I just made a post on today's Clearance Thread but figured it would most likely get buried, so thought I'd post to the forums as well. I was a Dick Smith Store Manager (and salesperson prior to that) for several years up to 2013. Experienced first hand the Gaming Sale, the uncertainty regarding the Woolies sell-off and the (mostly unadvertised, but now infamous in relation to the way they cooked the books for the IPO) clearance that Anchorage completed just after they purchased the business (most of these items tended to show up individually on Ozbargain back in the day).
[AMA] I'm an Ex Dick Smith Store Manager - Ask Me Anything
L[Deactivated] on 02/12/2015 - 17:57
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Just spent the last hour reading through the post and love all the replies, I have worked for Dick Smith for the past 24 years and boy has the business changed over those times, from selling 386 computers with dos to Now (been Manager of a store the last 8 but management for 15 years in some way)
I think one fundamental issue with the business it is hard to find the right product mix and niche in such a competitive market.
Dick Smith in my store at least used to survive on your regular customers and great customer service, This still exists a little this day and age but more and more customers are getting savvy with checking prices on phones and more retailers are dabbling in electronics and accessories for example Coles and Woolies selling HDMI leads, phone leads, DVD players, Tablets mobiles etc etc.
I still love working there as it is fast paced and we still try to focus on customer service rather then high pressure sales (Not selling the $2000 laptop to the grandmother for facebook)
My personal opinion is we as a business need to get back to retail 101, Having the right product at the right price at the right time plus looking at every foot of the shop in the terms of how much sales do we make out off that area. (one prime example in the business now is mobile phone cases we have 30+ different cases for Iphone 6 silicone, wear shield and cant recall the other type they then have 12 colours of each type) replicate that for Iphone 5, Samsung s4, s5 and S6 and thats a lot of space with little turn over.
We need to be competitive on the everyday items (where we make that little bit of profit) and sharp prices on the larger ticket items. (when the customer comes and buys that competitively priced HDMI cable they will see our friendly service and sharp prices on computers etc and return to buy more.
Competitively priced HDMI cables would be a start. Saw a customer and team member looking for the cheapest cable in store today and the cheapest 1m? Was 21.95 on clearance. Most others were 39+. Even Bunnings destroys this kind of pricing.
Well said. One of the reasons I left the business (apart from the management issues) was that I could see myself working with the business for as long as you have - not that it's a bad thing at all, but it was more testament to how much I enjoyed the job… but I never wanted to do it for more then 10, and I figured 7 years was a good run.
Your points are spot on, though it was getting difficult to focus on customer service when the staffing cuts got really brutal. Glad to hear you still manage. You're not wrong about cases been both a bother merchandising/space wise as well as a major hassle once the phones are obsolete. It's funny this has become an issue at Dick Smith again because I can vividly recall the business losing a huge amount of cash on iPod cases around the time I started. I think with accessories (especially since it was the mantra abboud put out when the business was originally sold to anchorage) its easy for management to get distracted by the gross profit the category delivers… while forgetting the potential risks in some areas and the general lack in top line sales they deliver).
Agree 100% with cables. I remember when it also used to be a huge problem with USB Drives and SD Cards too, they repriced those competitively and never went back. I appreciate how pricing staff think (If we price an HDMI cable at $10 then we need to sell 5 times the volume to make it worthwhile), but they don't realise that the business is losing customers that might never come back again, and that it damages the price perception that the business has (which has always been terrible - even when they tried their hardest by fixing it by creating the massive "we're dealing deals" (later on dick does deals) TVC campaign to try and eliminate the perception that everything was a fixed price).
After 24 years - it's a credit to you that you still love working there and have such a high regard to customer service.
Would be really interested to hear more of your feedback.Given low overhead competition, from a price perspective how realistic is it that DS could deliver "the right product at the right price at the right time"?
Is the friendly service customer focus model still viable?I am glad you love customer service. A young guy at the Australia Fair store was great with us on the weekend, helping with our purchases.
But I see Dick Smith moving not to the great price, great service model but be more like Move stores they started - a fancy looking trendy store that really doesnt offer anything that any other electronics store sells (and cheaper). It wont work, customers are not loyal anymore because stores arent loyal to their customers (actually that goes for all companies not just retail).
