[Closed] Trying to buy something - why does the internet make it so hard

https://www.its.co.uk/pd/BO5031-125mm 5''-Random-Orbital-Sander-_MAKBO5031.htm

Have you tried axeminster tools? Prob bit more expensive.

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Try any of the above for decent tools, ordered from all of them and had next working day delivery

I would agree WCA. Some of the paid adverts are shockingly misleading, and growing issues of items not in stock.

It can be exasperating.

Whole bunch on eBay with 2-3 days delivery. Even Argos have stock.

B&Q, Screwfix, Toolstation and Machine Mart are all relatively local to me and unable to get what I want from their websites before I have to log off so I don’t punch the screen.

Do you have a telephone? Legs?

[i]Do you have a telephone? Legs?[/i] Yes and No

Telephone - them and wait 40 minutes to be told by someone to check their website for stock
Legs - cannot easily walk 1/4 mile so trooping round all the stores is not really an option

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Thanks for the recommendations I will try them. The frustration I was having was having to work through loads of different websites, one by one, to find the item I wanted and then find it out of stock. Repeat for the next best choice. Repeat for the next ten websites.

I just wish there was some 'In Stock and Available Next Day' filter that actually meant anything

I wanted a bunch of stuff to fix my fence, including a drill.
Looked at a few websites, best was Wickes - had everything, all the hardware and a decent selection if drills. Click n collect. All sorted within 2 hours of ordering on their, very simple to use, website. Don’t recall seeing any unwanted ads on there.

Telephone – them and wait 40 minutes to be told by someone to check their website for stock

"Sorry, I don't have the Internet." Have you tried or are you assuming?

Legs – cannot easily walk 1/4 mile so trooping round all the stores is not really an option

Sorry. When you said "local" In inferred some degree of convenience.

WCA - I know what you mean re the paid for ads definitely making it harder to find what you want than it used to be...

DezB - My recent experience with Wickes Click and Collect was not good. I hadn't realised they had reopened the shop so thought I had to still use click and collect.

I did Click and Collect on a 100mm Auger bit and it confirmed there were three in stock at the nearest shop.
I got the confirmation email saying it was being picked.

I got bored so drove to the shop after about an hour to see if it was ready but there was no-one at the click and collect point.

I asked the Wickes guy having a fag near by if there was anyone doing click and collect and he confirmed it was him but that everyone was just going in the store so he was having a fag break.

I asked if the order I had placed had was ready to collect and was told "I will check when I finish my fag break"

He then smoked soooooo slooowwwwly for about 5 minutes before walking into the shop and asking for my order number

He looked at the computer and said "Four hour window for collection - come back tomorrow"

I asked if he could walk over to the drill bits I was pointing at and pick the drill bit I wanted up and he said he couldn't leave the till (remember the 20 minute fag break?) and I should come back tomorrow

I said that I would go into the shop and pick the bloody thing up.

He said "Nah, that would make computer problems"

I went into the shop anyway, picked up the drill bit and explained the situation to someone else. They went over to 'Douglas' with the drill bit as I learnt the first guy was called. They came back and said "Sorry, Douglas can't sell you this and you can't buy it because Douglas has taken it for collection tomorrow."

I called for a manager but because it was the weekend there wasn't anyone around and Douglas was top of the (very short) management tree.

Another Wikes guy came over and asked what the issue was. I explained and he said "Oh, sorry. Douglas is a complete ****er." He walked over, took the drill piece back from Douglas, gave it to me and smiled as I left the shop.

This was the second bad Wickes experience. The first is still on going with a work bench ordered in early March with a 5 day delivery date. Still not got it and have been told to speak top Bosch if I have an issue but they cannot tell be the order number or reference for Bosch who do not recognise the Wickes reference.

Not shopping at Wickes anymore

When I went to Wickes to get my stuff, there was a bloke a bit like you there. I first saw him holding up a line of traffic, while he looked how to get into the car park. When I was waiting in the C&C queue, he trundled into the car park.
He walked past the queue and waved a bit of paper at the woman organising trolleys and went into the shop. Few mins later I went in, picked up some things I needed but forgot to put on my order, went to the till queue and the old fella was stood at the front of the tills looking confused.
As I went to the till I heard a conversation between him and the shop fella, which basically was that the old boy had been to another Wickes, they didn't have his stuff in stock, so he drove to this one and wanted to buy it here. He hadn't placed an order, didn't even know if they had the stuff and had stood around waiting while they looked for his C&C order 😀
I'd finished paying and was loading my car up, when he came back out of the shop, holding just one thing - his piece of paper.
I had to get out of the car park sharpish, or I would've got stuck behind him! 😆

In order to compete with Amazon these stores are trying to diversify and hold a greater range of stock, at a lower stock value as most of them are broke.

Orders can come in via a website direct, click and collect or in store (massive sprawling stores where stock gets misplaced). Disparate IT stock management and selling platforms, all underinvested in. Google feeds for shopping take time and effort to produce and validate and they are quite harsh on available vs not available for the retailers, so in order to keep your feed being consumed it's easier to make it available for order even if you have to dropship or fulfil from the manufacturer.

There's more to it than you think once you start trying to make it happen. I've been in e-comm in the past as it's hard enough, add in the physical stores and it gets very chaotic!

My recent experience with Wickes Click and Collect was not good.

You turned up at the store three hours early out of your own impatience and were surprised that your order wasn't ready, mithered the life out of some poor sod on his break, stomped into a closed store making demands, and are surprised that they told you to bugger off and come back tomorrow?

