NEXT VIP sale summer 2011

traybro

I have been a customer with NEXT for many years and to say that I am dissapointed is an understatement! I contacted NEXT and they couldn't care less , therefore I have decided to close my account with them.
Okay so we was sent 'vip' invitations. There is nothing 'vip' about it in my opinion.
NEXT say that they have to have slots to cope with the volume of people, that's incorrect, when the official sale starts they don't require customers to have a slot.
I got my email through and within a couple of minutes the first slot I could get was Thursday 9am.
Here is my gripe! My neighbour also got a 'vip' invitation and was given the first slot a day before me, wednesday. She logged in and bought crazy amounts of perfumes & aftershaves , gift sets & designer items, she bought in huge quanties, purely so she can list them on Ebay,charge full price and make a profit. My gripe isn't with her,she's making herself money. My gripe is with NEXT.
The official sale doesn't require a slot so I am unsure why 'VIP' customers require a slot. Other bigger websites cope with huge amounts of traffic so there is no reason why NEXT can't.
If they are going to continue with 'vip' slots then they need to make it fair for ALL vip customers. They could make it fair by limiting the quanties that people buy. I am not suggesting that they limit items, if someone want's to order 200 items then so be it, but I don't see why they can't limit the quantity to 1 or 2 at a push. People who get the first slot and are buying 10+ to resell and make a profit are the real ones benefiting from 'vip'.
I only wanted 3 items for christmas presents and I do like a bargain, I don't have surplus money so I am always looking for a bargain. It peed me off knowing my neighbour bought 10+ of one of the items I wanted and come Thursday morning the items I wanted were no longer available.

The 'preview' section should go too, for many reasons. It stops the people having lists of things ready and then copying & pasting. And it also leaves people unhappy come Thursday when you log on and the items you wanted were sold on Wednesday.

NEXT need to get their act together.
Stop the preview, sort your site out to allow heavy traffic and treat all your 'vip' customers the same way, get rid of 'slots'. Limit the quantity and allow customers to have a bargain, instead of allowing customers a crazy quantity so they can make money.

Back to the posts : I have read this thread carefully and I am amazed at some people. Buying a wii on an impulse buy but then asking if it was a bargain or not? Meh! Consumerism gone mad!

I feel sorry for staff having to handle the amount of Returned Items. I never buy anything that I'm not sure I want (I only ever return items if the size,description is incorrect). People buying stuff they aren't sure about causes those customers who really wanted that 1 item to lose out.And not everything gets put back into the sale.There needs to be a hugh quantity of the returned item for it to be worthwhile them relisting it, most of the returned sale online items gets passed on for resale elsewhere (markett traders,cat returns etc).

The only positive I see from the 'vip' sale is that those customers that suffer from consumerism madness and end up realising that infact it isn't a bargain, or they can't afford to pay for the 300 items they have ordered etc, they don't get a 'vip' invite come the next time there is a sale.
Customers who have an high percentage of returns get excluded from 'VIP'. My mum didn't get her usual 'VIP' invite, she called and complained to customer services and was told that because she's returned alot of the items she's ordered in her last few orders, she wasn't eligible for 'VIP'. I don't see this as a bad thing.

blue_monkey_2

Has anyone had some issues withntheir deliveries?

I've received 6 iphone covers and I only ordered 1.

I've just had a dispatch notification for the 2 plum cushions I ordered. I am getting 7 parcels with plum cushions in.......

I hope the same does not happen for all the deliveries, I've ordered about 150 items....... :eek::eek::eek:

ansbro81

got all my items apart from shoes yesterday to my delight as only got an an email telling me 3 things were on its way:j
but i had a few things in wrong sizes
eg i ordered a white dress in size 12 it came in size 20 but wierdly it says thatt size on slip in the delivery bags

DebtFreeMummy

I spent £110 online in my vip slot on thurs mornin. And then was in the que at 4.30 am to go instore was in and out in 40 mins, spent £150 and then went to the smaller store in the centre of town and spent £35 so not done too bad got loads of stuff and nothing so far will be going back.

bluep

There are always people who get really offended by Next's VIP system - they don't have to sell things at half price, they don't have an obligation to offer those things to you and they don't have to give everyone the chance of the same slot. It is what it is...a commercial way of getting people through their site to manage the traffic (its obviously impractical for them to register slots for the main sale as so many more people access it...). Yep, the good stuff goes quickly - I logged in at 6pm on the dot, on the very first slot and still couldn't get any of the aftershaves or perfumes I'd marked for christmas presents. But I'm not narked that someone like your neighbour got them all - I'm happy that I was able to order a fair bit of stuff I wanted at bargain prices. I never get too attached to a particular item on my want list...if its there, its there...if not, then lucky that other items are.

