How Communications impact perceived Customer Service
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A note to the PG Community - PLEASE give the PG folks a chance to respond. There's no point in complaining, bashing, etc. Let's try to keep this thread Positive.
Tagging: @positivegrid @jason.chen @admin @jound @mike
Respectfully,
- You currently have a large number of unhappy customers as a result of product delays.
- Your customers are dis-satisfied with the information they are receiving.
- Customers are becoming vocal about the problem. Many/most of the major reviews list delays as the #1 "con" to purchasing. This makes potential customers hesitate and look at alternatives.
You have an opportunity to turn this situation around. While you may not be able to solve the delay issues, you can improve the level of communications.
When there is a problem, ongoing communications (daily, weekly) are critical.
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Customers NOT receiving regular updates will respond that they received poor customer service. Your team may be working 24x7 but the customer perception can be that you are not working, do not care, etc.
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Customers who DO receive regular updates say that they received good customer service. Customers are far more understanding, even if the problem is not resolved immediately.
I have seen many cases where a problem was not resolvable, but the customer still said the vendor provided great support.
The PG site currently says "Join the 77862 players who have already purchased Spark!". You could improve the situation by adding transparency around these numbers.
- How many units have shipped?
- How many units are on backorder awaiting product?
- How many units did you ship last week?
- How many are shipping this week?
- Is the issue a lack of inventory?
- Is the issue a lack of shipping resources?
Others have asked the same question in the forums (links below) and it would be great if you could respond as a company.
Regards...
@slhin69
https://forum.positivegrid.com/topic/3444/c-mon-pg-read-the-forum-posts-engage-the-community-and-speak-directly-to-the-issue@pmcm7317
https://forum.positivegrid.com/topic/3448/possible-explanation-for-lack-of-communication/6@Goldtop57 (Outstanding analysis!)
https://forum.positivegrid.com/topic/3560/1000-a-dayIf you agree with this post, please click the Upvote (
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Hi Michael, thank you for your comment. We understand everyone's concern, and I want to take a moment to answer your questions directly:
- How many units have shipped?
About 30k units- How many units are on backorder awaiting product?
No backorder, only some of the units are still on their way to the local warehouses.- How many units did you ship last week?
We've shipped 6300 units in the past two weeks- How many are shipping this week?
We expect to ship over 10k units in the next 2 weeks.- Is the issue a lack of shipping resources?
Yes, due to the global situation that we're experiencing, the issue is mainly a logistics/shipping resource issue, we're actively looking for some alternative options and please rest assured that the situation will only improve as time goes on.I would also like to address the "out of order sequence" shipping issue. Some orders were not sent according to the order number sequence, we've since corrected the issue, which was a miscommunication between us and our logistics partner, and we sincerely apologize for this mistake.
We will let you know when we have an update on the improvement in logistics,
Thank you
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@mike Thank you very much for taking the time to explain this to us. I can't begin to imagine the logistics nightmare of shipping as many units as you're shipping. It means a lot that you've taken the time to explain things to us.
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@mike Thanks for the quick reply. Out of all the problems you could have, I guess this is a good one (more demand than supply or ability to ship). I appreciate you taking the time to communicate the status to the community.
Q1. Am I correct that all of these groups have shipped?
- Super Early Bird (300)
- Early Bird (750)
- Power Supporter (9,000)
- Player's Special (11,800)
*** SubTotal** 21,850
And that approximately 8,150 of the 56,434 Last Chance Special units have shipped?
If so, I calculate that leaves about 48,284 (approx) Last Chance Special to ship (minus 10K shipping in the next two weeks).
Q2. For the US shipments, does your logistic partner have sufficient inventory to ship the remaining 38,284? From your response it sounds like you are waiting for inventory to arrive. Any insight on inbound shipments (dates/volumes) would be appreciated!
Thanks and regards!
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@mike If you have shipped 30 K units, why have I not received number 14104.
How many people received an upgrade email on July 1 and how many units were actually provided shipping labels.
Can you tell us how many last chance units have actually been shipped.
You have promised me march april and june delivieries, and now it is july.
What promises can you break now.
Chuck
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@michael-0 Yes, as mentioned the bottleneck is logistics/shipping resource and we will definitely let you know when we have an update on the improvement, thanks.
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It seems to me like everyone in the 130*** to 150*** got skipped And now they are trying to get what they have out and slowly work on those of us who got skipped
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No they haven’t. 139xxx not shipped yet.
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Ordered January 31st #134XXX, "Preparing to ship to you" since July first.
