[Closed] Grrrrrr.... Planet X

Y'know, I just don't see this.

"Customer doesn't know arse from elbow", "both parties agreed to try it". Of the problems that appear on internet forums, it's not those reasons are all; it's just that people have ordered stuff and PX haven't sent it.

But the "customer doesn't know arse from elbow" defence perhaps is indicative of a culture at PX that prevents them from ever really getting to grips with their "customer experience" problems.

A culture of "customer is king", rather than "we've had a problem in the warehouse so you'll get it when you get it" would be a big help.

Which is what I was getting at on page 1 - the majority of people I know who have had problems with PX and a the majority of 'venting' threads on here are not to do with "I was a bit vague with my order and the lack of clairvoyance on behalf of PX did not make up for that".

They are of the type "I ordered this specific item, which showed as being in stock. It didn't arrive when expected, and there was no communication from PX. I had to contact them. Then a myriad of problems/issues ensued".

Still, I hope I get my duck egg blue cardie - it is so 'me'.

So, rang up for refund at midday. Lad on the phone great and very understanding.

Still no refund as of 9.31pm. No email telling me I'll be getting a refund either.

Planet X are great.....

Oli, it shows as 'in picking' on the system, I'll investigate tomorrow.

Oli, it shows as 'in picking' on the system, I'll investigate tomorrow.

It's all par for the course isn't it?

Recently CRC have not managed to get an order out to me within a week, I've given up on on-one for various reasons, another bike shop obviously didn't want my business (payment up front for out of stock items through an insecure site, anyone?) and was rude enough for me to pay more money somewhere else, and another bike shop told me my wheels would be here last monday - they're still not.

I like to get anything I can these days from Merlin or Superstar, they're just about reliable & deliver quickly.

Although Superstar have sent me self destructing brake pads and Merlin sent me a set of friday afternoon forks last week that had been assembled so you couldn't turn the adjuster properly, so it's all crap really.

Edit: apologies for the lack of random capitals, correct spelling and vague coherence - rant score 1/10!

Sq225917 - I have emailed Planet X his morning asking for my order to be shipped by the end of play tomorrow or else i will cancel the order. I ordered on the 11th. Can you ensure the order is shipped in time please? The order number is SO0656295.

Thanks

[i]I've spent most of my career working in logistics and a lot of that working in the IT side of things. It's great that businesses invest in new systems to improve their efficiency and service. It's utter pants when those businesses don't invest in business continuity or manage change effectively. That's when they develop reputations that are very hard to shake off.
I do hope Planet X get through it. They do seem to want to do the right thing. [/i]

This, although sometimes these things really fail; see No 1.

Oli, it shows as 'in picking' on the system, I'll investigate tomorrow

Thanks

My PX order from the 12th Aug has just arrived at home apparently, its the first time a Yodel driver has managed to find my house 🙂

its the first time a Yodel driver has managed to find my house

He'll have taken a couple of extra precautions, though.

a) Hidden it somewhere obscure (although you may be alright if he has handed it over to someone).

b) Used the parcel for a bit of keepy-uppy before handing it over - just to ensure a bit of damage

Yodel really are the pits.

Olly, I'm not sure why we haven't contacted you, the jacket is showing as out of stock everywhere except in the Sheffield showroom. We have one here, I've put it to one side for you. I need to transfer it to the warehouse, assigned to your order, and it will go out to you tomorrow. Sorry for the delay

Simon

It's all par for the course isn't it?

Recently CRC have not managed to get an order out to me within a week, I've given up on on-one for various reasons, another bike shop obviously didn't want my business (payment up front for out of stock items through an insecure site, anyone?) and was rude enough for me to pay more money somewhere else, and another bike shop told me my wheels would be here last monday - they're still not.

I like to get anything I can these days from Merlin or Superstar, they're just about reliable & deliver quickly.

