Skate Hut

I was going to mark down to one star, but on second thoughts, and exchange of e-​mails changed my mind.
MOST IMPORTANT My recommendation would be, if you can, is visit the shop. Dealing with them online was a pain. The reaason i suggesting going to the shop, you can see what you are buying, and, yes, their prices are reasonable.
They tell me that their website was changed as from October 2011, and I presume it still experiencing teething problems.
NOTE: I’ve taken out the names. Included the recent correspondence, it is in the order lastest e-​mail first:
Dear Dr ??,
Apologies for the typo and incorrect title not intentional.
We receive 1000’s of replies to those emails and I’ve not seen the problem before but we will look in to this.
All of your comments have been taken on board.
Kind regards,
? ??
On 1 December 2011 10:51, wrote:
Dear Mr ???,
I don’t want to protract this anymore than necessary, as we are both busy this time of year.
1. You’ve spelt my name wrong and used the wrong title. Perhaps I should have addressed you as Mrs ??.
2. The problem with the e-​mail was of your own making. I had to reply to your e-​mail, but you insisted on using a background colour, which I could not switch off. See attached. I suggest you try replying to that e-​mail and see what happens.
3. Law firm or not, you are a business. I stand by what I have said.
–Original Message–
From: Skate Hut Sales [mailto:sales@skatehut.co.uk ]
Sent: 01 December 2011 10:34
Subject: Re: This might be useful
Hi Mr ???,
Thank you for your honesty.
We have taken steps over the last few months to try and improve on customer service and now have a team of staff manning the phones all day and also trying to get through the emails. I’m sure you can appreciate that in our business this time of year is especially busy and it can be difficult to keep on top of these things. Unfortunately it is not feasible to just bring in a load of staff to man the phones and emails this time of year.
I’m sure when you ordered the scooters they were on a pre order and you should have been aware that there would have been a wait for the delivery, apologies if this was not clear enough. This is a new website that went live in October so we know there are some teething problems which we are working very hard to iron out.
I will also state then when I looked back over the emails that we have received they do not appear to have come through properly I’ll try and forward you one so you can see what I mean. I had to highlight the whole message to read what it said almost as if the font was white.
I’m not saying that is any kind of excuse but when we are dealing with Over 1000 emails a day this time of year it doesn’t help.
We have used ‘Hi’ as a standard response since we began the business and have never had people take offence with all due respect we are a seller of skate products, not a law firm. ‘???’ is my name.
We will take your comments on board and I will forward this on the the (sic!) MD and hopefully should you ever want to use us again the experience will be far better.
Kind regards,
?? ??? (Hope that’s better)
On 1 December 2011 09:59, wrote:
Dear ?,
First, I must thank you for taking the trouble and time to reply. I also need to respond to your individual points:
1. I cannot be dishonest and let you send me the alloy/​black scooter.
There seems to be errors in your processing system; as I have now received both scooters.
2. Whether you deal with 1 order or 10,000 orders a day, it still depends on how you respond to your customers when something goes wrong. A friend of mine works for the BBC’s customer relations department, and they have millions of customers. When they get complaints, they multiply the number by 100. As they know that even with the worse offence people tend not to complain. So what you see on one site might be the tip of the iceberg. In my work, I cannot afford to have an unhappy customer.
3. Refunding the delivery charge is up to you, but you have to agree it is nonsense, especially if next day delivery cannot be achieved due to your stock levels. Your site cannot say one week for delivery for an item, and then say £3.95 for next day delivery. Some would call that an oxymoron, or a dichotomy.
4. I will include your response in my review; I want to be fair.
Now to add value to this e-​mail:
My biggest problem with dealing with your company was being able to get in contact with you. I think most of the complaints bear this out. You need to do something about this, even if it is only a voice message stating that due to high volumes, or whatever. A customer much prefers to know what is happening rather than being kept in the dark.
Read the e-​mails properly that are sent to you. Several times I asked the same question, and failed to get a proper answer or an answer at all.
Your e-​mail saying that there was a delay to the order failed to state which part of the order, or even if it was the whole order. Make the details clear so that there