Ebuyer (was Re: [Wylug-discuss] How do you rate Virgin/NTL broadband?)

[Andrew J Cole]

>Andrew J Cole writes:
>> eBuyer [...] eventually cancelled the order after a couple of
>> weeks of non-delivery and various excuses about resupply problems
>> with Toshiba.  I have never had any a bad experience with eBuyer
>> previously but on this occasion either their actual stock level
>> was seriously at variance with their web/order site
>
>My understanding of the way Ebuyer work is that they rely heavily on
>just-in-time deliveries from their suppliers.  The idea is that they
>can reduce costs by keeping their warehouses small, so when you order
>something, they don't necessarily have stock in.  But they do expect
>their suppliers to deliver "soon enough".

Fair enough - but, if they are relying on just-in-time delivery, it
does rather make a mockery of their "in stock" quantity saying 27 before
ordering and 25 after (as it did in this case) unless they can rely on
the supplier.  I also wasn't too impressed by their failure to deliver
on the appointed day (thrice over three weeks) and not generating any
e-mail or a phone call alerts.

I must say that I have never failed to get delivery from stock (if
it was listed as in-stock when I ordered) from eBuyer before (several
years and 40+ orders in my account) of course it would happen when I
had recommended them to novices!

>> or they "gazumped" a larg number of orders to satisfy a single large
>> customer
>
>It wouldn't entirely surprise me to learn that someone at Ebuyer
>decided that the ill-will cost of annoying many small customers would
>be less than the lost-account cost of failing to meet a large order.
>But by this stage, we're well into the realms of idle speculation.

Yes its speculation.  The thing which really annoyed me and put a big
black spot against them for the future was the way they had to be chased
over non-delivery (after one week, two weeks, three weeks) - it wasn't
a just-in-time order when it was placed!

A properly organised company which discovers it wont't be able to meet its
promised delivery, for whatever reason, keeps the customer well informed
of any delay - if it has any sense - eBuyer didn't do that in this case.

Andrew