Although Superstar have sent me self destructing brake pads and Merlin sent me a set of friday afternoon forks last week that had been assembled so you couldn't turn the adjuster properly, so it's all crap really.

Edit: apologies for the lack of random capitals, correct spelling and vague coherence - rant score 1/10!

....... That's exactly the problem isn't it. Shouldn't have these issues with a decent lbs and if you did you could call in to the shop but the lbs can't compete on price so the cycle continues, round and round.

Danny, I agree, the majority of complaints on singletrack are from people who get the wrong item, or who don't get an item at all. I haven't done an accurate historical search but I'm guessing the number of STW complaints is actually very small, Way less than 1 per day, which in itself would only equate to 0.1% of daily transactions.

The thing is these customers don't just make one post, they make many, and people cross post on these threads dredging up the same points multiple times on different threads. So the picture appears worse than it is. It would be great if there were none of course.

Edward you have mail.

Amazingly despite calling yesterday lunch time and being promised a refund I've had nothing.

So, no goods, no email and then no refund. Thoroughly pissed off now, ranty phone call tomorrow then...

Ordered stuff Sunday, arrived today. Service usually pretty good for me.

Planet X box arrived at work today. Tyre in there as expected. No kittens died.

thank you 🙂

Flange, I can see your order is ready to ship, do you want to cancel it still? Might be worthwhile speaking to customer services and seeing what they are prepared to do to make it right? Shouting might make you feel better but it's unlikely to get you your stuff and an apology credit note.

Think big picture 😉

Right, PX, here's my experience and view on what's going wrong with the issues raised on STW.

Olly, I'm not sure why we haven't contacted you, the jacket is showing as out of stock everywhere except in the Sheffield showroom. We have one here, [b]I've put it to one side for you. I need to transfer it to the warehouse, assigned to your order, and it will go out to you tomorrow[/b]. Sorry for the delay
Simon

Firstly, don't do this. [b]Own the problem[/b] - you have the jacket in your hand, package it and post it out yourself with a letter apologising. The short time it will take to do this will be paid back many times over because many people will read these threads and see a very positive outcome. Don't say you can't do this as "it has to go through the warehouse", that's putting your systems ahead of the customer and giving them another excuse. The customer doesn't care about what your systems are, they just want what they paid for.

Flange, I can see your order is ready to ship, do you want to cancel it still? Might be worthwhile speaking to customer services and seeing what they are prepared to do to make it right? Shouting might make you feel better but it's unlikely to get you your stuff and an apology credit note.

So you are threatening not to do the right thing if this person has a rant at you? Bad move. In retail you get people shouting at you, it happens. People have all sorts of temperaments and some can get shouty. You just deal with it and treat them the same way. If someone is especially nice and helpful and patient with an issue you may want to find some way to reward them above and beyond what you should do, but your veiled threat in the above paragraph, on a public website, is extraordinarily daft.

Danny, I agree, the majority of complaints on singletrack are from people who get the wrong item, or who don't get an item at all. I haven't done an accurate historical search but I'm guessing the number of STW complaints is actually very small, Way less than 1 per day, which in itself would only equate to 0.1% of daily transactions.

The thing is these customers don't just make one post, they make many, and people cross post on these threads dredging up the same points multiple times on different threads. So the picture appears worse than it is. It would be great if there were none of course.

Unfortunately that 0.1% of transactions are losing you 100's of extra transactions. You don't know that, because there isn't an easy way to measure something that isn't there. But these threads will be on the internet for a very long time. Try Googling "Planet X problem", something a lot of people do, and you'll see the extent of the problem you have from those minority of issues.

You need to get someone on these issues full time, sorting out each problem quickly and efficiently. A log should be made of all these problems and have regular meetings with the right people in the organisation who can change things to make sure they reduce FAST.

I'll leave it at that - just so you know I have 14 years retail management experience in companies whose success was based on great customer service. So been there, done that, many thousands of times!

