- Joined
- Mar 5, 2002
- Messages
- 20,281
- Reaction score
- 1,794
Kinda self-explanatory, it's been building up for some time now, Tuesday morning was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Link to RS
Why I don’t like RS (Radio Spares).
1) On Sunday 22nd November I placed a small order online and arranged in that online order to collect the goods from the RS Trade counter at Bow, East London, after 10.30am on Tuesday morning. The order was confirmed by an automated e-mail.
On Tuesday morning I drove from Greenwich to the Bow trade counter and arrived there at 10.30am. I was told there had been an error, my order was not processed and the goods I had ordered were not in stock at Bow.
I was then told the goods could be re-ordered for collection at Bow the following day. If I wanted the goods delivered it would cost me postage. Seeing as how the goods only totalled around £20.00 + VAT this hardly seemed economical.
Because of RS’s incompetence:
1) I wasted at least one hour of my working day.
2) I might have had to delay work with a customer thanks to RS.
3) I wasted some petrol.
I cancelled the order and at this time have vowed never to use RS again unless it’s absolutely necessary.
This is not the first time non-delivery of goods has occurred, during the last 18 month period it has happened several times.
2) The greater majority of RS phone numbers are 08 numbers, including their order line. This means it costs me money to buy goods from this company. RS encourage customers to order online. See above item 1 for reasons why I would prefer to place orders by phone.
3) Quite recently RS stopped trading on Saturday mornings and drastically cut their weekday trading hours. This often makes it inconvenient for me to collect orders from trade counters.
4) At the same time RS made those cutbacks they made my favourite sales lady at Bow, Verlinda, redundant, together with several other members of RS staff known to me.
5) At one time, returns were without charge. At some time, I can’t recall when, RS started charging a fee for returned goods in most instances.
6) Time was, RS were very good with credit offered, often giving a long time for customers to settle accounts and making it beneficial for customers to collect their money for work carried out before settling with RS.
Recently RS adopted a very aggressive collection policy, now threatening legal action within days of the full amount becoming due. I don’t like being threatened when I have been settling accounts with RS for at least 25 years.
7) I find it almost impossible to find goods I require on RS’s online catalogue. Maybe it’s me but when I use the paper catalogues I can find the goods I’m after within minutes. Always. This, to me, means the RS online catalogue has a below standard search engine and is inferior software.
8) The RS accounts department is a mess. For one order I often receive several invoices, each showing the goods ordered on different dates when in fact they were all ordered at the same time. Their accounting correspondence is the hardest to follow out of all the suppliers I deal with.
A lady from the RS accounts department recently e-mailed me asking me how much I owed them and what invoice numbers was this money against. They’re asking me? I usually have a rough idea what I owe but for reasons outlined above I never have a clue of the exact amount.
I wonder what would happen if I phoned RS and asked for my amount outstanding whether they’d give a correct answer?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twenty five years ago I opened an account with RS and have spent thousands with them in that time. Time was, a customer could purchase from RS with confidence, reasoning ‘ Well, they charge a little more but you can always get your stock the next day and they give you plenty of time to pay.’
Not any more, RS have gone seriously downhill over the last three year period and I, for one, will try not to use them in future, preferring instead to purchase from CPC/Farnell; Cricklewood Electronics; several Audio suppliers; several Electrical wholesalers; Screwfix; several computer components suppliers and even Maplins if need be.
It saddens me to write this, I used to respect RS but they’ve just gone all to pieces.
Let’s end this on a positive note though: Even though it’s an 08 number, those (mostly) ladies on the RS Technical Helpline really know their stuff, they really are very good.
Link to RS
Why I don’t like RS (Radio Spares).
1) On Sunday 22nd November I placed a small order online and arranged in that online order to collect the goods from the RS Trade counter at Bow, East London, after 10.30am on Tuesday morning. The order was confirmed by an automated e-mail.
On Tuesday morning I drove from Greenwich to the Bow trade counter and arrived there at 10.30am. I was told there had been an error, my order was not processed and the goods I had ordered were not in stock at Bow.
I was then told the goods could be re-ordered for collection at Bow the following day. If I wanted the goods delivered it would cost me postage. Seeing as how the goods only totalled around £20.00 + VAT this hardly seemed economical.
Because of RS’s incompetence:
1) I wasted at least one hour of my working day.
2) I might have had to delay work with a customer thanks to RS.
3) I wasted some petrol.
I cancelled the order and at this time have vowed never to use RS again unless it’s absolutely necessary.
This is not the first time non-delivery of goods has occurred, during the last 18 month period it has happened several times.
2) The greater majority of RS phone numbers are 08 numbers, including their order line. This means it costs me money to buy goods from this company. RS encourage customers to order online. See above item 1 for reasons why I would prefer to place orders by phone.
3) Quite recently RS stopped trading on Saturday mornings and drastically cut their weekday trading hours. This often makes it inconvenient for me to collect orders from trade counters.
4) At the same time RS made those cutbacks they made my favourite sales lady at Bow, Verlinda, redundant, together with several other members of RS staff known to me.
5) At one time, returns were without charge. At some time, I can’t recall when, RS started charging a fee for returned goods in most instances.
6) Time was, RS were very good with credit offered, often giving a long time for customers to settle accounts and making it beneficial for customers to collect their money for work carried out before settling with RS.
Recently RS adopted a very aggressive collection policy, now threatening legal action within days of the full amount becoming due. I don’t like being threatened when I have been settling accounts with RS for at least 25 years.
7) I find it almost impossible to find goods I require on RS’s online catalogue. Maybe it’s me but when I use the paper catalogues I can find the goods I’m after within minutes. Always. This, to me, means the RS online catalogue has a below standard search engine and is inferior software.
8) The RS accounts department is a mess. For one order I often receive several invoices, each showing the goods ordered on different dates when in fact they were all ordered at the same time. Their accounting correspondence is the hardest to follow out of all the suppliers I deal with.
A lady from the RS accounts department recently e-mailed me asking me how much I owed them and what invoice numbers was this money against. They’re asking me? I usually have a rough idea what I owe but for reasons outlined above I never have a clue of the exact amount.
I wonder what would happen if I phoned RS and asked for my amount outstanding whether they’d give a correct answer?
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Twenty five years ago I opened an account with RS and have spent thousands with them in that time. Time was, a customer could purchase from RS with confidence, reasoning ‘ Well, they charge a little more but you can always get your stock the next day and they give you plenty of time to pay.’
Not any more, RS have gone seriously downhill over the last three year period and I, for one, will try not to use them in future, preferring instead to purchase from CPC/Farnell; Cricklewood Electronics; several Audio suppliers; several Electrical wholesalers; Screwfix; several computer components suppliers and even Maplins if need be.
It saddens me to write this, I used to respect RS but they’ve just gone all to pieces.
Let’s end this on a positive note though: Even though it’s an 08 number, those (mostly) ladies on the RS Technical Helpline really know their stuff, they really are very good.
