Are British businesses worthy of support?

[DavidS]

I ask this question because of two totally different experiences I have had in dealing with two different companies recently. The first is the Swiss dvd distributor Orgazmik. I made an order which was promptly acknowledged by e-mail and delivered within a few days. One dvd was defective, again an e-mail was sent with apologies and arrangements were made for a replacement of my choice, which arrived return of post. Very impressive.
I later had dealings with a British company who have no connection whatsoever with adult entertainment. I asked if they could give me some information about one of their products which I thought could be adapted for use in my business. If successful it would have been very lucrative for them. I spoke to a secretary who was most unhelpful but reluctantly agreed to get someone with some knowledge of the product to telephone me. No call came. I again phoned, spoke to another equally unhelpful woman who implied that they did not telephone potential customers back.(sic) She agreed to post me details of the product. It has never arrived.
Ok there are good British companies but all too often this seems to happen. Often when you ask in a British shop for a product the answer comes back, "don't stock it, no call for it". And you are treated like something that crawled out under a stone for daring to ask! Yet ask in a foreign, particularly an American owned shop, and assuming the product is one you would expect to be there, they say, "it's not in stock but we will get it for you." A totally different attitude.

[diplodocus]

the service attitude in the US is totally different to here, i was gien a 25% discount in a 1 hour photo shop once cos i had to wait approx five mins whilst the person in front sorted a credit card out that wouldn't swipe. I hadn't moaned or been grumpy they just did it, would it happen here....i doubt it

[mart]

Although people can be very laid back here in NZ (sometimes to the point of inefficiency) shops can be extremely helpful, suggesting or even phoning alternative sources for something they don't have in stock. The phoning bit is helped by the fact that local phone calls are free.

Mart

[davewells]

It's why this business that some of us on here are in epitomises the phrase "rip off Britain". I'm know I'm gonna get slated on here for this 'if you don't like it bugger off etc' but this country sucks.

[Cerberus]

No they're not & it's getting worse.......the attitude seems to be, take it or leave it or better still f**k off I'm trying to look busy.
On Saturday I ordered products from Hong Kong & the UK. The stuff from HK arrived this morning! Just got an e-mail acknowledging my order from the UK people.......so in 28 days time!........fingers x'd.

[DavidS]

I did not mention it in my original posting but I should have done. You are right Cerberus, this 28 days crap seems to be uniquely British.

[beutelwolf]

Well, Orgazmik is one of those companies who are fairly expensive, but they are reliable and take customer care seriously and so they get plenty of repeat business anyway.

One thing I noticed when I came into this country (from Germany, more than a decade ago) was a different attitude by shop assistants. Not that they were any less polite than I was used to (German shop assistants can be very rude indeed) but they had a less professional attitude: they were trying to sell you something, but when you asked them any questions about the products on offer they were frequently just shrugging their shoulders. That is almost unthinkable in Germany, especially in the technology sector.

One experience I frequently had in Germany was that the sales personnel were sussing your expertise out to determine whether you would be worthy purchasing their precious top-of-the range product, or whether you should really settle for something simpler and cheaper, after all your expertise/taste/knowledge was insufficient to tell the difference. I never noticed that sort of behaviour in the UK.

[Cerberus]

Also uniquely british........another e-mail this morning. The product I ordered is no longer available, it was discontinued in January.
My polite response to them was, 'SAVE US ALL SOME TIME & EFFORT UPDATE YOUR BLOODY WEBSITE'
Support British Industry! you know it makes sense.

[Peter]

If my phone doesn't ring in 9 mins with the promised "call you back later today", someone is going to find they have a cancelled cheque on their hands. I hope they can stand a loss of nearly 5 grand.

[DavidS]

I would agree with your comments beutelwolf. Orgazmik are perhaps expensive, but you have to take into account the hassle factor with the cheapies.