Bought a Pompetamine frame from Planet-x through ebay. Received a Guerciotti cross frame and forks with the order details for some guy in Poland. Ebay dispute raised 🙁

Flange, I can see your order is ready to ship, do you want to cancel it still? Might be worthwhile speaking to customer services and seeing what they are prepared to do to make it right? Shouting might make you feel better but it's unlikely to get you your stuff and an apology credit note.

Think big picture 😉

Well, that's a different way to do it.

[quote=Jamie ]

Flange, I can see your order is ready to ship, do you want to cancel it still? Might be worthwhile speaking to customer services and seeing what they are prepared to do to make it right? Shouting might make you feel better but it's unlikely to get you your stuff and an apology credit note.
Think big picture

Don't say you can't do this as "it has to go through the warehouse", that's putting your systems ahead of the customer and giving them another excuse.

Then someone else can order one online, that shows as in stock, but then for some unknown reason it isn't there in stock and the frustrated (attempted) purchaser can come on here and moan about how crap their stock control / monitoring is..

Well, most recent order arrived on-time, correct address within two working days - so my own personal experience of PX is still very good overall................

Hopefully they have turned a corner.

Just to add my recent experiences:
Order 2 - turned up with Royal Mail in a couple of days. Didn't like it so I returned it - refund processed quickly. No problems.
Order 1 - placed before order 2 but didn't show up.
Supposed to be sent with RM, but I get a Yodel card (with tracking starting at Sheffield). I ask PX if maybe they've sent it with Yodel by mistake? No, no, it was sent with RM - sorry it's taken a while, but it's not "lost" until 15 working days, so please wait another two weeks before getting back in touch. I try to arrange collection from Yodel, but it has been returned to sender instead of holding at the depot for 7 days. Don't know why, maybe PX asked for it back?

Few days later,
PX: Hi your order has been returned to us. Please confirm your address - if there was a problem your end we might charge you to send the order out again.
Me: That's not my name, but yes, that's the correct address. I put it to you again that it was returned because you sent it with Yodel. Please send it with RM like you were supposed to.
PX: Hi [different wrong name] the box might be too big to go with RM, but I'll put a note on it for the warehouse.
Me: That's not my name either. I guess this [lack of] attention to detail is why you sent it with Yodel? Please send with RM.
PX: It was sent with Yodel due to the size of the box. (At last they're admitting they used the wrong courier -progress of sorts! Bear in mind this is just a tyre and a hoody, so it shouldn't be a very big package.)
Still waiting for it.

I really want to like PX, but they're a bit too "we're so Yorkshire and no-nonsense" for their own good sometimes. They're just inconsistent because sometimes they process an order just fine, sometimes they're really helpful, but other times they couldn't care less.

Flange, I can see your order is ready to ship, do you want to cancel it still? Might be worthwhile speaking to customer services and seeing what they are prepared to do to make it right? Shouting might make you feel better but it's unlikely to get you your stuff and an apology credit note.

Think big picture

You're having a ****ing laugh right? I've called THREE times now to cancel the order and chase my refund. I was also told by the bloke on the phone that it had definitely been cancelled. If you'd bothered to read the thread, you'd see this.

You can shove your sarky comment about thinking big picture. I don't want a friggin credit note or 'my goods' which I've cancelled. I want my money back.

Reading the last few paragraphs of the Planet-X story in Rouleur last night highlighted why a lot of these issues might be happening.

My synopsis;

1) lots of new senior staff brought in (including from CRC) who have experience of creating a scaleable business of this type.

2) New warehouses, systems introduced, staff numbers increased (CS go from 3 to 23, for example)

3) Intention being once all this change has happened the business will be sold to an MBO/VC grouping.

4) 3/4 of the way through the change existing owner decides he's not going through with the sale

5) large number of senior managers leave.

6) systems not fully in place, bit of a loss of direction as hiatus settles down.

7) customers get to see the results of internal issues.

