PCS Showing Stock before ordering. Please Comment!

[captcha]

When I was tracking online, and then phoning 3 times,what displayed on the web tracker was diffferent to that which displayed on the screen at PCS.
Perhaps their system as seperate front and back ends.
Whilst understanding that money talks (How many of us originally choose 3 or 5 day before being told an item out of stock doesn't allow it.?), if a customer has payed in advance for 3 or 4 weeks,it would be nice to think that a system could identify, on an order ageing basis, that such orders cannot be queue jumped.
Where there are similar companies providing similar services,especially in difficult times,the level of service so often differentiates between the survivors and the others.
PCS will obviously try to keep their overheads down to maintain margin. The big one being staff payroll.
Keeping staff levels to a minimum while having sufficient to answer phone/email queries,build & test machines,progress chase suppliers,and perform efficient stock control, is seriously challenging.
There certainly needs to be better communication with customers, preferably an accurate and more informative online tracking,to reduce the time taken dealing with phone/emails.
Without knowing details ,difficult to know if it's the whole stock control system that needs upgrading, or just implementing differently.
Or the training and allocation of staff to maximise service level and profit.
Good Luck with that.

 

[Maestro]

This thread has got quite long so i will also add my post here which gives an overview of how our system works.

wrote this post in the run up to Xmas last year, but it is still relevant as we are still crazy busy.

When you place your order it is at the bottom of the pile, in terms of the queue to be built. From the moment your order starts processing it is moving up the queue to be built. However during this time we carry out things such as fraud checks. We also make sure we have the parts for your order, and order them if not.

We keep most items in stock, but there will always be a couple of components that are in constraint. Components that have just been released for example. This can affect a particular orders delivery time. Once all this has been done, then your order enters pre-production. The time taken until your order enters pre-production is largely determined by how busy we are. Please note that the approx. lead time that you are provided with when ordering is approximate. This time frame is determined by the average time it has taken to dispatch deliveries over the last two months. Most orders will still be dispatched within this advertised window but it is not guaranteed, it is just a indicator. Some orders will be dispatched earlier than this, and some will take longer.

Pre-production means that all processing of your order, fraud, stock check is complete and your order has been printed by the spec picker (the guy who physically picks the stock of the shelves to be built). Again, this can be a waiting game while your order sheet moves up the pile. Once the sheet is at the top, it is picked and built. The whole process is very fluid, and actual lead times can change daily. We only have a set number of staff, so a surge in orders will cause the lead time to grow, while a quiet week will see it shorten.

As stated above the last few weeks have been extremely busy, which is feeding through to the lead time advertised. A few weeks ago it was 6-8 working days and is now 9-12 or something like that. Traditionally this period of the year right up until Christmas only gets busier, so I would expect the lead time could still grow.
Please however rest assured that we do all we can in such busy periods to deliver your order as quickly as possible. I understand it is a frustrating period waiting for your dream machine.

During busy times such as these we get the team working overtime to keep the lead time down as much as possible. What we cannot do is simply go out and employ more staff on a whim because we have had a busy few weeks. The reason why we are so competitive on price is because we are very efficient and keep overheads down. We have to strike a steady balance on staff numbers because it is not busy week in week out all year round. There are traditional quiet periods.

For those customers who require a PC urgently then there is the fast track service. All checks are done immediately and your order goes straight to the top of the pile.
Finally, I would ask all customers to be patient. Remember the less staff we have to use answering emails and taking phone calls regarding status of order the more staff we can use in production building and testing your computers. If your order is taking longer than you expected then there is a reason for this and you can rest assured it has not been forgotten, but it just simply means we are busy.


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It is quite clear from this thread that almost everybody has a differing idea on how we should try and change / improve the system we have. At the end of day and this is being blunt so apologies, but every customer has agreed to provide us with up to 30 days to provide their order. If we do this then we have upheld our contract of sale. However we do obviously want to get orders to customers as quickly as possible, but if we do overrun our approximate average lead-time guideline, we have not conned anyone, ripped anyone off, provided the worst customer service ever, lied, been fraudulent. The reason I use these strong words is because this is what we often hear from customers even before we have passed the current guideline lead-times let alone the 30 days they have actually agreed to. Let me make it clear that this is a minority, but it takes up considerable time to communicate and try and explain the service they have paid for and how the system works, but very rarely does this make any difference and they will call the next day and the next together with numerous emails etc.

