Euro car parts discount ... A question

[johnsco]

Hi Patrick (and everyone).
I was the thread-starter.
My question was a genuine innocent question and was NOT an attempt to have a cheap go at ECP or anyone.
On my visit to ECP, I still purchased the item that I went in for (Not an MB part).

I have used ECP for years.
Sometimes they are the cheapest ... Sometime they are not.
I have the intelligence to shop around for the things that I require.

I'm sorry if I have stirred up a hornet's nest.
That was not my intention.

Thanks Patrick for the clarification.

 

[EuroCarParts]

Hi Patrick (and everyone).
I was the thread-starter.
My question was a genuine innocent question and was NOT an attempt to have a cheap go at ECP or anyone.
On my visit to ECP, I still purchased the item that I went in for (Not an MB part).

I have used ECP for years.
Sometimes they are the cheapest ... Sometime they are not.
I have the intelligence to shop around for the things that I require.

I'm sorry if I have stirred up a hornet's nest.
That was not my intention.

Thanks Patrick for the clarification.

Hi John,

Perfectly innocent questions, which had a perfectly simple answer - No need to apoligise for others trying to take swipes at ECP.

I hope I have assured everybody regarding our pricing and support to the forum. Fact is, no body can be the cheapest at everything, If we can offer decent prices, with a decent discount, and the option of collecting in store and offer excellent customer service then we have done what we wanted.

If any of the above aren't at 100% please let us know, and we'll help improve, wether its a particular part we are outpriced by mile one (Thanks for pointing this out Nick) a problem with the website or a poor service in a store, Either way, we can't fix it without support from yourselves!

Thanks!

 

[brucemillar]

Well ECP came up with the goods for me see AMG Hub Centric Spacers) and took time to communicate via the forum and PM to ensure that I got the correct part. The price was also as good as I think i could reasonably expect. So a vote from me.

 

[BTB 500]

I was happy to try ECP for a pollen filter for Mrs BTB's Audi. I had a day off on Friday so was careful to pick one that was in stock and paid extra for 'next day delivery' to get it by end of Thursday. Received an order acknowledgement email saying:

Please note that this e-mail is only an acknowledgement of receipt of your order and our contract to supply these items is not complete until we notify you that the items have been dispatched to you.

Never got a dispatch confirmation

Mid-day Thursday I received an email saying:

In common with any other leading suppliers we use a third party service for our deliveries and due to a technical problem in their system there may be a delay in delivery of ALL orders of up to 48 hours.
...
Please only contact us when..
i) The deliverey is RECEIVED - We will then arrange a refund for any delivery charge paid.
ii) If the delivery is not received by Friday 19:00 - We will then chase it up with the courier.
...
We can assure you that your order was dispatched on time, however a technical issue at the couriers main sorting hub has causeed this delay.

Nothing arrived Friday or Saturday, I emailed Friday PM (as above) but no reply as yet. Now wishing I'd just gone to Halfords

Mr ECP if you read this the order ref. is 395155 (Tuesday, 6 December 2011, 16:33) - would appreciate your help.

 

[EuroCarParts]

Hi Bill,

Really sorry about the delay.

As the email stated our courier (HDNL) has had 2 massive problems, firstly during last week they (and every other courier) had record volumes (20% abover their forecast) which caused some orders during the week to be delayed, this caused them further problems when there was a small flurry of bad weather up north.

Then on Wednesday AND Thursday to add insult to injury they had 2 systems breakdown where their scanning machine at their Birmingham central sorting hub broke down (meaning that the 2 x 40ft lorries we sent on a daily basis got to Droitwitch and they couldn't do anything with them)

This has obviosuly delayed all of our deliveries (not just us, think of poor Littlewoods group, or marks and spencer) who are also in the same situation.

Naturally none of this is ideal, especially for your first online order - however if it would help, we do offer a Click & Collect option so you could collect at your local branch within 15minutes.

I hope you understand that we are very sorry for the delay however I hope you understand all of this is out of our control, and we are working with YODEL to push the backlog through their system as quickly as possible!

Patrick

 

[BTB 500]

Saw your update here: http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/parts-maintenance/122102-ecp-delivery-update-dec-jan.html

WC Monday 12th - Yodel are back to 95% and believe they have cleared all of our backlog (if you still haven't receive an order from Wednesday please let us know)

I'm still waiting for the filter I ordered last Tuesday (next day delivery). According to the HDNL tracking link it's been at their Reading depot (approx. 10 miles away) since Monday, but no delivery yet.