Go to any large shopping centre and you can do a 15 minute walk around and find the best deal.
Makes it really hard for stores.
What sector are you gainfully employed within these days ?
How much of the Dick Smith experience did you take over to this industry ?
Sorry if this has been asked, but is dick Smith going to close down?
Maybe. Personally I think that it'll be subject to a take over once the share price/market capitalisation dips low enough that the business is suddenly appealing to purchase. Anything could happen though.
Something that hasn't been asked about yet, but the MOVE stores that the business operates had definitely been on the cards for a very long time. From Mid 2008 til promotion of the brand ceased, the business was trying to re-position Tandy towards a female demographic. This meant a huge change in marketing/catalogue style, and some slight additions to specific product ranges (a small personal care line - hair straighteners, curlers, etc amongst other items). They stuck with this for a few years before giving up and essentially winding the brand up slowly between 2010-2012.
How does this relate to MOVE? A proposed floor-plan for a refurb/new concept of the existing Tandy store in Bondi Junction (Which was closed in 2010 or 2011 IIRC) had a product mix that was quite similar (with some exceptions, mainly relating to the evolution of technology since 5 years ago) to the MOVE stores that the business runs today - funnily enough, the first MOVE store they opened was in Bondi Junction… so part of me wonders if they had a plan in place for the smaller format stores (or at least the ones in good locations) several years ago that was given up on due to the focus on new DS stores and refurbs.
Thanks for adding your comments and providing insight, I find this quite interesting.
If DS ended up being bought out, or if they hope to survive this, they would benefit much by consulting with employees/ex-employee such as yourself, such an insight! Sometimes higher management is out of touch against reality. I remembered reading an interview of Guy Russo when he started to take on Kmart on how he went down to the stores and the first thing he noticed were the dusty shelves.
Common sense such as this should prevail and be applied to drive as the directive to where the company is headed.
Did you ever have to fire staff? If so could you disclose what for?
I never had to terminate an employee - I had to assist in performance managing a keyholder (opened the store late every time he was running a shift for 2 weeks in a row) but that was as far as I had to go. Which is lucky, because performance management and termination is probably one of the parts of the job that sucks the most.
I used to visit Dick Smith stores a lot in the 1990s, mainly to source components for building projects from Electronics Australia magazines. I realise however that the marketplace has moved on. Where once it may have possibly made sense to roll your own amplifier, now you can buy something cheaper, better, and ready made from China. Even Electronics Australia noticed the trend and stopped publishing projects (soon before the whole magazine died). We've moved well beyond discrete components, 4000 series, LS, TL, etc series DIP chips. Now almost everything is programmed into one 'black box' IC.
Dick Smith has tried to evolve but failed quite badly in my opinion. When I visited my local store this week, first time in years, I was astonished to find it stocked kettles and toasters. DSE is trying to play in a marketplace of white goods that has a dozen or more competitors.
DSE has the image of an expensive store for me, along with Harvey Norman. These are two stores I will visit as a last resort when I can't find what I'm looking for at Jaycar / JB Hifi / Bunnings / Masters / BigW, etc. Part of the problem comes from DSE stocking generic cables and accessories for ridiculous prices. It gives the whole store a poor value for money image.
My perception of DSE and Harvey Norman are that they are very expensive places to shop. I once urgently needed a HDMI cable so I bought the cheapest generic cable from DSE but it left me with a bad feeling because I knew it was a rip-off.
While lining up to buy something from DSE, I watched on as an innocent lady was sold a crappy power bar (?4500mAH) for $90.
I wanted to jump in and tell her the amazing ones she could have gotten for $20-$30 online but had to resist looking like a tard.
It is utterly bizarre that they're trying Small Appliances again - Woolies tried it in the old Powerhouse stores in the Mid 2000s and it failed back then, don't know why they'd think it would do better now. I think upper management are lured by high margin items, but they seem to be unaware these items won't sell themselves - this is applicable to the main categories they've expanded post-IPO (accessories and small appliances).
They've never, ever been able to shake the price perception problem. Even if the item we were trying to sell was cheaper then all competitors we'd still have people refuse to believe us and shop elsewhere (some would come back, some wouldn't) because of their price perception of the store. This was incredibly frustrating as there is no doubt this problem affects DS when it comes to a variety of competitive categories.