We totally understand that customers pay a lot of money for our products which will become their pride and joy, but part of that contract is understanding what you have actually paid for and what the conditions of that sale are, in this case with regard to timescales etc.

Patience is a diminishing commodity these days, but we promise that in return for patience from our customers, we will work our socks off to deliver your dream machine as quickly as possible and the time and effort that this could save could literally mean 2 or 3 members of staff being deployed to actually produce the pc's and laptops instead of answering emails and phone calls from customers who are disappointed they haven’t got their pc within a week even though we did state the average time was 12 working days.

This isn’t a moan; just a heartfelt waffle log to try and give a bit of insight from our side which in the end means that no matter what we try to do to improve things there will always be those who feel rightly or wrongly that the service hasn’t been acceptable.

 

[PaulH]

::::: Standing ovation and whoooping ensues :::::

That was nearly as good as Bravehearts speech!

 

[mantadog]

It really is tough to get a solutuion that will please everyone, providing the number of components in stock at the time of order seems like you could just create a different problem to the one you have now.

As i understand it, most people get their order roughly within the estimate. I have noticed from the threads on these forums some people have genuine problems getting their order, but a good percentage of them are moaning because an extra couple of days seems to be too long a wait. I'm not preaching here, i'm the worst offender in the world but i woldn't complain about it as i understand these things happen, and i'm yet to hear a story about a delay from PCS as long as i suffered at the hands of a four letter international company with a similar name to the hellish experiance it was ordering from them in my only dealings with them to date.

I think the problem with listing (for example) 500 FX-4100's or 500 i5 3550's is that your average customer would have no way of knowing how many of those CP's PCS goes through per day, week or month. Also, as others have said, it maight lead to people thinking "well thats good because when i ordred their were 50 GTX 670's so mine will be held back" when that isn't how the system works. So for lack of a better idea i say stick with the estimated lead times

 

[bigben]

I think that as long as you keep the customer informed, they will be relatively happy, I know that's the case in my line of work.

Just out of interest, my computer has been delayed because there aren't any fan controllers, I take it the rest of my components have been put aside? I don't mind waiting, but, if for example once the fan controllers are in I get another email to say something else was out of stock I would begin to get impatient..

 

[Fear]

I thought that i would have really liked to see what stock levels PCS had in when i had ordered my PC (but did know the case and CPU were out of stock) as i wanted to fast track because my gaming rig that i had decided it had done enough and a few components failed, i did also get an e-mail telling me the PSU had gone out of stock after i had ordered that kind of annoyed me as i thought at the time it would be reserved and i have to admit i called up to see what the delays were with my build even though i was nowhere near the 30 days but was looking at the estimated times and hated the pre production part of the waiting and seeing people ordering a week or so after me getting their PC's before me, so after reading more on both sides i think that having a system notifying the customer what amount is in stock at the time will get them more annoyed to find out that there were 500 in stock when they ordered and that after they have waited for their order to go into the build stage the part has gone out of stock and might/will delay the build where as if you don't know then most of us will look at well they only had a few in stock that were already set aside/someone had already ordered before them (which will make it easier while waiting in my opinion) also i think someone mentioned having it list where you are in the queue well that would be really bad if you saw you were second and then next time you look you are 97 as loads of people have ordered fast track so basically i think the system PCS already have would be better left alone.

 

[Jamwllms]

I suppose what it all comes down to is.. Good things come to those who wait.

 

[Maestro]

Jamwllms, the best post i have seen so far on these forums

 

[morowe]

Personally don't have a problem with it how it is but here is an idea:

How about just updating your current system of showing where in the process your computer if; you know where it says quality control building and all that.

If there was a section that said "waiting for delivery or stock replenishment with estimated arrival xx\xx" then people would be less likely to blame PCS and more likely to see a logical reason behind the delay. instead of "OMG THERE TAKING WAY TOO LONG TO START!?!!??!?shift!1?!" people will more naturally come to the conclusion that it is out of your hands and that its not the actual build taking so long.

This would probably be a pain in the ass to implement though and i can see how any system will give rise to similar issues!

 

[Jamwllms]

The suggestion above is a pretty good one. The specifics of a delivery date of stock might be overally complicated. Delivery times get put back, etc. Which will make people unhappy.

But just having "Awaiting Delivery of Components" would be good. If specific components could be listed, so much the better!

