Warning to others
 

This may open a can of worms but think it needs to be brought to racers attention.
I placed an online order with JE/Apex last Friday night. All items showing in stock.
I then realised I'd made a mistake. So Saturday I tried to ring and could never get through. I emailed and got a reply saying the item no longer needed was refunded (but paypal have held on to this money?).
So on Wednesday I had no sign of my items so I called up and was told they are busy and my order should be processed that afternoon.
Wednesday afternoon I received a message saying one item was out of stock and will be with them Thursday.
Thursday nothing.
Today/Friday a message to say it was posted.
I know what will happen. Parts/Tires needed for racing on Sunday will turn up next Monday!

Just be warned when using them that you may be let down.
They maybe busy or understaffed but that's not my problem.
Shame as I've used them 100s of times in the past (before the merge) and they have been great.
This will certainly make me think twice when ordering parts in need in a week!

I've had a few issues with them before so I try to stay clear of them as much as possible.

Get your parts from M B Models never fail to get your bits to you by the next day :)

Shipping time
 

I've had a similar experience, this was the email reply I received.


We do state ... "Please note that in stock items can take up to 3 working days to despatch during busy periods," on the website

I won't use them again.

Since using MB Models I will not use any other. Cannot beat them for service. Highly recommend them.
This is not to bad mouth any other online shop it's that they offer such a good service it's not worth going anywhere else.
Inside line racing is another I would recommend.

Great, I placed an order yesterday :thumbdown:

JE
 

I normally use either InsideLine because they stock all the parts I need for my Team C cars or MB Models. But this time due to the item I wanted being "in stock" at JE and not anywhere else I placed all the items I needed on order with JE/Apex. Stupid me.
I think the problem is that when it used to be JE Spares they were great but now Apex are involved it's gone to pot!

I've found that they also share stock between the 2 shops and the eBay stores, 4 points of sale 1 lot of stock.

Mb models have never let me down, I'd deffo recommend them to everyone!

MBmodels all the way :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

I use mb models and pbm-racing and modelsport all fast delivery service if you order by 2pm you get next day :thumbsup:

Can't talk about JE/Apex, but another :thumbsup: for MB Models here.

I ordered something and was amazed to receive a refund on the standard post charge because the item fitted into a standard envelope that needed a first-class stamp! And it arrived the day after ordering it.

The guy that runs it pitted with me at a meeting - thoroughly nice bloke... whose name I unforgivably can't remember!! :blush:

MB all the way Michael and ross great :thumbsup::thumbsup:
Ordered some spares dpd left at wrong address that tracked down
Were they were at and got dpd to deliver

MB models, fantastic service, Had a problem once when ordered some tyres wheels etc on friday for sunday(cutting it fine but had faith in them as RM 1st nearly always comes the next day) received Email from DPD saying monday delivery….bugger so phoned asked for a change to RM so they stood a chance of coming saturday,really helpful sorted and bingo my parcel arrived saturday AM:thumbsup::thumbsup:

I think they were actually offering better service as my order was about £30 and should have been sent RM. DPD would have been great apart from the fact they don't deliver saturday

My models, pbm racing and inside line racing are the only ones who I will buy from. Superb service every time without fail.

With being a former member of staff when JE was based in Manchester I can understand your frustration :(
To start with you say you placed your order Friday evening, I'm not sure if they open Saturday or not... Let's say they don't, you now have 2 full days of trading going on from the website, eBay and so on.. So Monday morning is the first time the system has been looked at for nearly 3 days... (I'd say most purchases are made in the evenings when people are home from work)
In many instances when I got into work on a Monday we had in excess of 1000 + emails, orders etc so you have to appreciate it takes a lot of time to scan through all this, while also having to deal with phone calls, and customers coming into the shop. We always scanned through first thing Monday picking out the more important emails issues etc and dealt with them first. You have to appreciate sometimes these can get missed.
In this case you said you made a mistake on your order, this order would have been put on hold while issue sorted.. Now in this time the parts etc you have ordered could well have been allocated to another order as your order was on hold trying to resolve an issue. Other members of staff who are processing orders wouldn't have known this and seen said part still available and would have gone on there order.. Until order is confirmed this can happen I'm afraid... The main concern was to rectify your mistake and correct the order and to do this it is put on hold.
All orders are processed in the order at which they came in... And yes the website is live... So if we have 10 items in stock on a Friday night and 12get sold over the weekend unfortunately the last 2 purchases will go on back order and will be sent out once back in stock..
As I have already said it's unfortunate but this does happen.. If the order was submitted correctly initially I doubt very much you would have made the post.
As far as I'm concerned when I worked at JE we used to bend over backwards for customers to sort these type of issues out.. And trust me your issue would have been dealt with in the best possible way.
Some customers from memory you could never please and unfortunately this is part and parcel of being in retail. Ebay customers I'd say could be the worst. As for paypal and refunds sometimes they can take a while to show up. I doubt very much a member of staff would have said you had been refunded and not done it.
Another point on postage... If you need stuff for next day and are desperate for it either use UPS it or special delivery with Royal Mail.. Royal Mail first class is hit and miss.. I don't know why but customers seemed to think 1st class / 1st class recorded meant next day.. Well it doesn't... 9 times out of 10 you would get package next day but sometimes it can take longer please read the Royal Mail website and you will be shocked as to what they state (it was to allow 14 working days for delivery!)
Hope this helps explain a few things... This is a business just like where you work... If people complain over a £10 order time and time again it gives others a bad vibe and would order somewhere else.. Over a period of time same people will also say if said place has now closed " such a shame it's closed" so think before you say anything and order in good time CORRECTLY!:p
I hope you can see where I'm coming from and all makes sense.... I'm sure there are a lot of people who read this who will agree with me! And there are bound to be people out there who have had issues elsewhere its retail after all:thumbsup:

