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  #11  
Old 5th April 2014, 08:24 AM
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RH Designs RH Designs is offline
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Keeping tabs on stock levels is not as easy as it sounds. I have placed orders for items shown as "in stock" at major distributors only to find the confirmation e-mail says "out of stock" because another order had been processed in the meantime. It's especially difficult for a small supplier who is unlikely to have the automated systems necessary to maintain accurate stock levels because of the large investment required. Not to mention the investment required in the stock itself which often has a shortish shelf life so unless it's a fast-selling item you risk being left with it unsold.

I think sometimes people used to the likes of huge automated concerns such as Amazon expect rather too much from busy small businesses. The OP says he received an e-mail only a day or so after placing the order which I don't personally think is poor service, though I can understand the frustration.
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  #12  
Old 5th April 2014, 09:05 AM
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Martin Aislabie Martin Aislabie is offline
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I have only had positive experiences when dealing with Matt at Ag, right from the very start of the business.

When stuff has been out of stock, I didn't get charged until the items were ready for dispatch - using VISA.

I'm fairly sure PayPal takes the money up from for all transactions - so it would be unfair to hold that one against Ag.

Martin
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  #13  
Old 5th April 2014, 11:06 AM
Richard Gould Richard Gould is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by John King View Post
The matter of some items being out of stock and no mention made on the website, is one very good reason why I will not order on line. Apart from any security risk that may be involved (I know the risk is slight but if they can hack into the Pentagon website commercial ones will be easy).

I always ring up to place my order. If they don't answer, that's their loss I will go elsewhere.

In fact I find Process Supplies in London to be a far easier company to deal with and their prices on some things are a little cheaper than the others that deal with film developers printing papers etc etc.
I also will not order on line for the same reason as John, far to easy to get hacked and lose money, I know as it has happened to me,I phone up, and if I get an awnser then I will order, if not I go elsewhere, this is one of the reasons I stopped ordering from AG, no complaints about their service, but I can never get an answer, I now go to Silverprint, always a quick answer, on their website if something is out of stock it says so, with an ETA of delivery, part orders are sent, you are not charged for out of stock items, and delivery to the Channel Islands is the best around, they charge the same as the mainland UK, less vat, which makes £6.25 the best deal around, and delivery is always within 2 days
Richard
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  #14  
Old 5th April 2014, 01:25 PM
JohnX JohnX is offline
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I've had similar problems with AG recently, but I can only tell you what they told me in the sporadic communications we had over the month it took for my order to arrive.
I've used them a couple of times before and tbf they've been fine, but this last order was not really cricket.

I usually pay by card but on this occasion I used PayPal, which according to them they were having issues with in that orders placed were not added to their system ??, so that was a weeks delay because I'm not the type of person that thinks he ought to spend half his life chasing people about.
So that was that, another week goes by and nothing came so I contacted them again, only to be told they were having trouble with ilfords classic FB and would I take something else, so I chose something else, another week goes by, still nothing so I contacted them again and they said they were waiting for for some 12x16 VC !
A week later I get the complete order.

I understand the way things are with online retailers and I'm quite prepared to cut them slack on delivery times and stock problems, what is really irritating is their lack of communication.
I was never contacted by them using their own initiative, it was always in response to my contact, and I'm too busy with my own stuff to chase them about finding out what they're fannying about at....so that's the end of that.
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  #15  
Old 5th April 2014, 04:05 PM
peterlg peterlg is offline
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From me another vote in praise of AG: fair prices, trustworthy (maybe not always fast but you get it in the end), and very reasonable postage prices. One has to compare with photo shops of which there are very few in my part of the world and the few remaining are often out of stock for what I need, they can't tell me when they'll have restocked, and their prices are close to double of what AG takes!
So do it my way : plan ahead, put your orders in well before you are out of stock and you won't have any problems
Peter
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  #16  
Old 5th April 2014, 04:40 PM
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I've only had one attempt at using Ag as a supplier. I emailed them asking if they could supply some raw chemicals. They didn't bother to reply. I don't bother to use them.

My observation from this forum, and there are quite a few of them if you look, is that they are not good at responding to customer enquiries for whatever reason.
I think they must lose business as a result of this. But that's their problem.
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  #17  
Old 5th April 2014, 05:05 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RH Designs View Post
Keeping tabs on stock levels is not as easy as it sounds. I have placed orders for items shown as "in stock" at major distributors only to find the confirmation e-mail says "out of stock" because another order had been processed in the meantime.
Only possible for this to happen if you have poor software or poor internal systems both of which are fixable. It ain't rocket science as they say. Manual and Sofware stock systems are nothing new. There are plenty of mature software systems out there which can handle it easily. It is always human error either in software writing or more frequently stock handling by the company concerned which includes not implementing systems that do the job.
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  #18  
Old 5th April 2014, 07:36 PM
John King John King is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RH Designs View Post

I think sometimes people used to the likes of huge automated concerns such as Amazon expect rather too much from busy small businesses. The OP says he received an e-mail only a day or so after placing the order which I don't personally think is poor service, though I can understand the frustration.
Actually Richard they do say on their website that they will get back within a couple of hours. That's not next day! I have E Mailed in the past and asked them to contact me, I am still waiting.

Last edited by John King; 5th April 2014 at 07:40 PM.
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  #19  
Old 7th April 2014, 09:40 AM
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Matt5791 Matt5791 is offline
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Hi to you all on FADU.

In defence of ourselves reference the OP - he placed an order on Wednesday which would normally have been dispatched on Thursday for Friday delivery.

We did not have the Adonal (x2) because it is in transit from Germany (it's arriving today). So we sent the customer an email to alert him that the order was pending this arrival. All we can do is communicate the problem, if there is one, as soon as possible - which we did on this occasion. The OP was pretty unreasonable and unpleasant in his response - but we offered to change the Adonal for an alternative (he advised us he was not too bothered about dev type) and ship the order for a guaranteed Saturday delivery (at our expense, it's very expensive to do this) - so he would not disappoint his grandchildren.

But he chose not to have the Saturday delivery. So we refunded him immediately.

I therefore think this is a very unfair thread to post.

Something everyone needs to understand about these specialist products - the margins are pretty small. You would have thought that, being specialist items, the margins would be good, but they are not because of the nature of this industry with lots of big price rises over recent years especially when we try to be very competitive, which I believe we are.

Anyway - I had some web people in last week and I do believe that our systems will improve over the next few months, but it is not as easy as some people think it is. And it's not cheap either!!! (I had a quote for a barcode picking system - £10-£15K)

Please be assured that we are extremely grateful for the continued support of all our customers. I am very aware we need to improve some areas, this will happen, and I do believe we are in a very strong position now with strong foundations for the business (ie: no debt! - even though we managed to absorb another business in the last 18 months)

Matt.

Last edited by Matt5791; 7th April 2014 at 10:05 AM.
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  #20  
Old 7th April 2014, 10:26 AM
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Just to clear a couple of points up here.
When you sent me the email saying my order was PENDING, the was no mention of which of the items were out of stock.

It was only after i sent you two emails, asking for the order to be cancelled and a refund, did you say which items were out of stock.

Not at anytime, did i say that i was not bothered which developer i wanted, i specifically wanted Rodinal, there was never a mention of me accepting a different developer, i asked you for a refund.


DAVID REID woodyd2@gmail.com
4 Apr (3 days ago)

to Ag
Hi Matthew,
Thank you for your reply, but i would rather have the refund please.

Many thanks


This was my reply to you, no mention of accepting a substitute.
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