I suspect in a few months time it'll all settle down again...

I'm sure Brant is reading this thread with a huge grin on his face thinking thank god I'm no longer with these shower of bloody idiots.
Good luck s646645786467436635 or whatever your name is.
I'll give you a month before you resign.

Reading the last few paragraphs of the Planet-X story in Rouleur last night highlighted why a lot of these issues might be happening.

My synopsis;

1) lots of new senior staff brought in (including from CRC) who have experience of creating a scaleable business of this type.

2) New warehouses, systems introduced, staff numbers increased (CS go from 3 to 23, for example)

3) Intention being once all this change has happened the business will be sold to an MBO/VC grouping.

4) 3/4 of the way through the change existing owner decides he's not going through with the sale

5) large number of senior managers leave.

6) systems not fully in place, bit of a loss of direction as hiatus settles down.

7) customers get to see the results of internal issues.

I suspect in a few months time it'll all settle down again...

You won't get anywhere on here with common sense like that, you know..........

Could be worse Flange, you could be dealing with Dave Hinde.... 😆 😆 😆

Hope its sorted soon buddy.

flange - Member

Flange, I can see your order is ready to ship, do you want to cancel it still? Might be worthwhile speaking to customer services and seeing what they are prepared to do to make it right? Shouting might make you feel better but it's unlikely to get you your stuff and an apology credit note.
Think big picture

You're having a ****ing laugh right? I've called THREE times now to cancel the order and chase my refund. I was also told by the bloke on the phone that it had definitely been cancelled. If you'd bothered to read the thread, you'd see this.

You can shove your sarky comment about thinking big picture. I don't want a friggin credit note or 'my goods' which I've cancelled. I want my money back.

Any chance you can patch us all in on the next phone call to PX?

Any chance you can patch us all in on the next phone call to PX?

These threads just get better and better!

[img] [/img]

Reading the last few paragraphs of the Planet-X story in Rouleur last night highlighted why a lot of these issues might be happening.

My synopsis;

1) lots of new senior staff brought in (including from CRC) who have experience of creating a scaleable business of this type.

2) New warehouses, systems introduced, staff numbers increased (CS go from 3 to 23, for example)

3) Intention being once all this change has happened the business will be sold to an MBO/VC grouping.

4) 3/4 of the way through the change existing owner decides he's not going through with the sale

5) large number of senior managers leave.

6) systems not fully in place, bit of a loss of direction as hiatus settles down.

7) customers get to see the results of internal issues.

I suspect in a few months time it'll all settle down again...

Good bit of analysis there, and I don't doubt there's some truth in it. But the fact is, Planet X have always been a bit "arsey" with their customers, a bit like SQ12345667985433 is being on here. Defensive, denialist, smart-arsed, process-[not result]focused.

About a decade ago, I had a minor run-in with Dave Loughran the owner, whilst attempting to give him several thousand pounds of my money. He was chippy, bad-tempered and difficult. Brant Richards (who lives locally to me) said "yep - some people just can't deal with us".

This attitude has always seemed to filter down at Planet X, and it comes out on the phones and in the warehouse. There is one CS call handler in particular (I will not name him here) who should be getting the sack for his appalling attitude towards customers. But he's probably learned that attitude from the boss.

The funny thing is, apart from that run-in with the boss ten years ago, I've never had any problem with my [occasional] PX orders, and I am a happy rider of a PX bike!

It's a common flaw in personality-led businesses; the attitudes of the founders rubs off on the staff. I've worked in a couple of them and the hardest thing to turn around is that attitude and usually the first step is to get the founder to behave with the same ethos as we're aiming for or find the founder something to do which doesn't influence staff.

