Warning to others

[K-Brewer]

Originally Posted by alex97

With most rc shops being online now there isn't really much room for mistakes. If you have had a problem with the shop before and there are others out there selling the same item that you want why would you risk it buying from the place that you have had problems with before?

I agree Alex, I'm a fickle customer who goes where I can get the best service with fast postage, In my experience I don't feel like I get the postage side from je an apex so I go elsewhere an so will other people an I'm pretty sure that if the suppliers I use start going down hill for what I'm after then I'll move on an go somewhere else again. That's why you have to be good at what you do an go one step further, one company I know even refunds the difference in postage if it costs less to post

[alex97]

Originally Posted by K-Brewer

I agree Alex, I'm a fickle customer who goes where I can get the best service with fast postage, In my experience I don't feel like I get the postage side from je an apex so I go elsewhere an so will other people an I'm pretty sure that if the suppliers I use start going down hill for what I'm after then I'll move on an go somewhere else again. That's why you have to be good at what you do an go one step further, one company I know even refunds the difference in postage if it costs less to post

I get most of my stuff from DMS as its local to me so I'm supporting my local shop and every order has arrived the next day, once I did a order at 4pm and I didn't expect it to arrive the next day but it did so that really good. The postage is also a good price, some places want £3 to send I small part which is stupid when the part it self is only a few quid.

[fil9144]

Originally Posted by Chris Larner

This may open a can of worms but think it needs to be brought to racers attention.
I placed an online order with JE/Apex last Friday night. All items showing in stock.
I then realised I'd made a mistake. So Saturday I tried to ring and could never get through. I emailed and got a reply saying the item no longer needed was refunded (but paypal have held on to this money?).
So on Wednesday I had no sign of my items so I called up and was told they are busy and my order should be processed that afternoon.
Wednesday afternoon I received a message saying one item was out of stock and will be with them Thursday.
Thursday nothing.
Today/Friday a message to say it was posted.
I know what will happen. Parts/Tires needed for racing on Sunday will turn up next Monday!

Just be warned when using them that you may be let down.
They maybe busy or understaffed but that's not my problem.
Shame as I've used them 100s of times in the past (before the merge) and they have been great.
This will certainly make me think twice when ordering parts in need in a week!

Inside Line very good and mb also

[mark christopher]

Originally Posted by njc11

Mark - Live stock levels are all well and good and until said orders are processed.. Website only updates once orders have been processed and as previously mentioned these are processed by staff in the order in which they have been placed on the website..and I'm sure this will be the same idea for all web shops..

Originally Posted by K-Brewer

JE have never been the same since the merge, I've even had issues with apex themselves. After waiting 4 or 5 days for my item I contacted them an was told it was going to be sent out that day an if not defiantly the next, after 4 days I contacted them again only to be told it still hasn't been posted, 12 days is far far too long

MB has the best live stock level, as soon as you pay for the item its instantly removed from the website, that's how it should be done. It stops people ordering things that may not actually be in stock by the time someone processes the order. If something is in stock on the website I expect it to actually be in stock, that isn't too much to ask for

Originally Posted by bally

Very interesting and thanks for all the kind comments.

As you can imagine i spend a lot of time following our competitors as I'm sure our competitors do with us. Im very surprised to hear that JE/Apex does not run live stock levels as advertised are you sure this is correct Nick? I thought that all packages that used stock levels would update after each transaction, surely this seems logical.

The biggest gripe i have in this industry is shadow stock, its often very hard for customers to tell if a items is actually available off the shelf in the shop or if they are ordering a product that is available for a shop to buy from the distributor, which would delay the delivery by a few days and run the risk of it selling out between updates. I'm not sure why distributors that sell direct even offer this service. I get asked all the time by distributors to do this but so far have refused. We only sell what we have in stock or occasionally offer a item as a Pre-Order, but again will only sell the number we have ordered. What do customers think do you want to see us offering items we don't have any intension on stocking and do you want to be able to back order items? (This would mean paying upfront for a item that may take weeks to arrive) Maybe someone can set up a poll?

