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Monday 26 January 2009

STL System Update

In light of what we discovered yesterday in relation to some of our electronic orders, I have updated the below post:

Hi All

Since Tuesday last week, we have been able to achieve same day despatch on most orders, however, due to an electronic error a number of web orders have been delayed by up to two days. This error occurred on Friday so if you have any concerns about orders placed since then, please contact customer services. On 08457 056568 or e-mail serviceline@stl.org


I also want to apologise again to those who were affected by the issue we encountered on the 16th January; where we fixed a blockage in the system releasing hundreds of backorders (as far back as 18th December). We have been working on a process with our SAP consultants to ensure that orders do not flood the system when an issue is resolved, allowing us to maintain the level of service you expect from STL Distribution.


This week our main focus is again on the goods receiving area of the warehouse in order to improve our availability and returns. I am aware of customers having to wait for credit notes and although it will take some weeks before we are on top of this aspect we are putting all available resources on to this. If you have any questions regarding outstanding credits please do contact Customer Services on 0845 705 6568.


Kind Regards

STL Blog Team

5 comments:

cathy said...

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! Having read your post, we confidently placed an order yesterday fully reassured by you that we would receive it today. But no, it has not arrived. Why not? Where is it? Why are you making claims that you are not living up to?
Either you are not as sorted out as you think you are, or our order is ALWAYS in the small number that doesn't arrive in 24 hours.
Please don't make claims you can't live up to. It's much better for us to tell our customers that their order will be 2 days, 3 days or however long it will take, than to say 24 hours and then have to phone them and apologise for it being late.

John Duncan said...

Sorry to hear about your problems, Cathy. I think that out of my last eight orders over the last three weeks or so, six have arrived next day, one after two days and one three days. So from my perspective the situation has improved massively since the dire days before Christmas. However I still don't feel the full confidence I would like to, and am still giving my customers only qualified assurance of next-day delivery!

I have two other problems at the moment: Firstly, I still have backorders in place from the December SELECT catalogue, and every time without fail when they come in for the first time the promotional discount is not applied. I still have four more titles I am expecting from this promotion, and it would be very nice not to have to report mistakes when they come in.

Secondly, I seem to be getting 'backorders' that are not in fact on backorder. I have a recent copy of my backorders list and therefore know exactly what I have on backorder. However recently I have had three
items sent to me as backorders that are not on the list - two of them were items that did not come when I originally ordered them, and are marked as 'not on backorder' on the original invoice. What are we to make of this?

Trust Media Blog Team said...

Unfortunately due to an electronic error between our website and SAP, orders from Friday were not being processed throught the system. And even more unfortunate, this was only discovered yesterday afternoon after i had put the post up with regard to same-day despatch.

I apologise for the confusion caused. Cathy I checked on your order with our Customer Service Team yesterday afternoon and they informed me it was despatched yesterday, so you should recieve it today.

If anyone else has queries with regard to orders, please contact Customer Services on 0845 705 6568.

Trust Media Blog Team said...

Hi John

I shall pass your query on with regard to backorders. Sounds like we still have one or two gremlins in there somewhere...

With regard to Select discount, this is a problem we are aware of and the team have been working to fix. I shall chase to see if it has now been sorted.

Thanks

Geoff said...

Just an update on the pricing issue. I followed your advice and claimed the difference in price between that printed on the Zondervan book and what was charged.
However, I have now found that Purpose Driven Church (price printed at £8.99 and STL charged at £10.49) is now £7.99 on the system.
This is not a complaint but a suggestion: is there some way (perhaps weekly email or a section on the website) where price drops can be highlighted? Sometimes it is purely by accident that we find a book or CD is now several pounds cheaper and we then order several copies and they sell through in quantity. This would help publishers and STL clear through stocks and help shops and customers with good value items.
I know that sometimes publishers reps may highlight them, but not always and never systematically. I also know that the example I give below is a Select one but I'm sure there are lots of non-Select ones.
(eg Father You've been waiting for - sales at full price negligable, sales at price drop to £1.99 = 56)
Geoff, Maranatha