After reading the BBC’s article online about “retailers suffer after M&S slump“, I couldn’t help but chuckle given the recent experience I had at the hands of the Marks and Spencers sale.
Here we were on Christmas Day (yes sad I know) shelling out almost £300 in the M&S sale only to find days later an email arrive from M&S stating …
Dear Customer,
Thanks for your recent order.
We experience extremely high levels of demand during the M&S SALE and occasionally items sell out as other orders for them are in the process of being placed – orders are confirmed on a first come first served basis. As a result we’re sorry to tell you that since your order was placed, one or more of the items you ordered are out of stock. These items have now been cancelled from your order and will not be visible in your online account.
Obviously you have not been charged for any of these out of stock items. Please check your online account to view any remaining items that will be sent to you.
We apologise for any disappointment this may cause. If you have any questions about your order, please feel free to call us on 0845 609 0200. If you are calling from overseas please call us on +44 1925 672 317.
Kind regards
Customer Services
Eventually I got my order, but the value had shrunk to under £200!
If we take a cynical view of this episode, surely M&S must have some idea of their stock levels PRE-SALE? And as a result you’d expect that their website (which is driven by Amazon I hasten to add) is capable of keeping tabs on stock levels. A quick google around finds that I’m not the only one who’s suffered this fate.
I mean the Christmas season does come around the same time year in year out doesn’t it? So you’d expect them to be stocked up to the hilt. Or maybe I’m just expecting too much *sigh*
I know the BBC article refers to the high street in particular and that the M&S online effort was indeed up on previous years. BUT for me profit and sales to any business are it’s bread and butter regardless of the channel (high street, web, phone, whatever) used surely?
Little wonder then with retailers being unable to fulfil orders online (or not) that they’ll lose money.
hmmm I think a lot of the retailers this year were hit by a massive increase in demand that they weren’t expecting (not as huge a surge, anyhow). However, I would have expected the top ones like M&S to link to their stock databases a bit more dynamically as this isn’t really great PR.