Gast
On 1 March 2005, bon image reportedly began distributing Ilford products in Germany. On the very same day, I placed an order for €1,700 directly with the managing director himself – after all, I’d been waiting ages for Ilford roll film. ‘No problem,’ they said; the goods weren’t in stock but were available, and delivery would take 2–3 weeks.
After three weeks, NOTHING. I ring them up: they’d had IT problems, but were just entering my details (after three weeks!!!). So my goods hadn’t been ordered yet, but regardless of that, the items were now in their warehouse in Germany. They were astonished when I said I’d like to finally have THOSE goods. Two days later, I was told that, according to Creditreform, I wasn’t creditworthy. OK. On the one hand, I requested a self-assessment from Creditreform; on the other, I offered to pay in advance. A few days later, the official and COMPLETELY CLEAR self-assessment arrived, along with the invoice for advance payment. I transferred the money the next day and emailed on the same day to say the money was on its way. I emailed the ‘clean bill of health’ letter from Creditreform straight away.
A week later, still nothing. I ring again: well, the money had arrived, but they’d sold the roll stock to someone else in the meantime! (I’ll spare you the details of the endless queues and attempts to fob me off!) New rolls would arrive just under a week later, though. A week later: still no rolls, only 10 packs of sheets had arrived in the meantime. The rolls would arrive in about a week... I’m starting to feel like I’m in a time loop. When I rang yesterday, I was told the paper had just gone out that very day. Quote from the managing director: “I don’t know what to tell you either.” Today, 50 days after placing my order and having paid 1,700 euros in advance, I’m still waiting for my rolls. To put it in bon-image terms: I’m lost for words too! ;)
MirkoBoeddecker
Ole,
Bon Image has to rebuild the entire Ilford distribution network from scratch and certainly doesn’t have the financial resources to maintain a huge stock.
If it’s bothering you, we as retailers aren’t getting everything we need either.
But if there are capacity issues, it’s probably the case everywhere that small customers get left behind somehow, as they depend on serving their big customers quickly because that’s where the turnover and the money come from.
I think we should give them a bit of a credit of trust. They need to get their act together first.
If this sort of thing is still happening after a year, then we can always set up a new Ilford :-)
I’m writing this because I know just how much work goes into the retail trade – work that customers can’t even begin to imagine – and because, in principle, this sort of thing can happen to anyone who’s training a new employee.
Best regards,
Mirko
mau
Well, Mirko. Maybe things don’t always go smoothly for you lot either. Still, I don’t think you’re capable of 1700
MirkoBoeddecker
Mau,
Everything you’ve written is spot on. And I didn’t say that’s how it should be, either.
But it certainly looks very much like organisational mistakes in a company that’s only just been set up – practically overnight, with a large backlog of old orders and very little capital.
Something like that wouldn’t happen to us – at least, I hope not – after all, I’ve been working on a computer system for 12 years that hopefully prevents that :-)
I just wanted to say that Bonbonimage surely sees this as a mistake too, and that it wasn’t meant to be that way.
It happens quite often here too that the prepayment arrives a week later and a shop assistant has ‘accidentally’ (..oh, I didn’t know that...) nicked a roll of PW14 from the dispatch reserve shelf because the customer at the counter was batting her eyelashes so sweetly.
That shouldn’t happen (that’s what the shelf and the stock monitor are for), but we’re all only human, and where people work, ‘mistakes’ happen....
We do, of course, offer refunds at any time. It’s in the Terms and Conditions, after all. I don’t think anyone has ever tried to cancel an order with us and not been able to get it sorted.
Best regards,
Mirko... who hopes that nothing like this ever happens at FOTOIMPEX...
mau
Hi Mirko, it’s the last sentence that really sums it all up: We offer money transfers.
Leaving that aside for a moment, I’d have 1700
Gast
The roll stock arrived on Friday as well.
Thanks for your "sympathy"!
Best regards, Ole
