Widnes Model Centre Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 I am posting this to express my absolute disgust at my wife and myself’s treatment at Dapol today. Having arranged staff cover we travelled to Dapol at Chirk today. A three hour round trip. On arrival we were greeted by the sign outside basically trade and public sales. We went into the shop and saw a very pleasant lady. We explained that we have come to place a new trade order. She said she would contact “Kevin” who dealt with trade sales. She telephoned him and explained who we were. He told her that we hadn’t signed the new terms and conditions. Not a Problem we said. She said “He has hung up”. She rang him back and asked if he had hung up on her. We never heard the reply but she was sorry but couldn’t help us as he had told her it needed three days to prepare any order. Not a problem we don’t want to take it today just pick and place an order. Turns out that wasn’t possible either. Asked would he at least see us, “No”. We felt sorry for her and left the building. I rang Kevin from my car and explained we were in the car park and wanted to place an order. He said we would need to open a new account as we hadn’t ordered direct for some years. I explained we purchased our Dapol from either Gaugemaster or Javis Manufacturing, but understood and could do that now. Kevin explained that he would have to email me the forms and then return them to Dapol. “We are in the car park”. “Sorry, but we would have to do Credit Checks” . “We will pay in advance before Dapol even send the goods” . “No you cannot do that.”. Could we speak to Joel? No he was busy all day, in that case can you ask him to telephone me? Kevin indicated he would and would email me the forms. I asked Kevin if this was the way Dapol dealt with customers trying to place trade orders. Certainly not, he said. Alas, that is how we felt. Now 515pm. No email. No telephone call. One of the main reasons for being so angry, yes, angry is that the last time we tried to deal with Dapol direct they asked us to come another time as they were busy, ‘Stock taking ‘. I had rang earlier before setting off to make sure we didn’t have another wasted journey. Our budget for today was £5000 to include the VAT. Dapol, any explanation for how rude we thought you were today? 7 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Legend Posted February 27, 2019 RMweb Premium Share Posted February 27, 2019 I sense your exasperation. And certainly they don’t seem clued up on customer service . I suspect an appearance and face to face explanation might have pacified you with order firmed up later. However I would say it’s probably between you and Dapol and maybe not best shared on a public forum, annoyed as you are. anyway good luck with your order. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Widnes Model Centre Posted February 27, 2019 Author Share Posted February 27, 2019 Face to face would have been satisfactory. Even a returned telephone call. Even the promised email. But nothing. Even the offer of a cup of tea would have helped a long way. We wouldn’t treat any company rep like that. I agree with your sentiments Legend in many ways Legend. But how do they treat other customers? My only contact before we opened the shop was an issue I had with my own Dapol loco. Only six months old but was told it was out of warranty and “tough”. That person who I spoke to left Dapol. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Markwj Posted February 27, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 27, 2019 Not interested in increasing sales then? What a strange way to run a business! Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
MGR Hooper! Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 9 hours ago, Widnes Model Centre said: I am posting this to express my absolute disgust at my wife and myself’s treatment at Dapol today. Having arranged staff cover we travelled to Dapol at Chirk today. A three hour round trip. On arrival we were greeted by the sign outside basically trade and public sales. We went into the shop and saw a very pleasant lady. We explained that we have come to place a new trade order. She said she would contact “Kevin” who dealt with trade sales. She telephoned him and explained who we were. He told her that we hadn’t signed the new terms and conditions. Not a Problem we said. She said “He has hung up”. She rang him back and asked if he had hung up on her. We never heard the reply but she was sorry but couldn’t help us as he had told her it needed three days to prepare any order. Not a problem we don’t want to take it today just pick and place an order. Turns out that wasn’t possible either. Asked would he at least see us, “No”. We felt sorry for her and left the building. I rang Kevin from my car and explained we were in the car park and wanted to place an order. He said we would need to open a new account as we hadn’t ordered direct for some years. I explained we purchased our Dapol from either Gaugemaster or Javis Manufacturing, but understood and could do that now. Kevin explained that he would have to email me the forms and then return them to Dapol. “We are in the car park”. “Sorry, but we would have to do Credit Checks” . “We will pay in advance before Dapol even send the goods” . “No you cannot do that.”