I have a feeling upper management just play a numbers game, floor space vs profit margin. Hence whitegoods.
If it fails, it's far easier to offload blame to salespeople or downturn in the sector, rather than having to explain to their bosses why they didn't stock items from a sector with such high profit margins…
What, no mention of the Eneloop marketing strategy. What sort of marketing strategy and markup is used for Eneloop's? I often see them advertised here regularly but always suspected it was a little to regular for it not be a marketing strategy.
Anyway thanks for answering so many questions
There is no doubt whatsoever that whoever manages online for DS makes sure that regular eneloop specials occur - especially once the cult of eneloop really started to form here on Ozbargain years back.
In store? I don't think so. I always made sure there was tons of all varieties on hand because of the cult following (and occasional random deals that we'd get for the weekend with one day notice that would blow up on Ozbargain). What stuck out for me was the first ever time they did half price on the 1st Gen eneloop Glitters, and making sure I had somewhere between 50-100 sets in stock in preparation. They got cleaned out real fast… some unlucky stores only had 3 or 4 on hand!
There's a real lesson in sales for you, knowing your audience and stocking appropriately.
Nice work and thanks for the feedback.
Thanks for your post very informative.
Imo. When they stopped selling the hard to find items. Cables. Connectors. Electronics. Ect. Which didn't have much margins I stopped needing to go. I could get the same stuff cheaper else where. That's the big issue.
How often do poor unsuspecting customers pay $54.95 for an 8 pack of eneloops?
Wow… they really jacked the price up! Full price for a 8 pack of Eneloop Glitters (the only 8 pack we had back then) was $39.98. At $39.98 they were the cheapest, full priced AA NiMH batteries in the store on a per battery cost basis- so plenty of people purchased them if nothing else was on special - even the private label DS NiMH cost more per battery!
What's the typical retailer margin on Apple products and does Apple give "preferential treatment" to retailers who can sell more of their products?
Margin varies on product, never more then 15%. Yes - sales quotas are extremely important with Apple products.
Thanks for taking the time to reply great reading.
Question 1: Are the majority of the staff in sales casuals, temps? as mostly I see the younger generation selling items. Or do you have a majority of full time staff.
Question 2: With the recent sales write-off down $50m to $60m, I find it hard that they could sell this much in a week are there more items in a warehouse somewhere that may be dribbled back into stores or be trucked in in one big hit to trigger another clearance sale?
Thanks againThis changed over time as staff levels were cut. I generally had between 8-10 staff, and initially the ratio was 3 FT, 5 PT, 2 Casual. Towards the end of my time there I was the only FT, the rest PT with one casual. When I started with the business it was only casuals and full timers, but this gradually changed as time went on as they messed about with what staffing ratios they wanted.
I don't know. What I do know is, is that most of the stock that got people excited (with exceptions) is REALLY old. There are products mentioned in the various clearance threads that was Discontinued stock when I left the business in 2013 - incredible they left stock lying around that long without making an effort to clear it. I would say there is probably still tons of stuff in the warehouse, but it's mostly going to be crap (accessories) that noone wants rather then interesting items, or private label products.
Like others have said，this has been a great read. I’m currently working in retail as a casual and am pretty close to my managers and have always been interested in what happens behind the scenes or even what they think about certain things or situations :)
What is your view of the obvious price hikes just before an online sale or during an eBay special promo?
The online and eBay ones are definitely very dubious, as it's a lot harder for then ACCC to check if it complies with the regulations or not.
With in-store specials, we always had a full retail price, which was printed on a small rectangular shelf ticket. The discounts applied to this RRP. Occasionally, towards the end of promo they'd decide to reduce the price to the sale price - which occasionally caused problems with how the discount was worded in the catalogue. They were always pretty good in this area, though the promotional ticketing would have errors occasionally.
Is it true that staff are allowed to hide goods or "reserve" them for their own purchase before a massive sale? Are there any limits on the goods that staff can purchase? E.g. no more than $x per year or X items per year?
See this post. Technically no, but when the Store Managers are often the ones doing this sort of thing, it becomes tough for the business to police.