But I'm not sure whether PC Specialist hold components for orders that are waiting for others to arrive, etc.

Showing stock before an order doesn't seem feasible to me, since those components could be used before the order is into production. (Processing time, fast track, etc.)

I dunno.

I'm happy to wait anyways.

 

[jwonno]

Indeed, individually tailoring everyone's order status would be very problematic due to the number of variables inherent in a custom build service.

Logistically I'm not sure how feasible it would be, but how about matching components currently in high demand to orders entering pre-production and adding something like "Possible delays due to high demand of one or more of your components" to the "Pre-Production" status. Then post components in high demand to the forum / a sticky so people can figure out which it is for them.

If your average number of orders goes up in a particular week, such that it some orders will not get seen to in a given time, you could add "Possible delays due to a peak in queue times". This could be tricky as understandably orders can fluctuate quite a bit quite quickly.

Hopefully these could let people know in advance that they may be delayed, instead of being told when/after the problem arises.

I agree that it is unreasonable to expect the quickest timescales for every order when you quite clearly state the percentages of orders received in the respective times. I would rather wait, happy in the knowledge that a computer of my own creation is being built to my specification, than quarrel over 'delays' which I presume for the most part still fall within your 30 day agreement.

 

[Xii_Damian]

I was just going to make a post about this too ask if its possible to see stock levels as some items are very much the same with a few pound price difference and some people are working on timescales I think we should get estimated stock and for them levels to change once an part has been used in a system

 

[Karnor00]

If you aren't guaranteeing that you will allocate particular stock to a particular order then I think it would be a mistake to indicate whether something is in stock or not. It is extremely annoying to order something which is in stock and then get told later that your order is being held up because it is no longer in stock. I've had companies do this to me and it makes me not want to use them again.

I think that what customers mainly want is information. They wan't to know that their order hasn't been forgotten and want to see what is happening with it. At the moment most customers only really get 2 main stages - pre-production and building. Testing seems to be pretty quick and shipping happens pretty fast after that. So all they get is seeing that their order has spent X days in pre-production/building.

That's not a lot of information for the customer who is logging on every day (or quite possibly more often) hoping for an update on their order - most days they won't see any change at all. That rapidly gets frustrating. They then call up because they DO get more information - either finding that something is out of stock or just reassurance that it hasn't been forgotten about.

I know that when I ordered my computer it sat in pre-production for longer than the total lead times (at that time) and when I finally called up I was told there was no problems and it magically progressed to building the next day. Coincidence? Or did my call actually make a difference. Made me wonder if I should have been less patient and called sooner. Especially when the same thing happened when I called to ask about the build process (I waited a couple days longer than the typical build time before calling).

What I think would be ideal is if you could provide the customer with whatever internal information you have. So if there is a queue for pre-production then how far down the list is my PC? That way I can at least see it progressing along the list. Same thing for building. And whenever a stock check is done and/or stock is allocated to my PC then let me see that get updated on my order. Along with an estimate for when any out-of-stock items are due and when you last checked the stock. You must have this information because I can get it if I call up so it's really just a matter of finding some way of providing it to the customer.

Ultimately I think most customers wouldn't feel the need to call to check on progress if they were already being provided with everything that you know about their order.

 

[Rakk]

What I think would be ideal is if you could provide the customer with whatever internal information you have. So if there is a queue for pre-production then how far down the list is my PC? That way I can at least see it progressing along the list. Same thing for building.

However, numbers like that are probably company confidential, and PCS wouldn't want competitors getting hold of the numbers, so I suspect that you will never see what number you are in the queue.

 

[Karnor00]

I can understand there may be reasons why PCS don't want to show particular information. I was just setting out what I, as a customer, would like to see. If I can get more information by calling up then don't be surprised if I call up!

 

[Everon]

I think the system you are currently employing is pretty good.

I will add however that perhaps if a part is out of stock and it will not be back in stock before the estimated build time that you should contact the customer, advising how long said part will actually take to be back in stock and what other options (upgrade,downgade) the out of stock item could be replaced with. This could be done via email.

This gives the a customer a choice and most importantly makes them feel that they are involved in the process, keeping them happy and insuring a positive review of your company in the long term.

Jay.

 

[jcdonny1]

Would be nice to have this feature as you could make a decision over whether you were prepared to wait for the stock to arrive or go somewhere else, or pick something else.