See update at the bottom (Thursday 13th October)
I wanted to order a new Canon DSLR. After looking at different online shops, I decided to use expansys for 3 reasons:
- The prices were similar to all the other shops
- I have used them a lot before and they always been good in term of price and delivery time
- they had everything I wanted in stock (very important!).
So, on Friday 23rd of September I placed my order and paid with Paypal. I immediately received the order confirmation… all good, all good!
On Tuesday 27th, seeing that my order had not moved an inch since Friday, I sent the following email:
It seems from looking at each items in the shop that everything is in stock but my order has not been sent yet with no ETA.
Please can you check and give me an update?
Thank you!
Raphael
I immediately received (good sign, no?) an answer :
I’m sorry to say that we are having some problems sourcing the stock
to complete your order, please accept our apologies for any
inconvenience that this may have caused.
Our team of purchasing staff are doing everything possible to source
the product as soon as possible and we will try our best to keep you
informed of the expected delivery date as soon as we have one.
Once again, please accept our apologies.
Thank you for using eXpansys.
sales
eXpansys
Strange, I had been careful to pick only items said to be “in stock”… They seem sincere and quick to respond so I decided to give them a few days, I was not in a hurry to get the camera.
On Wednesday 28th, I received good news:
We are pleased to inform you that the stock for your order will arrive on the 1st
of October.
Sorry for the delay.
We will inform you by the time we will dipatch [sic] your order.
Regards.
Alexandra L.
Customer sales
At last, the camera was going to be dispatched, only a few more days of patience.
But by Monday 3rd October, the order still had not moved so, I asked about it… Yes, I am starting to get impatient!
Should I expect my order to be dispatch today?
Thanks
Raphael
Again, I was quick to receive an answer but it was a very disappointing one…
Thank you for your email.
unfortunately our supplier just informed us that the stock for the Canon EOS Lens
kit will have some delay.
In fact we haven’t got any leadtime as it is now.
We apologize about the delay.
We will let you know as soon as possible.
Regards.
Alexandra L.
Customer sales
I am starting to get very annoyed now… especially because the stock levels on the product page were still (and still are as I am posting this) at 10 In Stock Now. I replied to this last unsatisfying email to ask for more details…
I’ve been ordering lots of things from you these past few years and this is the first time my experience had been bad.
I can understand problems with suppliers but if you can have updated information on each product page it would not happen.
I always make sure to order product marked “In stock” but if this is not accurate, there is no point having this option…
You have right now 3 kits “In stock for this camera: http://www.expansys.ie/s.aspx?sid=31468472&search=60D
Are any of these really in stock?
Thanks
Raphael
At the same time, I tried to get some attention from their twitter account @expansysUK with the following tweet:
I received the mandatory PR blurb asking for my order number to be sent by DM, I obliged but it didn’t get very far…:
I got one email with no updates at all on Thursday 6th October, they were just letting me know that they had no news and they didn’t know, even remotely, when I would be able to receive my order. I am sure there must be more than one supplier for Canon cameras in Europe, so I asked:
Not having any leadtime is very disappointing… Is there no other supplier you can check with?
Thanks
Raphael
To which they replied:
Unfortunately the purchasing team is trying everything they can to source the products elsewhere.
We apologize for the inconvenient.
We will inform as soon as we have more updates.
Regards.
Alexandra
I am happy to know that the entire purchasing team is working for me and I am confident that they will find one Canon kit for me… but will they?
I have stopped asking them about my order for a few days and it seems that there is some updating going on. Today, for one of the items in my order (an extra battery), the delivery time has been updated to 880 days… Yes, 880 days… Just under 3 years…
As you can see, it also says that the camera will ship in one day but it has been like that from day one (2 weeks ago)…!
I am not sure what to say, obviously this is a bug but this is telling you a lot about the accuracy of their stock level and delivery time.
I am still not sure what to do at this stage, a two week delay is not the end of the world and there are worst things to worry about in life. I am afraid that my only choice is to cancel the order and try to get a refund.
My main issue is that I am very disappointed with expansys. I will certainly never order from them again, I will not recommend them anymore like I did a lot in the past and will make sure to share my experience with as many people as possible… “Do Not Trust Their Stock Level” I will shout!
If anyone from expansys is reading this post, I would strongly suggest you to improve by implementing the following:
- Do not list in stock items you don’t have in stock (simple really)
- Change supplier for Canon DSLR
- Do not try to sell too many things you can’t deliver. You started with phones and now have lots of other electronic devices, but it doesn’t seem like you can handle it.
Raphaël
UPDATE (Thursday 13th October): The order only took two days to come from Marseille to Dublin (via Germany and UK) and all is good. All this is water under bridge now!
On side note, expansys should really work on the accuracy of their stock display.