Thanks
MB

my point made, if its live stock, when its bought by the customer on line, one item is removed from said stock. if its being processed and done when staff are back to work then it is not live stock

[mattr]

Originally Posted by bally

The biggest gripe i have in this industry is shadow stock, its often very hard for customers to tell if a items is actually available off the shelf in the shop or if they are ordering a product that is available for a shop to buy from the distributor, which would delay the delivery by a few days and run the risk of it selling out between updates. I'm not sure why distributors that sell direct even offer this service. I get asked all the time by distributors to do this but so far have refused. We only sell what we have in stock or occasionally offer a item as a Pre-Order, but again will only sell the number we have ordered. What do customers think do you want to see us offering items we don't have any intension on stocking and do you want to be able to back order items? (This would mean paying upfront for a item that may take weeks to arrive) Maybe someone can set up a poll?

Thanks
MB

I have no objections to shadow stock being listed, as long as it is massively obvious at every stage of the pick/pay/ordering process.
One supplier I used to use didn't actually make it clear until the payment approval stage. (No idea if they've changed it, I haven't ordered from them since).
They also used to claim delivery timings for shadow stock, which was a joke. 14 days someone's became 2 months. And in one case the manufacturer had discontinued it some months before......

[Kelk]

I've only ever had a great experience with Apex and / or JE. Every single time. Helpful people and do whatever they can to sort things out.

As a comparison - I took my Toyota Landcruiser in for a service and I needed a new rear caliper. Only they didn't have any in stock and it would take another day to get the part and fit it.

Having just looked them up online Toyota employs about 320, 000 people. And they didn't have my part in stock!

But a small business with a few people working there don't carry everything that every rc car needs warrants a slating? A little harsh I think

[Dave @ JE Models]

Hi all,

Just thought I would mention a couple of things here to hopefully clear up any misconceptions or misunderstandings.

First off, I apologize to Chris for the delay in the order. It was due to a missing item that we were awaiting a restock of. The rest of the order should have been shipped in the meantime. This has been discussed here at JE and there are some new checking procedures being put in place.

Chris, since the Apex takeover of JE (back in November 2013) you have placed around 20 orders with us. I checked our emails and as far as I can see this is the first order that there has been an issue with. While we are not happy that there was an issue with any order, it seems a little harsh to issue a "Warning to others" based on one order out of 20.

Along those same lines, I noticed someone else who said something like "It's never been the same since Apex took it over". Please do expand on this, as I worked for the old JE as well. I seem to see that comment occasionally and I think it comes from people ordering through Apex and then assuming it is the JE side. The JE despatch times are the same and the stock level is higher than the old JE. The emails are generally dealt with very quickly. The only bit where we are a bit tardy right now is with answering the phones. We do seem to be a bit short-handed when it comes to that, but email usually gets the better and more detailed response anyway.

The JE side takes priority on posting and packing. This is to maintain the delivery schedules that you were used to from the old JE. At the moment I estimate we are hitting around 90% on the "Orders before 3pm being shipped the same day". This isn't as good as we would like, although it is where the old JE used to float around.

We have just employed a new packer and are making other changes to our picking as well (larger storage space being setup now = quicker picking) as we are aiming to get this percentage up to 99%. I will definitely post something to let you know when we are getting close to that level.

I also notice that some people complain about our dispatch when the dispatch is on time, but they choose the cheaper 2nd class post and the item gets delayed in the post. If you are in a rush, pay for the 1st class upgrade. It's not much more and it does make a big difference. 2nd class is estimated at 2 to 5 working days delivery.

And although Chris's order was delayed mainly due to a missing item, this all leads to a possibility of why this order had a slight issue and the other 20 didn't.