 

[EuroCarParts]

Saw your update here: http://www.mbclub.co.uk/forums/parts-maintenance/122102-ecp-delivery-update-dec-jan.html



I'm still waiting for the filter I ordered last Tuesday (next day delivery). According to the HDNL tracking link it's been at their Reading depot (approx. 10 miles away) since Monday, but no delivery yet.

Hi mate,

I'm really sorry about this - The Reading area I believe is one of the depots which has been hit by volume the hardest (and not able to cope with it)

Are you in a position to collect it from our local store? If so you could cancel this order (The customer service team can stop it and return it [probably some time in 2012] ) and you can do a Click and Collect in Reading? (or another local store?)

patrick

 

[Spinal]

Can I just say, as a regular customer of ECP - I now see why everyone I know speaks so highly of them!

It's truly laudable to see a company with this level of after-sales care. It's only when things go wrong that you see a how "good" a company is...

M.

 

[lordlee]

I shop around but usually find ECP to be better or thereabouts on pricing. What I would say is that whilst they arent always the cheapest their service is usually the best so I dont mind paying a little more here and there as I know if I get a problem that it will be quickly sorted.
Motor Parts Direct are on my doorstep and whilst they list some cheaper parts it usually turns out they they are indeed cheaper parts but cheaper in quality too.

Also I must say that we have a dedicated guy who comes on here and answers our questions as well as giving us a discount and I think that is pretty damn good service in my book. My 2p.

 

[BTB 500]

Hi mate,

I'm really sorry about this - The Reading area I believe is one of the depots which has been hit by volume the hardest (and not able to cope with it)

Are you in a position to collect it from our local store? If so you could cancel this order (The customer service team can stop it and return it [probably some time in 2012] ) and you can do a Click and Collect in Reading? (or another local store?)

patrick

Appreciate the quick response. Reading wasn't on the list of affected postcodes on the update you posted though?

Unfortunately I commute to central London by train, so no real opportunity to pick up from a store during the week. Nearest to my home is a 20 mile round trip ... not really worth it at the weekend for an £8 filter.

I have requested for the order to be cancelled.

 

[BTB 500]

Can I just say, as a regular customer of ECP - I now see why everyone I know speaks so highly of them!

It's truly laudable to see a company with this level of after-sales care. It's only when things go wrong that you see a how "good" a company is...

I do appreciate the response here on the Forum. But bottom line is that I ordered something from GSF last week with free standard delivery and it came next day, so my first and only experience with ECP hasn't been that great in comparison.

 

[EuroCarParts]

Appreciate the quick response. Reading wasn't on the list of affected postcodes on the update you posted though?

Your right, its not - but i've heard alot of buzz about reading,Maidenhead all the way to Luton (just outside the M25 'home counties' seems to be really bad)

Unfortunately I commute to central London by train, so no real opportunity to pick up from a store during the week. Nearest to my home is a 20 mile round trip ... not really worth it at the weekend for an £8 filter.

I have requested for the order to be cancelled.

I'm really sorry about that - I have spoken to customer service who have stopped the delivery - we'll receive it back to us sometime in January at this rate. - Please can you send an email asking to cancel the order and they will credit your account like normal.

I have also just created a new order, for the Pollen filter and sent it via DHL - This should be with you by Friday, This will be free of charge, and hopefully that'll put an end to Mrs BTBs smelly Air Con!

Once again, i'm really sorry about the delay,

Patrick

 

[Spinal]

I do appreciate the response here on the Forum. But bottom line is that I ordered something from GSF last week with free standard delivery and it came next day, so my first and only experience with ECP hasn't been that great in comparison.

While I agree it hasn't been the best, can I ask you a question

What could they have done better?

I'm guessing:
- Confirmation email
- More communication about delivery time?
- Up front about delays with couriers?
(ECP take notes )

Just asking, partly for their benefit and partly for mine.

M.

EDIT: Just read their response about the free filter, so took out the one about compensation

 

[EuroCarParts]

1) Confirmation email - this may be been blocked by spam filters, but we havn't had any others question it - I'll defo look into this

2)More communication about delay - all customers were emailed 3hrs after we were told of the problem with YODELs machinery, we then proceded to post daily updates on all of our forums and emailed all customers again, to advise them - if there was anything else we could do, please let me know

3) Up front with delays - as above I think 3hrs to find out, script an email, pull off over 1,000 email address' from the LIVE database (putting the LIVE website at risk) and send above email is as upfront as you can get, (without being a mind reader lol) also advertising on forums that YODEL were suffering delays, some might accuse us of being TOO upfront


As for compensation, thanks for removing the comment, as yes I have sent out a filter, however its sad to see this word come up? Regardless that our t&c state we are not liable for delays caused by our couriers it still crops up. Let's be realistic, it was a pollen filter, sent out on time but delayed by a courior.

