Your experience with Big W's Devastator offering so far?

[Stug]

Mentioned this elsewhere; my wife got one first day.

I went past the CBD store as it opened but was told they weren't receiving any stock at all (and in fairness, they were listed as not getting any on the website).

My wife was at Brookside later in the day and asked there for me. She was told they sold out just after opening but when looking in the pre-school section found one hidden there behind other toys and grabbed it.

As my wife said, it looks like their state of the art paper based inventory management system wasn't working.

[jazzcomp]

Mentioned this elsewhere; my wife got one first day.

I went past the CBD store as it opened but was told they weren't receiving any stock at all (and in fairness, they were listed as not getting any on the website).

My wife was at Brookside later in the day and asked there for me. She was told they sold out just after opening but when looking in the pre-school section found one hidden there behind other toys and grabbed it.

As my wife said, it looks like their state of the art paper based inventory management system wasn't working.

She's legendary to have found it

[Ultra Mackness]

My experience sounds a lot like others here. The staff seem to have two default lines:

1) Oh, our store didn't receive any stock. Perhaps try again later in the week or early next week - you could try ringing up first. Sorry, what was that? No there won't be any stock out the back.

2.) Oh, we sold out of that item in the first ten minutes, it was very popular! Perhaps try again later in the week or early next week...(finishes same as first line).

And if one doesn't work try the other. If both don't work, plead ignorance and put customer on hold or go for extended tea break!

You get the picture! Sounds like lots of people have experienced the same picture!

After ringing the first couple of stores I gave up on actually finding Devy, and instead just asked as an experiment. I got the same reaction at all 5 of the stores I called - and I was even using my "nice" phone voice!

[Maruten]

It really depends on the individual staff. Usually you get the dudes who just don't care, or somehow aren't smart enough to figure anything out.

I arrived at my local store at 8:15, thinking they were opening at 8:30 as normal rather than 7:00 (you people with your midnight openings!). Checked the shelves, nothing; asked on the way out and was told "sold out in ten minutes."

So I left the store ready to trek to the others. But before I was out of the shopping centre, one of the Big W guys caught up to me. He had rung around the other stores, found the one that still had stock, asked them to hold one for me, and literally run out of the store to catch me before I was gone. So that was cool.

[5FDP]

Surely people aren't surprised by Big W's customer service or lack thereof. Sale or no, the most common response I receive is "If it's not on the shelves we've sold out". They just can't be arsed even looking.

Instead of constantly whinging that people are buying online, maybe the big retailers need to take a good hard look at themselves. I'd prefer to spend the extra dollars to Aussie businesses if they knew what the heck they were talking about. Instead, I'll continue to buy online - door to door delivery without the attitude.

For the most part, online retailers also know how much stock they have on hand so there's no guess work. Why do bricks and mortar stores find it so hard. Perhaps they are using a paper-based inventory system. Time to wake up.

[GoktimusPrime]

So true, 5FDP. The one edge that retailers still offer over online shopping is personal customer service, yet it's Incredulous that they're not capitalising more on this.

[prjkt]

Most big box stores don't even let staff access their inventory, allow them to check if something's on order, or even show floor staff how to look for things in the stockroom. You've really got to speak to a manager, preferably a fulltime, not duty/shift manager, to get a decent answer.

[Zechariah]

My relentless detective work and ultimately ringing night staff unloading stock who said there is only 2 and having them put mine aside for collection at door opening 8am on sale day. There was meant to be 16 yet I got the only one that day. I am pretty sure I was also first to post a picture or maybe second remember 9 said no to reserving item yet 1 come through.

[Jetfire in the sky]

So true, 5FDP. The one edge that retailers still offer over online shopping is personal customer service, yet it's Incredulous that they're not capitalising more on this.

As the saying goes............if you pay peanuts...........

My Big Dub customer service has ranged from a one to an eight of 10 in these last couple of weeks, despite them wearing minion shirts and pumping up the toy domination sale with plenty of in store advertising most seemed pretty nonchalant about it.
Heck, today I received an e-mail alert about the sale saying there are only a few days to go, and guess which toy was front and centre? Yep, the big green and purple thing for $198, it seems even the head shed has no idea what's going on.

[BigTransformerTrev]

I did put a bit of this story briefly in another thread a week ago but I'll tell the saga here since it's more pertinent to this thread

No Big W in Swan Hill so got a pal to check in Bendigo and my niece to check in Echuca. Both came up empty handed.

Thursday night decided to give Bathurst a call since we would be driving there the following week. Guy said he couldn't see any but admitted to not knowing what they were. I explained they were in the catalog and he went "Oh, think I've seen'em. Hang on" A few minutes later "Oh yeah, we got four but 3 were reserved so we never put them on the shelves. We've got one left sitting here in the office". When I asked if he could put it aside for me he explained that he could only hold it until the morning and it was best to pick it up that night since he was off in half an hour and couldn't garuntee what other staff would do. I explained I was a 10 hour drive away and I would get back to him.

Rang the in-laws. Convinced my septuagenarian mother-in-law to go out in the dark and cold to grab it for me then and there. Rang back Big W and the bloke agreed to go meet her at the service counter and hand it over in person.

Long story short(ish) - got him last night! Got to Transform the six individual bots as all my missus Dutch rellies were amused and wanted to see what the fuss was about. They lost interest by the time it came to make Devastator so he is sitting in my hotel room awaiting construction