I love the way people seem to think that model shops are evil, giant corporations put there to RUIN YOUR PITIFUL LIVES!! They're generally just small shops with humans running them, whose business can be damaged by a gung-ho keyboard warrior with easy forum access.

I wish everybody that liked to slag these places off had a forum connected to their job. Then, when you serve me slightly cold fries and flat coke, I could go straight onto your forum and tell everyone to stay away from your scabby hands flipping my burnt cheeseburger.

I'm sure all of the people that start these pointless threads are absolutely brilliant at their jobs and NEVER make a mistake? No?

Good post!

I know the guys at apex and they run a small shop and sell at great prices. For every inconvenience there are a million successes.

I've used JE/Apex quite a bit with the most recent time being last week. I can't say I've had any issues.

Nothing wrong with Apex models the amount of time it's been open speaks for that.

i use both mb models and je/apex and generally get my order delivered next day, so thumbs up to both

Cant say I've had an issue with Apex/JE and I've used them a TON lately, sometimes it takes a bit longer to get my item, maybe now and then they have to order in from the distributor, not sure, but every time, top service, and, yup, the lads at MB are soldiers too, blinding fast service!

lee

I think many of you would be surprised at how small the distributors are for RC products in the UK, and with the internet and cheap far east outlets now available its very difficult for a retailer / distributor to be able to carry large stocks of stuff.

When I started racing in the late 80's there were next to no sponsored drivers, no internet and everyone bought their stuff from the local model shop.

When I worked at smd the shops we supplied certainly tried their best but were unwilling/unable to order say 20 sets of lipos in one go to keep 19 on the shelf.
The distributors are now the shops stock room if you see what i mean. This is pretty much the way of the world now, not just our little hobby.

There are a couple of exceptions to the above, both having been mentioned in this thread and they should be saluted for sticking their necks out and actually carrying a shed load of stock, but for the outlets that don't, they shouldn't really be berated for it because they are trying their best in a very difficult market.

Never had a problem ordering from JE. Latest order placed Thursday and arrived today.

Top job.

Still no sign.
I may have just got unlucky I suppose but I'll only ever order from them again if the items arnt in stock at Insideline or MB.

Short memory?

When we did not have the internet and access to the world-wide-shop, we did indeed go to our local model shop. Some were a disaster and word soon spread around the place. Just like today, we would express our concerns and people would give their recommendations.

If your local shop was poor, you simply found somewhere else, called them up on the telephone and ordered what you wanted. If you had one of those new-fangled credit cards it was in the post straight away. If not you sent a cheque which, once cleared, meant your shiny new bits were delivered.

Nothing has changed - model shops open (MB, etc.) and model shops close (Microtech, etc.) just as they have for the last 70-odd years. Some model shops have a good reputation and some have a bad one. Word of mouth is replaced by word of forum to a certain extent, but it has the same effect.

Some people avoid the shop with the complaint by a majority of one, and some go by their experience and continue to deal with said shop - see the posts on here for evidence.

We've always known that people are able to make mistakes and we've always made our own judgements. No one is ruining our lives, and mine certainly isn't pitiful thank you. One person's view is just that - one person's view. It's my choice if I react to it.

Calm down dear; it's only an internet post... ;)

Don't worry, I am calm. I run a business and I have a complaints procedure. If a customer isn't happy with something it's dealt with in house and the outcome is usually a satisfied customer at the end of it. If somebody decided to slag my business off on an industry related forum it would have a hugely detrimental on my business, so I have an issue with loaded forum posts titled "Warning to others" with "I maybe opeing a can of worms, but...". Well of course you're opening a can of worms, it's your absolute intention to open the bloody can or you wouldn't be posting any worms. The can is so easy to open these days with forums and the worms are more than happy to jump out and post whingey posts. If you don't like a shop, go elsewhere. I know if I was the shop in question your order would be at the bottom of the pile if I'd read the first post. Anyway, I won't post again on this subject, there's toy car racing to be done.

I don't think anyone has slagged anybody off. I did not start this thread to stop people shopping at any particular shop (and who am I to try to do that anyway). I just started it to let my fellow racers know of the trouble I have had in getting needed parts in time to race tomorrow.

