Planet X - customer service?
Comments
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Dave. Your reply is what proves that Planet X care about their customers and try their very best to get it right.
However, I disagree with you saying the OP is bang on the money. He said
This is ignorant, wrong and could possibly be damaging to your business? It just isn't true.Looks like the poor customer service is still in existence. I thought others may like to know.
It implies you've had poor customer service for a long time and Planet X, in my experience, is very different. As I've said, you don't always get it right, but when it does go wrong you always go the extra mile to get it right. For this I have no complaints and going the extra mile is the one of the goals in achieving outstanding customer service. As regular customer I know you've had a boom in business and having a new website can't have helped, but you and your colleagues/employees have always been open and honest.
You're only human so mistakes are bound to be made along the way and adjusting to a boom in business can be steep learning curve, evidence of which is in your breakdown. But in my opinion its how you as a company deal with this. A lot of companies would fold or ignore the issues letting standards drop. Again, your reply shows this is not the case with Planet X, once again trying your best to make it right.
I will continue to be a Planet X customer.0 -
What ROB75 said.
Too hard on yourself and Planet X although I wouldn't say you are ignorant about your own business though !25th August 2013 12hrs 37mins 52.3 seconds 238km 5500mtrs FYRM Never again.0 -
If only other CEOs operated like this...going to have a look at the site again as a result.Whats the solution? Just pedal faster you baby.
Summer B,man Team Carbon LE#222
Winter Alan Top Cross
All rounder Spec. Allez.0 -
nevman wrote:If only other CEOs operated like this.
^^ This0 -
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daveplanetx wrote:I am not saying we are always perfect , but we are normally much better . FWIW here is the meltdown analysis , shouldnt really be for public consumption but I believe we need to be open and transparent with our customers especially when they are suffering the consequences .. This is the CEO analysis sent to me (I am no longer day to day in the operational business but concentrating on rebirth of brands Viner bikes , Carnac , Selcof , and Holdswoth )
I wished you stopped growing... there is something inherently perverse in this desire to constantly get bigger and squeeze the competition out of the market.
You become impersonal and grey... you end up seeing a world of consumers that only come to you because you provide a constant stream of goods at slashed prices... I think the attempt to preserve some historic brands is worth a praise, well done, but please... stop growing, aren't you big enough?left the forum March 20230 -
I moaned about a cap I bought and you sent me a new one without me sending the original back. No complaints from me on the service front.
However:
You have replaced a bad website with more of the same. I'll take a punt and say the web sales is the significant income stream at Planet X yet the website feels like an amateur job. At least the previous website had some satisfaction, it was like rummaging through random aisles at TKMax to find a bargain. Now its just painful. Get the live stock controls fixed , remove the misleading prices and the stock outs(!) and I am sure you'll recover customers..0 -
Still thinking of something clever to say!0
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Credit to Dave for coming on here and being so honest .... I think he's been a little too hard personally!
I'll def get down for that RT58 sometime this year. I find it reassuring that the boss is on here and listening.
Well done
Still thinking of something clever to say!0 -
I ordered a few items last Wednesday morning that I needed by Sunday, their website says they will dispatch any orders made before 3pm on the same day by a 24 hour courier. Thursday came and went and still no sign of the order being dispatched so I did a bit of digging and found a couple of posts on forums saying how slow they've been recently (presumably with the massive sale they have on) so I messaged their Facebook page as this seemed the quickest way to get a reply to explain the situation that I needed the parts by Sunday, within an hour I received a response and the person who replied to my message personally went and picked my order and marked it for dispatch just to ensure I got it in time. They were clearly struggling for staff or whatever to cope with the huge sales demand but they are still very willing to help and IMO that's fantastic customer service. Items posted out Friday afternoon and arrived Saturday morning, got everything for 50% or more off and everything runs excellently, will shop again for sure
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Dreadful customer service the last time I used them but when you ring up the guys are so apologetic I can't stay mad at them To be fair they are usually very good.
I ordered a wheelset beginning of December, it still hadn't turned up by early Jan so emailed them. Waited a couple of days, no reply so rang up and sat on hold for about 10 mins then finally got through to them. Gave them the order number (which bizarrely didn't show up on my account when I logged into their site and went into previous orders). Guy said he would chase up Royal Fail and ring me back. Which he didn't. Rang back again the next morning, same thing, "We'll definitely ring you back" and didn't. Finally got a refund the following day (over a month after I ordered them) as they didn't have any others in stock
I'm not convinced they ever did have them in stock which is why I reckon the order didn't show up in my previous orders on the site.
