Glasgow Angling Centre

[IanH]

bigrex1 said:

I ordered and paid for stuff in september last year and recieved it in january!!!

I think that's what may happen to me if they see my whinge

What's attractive though is that they carry such a large range. Of course, it could all be found to be out of stock when they get round to picking the order .......... next January.

[jangala]

I won't be using them again.

I placed an order for flytying supplies about 2 months ago. When I hadn't received it after a week I emailed to find what the delay was. I was astonished when told that dispatch took 10 days! I emailed back cancelling my order. About a week later they still charged my account for the order. They still sent the order to me and it arrived when I was away for a couple of weeks and presumably returned by the post office. I emailed repeatedly to get my money back and never got a reply. I then phoned them up and they said they'd deal with the issue. The very next day they charged another £30 to my account! I then got a parcel from them, which appeared to contain the bulk of my cancelled order as a backorder of out of stock items. I emailed again without getting a response. I'll be phoning them again today to try and sort this out. This is the worst customer service I've ever encountered. What kind of person runs this company?

[Tango51]

I put an online order in with Sportfish, they phoned back within the hour to say they never had the hooks I had ordered in stock. I was not charged for the hooks and they sent the rest of the order that day. Got an envelope from them today, they sent the hooks I had ordered............free of charge. ;D
Excellent service that leaves the likes of GAC in the shade.

[tweed]

I ordered stuff on saturday night. Recieved reply saying my order is being processed. Dont know if its automated reply? Imagine so. Hope it doesnt take too long as part of the order is a birthday gift. Come on GAC prove this thread wrong!

[notanothersage]

I have learnt from experience that if you need some item quickly, irrespective of the shop, it's folly to do so on-line. Even shops that say 'items in stock' on-line do not always mean that! So, phoned GAC to check on stock, told they were in, ordered, no show, phoned....'we are waiting for stock........it really is unacceptable. Last time they will be used. I will do what I've done in the past, phone Sportfish and find out if the item is in stock, the Winforton HQ will tell you stock levels in the shops and how long to get in; proper service. You pay more but get the actual facts.

[birdsnest]

Have used sportfish a lot lately. Every order arrived next day. Brilliant. Have had similar problems with GAC and in fact Mullarkeys hence sportfish. Birdsnest

[IanH]

tweed said:

I ordered stuff on saturday night. Recieved reply saying my order is being processed. Dont know if its automated reply? Imagine so. Hope it doesnt take too long as part of the order is a birthday gift. Come on GAC prove this thread wrong!

Tweed

It's an automated acknowledgement of the order you placed. Doesn't mean they have posted it or even looked at the order.

Ian

[troutline]

Not always an automated response Ian, when we accept an order online the first stage is pending, we manually change the order to processing, when we have checked the details, stock and payment (security) match. Once packed, we click a button to say despatched, maybe the bigger companies do have automated responses but I think it's best to do it manually to save confusion, or if your a business, you could look a bit of an ass if the automated response says despatched, when in fact it's out of stock....?!?

[IanH]

troutline said:

Not always an automated response Ian, when we accept an order online the first stage is pending, we manually change the order to processing, when we have checked the details, stock and payment (security) match. Once packed, we click a button to say despatched, maybe the bigger companies do have automated responses but I think it's best to do it manually to save confusion, or if your a business, you could look a bit of an ass if the automated response says despatched, when in fact it's out of stock....?!?

Troutline

When you say "we", do you mean GAC?

Are you a GAC rep?

The response (I got the same one as tweed) doesn't say dispatched, it says "being processed"

An automated "dispatched" would be pushing it. But an automated "we've received you order" would be quite standard I think.

Ian

[troutline]

I run an online/mail order tackle shop, just supposed that other sites like mine do the same thing mate.

I set all automated responses to "pending" that way if there is an issue with stock, I can give the buyer a chance to change their mind or buy a different equivalent...no association with GAC

[bemaddog]

I used GAC several times over the years and must say that service is spiraling downwards. For the last order placed (2.5 week before a fishing trip, foolish me ) I sent an inquiry after 10 days or so of waiting, asking for a shipping status and got the reply" Well you should have checked our general sales conditions.....your order will not come on time" . Getting baack form my trip, I finally received the order and when opening the package discovered that half of the items were not present...so I e-mailed back and got the single sentence' items are still on backorder, regards'. needless to say I am still waiting.

For FMTC, before placing my order, I e-mailed them to check on availability, waited a week: no response. I e-mailed again: no response. So I went elsewhere after thanking them for their great pre-sale service.

Needless to say that both got a red flag and won't see my credit card again.

The last one I use was Discount Fishing Tackle and I got my stuff within 4 days. Same for most of the order placed either via e-bay or in the USA.

Time to wake up guys! backorder, sales & shipping policies problems are all ok, but some communication enrolling to a PR course would smooth things up. It always costs more to find a new customer than to keep an existing one.

[troutline]

You have to have "conditions", simple as that, I think common sense prevails though, a quick email or a phone call from the place you buy from to explain whats happening normally suffices.

[IanH]

troutline said:

You have to have "conditions", simple as that, I think common sense prevails though, a quick email or a phone call from the place you buy from to explain whats happening normally suffices.

Regardless of conditions of sale. Mail order suicide to take 10 days to pick and dispatch and then not supply half the goods.

You don't get repeat business that way.

Ringing up / emailing to check stock doesn't seem like a reasonable thing to expect of the customer.

Either the shop should indicate it's stock levels when ordering or if it isn't big enough to operate a system like that then it should ring or email the customer to say something is out of stock - and they should do it the next day not in 2 weeks time.

Other companies phone or email if there's a hitch and they get the repeat business.

I've had stuff of GAC before. They have never been great but they have rung me up in the past if there was a problem and they have never taken 10 days to dispatch.

How many customers do they think will place an order with them if it takes 2 weeks to post it? How many years do they think they'll have to wait until lost customers give them a second chance?

[The Bear]

I've had problems with GAC in the past,but recently they have been pretty good .I ordered a reel case in the sale and a Scierra reel case worth £24.99 arrived for the £7.99 i paid ;D.

[troutline]

I did say that a phonecall "from" the place you buy from would/should be adequate..I didnt say that a customer should ring and check stock levels, maybe you misread my post.

In any case GAC seem fine, plenty of regular business and I dont suppose a couple of complaints on a forum will make that much of a difference, maybe if the people who are upset by the service get in touch with GAC again with a copy of this thread, they might be a bit more "understanding"