Well as I've mentioned earlier, my previous experience with PC has also been both good and bad. My initial purchase with them saw me waiting over 3 months for a supposed in stock item to be delivered where I found myself chasing them each time an eta they gave me had come and gone. Since they were a relatively new business at that time I put it down to inexperience or the usual struggles one can encounter during the initial stages of setting up the business.
My second lot of purchases were great, I received most of my items as soon as they were released which gave me confidence in their business and because they were Australian owned they became my preferred choice rather than sourcing from overseas. I also started promoting them to friends and other collectors I know.
Based on feedback I witnessed and their conveyed business practices (first in first served etc), I resigned myself to knowing that for some items, if I wasn't one of the first to order, I could expect about a 2 month delay in receiving my goods, and generally, as in most cases I usually keep most of my items to give as gifts for my kids, that scenario is workable for me and I won't chase them up for an eta on an item unless about 1 to 2 months have gone passed.
However in my next lot I ordered from PC, I ended up waiting 3 months for receipt of the item even though I ordered it literally as soon as it went up on their site. In that instance I followed them up and ended up receiving the item not long after they responded. Disappointing as it was not the best service i expected based on their business model and the fact others somehow got theirs months before me while I was left waiting for who knows what reason. Still I didn't find myself aggrieved enough to justify voicing a complaint about it.
However in respect of Blaster, which I have been waiting over 6 months for now for a pre order I made in April, I really can't see any justification for such a long delay. I am not talking about a hard to find or limited item here, it's a regular hasbro tr blaster which has been available in most retail outlets since August, surely it is reasonable to expect that someone like PC would be able to source one of these within a 6 month period of it being released and available everywhere, but apparently they haven't, and as a result stuffed my son's Christmas up, which has irked me even more about the situation. I really don't see any reasonable defence for the terrible service in this regard and believe anyone would be justified in being aggrieved in these circumstances. Anyone who argues to the contrary is out right full of it in my opinion. It is absolute shit service and anyone would be right in expecting better. And thats not even mentioning the lack of response to my email enquiries, which again has been 3 weeks, and the fact that other people who were in the same unfortunate situation as me receiving their item while I'm still left waiting (which puts in to doubt the excuse they gave me for the delay in the first place)
Yet the issue is when people justify this shit service by downplaying such incidents, or inadvertently turning the blame on the purchaser, i.e. Should have known about delays and shipping delays etc, which clearly still don't justify the six month delay in this instance, what it does is allow A business to be unaccountable for such actions and provide them free reign to continue this type of unacceptable service in the future. I mean I still have a thousand dollars worth of preorders with PC (which I made based on the great service I experienced with my second lot of purchases) and I really don't want to be waiting 6 months plus for all of them to come through now as well because we have allowed this standard to be accepted. I wouldn't want any one to experience the same service I have in the future
In comparison, I recently ordered a pergola from Bunnings, the order got delayed by the manufacturer by two weeks which stuffed our time frame for building it. Bunnings provided a discount on the price for the delay. When their second eta was missed, they provided us with a further discount and arranged for it to be delivered instead of us having to pick it up. Although their delays were frustrating and caused us some pretty big inconvenience, they offered us a form of compensation for their stuff up which would be considered a reasonable form of customer service to expect from any business
I'm not asking for a lot with PC, I don't want a discount if I purchase an item in the next week (there's nothing I want and why would I spend more money when Im not receiving previous items I paid for) I just want the item I paid for over 9 months ago which everyone else appears to have received months ago and feel that over 6 months for this particular item is an unacceptable amount of time to be waiting for it with no response or update for that matter.
I really don't see how my grievances with this current order can be seen as unreasonable, I think it's fair to say if someone expressed a similar experience with any retailer for that matter, the majority would be justified in considering it unacceptable and outright shit service.
As for the comparisons with TFI downunder, let's face it, if PC utilised PayPal like TFI did, based on most of the complaints about their service, they would be facing similar struggles As TFI did right about now, choosing to go without PayPal certainly worked favourably for their current business model that for sure. And then there's the fact that their PC TV channel (which I'm not sure who asked for) appears to have the same eta as TFI's new website
Last edited by Meister; 25th January 2017 at 02:43 AM.
My wife asked me why I carry a gun?, I said "Decepticons"... She laughed, I laughed, the toaster laughed, I shot the toaster. It was a good day.