The first is still on going with a work bench ordered in early March with a 5 day delivery date. Still not got it and have been told to speak top Bosch if I have an issue

You (still) have a statutory right to cancel the order for a full refund. Unless there's more to this tale that you're not telling us, you do not have any form of contract or relationship with Bosch. Any supply issues are Wickes' problem.

Hmmm....I ordered something from Wickes on C&C, couldn't get it at my local so had to drive to the next town once the Ready text came in. While on my way I got another text saying that it wasn't ready and that they didn't have stock, but because I don't read texts when driving I only read it in the car park of the Wickes.

Seems that people order C&C and then other workers allow walk ups to walk away with their stock anyway.

I am getting forced back to Amazon to be able to perform a sensible search and get stuff delivered quickly,

I find Amazon is one of the worst for flat out ignoring your search term and displaying a page or two of unrelated utter balls before you get to something - if lucky - approximating your search term.

Sorry. I must be missing the point. Amazon have loads of them on next day delivery, no? So what the problem? I Genuinely don’t understand.

They probably didn't have any in stock available for delivery in three hours before it was dispatched.

I find Amazon is one of the worst for flat out ignoring your search term and displaying a page or two of unrelated utter balls before you get to something – if lucky – approximating your search term.

This. Their filtering is actually worse than eBay's if that was even possible.

You turned up at the store three hours early out of your own impatience and were surprised that your order wasn’t ready, mithered the life out of some poor sod on his break, stomped into a closed store making demands, and are surprised that they told you to bugger off and come back tomorrow?

Where did he say the shop was closed? Just sounds like some misanthropic arse who couldn't be arsed doing his job TBH.

Where did he say the shop was closed?

I misread that I think, apologies.

Just sounds like some misanthropic arse who couldn’t be arsed doing his job TBH.

Could well be. But if the tale unfolded as presented and I were Duncan, some random bloke knowingly rocked up three hours before his order was ready because he couldn't be simply arsed to wait and then started pulling his face at me whilst I was on my break I'd have done exactly what he did. Whether that's what actually happened only the OP will know for sure and I may be doing him a disservice but that's how it reads to me.

I may be over-sensitive here but I've had this myself at work many many times. For example, sat in the kitchen eating my dinner and someone interrupts me going "I know you're on your lunch but..." Unless the building is on fire there is no second half of that sentence other than "... I don't care, I'm more important."

As a rule of thumb if you want a favour from service / support staff, ask nicely.

Absolutely, but on the other hand I've had my fair share of arseholes who think they run the show just because they have the keys to the magic cupboard.

I'd have been leaving when it said the order was being picked as well, it's not a tall order to assume if something is literally being picked off a shelf then it should be ready by the time you get there as per any other click and collect service. Yeah, people have busy days at work, I understand that more than most but this doesn't sound like one of those days.

🙂

Happy to have provoke people to thinking but here is some help

My issue with the internet search was that there were so many websites that said they had the product you wanted, or even a selection of similar products, however when you got to the website you found out they were not actually available but not until yo had navigated a number of screens to get to the check out where they suggested instead of an orbital sander you might want a stuffed womble.

My issue with Wickes was different. I had checked and knew they had three in stock and from the door I could see the display with the bits on it. I didn't want to upset the bloke on his fag break, I just wanted the drill bit. It was 2pm on a Sunday so if I didn't get it, the job did't get done for another week. I offered politely and with a smiley face to get the drill bit for him so he didn't need to do anything. I still got the '**** you' service response. Fair enough, he might have been having a bad day but my good days don't involve spending Sunday doing DIY.

Anyway, I am now going onto one of the previously recommended websites to order a 125mm Orbital Sander, hopefully for delivery by the weekend

Loads on Amazon Prime with next or 2 days delivery

Quick update. I just went to every recommended site from Revs and searched for 125mm orbital sander. I saw mostly orbital sanders, and most were 125mm but there were also 150mm and belt sanders shown.

Never mind, I and sure from all these web sites I can find a corded 125mm Orbital snders. After choosing the sander from each of the sites, and several choices from some, all were out of stock.

THAT IS MY ORIGINAL GRIPE WITH INTERNET SHOPPING

[i]revs1972
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Alan Wadkins
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Try any of the above for decent tools, ordered from all of them and had next working day delivery[/i]

I'd rather buy from an Ebay seller than Amazon. Kindle books only from Amazon, unless I can't find something anywhere else. Ordered some bulbs for my car on Amazon 9th July, still haven't got the ****ing things, nothing on there to tell me they were coming from Outer Mongolia. It's all overpriced too, because Prime people don't shop around.
Bought something else from Wickes this week. Again, no problem whatsoever. Well, the bloke said I shouldn't have checked out as "guest" on the website, cos they can pick the order quicker for you if they have a name. I'll know next time. It was bags of gravel, bet I couldn't've got that for £10 same day on Amazon. Shopping is so bleedin hard these days, dunno how we cope. 😆

So, WCA - as it's THE INTERNET making this such a hard job for you, why don't you get the Yellow Pages out and start phoning round like what we used to? 😀

Hmmm... gave up on recommended websites and ordered Makita BO5031/2 240V 125mm Random Orbit Sander from Amazon as cheap as I could find anywhere with delivery Friday.

They may be bastards but they are effective ones

I had checked and knew they had three in stock and from the door I could see the display with the bits on it. I didn’t want to upset the bloke on his fag break, I just wanted the drill bit. It was 2pm on a Sunday so if I didn’t get it, the job did’t get done for another week. I offered politely and with a smiley face to get the drill bit for him so he didn’t need to do anything. I still got the ‘**** you’ service response.

In which case, I retract my earlier grumpiness and concur that he was a bellend.