Approved food general discussion part deux

Sarahsaver

Nice civil general discuccion folks.
Also, if you want to accuse anyone of dishonesty, phone your local police station rather than doing so on here

Maybe a good start would be to tell us how you get on with orders, refunds, follow- up etc.
Thanks.

matt286bay

like i quoted on the last thread, my only concern is the current situation regards the stock control, reading back on previous threads, dan himself said that a new system was in place and the site wouldnt let you order if the stock wasnt there to sell, yet my latest order i still got a refund for out of stock items, and it was a large number of the said item (ie 25), i know they was only sweets , but products none the less , so not just a couple of said product , this really miffed me off, i not saying dan is imcompetent or a crook, just think he needs to sort his stock system.
i have been to the warehouse before and may go again , but its also dissapointing to travel 70 mile each way and not have the full choice that is on website, but i will give af another chance to sort this stock control issue, in my opinion and my own experience this is there only fault with me. i know others have had problems and hope the company can get back on an even footing offering good products and good service and good prices, like it was with my earlier orders. everyone will be happy again.

Approved_Food

Firstly I must say that I can empathise with those people who have had a frustrating experience with us. I too buy on the internet and having paid at the time of purchase, as is the norm, I expect the goods to be delivered promptly and accurately. I admit that this has not been the case with all of your orders recently and I can assure you that I am making every effort to remedy that.

The unsolicited media attention that we received has in many ways done us no favours and has caused us (and some of you) more than a few headaches, plenty of heartache, and tons of stress. Every time we think we have taken a step forwards some other problem rears its head. It is simply a matter of working under huge pressure that has led to oversights and mistakes. Our stock control system, for example, was supposed to solve most of the problems but working, as we were (still are) under pressure, input errors were made, which led to incomplete orders. I am confident that the major failings have now been dealt with. OK, human errors may still occur but not very often.

By next week we should be back on track (yes, I know I’ve optimistically said that before now) and so will be able to deal with orders in a calmer way, turning them round within the two to three days that we used to before chaos descended upon us.

Regarding orders going out not in strict chronological order; that has been against my explicit instructions. I am grateful that it has been brought to my attention. I will look into it and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Finally, I can only repeat my sincere apologies for the way things have gone for some of our customers and thank those of you who have been more than understanding and supportive

Humbly,

Dan

wookie_2

Thanks for the update Dan:D

mdecker_london

approvedfood wrote: »

Firstly I must say that I can empathise with those people who have had a frustrating experience with us. I too buy on the internet and having paid at the time of purchase, as is the norm, I expect the goods to be delivered promptly and accurately. I admit that this has not been the case with all of your orders recently and I can assure you that I am making every effort to remedy that.

The unsolicited media attention that we received has in many ways done us no favours and has caused us (and some of you) more than a few headaches, plenty of heartache, and tons of stress. Every time we think we have taken a step forwards some other problem rears its head. It is simply a matter of working under huge pressure that has led to oversights and mistakes. Our stock control system, for example, was supposed to solve most of the problems but working, as we were (still are) under pressure, input errors were made, which led to incomplete orders. I am confident that the major failings have now been dealt with. OK, human errors may still occur but not very often.

By next week we should be back on track (yes, I know I’ve optimistically said that before now) and so will be able to deal with orders in a calmer way, turning them round within the two to three days that we used to before chaos descended upon us.

Regarding orders going out not in strict chronological order; that has been against my explicit instructions. I am grateful that it has been brought to my attention. I will look into it and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Finally, I can only repeat my sincere apologies for the way things have gone for some of our customers and thank those of you who have been more than understanding and supportive

Humbly,

Dan

It is notable that you have avoided addressing one of the key complaints regarding your practise of charging orders weeks before they're delivered. This is a breach of Google's T's & C's, as well as unlawful if you're taking payment for items you know you don't have in stock. It is *not* the norm to pay at time of order unless the goods are ready for despatch. Amazon, for example, do not take payment until items are ready to be despatched. It is a matter of great concern that you continue to defend this practise, even though you're fully aware it's a breach of the agreement you have with Google.

It would be some comfort if you were to now undertake to take payment only at time of despatch, rather than at time of order.

And it's all very well your coming here week after week apologising for exactly the same things and promising to fix them, but there comes a point when people won't trust what you say anymore. You can't, on the one hand, advertise here for happy customers to speak for you on the telly, and in the next breath moan about 'unsolicited media attention' and 'chaos' that is *entirely* of your own making.

