247Electrical Complaints

**internetheaven** · 24-11-04

I run a merchant review web site and we have 247Electrical in the Electrical Goods section. Our site allows users to come back and tell us what they thought of the merchant after purchasing. Over the past few months we have been in-undated with complaints. What caught my eye today was that one of the complaints said "how a site ... could recommend this firm along side other companies of such well-known standards ..."

I compared the number of complaints against the number of actual conversions we are getting with this merchant and we are getting more complaints that actual commissions! This of course means that ex-customers are deliberately going to our 247Electrical review page - JUST TO COMPLAIN!

My dilemma is this - we pride ourselves on the fact that we are unbiased and that we will list bad reviews as well as good reviews. The review pages only list 20 reviews maximum but all 20 for 247Electrical are BAD. Therefore this merchant is not converting anymore as no-one will go to them. Anyone got a similar site that can offer advice on a way round this?

Also, would this largely negative review page put off other users from continuing to use our site if (like todays complaint said) they consider us to be recommending them despite their faults?

**drivetowin** · 25-11-04

If no one is going to 247 from your site now anyway why not remove the link but make a point of doing so - i.e. "in response to visitor reviews we have decided to no longer promote 247 on this site"

Should help build your visitor loyalty and your "unbiased" reputation

**Ali Merlin** · 25-11-04

If you are receiving more complaints than commissions have you not thought that this could be a competitor/one seriously upset customer causing trouble?

My advice would be to contact 247electrical and put the complaints to them. If they are business savvy then they will welcome the feedback and the chance to put things right. If they do not - well then you can decide to drop them or not.

Ali

**internetheaven** · 25-11-04

If you are receiving more complaints than commissions have you not thought that this could be a competitor/one seriously upset customer causing trouble?

Yes, we did think of that and some of them are blatantly obvious! The worst being those that say "I much prefer ****" who just happens to have an affiliate program on the same/another network.

Thanks for the tip though, I'll let 247 know and see what they say.

**Ali Merlin** · 25-11-04

You could make the best out of this by remarking on your site that the feedback has been given to 247electrical and that you'll keep your visitors informed - very "Watchdog" like. Could even turn out to be a way to promote 247electrical/other electrical stores - you know what they say, no publicity is bad publicity!

Ali

**aclarke656** · 25-11-04

They are responsible for the worst online purchasing experience I ever had, and I've made a fair few online purchases.

I've also seen them slagged from here to next christmas on other consumer forums.

**Ali Merlin** · 25-11-04

What was their response to your complaints? I'm getting curious how these guys are still in buisness if their service is so bad.

Ali

**internetheaven** · 25-11-04

[quoteI'm getting curious how these guys are still in buisness if their service is so bad.[/quote] We keep sending them new people who are none-the-wiser!

Does anyone know if the 247Electrical affiliate manager post in this forum? Just incase my emails don't get through to them ... which seems to be the biggest complaint ...

**Ali Merlin** · 25-11-04

247electrical Director's statement on service + issues + contact details (forgive me if you've seen this already). Worth a try.

http://www.pricerunner.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=82

Ali.

**ppcxml** · 25-11-04

Originally posted by aclarke656
They are responsible for the worst online purchasing experience I ever had, and I've made a fair few online purchases.

I've also seen them slagged from here to next christmas on other consumer forums.

and i'll second that

i usually refrain from complaining about companies in public, but these really do take the biscuit...waited 3 weeks for an item which should have taken 48 hours, only to be eventually told (after numerous phone calls) that it wasn't expected to be in stock for another 3 weeks. In the mean time they still had it listed on their home page as a "Hot Product" with an estimated del of 2 days

**aclarke656** · 26-11-04

What was their response to your complaints? I'm getting curious how these guys are still in buisness if their service is so bad.

They are one of these companies that only deal in positive statements (bit like a couple of affiliate networks I could mention) so when you ring up to complain they listen carefully, sound very concerned, check their records and announce that the problem has been sorted and the appliance will be with you tomorrow. Then when you ring in two days time they listen carefully, sound very concerned, check their records .....

To be fair it did turn up in the end, about 2 weeks instead of 2 days, but it remains the worst online purchase I have made servicewise.

It was like waiting for a Virgin Megastore datafeed

**Ali Merlin** · 26-11-04

Reading the whole buzz surrounding 247 looks like they're losing/lost customers by the shed load. Will be interesting to see if things get better or worse in the future. In the mean time I'll be keeping an eye on them.

Good luck to all you guys!

Ali.

**babafette** · 29-11-04

Originally posted by ppcxml
waited 3 weeks for an item which should have taken 48 hours, only to be eventually told (after numerous phone calls) that it wasn't expected to be in stock for another 3 weeks. In the mean time they still had it listed on their home page as a "Hot Product" with an estimated del of 2 days

I had a similar experience I'm afraid to say. Waited weeks for an item only to be told that it was no longer in stock even though it was still being promoted. Ordered a replacement item, waited a week only to be told that it was no longer in stock either. Needless to say I cancelled my order and shopped somewhere else!

**Freebie** · 29-11-04

If you want to continue listing them to keep your unbiased approach, you could make them rate the site out of 10, as well as review. You can then use the rating to give a selection of both good and bad reviews from each merchant.

The plus side is that this remains unbiased, and it should enable you to send a few clicks to the 'bad' merchants. The bad news is that you may detract from merchants that are converting well (if they have a few complaints it could easily look a larger % than what it actually is)

We do have a site that could be said to be similar though, although probably smaller. If i was making the decision id check how well those particular pages and reviews rank in the search engines, and if i wasn't getting traffic in to the site via them, i'd just remove them. You're not gaining anything else from the sound of it.

**internetheaven** · 29-11-04

Thanks for all your input. For the time being I'm going to keep them on the site - my credibility can't be called into question as I display all the negative reviews and I actually already have a voting system in place (though it is out of 5) so if people still want to shop there it's not my fault, but I still get paid. Offering a wide range is part of the reason I started the network and at this time I don't feel it is detracting from my other merchants.

In the end, displaying a merchant with such bad reviews and low ranking score will probably lend weight to the reviews being accepted as genuine on the "good" merchants.