There was a very large "issue" if people who ordered months later have already received their amp. People receiving their amp a few days before is acceptable. But, the days keep ticking by and no packages, no updates, no shipping number, no estimated time of arrival, no formal apologies, no compensation, not even a response from a real person via email when asking generally concerning questions; Just silence.
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You should update your website as the ESTIMATED DELIVERY dates for new orders are unrealistic and misleading. Based on the the information you provided, there's no way that someone ordering today will receive their order by the end of July.
Also very misleading is the xxxxx/xxxxx ordered/sold indicators. You're making it appear as if there are a limited number of units available, but these numbers just increase as more orders come in. I get that it's a marketing tactic, but at this point you should be up-front with your customers IMO.
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@tim-a-brant mine just arrived Jan17 129XXX. PG order tracker is not updated, but FedEx account (signup the same email when you ordered) let me watch it’s every step.
Over on the Facebook group it seems that a logjam has actually broken and delivery’s are coming in quickly for those with the Jul1 “Local Distribution” notice.
Only just played with it in for about an hour... but wow! It’s a helluva lot of fun.
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@mike can you confirm my order 14 1046 is in the next batch to be delivered?
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@andy-0 I've been signed up with Fed-Ex for quite a while, I actually got the notification from Fed-Ex that they created a shipping label before I got word from Positive Grid. In checking on Fed-Ex's website they have it listed as "Estimated delivery date: Pending. The delivery date may be updated when FedEx receives the package."
Looks like they haven't even given my package to Fed-Ex, and I'm assuming with no worries on expediting that anytime soon. (Not to mention I live on the east coast so there's an added two days for it to get it over here.) I'm super stoked for those who have received their amp and are thoroughly enjoying it. I'm sure I will be just as pleased, but my patience has been depleted and my respect for this company is gone. -
@tim-a-brant
Right there with you. Same story. -
@michael-0 Exactly. And this very fact that Positive Greed refused to update their "estimated delivery" at any point during the past 8 months speaks volumes as to where their loyalty lies. The almighty $. SCREW customers. If they were a professional, upstanding company, they would have NEVER allowed GROSSLY misleading information on their website. For a day? Maybe. For two days... pretty sloppy. For month after month after getting reamed royally by p*ssed off customers day after day? They are just laughing at us all at this point. In my book, people who are making excuses for Positive Greed at this point, are just as guilty as Positive Greed is.
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You also just have to LOVE it when Positive Greed comes on here and blames everyone but themselves. BS. Covid-19. Chinese. Fedex. It's all them. Not us says Positive Greed. I guess the Russians hacked their website too and is making them keep very misleading shipping information that just so happens to HELP their pre-sales. And it was some competitor that hacked their email systems that sent out emails to all of us telling us every month that we would get our amp "next month". And some bug on the Positive Greed website that shows "shipped" when Fedex tracking says "Not received yet" (for 11 straight days now and counting)
And btw, other products I've ordered from China from other companies, going into Fedex and distributed through US aren't exhibiting all these failures. Funny huh? LOL
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For those looking for some answers related to delays, I stumbled upon this in my Youtube feed. Probably doesn't help with the pain much, but it's some sort of info:
He also mentions some things that they are working on improving so it sounds like there will be changes coming at some point. Lots of other questions get addressed.
I should add that his guitar volume blows out the voice volume so you have to deal with that, and he admits at the end that he has no personality, so there's that. :) But, if you listen carefully, you do get to hear a comment from a user asking if he would have her baby. If you could filter out the interruptions from the guitar, I'm pretty sure his soothing, monotone voice is a cure for insomnia.
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@cbrandst thanks! yes - I saw that video this weekend....
What stood out to me was that Eric Sands (PG sales) said in response to a question about order sequence.
"the other thing was 'what is being done about orders shipping out of sequence?' well that was a real unfortunate problem - we've really taken great pains not to ship out of sequence...we ship all the orders by order date and we have a third party that fulfills our orders for us and there was a database mis-managment issue and they just went out of order for you know a couple hundred units it looks like and those are still arriving now so your what they've shipped weeks ago starting to arrive so you're starting to see you're still seeing a little of that as people post online that they've received their units but the problems been rectified and they're back they're shipping in the sequence they're supposed to so it shouldn't be an issue moving forward.
This tells me that PG should be able to provide regular information (weekly) on which dates have actually shipped (by shipped, I mean labels printed and picked up by fedex or other local carrier).
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Also just noticed that they removed the June posting regarding shipping from the https://www.positivegrid.com/spark#updates page...