Hopefully we have resolved BTBs problem, and maybe learn to pick up a few tips to improve, Thanks to everybody for their support, so I hope this closes the matter.

And remember, if you are ordering before xmas - I advise keeping an eye on the delivery update thread, contacting me or using the click and collect service

Patrick

 

[grober]

See my caption competition entry

 

[EuroCarParts]

See my caption competition entry

If only that was true Graham!!!! Love it

 

[BTB 500]

1) Confirmation email - this may be been blocked by spam filters, but we havn't had any others question it - I'll defo look into this

2)More communication about delay - all customers were emailed 3hrs after we were told of the problem with YODELs machinery, we then proceded to post daily updates on all of our forums and emailed all customers again, to advise them - if there was anything else we could do, please let me know

3) Up front with delays - as above I think 3hrs to find out, script an email, pull off over 1,000 email address' from the LIVE database (putting the LIVE website at risk) and send above email is as upfront as you can get, (without being a mind reader lol) also advertising on forums that YODEL were suffering delays, some might accuse us of being TOO upfront


As for compensation, thanks for removing the comment, as yes I have sent out a filter, however its sad to see this word come up? Regardless that our t&c state we are not liable for delays caused by our couriers it still crops up. Let's be realistic, it was a pollen filter, sent out on time but delayed by a courior.

Hopefully we have resolved BTBs problem, and maybe learn to pick up a few tips to improve, Thanks to everybody for their support, so I hope this closes the matter.

And remember, if you are ordering before xmas - I advise keeping an eye on the delivery update thread, contacting me or using the click and collect service

Patrick

I fully understand that the delay was outside your control, and your responses here and generosity in sending a replacement FOC are much appreciated.

In terms of improving ... the email I received on Thursday said "If your order was NOT RECEIVED Yesterday, then it will be carried over and delivered today or Friday at the latest". Obviously that didn't happen, and I didn't hear any more till Monday (after I posted here). As a new customer I wasn't aware that you had forums so wouldn't have thought to check there!

I did receive an 'order acknowledgement' email directly after submitting the order. This said "Please note that this e-mail is only an acknowledgement of receipt of your order and our contract to supply these items is not complete until we notify you that the items have been dispatched to you." My query was that I never received that notification of dispatch. It didn't get treated as spam. This is no big deal, and I only mention it in passing.

Again, many thanks for your assistance.

 

[Spinal]

1) Confirmation email - this may be been blocked by spam filters, but we havn't had any others question it - I'll defo look into this

2)More communication about delay - all customers were emailed 3hrs after we were told of the problem with YODELs machinery, we then proceded to post daily updates on all of our forums and emailed all customers again, to advise them - if there was anything else we could do, please let me know

3) Up front with delays - as above I think 3hrs to find out, script an email, pull off over 1,000 email address' from the LIVE database (putting the LIVE website at risk) and send above email is as upfront as you can get, (without being a mind reader lol) also advertising on forums that YODEL were suffering delays, some might accuse us of being TOO upfront


As for compensation, thanks for removing the comment, as yes I have sent out a filter, however its sad to see this word come up? Regardless that our t&c state we are not liable for delays caused by our couriers it still crops up. Let's be realistic, it was a pollen filter, sent out on time but delayed by a courior.

Hopefully we have resolved BTBs problem, and maybe learn to pick up a few tips to improve, Thanks to everybody for their support, so I hope this closes the matter.

And remember, if you are ordering before xmas - I advise keeping an eye on the delivery update thread, contacting me or using the click and collect service

Patrick

Nothing personal (especially regarding the compensation) - I'm just curious, I work as a consultant, so ways that people improve their service is always a matter of keen interest to me

Those three were merely ideas from a third party that doesn't know the background of the issue, and was just throwing a few things out

I do have a question, which I'm not sure you can answer... how do you deal with customer relations/ PR on forums? Is it a dedicated person/team or does staff at each branch do a bit of the work? Does each person "own" a forum or set of forums, of can multiple people respond on the same forum using the shared ECP account? (I realise I probably wont get answers to these )

M.

 

[BTB 500]

I have also just created a new order, for the Pollen filter and sent it via DHL - This should be with you by Friday, This will be free of charge, and hopefully that'll put an end to Mrs BTBs smelly Air Con!

It did arrive today, Mrs BTB says thank you as well!

 

[neilrr]

Offer Valid Until Midnight Sunday 18th Dec 2011 ONLY, Minimum Spend Of £30 Applies, Offer Includes All Standard Replacement Parts - Excludes Performance Parts, Normal T&C Apply, Please see online for full T&C. -