Poor Service From Scotweb

[Sally-Anne]

I have been waiting now 7 weeks for 4 items from Scotweb the Kilt specialists. Despite being reassured that the order would arrive before Christmas on more than i occasion, I am still waiting! They seem unable to respond to my calls or emails. They have taken money from my credit card even though I have received nothing. Their customer service is non existent as far as I am concerned. The items were for visiting relatives from abroad who have now returned home. Would the MD or CEO like to respond to this in anyway?

[tulloch]

Dispute the charge on your credit card. They can take action against unscrupulous vendors.

[Nick Fiddes]

First, yet again, can I ask anyone with a service issue to please contact me directly in the first instance, as outlined in the Sticky at the top of this section. This is normal protocol when joining a new forum.

I cannot comment directly on the circumstances here yet, as I'm not in the office this week. But I'll do my best to find out, and respond to the customer directly. I'll report back here too in due course, as always.

Meanwhile, I'd be grateful if other forum members could refrain from gratuitous rudeness at the very least. I honestly find words like 'unscrupulous' quite offensive. As any regular member will be aware we strive very hard to work to the very highest customer service standards. Like any supplier we do make occasional mistakes, which we always strive to put right to the best of our ability. But we never ever ignore customer communications, and in every such case of complaint it transpires that messages have either not reached us or that the customer has failed to receive our replies, through reasons outwith our control. The customer's frustration in these circumstances is understandable. But I would ask for the opportunity to conduct a proper investigation before further mud is slung. Please.

I'll reply further when I can.

[Stephan]

Your best bet is to contact the owner of Scotweb personally. You can PM 'Nick Fiddes' directly through this website....give it a try as he's a forum member and a frequent contributor.

[TheOfficialBren]

Seriously, I am amazed that a single vendor with no franchises or foreign branches run by a small but dedicated team is able to fulfill any orders around the Christmas rush! It is a nightmare of a time for retailers worldwide! I give serious props to Nick and his people.

Scotweb is made up of people. Not magical Scottish kilt faeries...men and women like you and me. Human error, oversight, and general fallibility are realistic factors.

Nick is always good for setting things right from what I have observed.

Be patient. Among the rabble we call that anxious waiting "the Jones." Your items will be high quality and worth waiting for.
;-)

[Sally-Anne]

First, yet again, can I ask anyone with a service issue to please contact me directly in the first instance, as outlined in the Sticky at the top of this section. This is normal protocol when joining a new forum.

I cannot comment directly on the circumstances here yet, as I'm not in the office this week. But I'll do my best to find out, and respond to the customer directly. I'll report back here too in due course, as always.

Meanwhile, I'd be grateful if other forum members could refrain from gratuitous rudeness at the very least. I honestly find words like 'unscrupulous' quite offensive. As any regular member will be aware we strive very hard to work to the very highest customer service standards. Like any supplier we do make occasional mistakes, which we always strive to put right to the best of our ability. But we never ever ignore customer communications, and in every such case of complaint it transpires that messages have either not reached us or that the customer has failed to receive our replies, through reasons outwith our control. The customer's frustration in these circumstances is understandable. But I would ask for the opportunity to conduct a proper investigation before further mud is slung. Please.

I'll reply further when I can.

[Sally-Anne]

Dear Nick Fiddes of Scotweb

Thank you for your response, it is a relief that some one from your company has finally replied to my email. I am afraid the damage of poor service, for me, is irreversible. I look forward to you contacting me once you have returned to your office.

[Nick Fiddes]

Dear Sally-Anne,

I understand your perception of poor service, and I can confirm that there have indeed been clear problems with this order, as I'll outline below. However, I can find no evidence of any email to which we've not responded, bearing in mind that our offices are closed for substantial periods over the holidays, like most businesses. (And that this year, the days fell in the most unhelpful pattern.) In Scotland both the 1st and 2nd are holidays, so our office is only back in action today.

As mentioned, I'm not yet back at the office this week. But with the help of a very busy team on their first day back, I've managed to pull together a bit of background information about this order. So I'll do my best to explain the situation as I find it...

The original order for two items, a made-to-measure skirt and a made-to-measure hat was placed on 15 November. No special deadline was mentioned, and the confirmation email dispatched by us confirmed an estimated (though within our terms for custom-made goods, not guaranteed) deadline of 3rd January - today, in fact.

Nine days later on 24 Nov, a further two accessories were added to the order by telephone. Again, no deadline was given. And our confirmation email again specified 3rd January.

In December, we received a call asking if the goods could be dispatched in time for Christmas. We advised that we would do our best to help, but our staff training would be not to make any promise so late in the Christmas rush. (We don't record all calls, so I can't check the actual conversation.) We are reliant for made-to-order items both on fabric suppliers and tailors who are themselves overworked with their own Christmas rush, and regretfully it's not always possible to enforce our requests for expedited service. So we cannot make promises.

At this point a member of our team did indeed make a mistake, entering the 'rush' date as 21 Dec, failing to realise that due to the weekend this meant it would not be flagged as late until the 24th - too late to rectify any problems for Xmas delivery. (We'll be addressing this problem with the technical team to try to prevent similar errors in future.)

On 24 December the customer phoned, receiving an apology and a promise of a postal upgrade at our expense to ensure goods arrive as quickly as possible.

There was also a problem with the hat, which failed to pass our own QC check on receipt from the maker. Rather than send out imperfect goods, we had to ask for another to be made. The customer was informed of this.

After Christmas, the manager opted to split the order, sending out the goods in hand with additional postal costs to be covered by ourselves. Unfortunately however the postal service on Hogmanay arrived much earlier than normal due to the holiday, and the package had not yet been packed.

So it has been sent out today, together with another apology and a small goodwill compensation offer.

Therefore, in summary, there have indeed been mistakes, both ours and third party failures outwith our control, which we of course regret greatly. But I can find no evidence that we've failed to respond properly to any message, nor that we've made any guarantee to meet the Christmas deadline that was only ever communicated to us very late in the day for made-to-order goods. We did say we'd do our best to help, but on this occasion were unsuccessful. We're very sorry to have let the customer down.

It's a huge disappointment to let down any customer, particularly for a special occasion. Of the thousands of orders we've taken for this Christmas, we've only had a handful fall through - fewer than ever before in fact, as we've improved our systems year by year. As always, we'll try to learn from these issues that do occur, and do better next time. And we can only apologise and do our best to rectify things when it does happen.

I'll also be contacting Sally-Anne directly. And I'll be suggesting (as to everyone, please!) that if there are any remaining issues, these things are always easier to sort out privately, where I can speak more freely without constraints of things like Data Protection legislation that prevents me going into further detail.

[domnhall.rowlan]

It is gratifying in this age of big box business to see such a personal in depth response to a customer complaint. As a newby to both the forum and indeed kilted life, it is also a boon to see such responses, as that
gives me indication of where I want to do business in the future. Out of my few posts to the threads on the forum, this is the second one to congratulate a person/business. It is a major kudo to the forum that the businesses that advertise here have such a base of customer support.
Thanks from a future customer

[Laird_M]

One thing I'll say about Nick - he takes complaints seriously and tries to do his best for his customers. A lot of other businesses could do with following his example...