. Could we speak to Joel? No he was busy all day, in that case can you ask him to telephone me? Kevin indicated he would and would email me the forms. I asked Kevin if this was the way Dapol dealt with customers trying to place trade orders. Certainly not, he said. Alas, that is how we felt. Now 515pm. No email. No telephone call. One of the main reasons for being so angry, yes, angry is that the last time we tried to deal with Dapol direct they asked us to come another time as they were busy, ‘Stock taking ‘. I had rang earlier before setting off to make sure we didn’t have another wasted journey. Our budget for today was £5000 to include the VAT. Dapol, any explanation for how rude we thought you were today? If your last statement indicates your post being directed to Dapol, then why post here? You know Dapol don't post here. Post on their Dapol Digest seeking an explanation, Joel, Neil, Andy etc are quite passionate and will not let such a thing slip by. Especially if one of their employees is not keeping up the company name. You starting this thread is quite pointless as it's a trade order and you'll only attracted some pointless unhelpful replies as the one directly above mine. What Legend says is correct, it's something to be discussed off this forum and privately. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steamport Southport Posted February 28, 2019 Share Posted February 28, 2019 Sorry but I disagree. Next time we give a retailer grief due to him not having stock that we have pre-ordered, it's maybe relevant that we know the problems they also have in obtaining that stock. Pure assumption on my part, but that order quite possibly was firm orders from valued customers who will possibly now go elsewhere due to Widnes MC not being able to fulfil the orders. Besides the moderators almost certainly would have seen this thread as they've been about all day. I think one of them might have even corrected the spelling mistake in the title.... Jason 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold adb968008 Posted February 28, 2019 RMweb Gold Share Posted February 28, 2019 A lot of people have issue with Sales Reps, but if there was an argument as to why a Sales Rep or Account Manager is useful to a company, there’s an example right there. i assume they knew in advance that you were coming ? Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators Popular Post AY Mod Posted February 28, 2019 Administrators Popular Post Share Posted February 28, 2019 Joel has asked me to post a response to the issue. Quote Thank you for bringing the post made from Widnes Model Centre to our attention. I would like to make the following comments in response: We welcome visits by trade customers old and new and actively encourage them, as we love to show people around our facility and take pride in making the visit enjoyable and welcoming. However, we are a working factory and in certain circumstances cannot accommodate trade visitors and as a consequence ask that such trade calls are made with prior arrangement. The owner of Widnes Model Centre states that he called prior to his visit and made us aware of their visit. I have asked all our staff who answer the telephone and none of them can recall speaking to Widnes Model Centre and making the necessary arrangements. Furthermore yesterday, would not have been an ideal time to visit as we had a scheduled engineering development meeting which lasts all day and involves some of our people travelling from all corners of the country to attend which puts me out of contact for the entire day. This situation is also exacerbated by the fact that our despatch and warehouse manager is currently off work in hospital, resulting in yesterday there being a distinct sparsity of free staff. As MD, I also like to personally meet the customers who make the effort to visit us, but yesterday, sadly this would have been very difficult and I would have tried to reschedule any customer visit for anther time. Personally, I think this all presents itself as mess up in communications. If we had the visit logged and planned I can assure Widnes Model Centre they would have been welcomed and given our fullest attention and service. We would have had all the appropriate paperwork and administration sorted and that any order and transaction could have been handled smoothly and efficiently. Upon investigation and with hindsight, we undoubtedly could have handled the situation more sympathetically and I apologise to Widnes Model Centre for the wasted visit. To make amends, I would suggest that Widnes Model Centre drop us an email onsales@dapol.co.uk and we can arrange the visit and I can personally welcome him and show him around our facility, or if preferred, I can call in at his store (in my home town) and make the necessary arrangements at their convenience. We are a friendly team at Dapol and am sorry that this description of events makes it seem the contrary. Kind Regards Joel Bright 12 3 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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