JE takes priority. It offers same working day dispatch whenever possible. Apex doesn't If JE is busy then the Apex side is pushed back. Hence the reason the Apex side offers a 3 working day dispatch. We don't make a secret of this. Chris's order was an Apex order, so wouldn't have been likely to have been picked until the Tuesday or Wednesday, at which point the missing item was found (well not found - we found out it was missing). So it was an Apex order, we had misplaced an item, and it was 2nd class as well.

So basically to summarize...

The issue with Chris's order was not acceptable, but it was also one out of 20 orders. The rest, as far as I can see from the lack of emails from Chris on previous orders, were all ok.

JE takes priority over Apex. This will continue for the foreseeable future. If you are after faster despatch then order through JE. If you aren't then order through Apex.

If you are in a rush, pay for 1st class as well. It's not much more and second class is poor. We offer 2nd class so that you can get the lowest price possible.

And if you are going to say "JE has gone downhill since the takeover" then please email me and give me some details. If we know what problems you are experiencing then we can look in to it and try to make sure it doesn't happen again. Whereas if you post it on a forum we may never see it. I actually only saw this because I logged on to Oople and it was on the left hand recent activity block.


Thanks to those who jumped to our defense. We appreciate that some customers actually like us

When all is said and done, do you think that we want a customer to ever have a bad experience? Of course not. Do we understand that there will always be someone who is unhappy or posts something negative on forums? Yes of course. Every company gets this from time to time. Do we like it when someone is negative about us? No - both because it is a bad reflection of our company and because believe it or not everyone here works their asses off to try and get your items to you as soon as we can. We do all sorts to achieve this for you, including from time to time working weekends to answering emails when not open to pulling an overnight shift if we get backlogged and also trying to resolve issues for everyone with the minimum hassle.

Has anyone come on here recently and said how we replaced some flight batteries for them despite the fault resting with their charger? Or how we replaced a shell that had already been sprayed as the customer noticed a dent afterwards, or how we made a mistake and sent a wrong colour paint, so let the customer keep it and rushed the correct one out to him so that he wouldn't have the hassle of returning it or how a customer ordered the wrong wishbones for his Tamco so we just sent him the correct ones as a goodwill gesture and let him keep the other ones.

No? Didn't think so

(That last little bit was may own rant and so does not reflect the opinion of JE Models, Apex Models or it's employees )

[Dave @ JE Models]

Sorry - one last thing (I haven't run out of words yet).

Chris, you said "I emailed and got a reply saying the item no longer needed was refunded (but paypal have held on to this money?)."

You emailed on Saturday at 10:08, I replied at 10:14 to tell you I had took the unwanted items off your order and refunded them. The Paypal refund was done at 10:13:57.

If it hasn't cleared through Paypal then it may be an issue with your Paypal as there is no reason they should hold the money. I can provide the refund transaction id if you need it for contacting Paypal.

I just didn't want anyone thinking we hadn't done the refund. It was done instantly and the "but paypal have held on to this money" is Chris's comment and not part of the reply he was sent.

[DynaMight]

Hi Dave @ JE Models

Do you send 'Dispatch' emails once the item has been sent? Any chance of a quick heads up on order APEX2015031914 ?

[andoiwebb]

****DESK PALM!!!!!****

[Nick.W]

I must say, I've ordered a whole raft of bits from JE over the last few months having recently returned back to RC and the service has been faultless.

[Dave @ JE Models]

Originally Posted by DynaMight

Hi Dave @ JE Models

Do you send 'Dispatch' emails once the item has been sent? Any chance of a quick heads up on order APEX2015031914 ?

Hi there,

I will check for you in the morning and drop you an email.

Best regards,

Dave

[s22jgs]

I had an order about 2 months ago that simply wasn't sent despite being ordered early in the morning.
In fairness when I chased it up they admitted nothing had been done or posted and happily refunded without quibbles.

Previous years experience of apex has been shocking, where as je has always been amazing. So I gave them a chance.

Although they would be last point of call for me personally now, I still think they are worth keeping in the favourites list on the browser.

