ASG The Store! Happy Hour Sale

[Shell Belle]

That's why the original point of the complaint, the delay in delivery and selling stock that's not available, is very valid. However, bitching about prices and mark ups and so forth is a bit of a waste of time. They can either charge these prices and stay open, or close the doors and we will have to import ourselves and deal with returns and customs and our wonderful postal service.

 

For most and myself included it's worth it to pay that company for the luxury of paying in Rand or even going to a physical store and trying before I buy. 

 

 

This took the words out of my mouth.  

I am happy to pay for the products as advertised, and my gripe is not about the cost of the shoes or nutrition or what.  However, I do have a problem with the shoddy after-sales service once they have happily taken said money off my credit card.  It is simply not on to ghost your paying customers because you don't feel like dealing with them after you have stuffed up.  It would also help if they did not sell products that are out of stock.

 

It's amazing what some simple communication can do to keep customers feeling happy.

[Heppy]

So I go after the bargains and order a high end pair of SIDI shoes at 50% off. A great deal, but the service that has followed is absolutely atrocious. The order was placed on Tuesday 10 Oct, and on the 17th still no feedback or status update. Three calls later, every time I'm told they will call me back within 5, 30 and 60 minutes, but alas. This is officially the worst service I have received from an online SA cycling store. Never again!!!  Am I the only one who has had this experience?  

I thought i was the only one!!! What a bad shopping experience, i ordered and payed immediately and 3 days later i get a call saying they do not have stock in my size even though the website says they do. Then they try to offer me a different shoe at R500 more even though it was their system that screwed up ( i would have expected that they would offer me the other shoe at the same price). Now its 4 days later after i requested a refund and i am still waiting. I have emailed several times to follow up with no response. I will never shop here again. 

Edited October 18, 2017 by Heppy

[Patchelicious]

This took the words out of my mouth.  

I am happy to pay for the products as advertised, and my gripe is not about the cost of the shoes or nutrition or what.  However, I do have a problem with the shoddy after-sales service once they have happily taken said money off my credit card.  It is simply not on to ghost your paying customers because you don't feel like dealing with them after you have stuffed up.  It would also help if they did not sell products that are out of stock.

 

It's amazing what some simple communication can do to keep customers feeling happy.

 

Agreed, that is not something that we should accept. Very little excuse for bad service, especially from premium brands that might have margins to pay for proper infrastructure and staff.

Edited October 18, 2017 by Patchelicious

[FondyMig]

That's why the original point of the complaint, the delay in delivery and selling stock that's not available, is very valid. However, bitching about prices and mark ups and so forth is a bit of a waste of time. They can either charge these prices and stay open, or close the doors and we will have to import ourselves and deal with returns and customs and our wonderful postal service.

 

For most and myself included it's worth it to pay that company for the luxury of paying in Rand or even going to a physical store and trying before I buy. 

Jase is right - my original gripe was not about the profits. I am just fuming because of the experience I've had to go through and cannot accept that. To get back to the root of this thread: 

• bad stock management
• bad order management (systems and people)
• failure to provide feedback when contacted
• delays in resolving disputes and refunds

From many of the posts here we can see that on various occasions people have been contacted telling them what they requested is not available but they can have an alternative product. That's not on. I could have opted for another model shoe at the time if I knew what I originally wanted was not available. Now, the alternative is also sold out so I have to go for option 3 or 4 which I do not want.

I buy regularly from overseas sites (TotalCycling, Chainreaction, etc.) and have had minor issues compared to this. And when I did have issues, they were resolved quickly and amicably. 

[Pikey]

As patch says it's a free market . You don't want to pay x price for something then don't.

 

As i said , I got the shoes for a bargain hence my purchase. Would I pay R7k for the shoes not a sausage, even if I needed shoes . But then others would and happily .

 

I am super happy with the shoes ,it's the service which has frustrated me.

 

But they did deliver the 2nd pair this morning after my mini tantrum ????

So clearly someone is listening.

[Andrew Steer]

Shoes, R3500, Bargain... all in the same sentence 

 

The things we tell ourselves

[ASG]

Thanks to everyone that has taken the time to post.

 

We recently contracted an external vendor to develop the integration between our financial system and our online store. Needless to say this integration failed completely last Monday with this SIDI / HIGH5 sale resulting in several ‘out of stock issues’ and an overwhelming amount of of back-office administration.

 

Coupled with an incredible uptake on the '50% off' offer, this placed a fair amount of extra pressure on a system that is designed to operate automatically and efficiently (and has to date).

 

We apologise for any inconvenience caused. We have dealt with, or are dealing with, the orders that could not be fulfilled. In most cases upgrades or refunds were offered and dealt with. We acknowledge that a few customers did not get immediate feedback or assistance due to the above.

 

More than 90% of orders taken as part of this sale were processed and delivered without a glitch and within 2 days. We are happy that one or two customers made the effort here to testify to that that fact.

 

Our goal, as always, is to sell the best products at the best prices and deliver them as quickly as possible to your doorstep. Something that we’ve managed to do successfully since launching asgthestore.com and something that is supported by the 5* average review rating that we are very proud off.

 

If you still have a specific problem or query related to this or any other daily sale, please mail hylton@asgsport.co.za and we’ll revert as soon as possible.