I was trying to steer clear of this thread a few days ago when I saw it but following my recent contact with On one I thought I would share...
I ordered a Parkwood with a couple of extras (short stem, flat pedals) on the 10th August.theI fancied dabbling with a 29er and the bike looks good and well specced for the price.
I chased up on one on the 19th on the phone, and was told it was odd, they would nudge the build department, and get a build date etc. I received another email saying I would get a date within 36 hours and the queue was 7-10 days.
13 days and no date, I am starting to think they don't want my money any more...?

[quote=Leigh2612 ]I was trying to steer clear of this thread a few days ago when I saw it but following my recent contact with On one I thought I would share...
I ordered a Parkwood with a couple of extras (short stem, flat pedals) on the 10th August.theI fancied dabbling with a 29er and the bike looks good and well specced for the price.
I chased up on one on the 19th on the phone, and was told it was odd, they would nudge the build department, and get a build date etc. I received another email saying I would get a date within 36 hours and the queue was 7-10 days.
13 days and no date, I am starting to think they don't want my money any more...?
But don't they already have your money?

The biggest mistake PX makes is allowing staff to post on forums. It's not the correct way to respond to customer problems.

In defence of S24565382 (and not P-X as a whole!) I ordered a jacket on Tuesday the 12th. No word. Messaged in this thread and S24757575 put the last jacket aside for me in store, created an order for me on his day off. I had to phone the store to pay for it on Thursday morning. After letting the phone ring out (15 mins!!) 3 times(!!) on speaker I got through. I asked to pay extra for express courier delivery but was told they'd do that on the house. It's not here on Sat. Boo hoo. 😥 But thanks anyway s2468755

The biggest mistake PX makes is allowing staff to post on forums. It's not the correct way to respond to customer problems.

One can post on a forum and not be obtuse, tho. I don't remember Brant pulling a dick move like sq. did in relation to flange's order. Plus you have several other business representatives on here that seem to be able cope ok.

The biggest mistake PX makes is allowing staff to post on forums. It's not the correct way to respond to customer problems.

I disagree. When staff genuinely care about their company, it's the right thing to do. Ian Hughes, ex-Scott UK head honcho (now running Storck in the UK), used to turn up to answer and follow up online. He was a great example. Brant would follow up, perhaps as he had to as no one else could be arsed. At least someone was trying to help.

SQ45iu4i5uy4i5uu88830o00002222 or whatever his name is is in the same boat. Clearly no one else there gives a flying monkey crap about the customers, but he/she does.

Use your LBS. Get to know real people. People who actually give a shit, not just some faceless asshat on the end of a phone line.,

scotroutes - Member

Leigh2612  » I was trying to steer clear of this thread a few days ago when I saw it but following my recent contact with On one I thought I would share...
I ordered a Parkwood with a couple of extras (short stem, flat pedals) on the 10th August.theI fancied dabbling with a 29er and the bike looks good and well specced for the price.
I chased up on one on the 19th on the phone, and was told it was odd, they would nudge the build department, and get a build date etc. I received another email saying I would get a date within 36 hours and the queue was 7-10 days.
13 days and no date, I am starting to think they don't want my money any more...?

But don't they already have your money?

scotroutes, good point. I might be asking for it back though like flange above...I'm hoping after the BH another phone call will give them a kick on and encourage them to make me a happy customer somehow...

Agreed with m360 sqwhatevernumber should have kept his nose well out of it,he's not a head bloke and reading in between the lines tried to smooth over an escalating situation which now has spiralled into an embarrassing pain in the arse that he' made much worse which have left most of us viewing Planet X as a firm who doesn't give a damn about costumer satisfaction and basically behaving in a crookish manner,don't think he will be posting on here from now on,well iff the guys at the top need an office to go to after the bank holiday then he won't be promising things Planet X obviously can't deliver,hope they sort it,like I said I won't be shopping at the moment ,only with suppliers who can deliver the right stuff at the right time.

I was chasing Planet X for an order. I got an email saying it was due to be dispatched. When I arrived home I noticed it had been delivered!

I don't think I can be bothered with them anymore