What you *should* have done was suspend your website on 17th January, when you yourself posted that items were out of stock and you couldn't cope. Instead you chose to continue to take orders you couldn't possibly fulfil within a reasonable timescale, and when you also knew you didn't have the items in stock to fulfil.

hallnaomiuk

fair point

sellercheckuk

approvedfood wrote: »

Firstly I must say that I can empathise with those people who have had a frustrating experience with us. I too buy on the internet and having paid at the time of purchase, as is the norm, I expect the goods to be delivered promptly and accurately. I admit that this has not been the case with all of your orders recently and I can assure you that I am making every effort to remedy that.

The unsolicited media attention that we received has in many ways done us no favours and has caused us (and some of you) more than a few headaches, plenty of heartache, and tons of stress. Every time we think we have taken a step forwards some other problem rears its head. It is simply a matter of working under huge pressure that has led to oversights and mistakes. Our stock control system, for example, was supposed to solve most of the problems but working, as we were (still are) under pressure, input errors were made, which led to incomplete orders. I am confident that the major failings have now been dealt with. OK, human errors may still occur but not very often.

By next week we should be back on track (yes, I know I’ve optimistically said that before now) and so will be able to deal with orders in a calmer way, turning them round within the two to three days that we used to before chaos descended upon us.

Regarding orders going out not in strict chronological order; that has been against my explicit instructions. I am grateful that it has been brought to my attention. I will look into it and ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

Finally, I can only repeat my sincere apologies for the way things have gone for some of our customers and thank those of you who have been more than understanding and supportive

Humbly,

Dan

You have a great way with words, but, as a 'Distance Seller', I think you probably should apply that skill in other ways that would mean your message reaches your customers before they start to wonder what is happening and question their own judgement.

I'm sure that you would do yourself and your business a lot of good by proactively communicating what you wrote above directly to your customers (perhaps by email) instead of being reactive, as you apparently are, to questions raised on this forum.

Which of us are you thanking? Those that post comments defending you against criticisms on this discussion board, those that provide publicity/promotion (e.g. Martin Lewis) for your business, or those repeat customers that say nothing in public but continue to spend their money with you?

sarahwarren72

My God what on earth has happened? Is it the end of the Earth or something, my PC goes down last nite i come on here and BANG good will has gone LOL. Personal insults is just childish it sounds just like my kids, noone is backing down and everyone has their own opion you cannot change that. thankyou to AF for providing everyone with an alternate to the Big Rip off shops i and many others are extremly thankfull x x Yes i have had to wait 3 weeks for an order but am very satisfied with all items which were well packed and no damaged boxes (DHL)!!!! I have recieved 2 orders and am awaiting ones from 9th and 14th of Febuary, which brings me to the next question.............................................................................................
Anyone know how far the orders are up to yet x x x x x

Approved_Food

sarahwarren72 wrote: »

My God what on earth has happened? Is it the end of the Earth or something, my PC goes down last nite i come on here and BANG good will has gone LOL. Personal insults is just childish it sounds just like my kids, noone is backing down and everyone has their own opion you cannot change that. thankyou to AF for providing everyone with an alternate to the Big Rip off shops i and many others are extremly thankfull x x Yes i have had to wait 3 weeks for an order but am very satisfied with all items which were well packed and no damaged boxes (DHL)!!!! I have recieved 2 orders and am awaiting ones from 9th and 14th of Febuary, which brings me to the next question.............................................................................................
Anyone know how far the orders are up to yet x x x x x

We are working on Feb 9

oldMcDonald

sarahwarren72 wrote: »

Anyone know how far the orders are up to yet x x x x x

I chased up my order of the 3 /2 yesterday as I had still heard nothing and have been told that it should go out this afternoon.

oldMcDonald

I have to say that I do understand the problems AF are dealing with, although I think they could have dealt with these problems in a different way and had better contact with customers regarding the delays in processing orders.

I ordered on 2nd and again on 3rd, as items I had wanted were showing as out of stock but were available the following day. My order of 2/2 arrived on 17th, and I have had to chase up my order of the 3rd as I had read on MSE that people were receiving deliveries of orders placed much later than mine. I was told that some of the items were our of stock and given the choice of subs or refund.

I am unhappy that I had to chase this order rather than their emailing or phoning me, and I wonder how long I would have had to wait in the end had I left it for them to make contact.

All in all, I can see that AF have the possibility to become a very good company once all these problems have been solved, but I am not planning to order from them again in the near future.