 

We'll continue to offer these daily sales leading up to the opening of our new Pretoria store and hope that you'll forgive us any growing pains that may have caused some inconvenience...we're not going anywhere and will address each issue to the best of our ability. Hopefully we won't have too many more issues to deal with.

 

 

Regards

 

The ag team

[FondyMig]

Thanks to everyone that has taken the time to post.

 

We recently contracted an external vendor to develop the integration between our financial system and our online store. Needless to say this integration failed completely last Monday with this SIDI / HIGH5 sale resulting in several ‘out of stock issues’ and an overwhelming amount of of back-office administration.

 

Coupled with an incredible uptake on the '50% off' offer, this placed a fair amount of extra pressure on a system that is designed to operate automatically and efficiently (and has to date).

 

We apologise for any inconvenience caused. We have dealt with, or are dealing with, the orders that could not be fulfilled. In most cases upgrades or refunds were offered and dealt with. We acknowledge that a few customers did not get immediate feedback or assistance due to the above.

 

More than 90% of orders taken as part of this sale were processed and delivered without a glitch and within 2 days. We are happy that one or two customers made the effort here to testify to that that fact.

 

Our goal, as always, is to sell the best products at the best prices and deliver them as quickly as possible to your doorstep. Something that we’ve managed to do successfully since launching asgthestore.com and something that is supported by the 5* average review rating that we are very proud off.

 

If you still have a specific problem or query related to this or any other daily sale, please mail hylton@asgsport.co.za and we’ll revert as soon as possible.

 

We'll continue to offer these daily sales leading up to the opening of our new Pretoria store and hope that you'll forgive us any growing pains that may have caused some inconvenience...we're not going anywhere and will address each issue to the best of our ability. Hopefully we won't have too many more issues to deal with.

 

 

Regards

 

The ag team

Dear Hylton,

I have been waiting for my refund for the second day now and still no cash. As a matter of fact my order status still shows as "processing" on your site although we clearly agreed to cancel my order. I'm giving this until Thursday and will email you with my personal details first thing if this is still not rectified.

I would gladly forgive and forget if you could provide me with what I originally ordered, but that is sadly not an option and I feel done in.

Edited October 18, 2017 by FondyMig

[Pikey]

Shoes, R3500, Bargain... all in the same sentence 

 

The things we tell ourselves

brilliant hey ????????????????????????

Denial is wonderful ????

[ASG]

Dear Hylton,

I have been waiting for my refund for the second day now and still no cash. As a matter of fact my order status still shows as "processing" on your site although we clearly agreed to cancel my order. I'm giving this until Thursday and will email you with my personal details first thing if this is still not rectified.

 

Dear FondiMig, would you mind mailing Hylton with your real email so we can resolve this.  Hylton@asgworld.co.za.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

[Oakley360]

Excellent service and my helmet showed up on my doorstep today...exactly as expected.

 

Sorry to hear about the other hubbers experience.

[FondyMig]

Finally at 12h40 today I got an email from PayFast stating that:  

"A payment you recently made via PayFast has been refunded".  

 

The bad news is this is just a notification from PayFast, and my money is not in yet. This info taken from their site: 

Note: we're not able to process partial credit card refunds; card transactions must be refunded in full. It may take up to seven days for the funds to reflect in the buyer's credit card account". 

7+7 days since the order placement = 14 days. 

 

I love my SIDI shoes, but I will never source them or anything else from ASG ever again. 

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Edited October 19, 2017 by FondyMig

[Grey Hubs]

All just a Sidi mistake

[V12man]

All just a Sidi mistake

Yup... Sidi did make a mistake.....

 

I am still waiting for an answer on my email from asg.... wonder what the eta on that is....

 

They would have sold at least 1 more set of shoes if they had answered it....

[stefmeister]

100%

 

Absolutely, but bet your bottom dollar somebody is going to argue with your numbers.

 

Funny how people think they are always being over charged and screwed, until your boss starts questioning your cost to company and asking if you are over charging him/her.... then the tone changes very quickly.

Yup,

 

it's usually people who just works for a salary and have never looked at the finances of a business or are in anyway involved with sales, to understand that 50 - 100% gross margin is not entirely exorbitant.

 

As a gross generalization, anything you buy in a shop cost about <10% of the retail price to manufacture.

Take off 50 - 100% GM on RRP the retailer makes. Note to the uneducated, gross margin is not equal to mark up.

Another 30 - 60% for distribution (which includes inbound/outbound transport, warehousing and other logistics). 

So your very expensive R150k bicycle is worth about R15k in raw material cost, labour, and whatever margins they operate at.

[Heppy]

Finally at 12h40 today I got an email from PayFast stating that:  

"A payment you recently made via PayFast has been refunded".  

 

The bad news is this is just a notification from PayFast, and my money is not in yet. This info taken from their site: 

Note: we're not able to process partial credit card refunds; card transactions must be refunded in full. It may take up to seven days for the funds to reflect in the buyer's credit card account". 

7+7 days since the order placement = 14 days. 

 

I love my SIDI shoes, but I will never source them or anything else from ASG ever again. 

"Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Still no reply from ASG or Hytlon on my side and still waiting on my refund. The lack of communication and overall poor service is absurd. Clearly this isn't true:

 

"Hopefully we won't have too many more issues to deal with"