No limits. Staff have a discount card, but the standard entitlement is crappy (It changed under Anchorage ownership, I have no idea what it is now). Most likely sales staff would be buying the product without the Point of Sale linking it to the staff member. If they paid with cash, its going to be untraceable unless the CCTV is used to check the time of the purchase - and even then the CCTV wasn't good enough quality in most stores (or occasionally non existent in older stores) that you could even prove anything.
Thanks for your reply and for doing this AMA thread. Much appreciated.
Awesome post mate. Kudos!
Just wondering if you picked up any really really cheap J-cat items? If so what were they?
(For those not in the know, J-cat [e.g. J1234) items were bonus items which are meant to be given away when the main product is sold [e.g. buy a Panasonic TV, get a matching Panasonic TV stand which was a J-cat product]. If the TV was sold without the stand, then there's effectively a J-cat item leftover on the system)
Nothing that ever appealed to me personally. They did this less and less as time went on too, bonus items were more often then not regular stock with regular catalogue numbers with exception to the rare items that were specific to one model (like a TV stand as you mentioned).
What happened to the Powerhouse format, why did it fail? Cheers.
Did Powerhouse fail? The simple answer is no, even though on paper it appears that it did, but its a lot more complex then that. This is a fantastic question though as it explains some of the core problems with the strategy that the business took post 2008. I am aware that Powerhouse stores were very different again prior to the Mid 2000s (when it had an enormous hobbyist range, combined with a very JB Hi Fi esque product range), but up until the time mentioned below despite the product range changes, they were reasonably successful nonetheless.
In 2008, Consumer Electronics was a reasonably profitable business unit owned by Woolworths consisting of three brands, Dick Smith Electronics, Powerhouse and Tandy. It managed (comparatively) a relatively strong EBITDA result of approx. $80-100m in recent years at this time frame, however Woolworths was not happy with this result, and was wondering whether it was worth keeping the business (they were considering selling all or part of it off), or doubling down and investing in it (at this time frame the internal focus was on increasing the Powerhouse store network, gradually improving the location of DSE stores, and gradually refurbing selected Tandy stores to a new concept store format (internally known as G6 - this was very much ahead of its time and the precursor to the MOVE format that exists now (there was a strong focus on Mobile Phones, MP3/iPod and PDAs alongside a larger accessory range) - most locations were very successful) - thus they announced a strategic business review. During this business review there was a major concern within the business that Woolies would sell up, which caused upper management to do some incredibly dodgy things (Most store stocktakes were cancelled for 2 financial years in a row to reduce shrinkage numbers) to try and keep the figures strong during this period so Woolies would invest in the business.
During this time frame between 2008/09, the business opened a concept store in Hornsby - This store, branded as Dick Smith Technology (with the old DSE logo, minus Dicks smiling Head) allegedly performed way beyond initial expectations, and had a product mix that corresponds roughly to what Dick Smith did right through until last year. The strategic business review concluded that Woolies would be wise to invest in the business and roll out this new store format, rebadge the Dick Smith stores as Dick Smith Technology, and change DSE Powerhouse to simply "Powerhouse". A soft launch of this new format began, with a few new stores and a couple refurbs under the existing DSE branding. Very abruptly just prior to Christmas 2009, management advised that the Powerhouse branding would be axed, and the existing Dick Smith Technology concept branding would be changed to just "dick smith". This came as quite a shock as brand new stores with Powerhouse branding had literally only been opened weeks to months prior in some areas, with other planned Powerhouse openings in December quickly changed over to Dick Smith.
Over the course of Late 2009/Early 2010, all existing Powerhouse stores were rebranded under the new Dick Smith branding. This is where the problems begun - initially, the new Dick Smith catalogues only advised customers that the stores existed with a larger range of products - products that were exclusive to the newly dubbed Dick Smith Large Format (Ex-Powerhouse) stores were not advertised. This included ENTIRE product ranges that these stores stocked - Powerhouse stores had a CD/DVD/Blu-ray range the same size/breadth as JB Hi Fi as well as Small Appliances at this particular time frame. As a result, these larger stores started to haemorrhage enormous amounts of older stock and specific categories started to struggle, mostly because nobody was even aware that the stores carried this type of stock. Management simply decided to clear out these categories and exit them - they did not replace these categories, and while the Large Format stores did carry a larger range of all the core Dick Smith products, exiting these categories (which took up probably 15-20% of the stores floorspace) left these stores rather cavernous and empty. With significantly less products to sell in the same square meterage, these stores started experienced declines in turnover and revenue. Powerhouse stores already ran on a significantly lower profit margin than traditional Dick Smith or Tandy format stores, so a majority of Powerhouse stores were now trading in the red month in month out. The other issue is that many of these Powerhouse stores were co-located very close to existing Dick Smith branded stores, which resulted both in customer confusion and cannibalisation of sales.
