Euro Car Parts & Ineptitude

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Vard66
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Euro Car Parts & Ineptitude

Post by Vard66 »

Thought it was a while since I posted in here, and I know you guys enjoy a bit of a rant.

I fired off a bit of a rant to Euro Car Parts last night after spending nearly an hour in their Swindon branch, and NOT at the end of it coming away with the two bottles of oil I'd pre-ordered.


The Tale of The Absurdity of Click & Collect (How I Spent Nearly An Hour In Your Store And Came Away Empty Handed).

Dear Euro Car Parts,

I would like to explain to you how I spent the better part of an hour in your store this afternoon, and somehow at the end of it came away without the engine oil I came so close to actually laying my hands on.

First, the backstory; I drive a Volvo T5, and they can be known for blowing oil out of the dipstick thanks to a finicky crankcase breather system - though in my case, I have replaced that and the problem stems from either bore or piston ring wear causing blowby and excess crankcase pressure. Thus it has come about that my Volvo has wound up running out of engine oil and, (while I can admit to a certain degree of that being my fault in being lax with checking it) this has left me immobile as I cannot run the car in order to travel to get more engine oil.

This morning I visited your website on my smartphone, to check the price of 5 litres of 10w/40 Semi Synthetic Engine Oil. Finding it on the website at the very reasonable price of £12.99 when using the discount code ‘OIL30’, I decided I would buy two 5 litre bottles from the Swindon branch that afternoon on my way home from work.


Feeling that it was safer to arrive at the store and be sure there would be two bottles ready for me to simply buy, I opted to use your online click & collect service, and I reserved two 5l bottles of Triple QX 10W-40 Semi Synthetic oil. No problems there.

Fast forward four hours to me arriving at the store, via a friend who generously gave me a lift as my house is on his way home.

I stepped into the store and after queuing for a few minutes, spoke to a new member of staff (I point this out so as to raise the point that I am not holding the following against him, even though he contributed to my long wait in store, I have every patience for someone who is still learning their way around a new system and therefore may take a few moments more to complete the transaction).

I pointed out that I had reserved two bottles of the oil online, and mentioned the name under which I had reserved it. Away he went, and five or ten minutes passed. Back he came, without the oil, to confirm the reservation, and away again. Five more minutes pass, and back he comes bearing two bottles of oil, as reserved. “Excellent.” I thought.

He rang it up on the till and said “There we go, that’ll be £37.10”.

There was a pause while my brain slowly resolved £12.99x2 and didn’t come up with £37.10.

Upon questioning this, the fellow disappeared for another ten minutes, and came back trailing another member of staff, who told me that the offer was only for April; as a matter of fact it was only for Easter. I pointed out that the offer was showing still on the website, and showed the (still open) page on my smartphone to the new member of staff. There was a moment of confusion and away they went again for five minutes.

Upon reappearing I was informed that that offer was ok, but it couldn’t be done through the click & collect service; what I had to do was go online and complete the transaction and provide the transaction number to him, whereby he could pull it up on the computer and process it there in store, and I could then take the oil.

I proceeded to do so, and wrote the transaction reference number and name down quickly before the battery on my smartphone died.
Then I stood for somewhere around twenty minutes while the new staff member served another customer, dragging it out because apparently the items that were pre-ordered by said customer had not been put on the pre-order shelf or something like that - I confess I wasn’t listening fully to their conversations, plus other complications I also wasn’t listening to intently enough to be able to recall.

Once the other customer was dealt with the fellow took the reference number and name I had written down and disappeared back into the warehouse yet again to process it. Five more of my minutes passed (at this point, the friend who had kindly given me a lift to work and back today had grown impatient enough to get out of the car and come to see what was going on, as he was already late to pick his other half up to make a reservation he had made - in a restaurant I believe, but I didn’t ask when I was back in the car - with her this evening).

Upon reappearing the member of staff was confused again, stating “I think they must have cancelled the transaction!”, due to being unable to find the transaction to process it. I was asked if it was eBay I had done the transaction through, and assured him that no, it was the eurocarparts.com website, as he instructed me. Away again he vanished, and five more minutes passed.

Finally, the poor devil reappeared from the warehouse looking sheepish and shaking his head sadly. I was told, in a jocular ‘oh haven’t you been daft’ tone; “You know what you’ve done? You’ve ordered it delivered. From Wembley. In four days time.”
I cannot accurately express how frustrated I was at this point.

To sum up; what I had done, was pre-ordered the oil with click & collect, only to find that the price it was advertised at doesn’t apply through the click & collect service. Then be told the deal I was AT THAT EXACT point in time, looking at on your website was no longer valid. (Incidentally, it’s still showing there, as I type this on my laptop now back at home).

[IMAGE OF EURO CAR PARTS WEBSITE SHOWING OFFER]

(Right there. Second down on the left. If that offer is not valid, there’s no indication of such a fact).

Then I was told a different way to process the order, and followed the instructions, after which I was subjected to a statement that suggested I was either born stupid or that I work at it very hard every day, because despite following said instructions, I was going to have to either buy some oil right there and then at the non-discounted price, take my business elsewhere, or wait four days for my oil to arrive in order to top my car up and run it.

Needless to say, I left the store. I wasn’t rude. I didn’t admonish anybody. I may have slapped my hand on the counter in frustration and sure, I don’t think I thanked anybody for that wasted portion of my life, but I think under the circumstances I did very well not to peel back the top of my head and let the sheer volume of frustration erupt and melt everything in the vicinity with it’s fiery, acidic scorn.

I have since bought oil elsewhere, because I cannot wait four days to get my car topped up, that is patently absurd.

I’m not asking for the time back, because that’s impossible. I simply want to make you aware of how preposterously absurd the whole transaction was, how frustrated I was at the end of what I previously believed would be a simple, in-and-out, two minute transaction thanks to having sensibly already ordered the items, and how little it did for the prospect of repeat business from me, or the friend whom the whole encounter made late for his dinner reservation (to say nothing of his other half, I dread to think what blue language she would be using if it were she writing this e-mail).


Yours, a one-time customer,


Christopher Vardon.
Vard.
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Re: Euro Car Parts & Ineptitude

Post by masterofinsanity »

Have used them a couple times, never had a problem with them, but thanks for sharing that ;-)
Don't forget people there is more to the zxr400 than this forum... check out www.zxrworld.co.uk also.
rover220
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Re: Euro Car Parts & Ineptitude

Post by rover220 »

standard shite from ecp im afraid vard!
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