[mark christopher]

Originally Posted by Kelk

I've only ever had a great experience with Apex and / or JE. Every single time. Helpful people and do whatever they can to sort things out.

As a comparison - I took my Toyota Landcruiser in for a service and I needed a new rear caliper. Only they didn't have any in stock and it would take another day to get the part and fit it.

Having just looked them up online Toyota employs about 320, 000 people. And they didn't have my part in stock!

But a small business with a few people working there don't carry everything that every rc car needs warrants a slating? A little harsh I think

But you were told they had no stock. And did they take your money up front?

[Kelk]

Originally Posted by mark christopher

But you were told they had no stock. And did they take your money up front?

Yes I was told they had no stock - once my car was up on ramps and the old caliper was off.

As for having my money up front? No. As everyone knows that this not how a car's service is paid for.

However they did have £ X,000s worth of car locked up in their facility and I had no access to it. When was the last time you handed your buggy, transmitter, charger and cells over to a model shop whilst you waited for an order?

Don't get me wrong though, I'm not complaining about how Toyota dealt with it, I like the Toyota dealership I deal with.

[Dave @ JE Models]

DynaMight - dropped you an email. Your order has already left.

s22jgs - Apologies for the error with your order. I've taken a look at it and it was a UPS order placed well before the cutoff that day and so should have left in time. The increase in staff along with some other changes should ensure that we hit the same day dispatch much more often now.

As I said in my email to you at the time "with the time you placed your order at, and the fact you chose UPS, your order should have been prioritised by our packing team no matter how busy the warehouse was. "

Thank you for pointing out that when you contacted us the following day we did refund you straight away (at least we got that bit right).

I spoke to the warehouse about it at the time, and we are working on hitting the 99% same day dispatch rate on orders placed before 3pm at JE as we speak instead of the 90% where it is now.

[Allan1875]

Personally never had any issues with JE when using them, before or after the changeover and the guys have always been helpful.

[Dave @ JE Models]

Originally Posted by K-Brewer

JE have never been the same since the merge, I've even had issues with apex themselves. After waiting 4 or 5 days for my item I contacted them an was told it was going to be sent out that day an if not defiantly the next, after 4 days I contacted them again only to be told it still hasn't been posted, 12 days is far far too long

This thread feels like an itch that I just have to scratch now. I can't leave it alone.

Kevin. Since the Apex takeover of JE you placed over 30 orders. You had an issue with one order (still one too many). It was an Apex order. All the others were JE.

Can you let me know if you had issues with any of the other orders please as it feels a bit like, once again, a single example is being used to colour everything rather than being presented within context.

I also noticed that you chose 2nd class delivery every time. If you have had issues with any of the other orders, even if the issues you have had involve delays in the post (as opposed to dispatch delays) then please still let me know as we do feed this information back to our Royal Mail rep.

Best regards,

Dave

[trr061984]

Never had a problem with JE and always found them very helpful. In the age of instant communication anyone who is slightly dissatisfied can have a very public vent. The vast majority of customers are probably satisfied with the service but have no need to make this point public knowledge. Sigh!

[Chris Larner]

I'm just going to clear a few things up.
Firstly I don't class myself as a keyboard warrior and if you take the time to look at any threads I've started or commented on you will see that for yourself.
Secondly like lots of you on here I actually race and to do so occasionally need parts etc. When ordering the said parts I take into account how long I have before I'm racing and stock level at the shop so I can get the part in time.
Dave from JE has on here explained where the fault happened (lack of comms with me and not sending the other items straight away). If I had been told that the item had now become unavailable I could have tried to source it for another shop so I could race.

I also do know a lot of people who really rate JE and some that really don't but they don't jump on threads and become a "keyboard warrior" this thread was started to highlight a problem I had and ment I couldn't race.
This may help others because they can consider this before placing an order.
A phone call to the shop to check stock could have sorted this but I struggled to get through as Saturday's are busy.