A few things were done to try to stem the bleeding. Staff numbers were slashed, in some cases by more than half. This caused problems in itself with shrinkage and store performance as you ended up with struggling ex-Powerhouse stores over 1000sqm only having at the most 4 or 5 team members on the shop floor at one time (previous staffing levels had a manager for each department and several salespeople for each department)… the next thing that management tried was to decrease the size of the trading floor of the larger powerhouse stores. Most of the ex-Powerhouse stores were reconfigured to only have about 50-70% of the shop floor that they once originally had - with a false wall installed to cover up the rest of the trading floor which was then unused (some stores used this to hold bulky stock, others the old fixtures and fittings were just dumped there). Unfortunately this still didn't work - the end result was that in the Woolworths restructuring of the business (when they liquidated about 1/3rd of the store network), most of the old ex-Powerhouse stores were closed down.
Some stores were in the red by an enormous amount - one Victorian store was had losses into the tens of thousands of dollars per month.
Thank you for sharing I never forget Christmas 2011 we were run on 4 staff and store manager with over 1000sqm floor spaces it was total madness. We could not cut our floor spaces amount of loss and lack of stock made place shit. and we had customer put laptop in cradle down his pants.
Wow, have you ever thought of writing a DSE history styled book. You could even get Dick to fill in the pre woolies stuff. A tell all.
Or maybe you wait under it goes under or Hardly Normal buys it out ;-P
thank you for sharing this, real interesting read
What was the commission structure at DSE? Is there a sales target at the staff and/or store level?
Don't know what it is right now under Anchorage, but I do know they made it really tough to get it in the first place (need to get 2 out of 4 KPIs, I detailed it earlier in the thread). Most of the time I worked for the business it was 5% of Gross Profit on "trigger" items (plus anything sold with them), essentially a massive list of categories. Any item that wasn't a cable or battery or accessory sold on its own, pretty much.
Prior to this (pre… 2009? I think?) it was 1% of gross profit of all sales. This was much loved as during Christmas some salespeople could make an absolute bundle just by processing sales at the counter.
What do you think of Dick Smiths no refunds policy? I bought a faulty Dick Smith brand digital set top box from Dick Smith years ago, and when I took it back to the store, I wanted to return it, and purchase a more trusted brand instead, they did not have any decent brands, so I asked for a refund, and they point blank refused, even after I informed them it was Australian law to provide a refund on faulty stock. Needless to say, I have never bought anything from there again, and I palmed off my store credit at a loss to someone else.
Hi, I'm a current DS supervisor for a large format store. I'll give Boochan a hand.
We have a no-refunds policy for change of mind. If the product is faulty we'll refund or exchange. In this case it wasn't a DS policy, it was just a bad staff member/manager. Sadly you would have needed to bring it up with our customer liaison t have that one resolved.
Protip: (And this works with the no change of mind policy too). If you need to return something, take it to a quiet store that isn't the one you bought it from. A refund is deducted from the store of purchase, and quiet stores are generally where you find staff that don't get commission (and therefore friendly staff). So they will in most cases refund it for you if you're polite and explain what you want.
thanx for the advice :)
Hi Boochan, how likely would you think that Dicksmith will honour their replacement warranty in the future after this so called "suicidal" sale event? I got persuaded by one staff member to purchase 2 years warranty extension for the price of 1 year for the Canon 700D TLK during the first day of the clearance sale. Thanks for answering, cheers!
100% likely. The extended warranties are managed/underwritten by an external business unrelated to Dick Smith.
If they did go out of business you'd just deal with the extended warranty company directly, which you're encouraged to do anyway.
Thanks! It makes me feel better for not wasting that money. Can I also please ask have you ever came across customer asking questions regarding to the Dicksmith online purchase and delivery?
