or really busy. As for your particular order, I have no clue why they took so long to contact you. We normally contact our customer within 24 hours with out of stock emails.



I appreciate your thorough feedback of our services and cannot agree more with you. I will forward your email to our owners to try to expedite funds for creating a new website that should solve all of our problems. We are fully capable of providing service as good as any other reseller. When our new site is up I can guarantee you that service every time you place an order. For now, if you are interested with ordering from SVC, you can email me directly for inventory status of time sensitive orders. I check my emails daily (Mon-Fri) and I check it every hour or so. So you can be sure I will provide you with prompt service. Thank you again for choosing SVC.



Best Regards,

Weyman Kwong

SVC Web Team

www.svc.com