My Scotweb Experience

[Steve Ashton]

I disagree Domehead,

McNaughton is a member of this forum in good standing. He has violated none of our rules or policies.

He has an issue with a product or service of a company, and that company is an advertiser on this forum with their own section. He is seeking to bring his issue to the owner of ScotWeb.
It says in the title box of this section of the forum:
"This section of the forum was designed to allow our members direct access to Nick at Scotweb."

It also says in the title box:
"Finally, this section is to give our members a specific place to post reviews of products and the services they received from Scotweb."
He voiced his complaint in the proper area.

He has stated his complaint in a forthright and, as far as anyone knows, a truthful manner. Has not libeled or denigrated the company in any way in accordance with our Policies.

[Downunder Kilt]

Thank you, Mr. Ashton.

This is exactly what was saying...the OP smacks of trolling and should be dealt with "off-line", or (per your request) in the advertisers section.

We are in the Scotweb advertisers forum

[BCAC]

I'm with the OP on this one.

It's difficult for him (and anyone in his situation) because whatever he does there will be someone to say that he's wrong to do that.

Nick asked him to contact Scotweb first before posting on an open forum. Fair one. He tried with no result so he posted in the advertisers forum here. Also a fair one.

I had two dealings with Scotweb and one went fine (no problems and order quickly dispatched and received) and the other had problems. The customer complaint/email replying service at Scotweb needs looking at. I eventually got someone to look into my problem by sending PMs to Nick personally through this site. It's not easy to know what to do for the best when you have problems and your email to Scotweb has not been replied to.

[Domehead]

My apologies. I took "Advertisers Thread" to mean something different than "X Marks Partners".

As for the OP, Personally, I do not believe in airing these issues publicly. I'm not prepared to change my mind.
I've stated, I'm not taking sides. Just saying, had this issue been resolved away from the keyboard, the OP might have read,

"...Had significant difficulty with a specific order placed with Scotweb - which called for specialised fabric and limited production sporrans - but with Mgmt's assistance, we were able to navigate refund issues and settled everything amicably. Unfortunately, we couldn't fill our order, but we recommend Scotweb for their handling of the situation"

Rather, we get one version, then an obligatory response. The rest, as they say, is history.

[BCAC]

If you're in the situation of the OP, it's difficult to know what to do for the best.

I recently bought some shirts from an online company. After a loooong wait - nothing. No shirts, no emails, no telephone calls. Nothing. So I contacted them through their web site. Instant reply, apologies and tracking information followed by, three days later, DHL ringng my doorbell with a package for me. My shirts. THAT'S the way to do it. They got a good review from me partly because of the way they handled the problem.

[Domehead]

BCAC,
Point well made and well taken.

[Llama]

Very true. Even if they are sometimes a bit gauche, these types of threads can do wonders for letting people know how a company deals with an irate customer - because I've been an irate customer before. Especially when communication is failing and you feel like you have no other avenues.

If I read one of these threads and it has a happy ending (or a satisfying ending, because honestly sometimes they are started by crackpots), it's better advertising for the company than a forum full of people who are satisfied from the start.

[crew2447]

The OP's experience with ScotWeb is similar to mine when I ordered a single kilt. The kilt was not acceptable and I returned it for correction. Things did not go well from the customer's point of view when problems arose. It took multiple phone calls and emails after the kilt was received back in Scotland to find out whether the return had been accepted. Then more calls and emails to find out when a replacement would be shipped. Then more calls and emails to be reimbursed for the return postage. A good quality kilt did eventually arrive in December, after being ordered in June.

I think ScotWeb's customer service falls short of the example set by American retailers like Nordstrom or West Marine, to name a couple with which I have experience. What a customer wants is to have his expectations managed. And really there is only one question that needs to be answered -- "When will I get good product?" If something comes up that will delay delivery, that should be communicated to the customer.

I would have liked to hear a few very simple things during my wait. 1. Yes, we agree your kilt is unacceptable and we'll replace it. 2. We expect that it will take X weeks for us to ship your kilt. 3. When your kilt arrives please contact us and we will settle the expenses you incurred returning your kilt to us.

A customer satisfaction process that requires the intervention of the company owner for expediting and clear communication is not a good process.

In the end I received a kilt that I think is fantastic. The matter was settled to my satisfaction. I had chosen ScotWeb because of the good reviews in this forum. I hope that the return process can be made better.

[McNaughtan]

Soon after Nick's post, I sent another email to complaints@scotweb.co.uk detailing how our sporrans order was handled, attaching a few emails that I had sent previously. Nick replied to this one saying that he was out of town but would investigate as soon as possible and reply shortly.
At least we now have real 2-way communication. Shame it took this posting to get us there.

By the way, as a "first time poster" I 'd like to say hello. I won't pretend that I came to XMTS through a general interest in kilts (although I've been wearing kilts for ages) - I googled scotweb reviews and thought that the scotweb section of this site was a suitable place to tell my sorry tale. However, since I've had a virtual wander around, I must say that it's an interesting place with contributors ranging from the eminently sensible (those I agree with!) to the plain whacky (those I don't!) - I'll be popping in now and again.

Also, thanks to the moderators and Steve Ashton for their fair treatment. It would have been very easy and convenient to stifle my admittedly scathing criticism of one of your sponsors. I believe that you can judge someone best by seeing how they act when things are tricky rather than when everything is easy - I commend you for your honesty and fairness.

In a similar vein, the best indicator of a company's service is how they handle matters when things go wrong...

[McNaughtan]

Scotweb have refunded the final part of my payment and I now consider this matter closed.

They do need to clarify their position on refunding outward postage on returned goods. Apparently, they refund outward postage on goods sent to Europe (as they are obliged to by European law - google 'Distance Selling Regulations') but not to the rest of the world (you'll not see that mentioned in their returns policy). It may well be a fair policy but they should make it plain up-front before doing business with people. Anyway, I don't think they're very receptive to suggestions (especially from me!) so any future customers should check this out before ordering.

I sincerely hope that Scotweb learn from this and improve their processes for handling future complaints.