I did order an Apple product with the 10% extra value Dicksmith gift card back in 10 days ago, however the delivery status remains "awaiting for fulfilment", that really makes me worry about whether I will be getting my product eventually or not.
Could you please provide some experiences associating with the Dicksmith online?
Thanks heaps!
All the time, especially in the last 6 months before I left DS - this was at a time where the quality of customer service from online deteriorated rapidly as they outsourced online customer service to an external company, to a call centre overseas (Salmat, to the Philippines) - It went from getting someone at online answering the phone in less then 2mins to having to wait 30-45mins for an answer. The call centre CSRs constantly refer customers to stores for solutions for things that we couldn't do (or tell them to exchange stock at a specific store when the item was not or never in stock), and towards the end I'd always suggest to customers to never use the online store. I know that stores have a closer relationship to online now as most stores in Australia also ship stuff out to online customers (it used to all come from the main DC in Sydney only - now it can come from anywhere, I purchased a PS4 last year thanks to an Ozbargain post when they had them on eBay heavily discounted and it came from Broome of all places), but AFAIK the customer service still sucks.
What sort of Apple item was it? If its something stores have in stock, thats kind of odd. If its a more specific item with no store stock / no online stock they probably have to get it from Apple. If you have no joy anytime soon, I'd skip trying to contact online customer service and just go straight to complaining on social media instead (unless you want to wait in a queue for >30mins on the phone).
@Boochan: That is really bad to hear how the customer support changed dramatically!
I did ordered an iPad Air 2 Cellar 128GB Silver (with Globalgig $30 Credit SIM card) during their 10% off iPad sale approximately two weeks ago.
Right now the SIM card has being delivered, but there are still no updates for the iPad, the bundle deal has being removed from their website few days after I ordered my. I suppose the price was too cheap compare to buying the iPad itself (the bundle price is another 10% off the original price of the iPad).
But I do wonder if they have got the iPad in stock (listed as an individual item), why can't they ship the item (They claimed bundle products in "Low stock" or "Pre-Order Now" but the iPad itself is always "In Stock".
Anyway thank you so much for sharing that experiences! I already knew their customer support being horribly bad and I am thinking of having alternative ways to get my order sooner.
Hi,
I thought click and collect was a 'proper transaction' with DSE?
On Sat morning I bought two items in the recent "sale".
Rang Eastlands Sunday about coming to collect - they said they would contact me when items are 'ready'…..must be a big task to fetch two iphone car mounts.
Today they call and tell me they don't have the items and will refund me.
When I order an item, it was in stock, so now they've 'sold' it again to someone else.
Any other vendor doing this would be called out as a SCAMMER.
I am waiting to hear the same 'tish story from Southlands about my daughter's present
Never heard of a scammer that happily gives refunds out, just saying.
Read the terms and conditions of the click and collect service and you'll find they can do exactly what you've described if the item is unavailable / cannot be found - I've never read them myself since when I worked for the business click and collect was simply a reservation service only, but I purchased something through HN online through their identical service a few days ago and it clearly states they reserve the right to cancel and refund the transaction if the item is no longer available and/or out of stock.. Most likely they couldn't find the items (they've either been stolen or the inventory is wrong), and they've remedied this by refunding you your money. You also have no proof whatsoever they've sold it to someone else… and considering they're iPhone car mounts, I can't imagine the staff decided to buy them for themselves after seeing the click and collect.
I found the staff at Eastland very slow and not very helpful regarding click and collect. Other close by Dicksmith stores are much better.
When you did the order the store would have been showing that they were in stock. Saturday was the busiest day of the sale. All staff members would have been attending to in-store customers, so by the time they did the click and collects the stock may have all been purchased in store and hence they no longer have the item.
What would DSE management do if staff are found hoarding sale items?
They'd probably be written up/given a first and final warning before performance management.
Doubt any of that will happen, though. Its December and the managers will be too busy to deal with it.
Bought a PS4 1TB Bundle on line in Melbourne…. Advertised ps4 consol and Game… Package arrived after 3 weeks…only the consol WTF!!
The consol was shipped from far north Queensland (Mackay)..and after 1 month of emails and calls to customer service ( in the Phillipines)they tell me SORRY The Bundle was only available in Stores…This is B..S and I have a copy of the advertising I hope this company goes down the gurgler and takes all the incompitant staff with it!!