I felt and still feel let down by the service I have received (or not received yet in this case).
The order went through a week and a day ago and I still don't have my goods. I have never experienced this in all of my 20 years racing from any shop (above mentioned one included). I'm just saying that when I spoke to somebody on Wednesday they never mentioned any items not being in stock (the item still showed and shows in stock) and that I would receive my order by the end of the week.

But it's just my story.

Did u read my post? As I tried to explain what had happened.

Don't forget you ordered on Friday.. Admitted you made a mistake.. Contacted JE.. Your order would have been put on hold while issue rectified.. In Which time your other part was allocated to another persons order.. Your part ordered from supplier now in stock and dispatched to you by Royal Mail 1st class/recorded.. And this can take anywhere up to 14 working days (check Royal Mail web site) you've just been unlucky on the posting.. All this in my mind doesn't mean it's JE's fault?!? They will have been trying to get everything sorted for you asap as it will have been i there best interest!!

Ordered it Friday but not yesterday and week and a day ago. The only mistake I made was adding a wrong item but still wanted the rest of the order. So not sure why that part was refunded and sorted that Saturday but the rest of my order was ignored until after Wednesday as I was told. So it's not my fault that 5 days later another part was sold.
Also I, not unlucky on the posting. It's not that I'm bothered about it the fact my order took a week to even be sent.

that would be Michael Ball

you also said the website was live, yet the stock level can not be or you would not be able to order more than is in stock!

I'm well aware it was a week and abit ago... So you spoke to someone on Saturday who sorted your refund while you were on the phone..??
Good job JE responded quickly because I would imagine you would have posted on here if they sent the wrong part and were then dragging there feet refunding/sorting the correct item you wanted???
Mark - Live stock levels are all well and good and until said orders are processed.. Website only updates once orders have been processed and as previously mentioned these are processed by staff in the order in which they have been placed on the website..and I'm sure this will be the same idea for all web shops..

JE have never been the same since the merge, I've even had issues with apex themselves. After waiting 4 or 5 days for my item I contacted them an was told it was going to be sent out that day an if not defiantly the next, after 4 days I contacted them again only to be told it still hasn't been posted, 12 days is far far too long

MB has the best live stock level, as soon as you pay for the item its instantly removed from the website, that's how it should be done. It stops people ordering things that may not actually be in stock by the time someone processes the order. If something is in stock on the website I expect it to actually be in stock, that isn't too much to ask for

Very interesting and thanks for all the kind comments.

As you can imagine i spend a lot of time following our competitors as I'm sure our competitors do with us. Im very surprised to hear that JE/Apex does not run live stock levels as advertised are you sure this is correct Nick? I thought that all packages that used stock levels would update after each transaction, surely this seems logical.

The biggest gripe i have in this industry is shadow stock, its often very hard for customers to tell if a items is actually available off the shelf in the shop or if they are ordering a product that is available for a shop to buy from the distributor, which would delay the delivery by a few days and run the risk of it selling out between updates. I'm not sure why distributors that sell direct even offer this service. I get asked all the time by distributors to do this but so far have refused. We only sell what we have in stock or occasionally offer a item as a Pre-Order, but again will only sell the number we have ordered. What do customers think do you want to see us offering items we don't have any intension on stocking and do you want to be able to back order items? (This would mean paying upfront for a item that may take weeks to arrive) Maybe someone can set up a poll?

Thanks
MB

I've used Apex twice out of necessity and on their eBay store. Now for some reason they are THE ONLY SELLER I'VE EVER USED that quotes 4 days before posting the item. Mine took 11 days to get to me. Check their feedback and it's one long thread of people moaning about delays in getting stuff out to the customer. You'd think with so many saying the same thing that the management would take note but it seems not. I can't say I'll never use them again because in all probability I may all have to at some point, but let's be honest and say they're well down the list.

DMS racing all the way for me. Live stock levels helpful staff, massive stock levels and very quick postage. Only place I know where I can order a body shell at 5.20pm and it arrives next day at 9am

APEX used to be my supplier of choice, but has recently been very poor. Ironically, JE Models via EBAY has been faultless so go figure?

Anyway I normally get Yokomo parts from MB Models but decided to try APEX once to see how they performed.

MB Models = Next day delivery

APEX Models = A week

Several other members of our club (ARCCC) have experienced similar timescales with APEX versus other other suppliers.

je spares
 

I've used JE spares quite a bit via ebay and have been nothing but pleased with the service, everything has been delivered swiftly and been well packaged and at a good price or i'd have gone elsewhere.
I'd read a few of the keyboard warrior stories and so far they've been wrong, JE have been just like any other online store and done what they need to do to keep me as a returning customer.
My LHS is PBM and they are fantastic but sometimes you need to use others, Inside Line, MB, Moss Models and Modelsport along with JE Spares all seem to go that bit further than most other types of shops i use and i think thats because this hobby in particular brings out some really picky traits in us, their customers.
Support them and tell the shops of any issues first so that they can sort the problems before coming on here giving them a bad name as it really can effect their livelihood.
Tony Collinson

With most rc shops being online now there isn't really much room for mistakes. If you have had a problem with the shop before and there are others out there selling the same item that you want why would you risk it buying from the place that you have had problems with before?