I will definitely use Planet X again as they have obviously gone through a lot of changes recently and respect to Dave for coming on here and explaining. Nobody can be on top of their game all of the time, especially over the busy xmas period and an apology & explanation goes a long way.First love - Genesis Equilibrium 20
Dirty - Forme Calver CX Sport
Quickie - Scott CR1 SL HMX
Notable ex's - Kinesis Crosslight, Specialized Tricross0 -
Any business can have incidents of what a customer perceives as bad service. It's harsh to judge a business by reports of those incidents but inevitably people will.
My own experience of Planet-X is good. Made an email enquiry at the weekend over the Christmas/New Year period. Had a reply within 24 hours, on a Sunday. Can't fault their speed of response, or their speed of delivery of my subsequent order.There's no such thing as too old.0 -
Found this thread after looking to see if I was in the same boat as others (it looks like I am)...
Ordered a bike on the 20th January before 3pm, expecting next day delivery (or soon after) as promised on the help page in "98%" of cases. After all the bikes in stock so it's just a case of a once over surely.
Got to Thursday and still no bike, phone them and told that it's just waiting to be built and should be next week (27th). Also got a phone call to say it would be built Monday or Tuesday.
Brill they've recognised thier mistake and given me a resolution... apart from I got an email yesterday afternoon stating it will be the 4th of Feburary now.
What a joke, just tried phoning them and the answerphone message is still on, (it states the opening times (8-6), then hangs up).
This has all the hallmarks of a company about to go out of business (taking orders but being unable to fullfill them, phonelines going cold), I'm going to try and get through today in order to get an answer (and dependent on that a refund) and if not instruct my CC company to do a chargeback.
If the CEO or Founder truely recognised the problems why is the website still selling stuff without warning people that the order might not be fullfilled due to a heavy workload. In my case the order was placed 3 days after the founder came on here and owned up to the mistakes (and appeared genuinely care), plenty of time to make some basic changes.Owner of Stolen-Bikes.co.uk0 -
I'm another that has been frustrated over the past week after placing my first order with them but reading this thread has been interesting and Dave's passion to resolve the issues will get me shopping there again.
I'd ordered a couple of lockrings that were showing as 'in stock' on the website but 4 days later received an email to say that they couldn't be found in the warehouse and I was being refunded. Frustrating yes, but not the end of the world. I noticed that the items were still showing stock in another colour so replied to the refund email saying I was surprised that they had been so quick to cancel the order without offering a replacement and that I would take them in the other colour, which was then sorted out. This all happened on a Sunday and I got the parts on the following Tuesday.
I was frustrated that they had not shown the initiative to offer me a replacement, had jumped straight to cancellation, and it had taken 4 days hear that there was an issue, however Dave's (over!) honesty gives me confidence it's being sorted. The fact that they were doing all this on a Sunday kind of proves it!0 -
R0B75 wrote:But, NO company is perfect. Planet X' service is very good in general, but instead of offering them feedback on your issues with email you whinge on a forum which does nothing to help. Did you even fill in the survey? I called them yesterday and was in a queue. The system even tells you how many people are in front of you. It said 4 when I called and I was through to someone within 5 minutes and that has been the longest I've ever waited, and I call them a LOT.. Maybe a little patience is all you need.
Maybe Kangarouge couldn't be arsed wasting his life giving feedback to PlanetX about how they could improve their service? It's not like there is a sortage of internet retailers and he is stuck with using them.
I have bought stuff from PlanetX before and it has arrived fine. I also emailed them with a question about stock of a saddle, and they didn't reply to me, so I bought from another retailer who appeared to want my business.0 -
Not quite.mossj88 wrote:After all the bikes in stock so it's just a case of a once over surely.
In stock means they have the frame/parts to build the bike.When I ordered my RT-58(in-store/Barnsley) it was "in stock" at the Rotherham store/warehouse(all bikes are built in Rotherham).I was told that they had all the parts,in the sizes lengths that I required,and the bike was scheduled to be built 5 days later to pick up that evening.It was actually built 6 days later and I picked it up the day after.
When asked why it was 5 days after I was told that(at that time) they were building 300+ bikes per week and every built bike was then checked by the Head Mechanic.
Having seen the workshop in action I can well believe they are building 300 bikes per week.
My RT was a day late,my mates Kaffenback arrived on the day stated when he ordered it online.
Having said all that I generally go to the shop but every time I've telephoned(Barnsley) I've had no problems.0 -
Yes but when I checked my order it read something along the lines of awaiting delivery of items not in stock, it now reads picking parts so I assume I'm now at the stage where they are getting ready to build it.