Someone else posted this, but it says a lot about Dick Smith's current PR situation.
http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/these-offers-…Purchased an item click & collect at the recent big sale but have heard nothing since, nor do they seem to respond to emails. Paid via PayPal. All the site says is awaiting fulfillment. How long does it take? It's been a couple of weeks and…nothing.
Have you called the store in which you were to click and collect from? Wouldn't surprise me if it got cancelled and there has been zero communication since.
Back when I worked in the business it was never meant to take more then 48 hours so something isn't right there.Yeah I was in the same situation until a few hours ago. I ordered $5 of stuff on the 4th. So I filled in the contact form giving the order numbers, saying if they don't have the goods, please refund. Within an hour Paypal notified me of a refund.
I was in the same situation as well - ordered a pair of Action Fit earphones on 4th December for click and collect but heard nothing for 4 days (also paid by Paypal, and order "awaiting fulfilment"), so tried ringing the "Customer Care Centre" several times. Gave up on that after being on hold for lengthy periods each time and never getting through to actually speak to anyone, so sent them an email via their contact form instead. A couple of days later, still no reply, so rang the store I was to click and collect from and luckily came across a very helpful guy who spent ages on the phone with me, firstly trying to sort out what had happened with the order - he said it looked like someone had gone to "pick" the order but couldn't find the item, so just left it - and then thoroughly checking the shelves to see whether they still had stock. They didn't (and neither did any other stores), but he offered me another more expensive pair of Action Fit (with the microphone) for the same price, so I went into the store the next day and picked them up. Great customer service effort on his part, which I really appreciated.
Oh, and I finally had an email back from the Customer Care Centre - 9 days after I contacted them.
Sent several emails to Dick Smith over a week. No response. Several attempts to contact the store which is either always engaged or they just don't answer the phone.
In the end, opened a Paypal dispute and magically they respond within an hour or two.Yeah that's what has to be done to force them to act.
Hello Boochan,
What is the best time of year for the sales? (I missed the Mammoth Sale)Only got my money back after one month by escalating the claim with Paypal. Going direct to Dick Smith proved useless. Will never buy from Dick Smith again.
I know I'm late to the party here, but I've gotta ask, do you still remember what a T4360 is @Boochan
I laughed when at a store recently and found that the barcodes still don't scan 10 years later (hence being able to remember what T4360 is, because you had to punch it in manually everytime).
Good Ol' Precision Screwdriver Set…
Amazed several sets of buying and management never changed the packaging of it from the old days… or at least put the new logo on!I just assumed that a buyer screwed up in the old days and accidentally added a few too many zeroes to his order, leaving the company with millions of screwdriver sets that won't scan.
Im still mad about their DSE games sale in 2013 where everyone got screwed and customers hid stock…
Did your staff receive instore/ after hours training from Headquarters/ other companies?
I know alot of techxperts get bagged on here, but in the many stores I frequented last month, I found the staff to be extremely knowledgeable. It actually impressed me so much, that I would have definitely considered buying more electronics.Most likely the stores have good managers or otherwise full-time staff who are knowledgeable and don't mind sharing knowledge with other employees in the stores, as we very rarely got training from other businesses (the rare occasions were for product or brand launches, we were NOT PAID for this time - thus unless it had a chance of good prizes/perks, it was pointless to attend) and never from the company itself past the induction, which was very basic sales training only.
Well, the redoubtable Nick Abboud just Nicked off, (or got the Abboot, depending on who you talk to).
Meanwhile Jeff Grover's cousin Don has taken over the reins attached to the dead horse. That sounds like a TOTALLY sensible selection decision, worthy of Woolworths HR. I guess Jeff wasn't returning DSE's calls, but Don shares at least 1/4 of his DNA. Close enough!
NOW we'll see see some action! Set up the video camera and start the VHS recorder at once.
Great thread BooChan.
I remember when we first received them in 2008… We still sold plenty of NiCads, alongside crappy generic and energizer (actually worse then the generics) NiMH batteries. It was astounding that we finally stocked a rechargeable NiMH that lasted more then 50 or so recharges before going to shit. I recommended them ever since. :)