If I were Next, I'd prefer that someone bought 10 of the same item. If I've made a commercial decision that I want to sell it at that price, I wouldn't care who bought it. It would save me shipping costs if I was sending 10 of the same item to one person rather than to 10 different people. All they see is that they have 2,000 bottles of a perfume to shift and 2,000 sold at X price. The majority of people are really chuffed that they got a VIP slot and once you've had one, and waited for the email to come before trying to register your slot...then realised that all you tend to get then is a late slot...you realise for the next sale that its worth hovering around this thread, logging in and out of your account until the registration screen is released and THEN trying to register for a slot whether you have had a postcard/text/email or not. I didn't get any of those until 2 days after the registration opened - but I was obviously on the list from the start as I could log into my account and get the first slot.

Without the preview list, people would go a bit consumer mad, grabbing stuff because they've not had the chance to compare and think about it - if the electricals were posted in advance, people would be able to compare the prices and see if the wii package is a bargain. It is so much more difficult to work it out with items like that as the games/accessories included make the difference between great price and rubbish price.

As for ordering 300 items and returning lots - I can afford to pay for them all if I wanted to keep them (just about!! lol)...but a lot are the wrong fit/cut or not as quality as I thought (Next seem to either have very well made items, or terrible....I guess they have some duff suppliers) or just don't look like anything in the catalogue. That's why they do easy returns because its very difficult to pick the right item and size from a picture. Yes, I could probably keep them and sell them on ebay, but I'd rather send them back and someone else have the chance of getting the bargain they wanted.

Every Next sale we have the same things:
1) people who are massively excited in the days before VIP slots are released
2) people who are massively disappointed when they phone Next and are told they aren't getting one
3) proof again and again that the customer service agents aren't told anything that is helpful!!
4) people who are even more excited to discover they got their first VIP slot
5) people who are outraged that they didn't get one/got a late VIP slot and threaten to cancel their account
6) people who reakon the whole system is unfair, whether they got a VIP slot or not

All in all though, its great fun and far better to be sitting at my computer with the thrill of cutting and pasting and wondering what will arrive and what won't....then barging around the shops in the sales! I for one think Next are great!

shimmeringsky

bluep I am in agreement with you, I think Next are great, and i have always thought that whether I had had a VIP slot or not.

At the end of the day you win some you lose some

I cannot understand why some get in such a strop, I have been a Next customer for many years , havent received a VIP slot for the past 4 years until this year. The years i didn't get a slot i didn't spit my dummy out and start slamming Next, ringing up and complaining or threatening to cancel. I just took it in my stride.

There are better ( i mean more serious) things to worry about in life than a Next sale, however if you are lucky enough to get a good slot that is a bonus and not a god given right .

Who is to say that even if someone did get the first slot they would get what they want anyway ?

It drives me mad the same old story about the Next sale, if you get chosen look at is as a bonus and if not then better luck next time.

scotkat

traybro wrote: »

Back to the posts : I have read this thread carefully and I am amazed at some people. Buying a wii on an impulse buy but then asking if it was a bargain or not? Meh! Consumerism gone mad!

The electrical section of the sale isn't available to preview - only when the sale goes live, and the majority of the electrical items go really quick, thus you have to buy what you want and checkout very quickly - and thus my impulse buy on the Wii. I didn't have time to hang about and check other prices on other sites, i'd rather buy it then do the research. And sorry if that means i'm buying something someone else could buy if I do return it, but that's what the Next sale is all about i'm afraid! as other posters have said, every year people moan and moan and moan about it - IT'S ONLY A SALE!!!!!!

Ami82

Hi, just wondering if any of you guys know if the couriers are delivery today? I don't think they are but wanted to double check as i've had an email telling me the bulk of my order is on its way to me? TIA

BeautyandtheBeast_3

Traybro - Its a Sale!! Get over it!! - its first come first served. I havent always had a VIP slot, this was the first time i had one right at the start and yes i had a list and tell me WHY SHOULDNT I HAVE A LIST OF THE ITEMS I REALLY WANT? I also got birthday and Xmas gifts from the fragrance sets. But hey i do that in M&S sale as well. I think to be honest Traybro it sounds like sour grapes.

BeautyandtheBeast_3

Ami82 wrote: »

Hi, just wondering if any of you guys know if the couriers are delivery today? I don't think they are but wanted to double check as i've had an email telling me the bulk of my order is on its way to me? TIA

i dont know but i also had the email to track my parcel. My courier is pretty crap tbh. Very rude.