I have absolutely now problem with them having to custom build the bikes (or even the delivery times that comes with that). Hell as a customer that's almost a selling point that they are inspecting every bike.
However what I do have a problem with is that they have risen my expectations by saying
In addition to stating the bike is in stock and the staff on the phone promising the bike.Please allow 2-5 days for delivery. 98% of UK orders placed before 3pm Monday to Friday are despatched the same day. On orders up to £100 we use Royal Mail and orders over £100 we use DPD who offer next day, one hour timed delivery slots.
When clearly from this thread the founder/ceo knows full well that they aren't meeting delivery times and aren't going to anytime soon. It's not unsual for a retailer to build up bikes then remove bits for packing, infact from speaking to my LBS I believe it's law and that any accidents from a faulty build are down to the individual who signed the bikes build sheet.
TL:DR If it's going to take a while that's fine, just tell me don't misslead me.Owner of Stolen-Bikes.co.uk0 -
I think the delivery promise needs to change.
It needs "Does not apply to bike builds" as I agree it is actually misleading!0 -
I haven't read all messages on this thread, but I will have to say for the number of years i have bought from PX, the customer service has been top notch.
I haven't bought anything more than £100 on a single piece of item. but the return guarantee is superb. I called to arrange return as well as using the web form.
only on one instance where the return was delayed, and I called they refunded on the spot. Then 3 days later I got a call and they want to refund me again cos the form had been processed. So from that I think there is a bit of delay in them sorting out forms and maybe their computer system isn't a fully automated one yet.Road - Cannondale CAAD 8 - 7.8kg
Road - Chinese Carbon Diablo - 6.4kg0 -
OK since my last comment I have given them another chance.
Just to be clear. I have used them many many times and spent thousands on orders which have always been prompt. Their customer service was indeed top notch.
So I am still waiting for the last problem to be resolved and needed to wait. OK.. since the part is not priority so I will wait. So I thought I would give them another chance and order some clothing.
After 2 weeks I am still waiting. I tried calling but got an answer message saying I could drop them an email. I thought I would hang on but then after 15mins I thought that's enough.
Finally got an email after a few days saying my item was out of stock. The item is still showing in stock on their website. Confidence has dropped for me which is such a big shame since I have always had excellent experiences with them in the past.0 -
Which shop are you trying to call?
I've never had any trouble phoning the Barnsley shop,never had to wait,always got through straight away.0 -
I called the customer service phone number on their website.0
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Barnsley 01226 241811jamsop wrote:I called the customer service phone number on their website.
Rotherham 01709 839880
I get through every time on the Barnsley number.Both numbers direct to shops. Customer service is next door to Rotherham shop IIRC.0 -
My experience of planet-x has been very dissapointing.
I placed 6 seperate orders last year and all but one had issues (either wrong items or items missing) !
One order was for some handlebars that took 6 times to eventually get right despite them knowing that they had the wrong items in the picking bin.
They are very cheap and this is the ONLY reason i use them ! I have placed another order sunday that's still not been marked as dispached so god knows when/if that'll come.
You pay your money and you take your chances...... I certainly would not order anything over £50 with them unless you were collecting from the store and even then the one time i did call at Rotherham for some items and a new bike they were unhelpful and rude (needless to say i purchased nothing!).0 -
I bought a fork and expander bung from them a few years back now and had trouble getting the expander bung to grip the inside of the steerer tube. I phoned them and spoke to a mechanic who was very helpful. Despite this I still could not get the expander bung to work and ended up buying a different one.
Look for a tech number and try phoning.0 -
I ordered some wheels, they came in a couple of days couldn't fault the service, I then ordered some tyres, five days later they still hadn't arrived or had I received a despatch email, so I emailed saying I haven't yet recieved tyres usually your really quick at sending goods out, got an email the next day apologising saying my order would be prioritised and sent out that day.
Couldn't fault that reply...0 -
earth wrote:I bought a fork and expander bung from them a few years back now and had trouble getting the expander bung to grip the inside of the steerer tube. I phoned them and spoke to a mechanic who was very helpful. Despite this I still could not get the expander bung to work and ended up buying a different one.
Look for a tech number and try phoning.ibbo68 wrote:
Barnsley 01226 241811jamsop wrote:I called the customer service phone number on their website.
Rotherham 01709 839880
I get through every time on the Barnsley number.Both numbers direct to shops. Customer service is next door to Rotherham shop IIRC.
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