I have heard from several newsagents that they are experiencing supply problems with the Tractor partwork which was launched in June. If you are having trouble with supply of Tractors, please let me know. I want to understand the scope of the problem and help if I can.
Newsagents are the front line on partworks and if we cannot supply it affects our reputation with our customers. Publishers, importers and distributors need to understand the cost to our businesses of problems in their supply chain.
Many of us take on putaway orders for partworks in good faith. Inability to honour a commitment on this jeopardises business worth upwards of ten thousand dollars a year for many.
I do not accept the response of it has been more successful than we expected or the publisher has a supply problem. These excuses are useless when you are facing an irate customer with whom you have a contract to supply.
My experience is that partwork supply is good overall. All it takes, however, is a problem such as we appear to be having now with Tractors for the world to collapse and you left wondering if partworks are worth the hassle.
I wish someone would accept responsibility and apologise for the mess.
The photo shows our permanent partworks display. This is in addition to feature space allocated toward the front of the shop for recent releases. As the display shows, we are committed.
Mark we are having a lot of trouble with the tractor partwork. It makes the newsagent and the staff look useless when we have to apologise to the customer that their copy didn’t arrive. It is even more frustrating when the copy is then placed on back order. We are still waiting on numbers 2, 3, 4, to arrive. We have checked and they are still waiting to fill our orders.
Mark i have a permanant order of 8 and not once have they been able to supply this little amount i always seem to get only 3 out of the 8 and same thing as greg i am still waiting on back orders from number 1 .
We have the same issue with number 6. Back ordered three or four weeks ago and it still hasn’t come in.
It’s sad how many customers have walked away over partwork supply issues. I think its unacceptable from the publishers perspective – do they realise its not just us losing sales, but them too?
i don’t think they care about the sales ,as they have already achieved excellent results ,they can’t even keep up with the supply
Mark;
Tractor Partworks & Tank Collection have been a disaster from the first part. The sad part is the publisher does not give a stuff and i am starting to wonder whether the same can be said for the distributor.
You and i have spoken about this exact issue; i have spoken direct to the GG contact you gave me and little has changed.
SOME FIGURES:
Combat Tanks;
At Part 4 = 12 customer orders;
Part 12 = 7 customer orders.
Original guaranteed sales of $14,370 over the life of the partwork. Today it has dropped to $8379.00 as a result of customers telling us to shove the offer as we could not get supply.
Tractors;
At Part 4 = 13 customer orders;
Part 7 = 12 customer orders.
Original guaranteed sales of $15561.00 over the life of the partwork.
Today we are only receiving 3 copies (i will be polite and describe it as a joke).
The last 4 editions we have received 3, 3, 5, & 7.
How long do you think it will be before we get told to shove this offer also???
The amount of work that undersupply creates is also overlooked greatly. The cost is enormous and the time taken ridiculous.
This business is about to ring Bissett Publications and tell him to find another guinea pig to sell his product.
The sad part is, he won’t care, I have had the same discussion with him many times over the past 5 years; his level of commitment to fixing the problem is abhorent.
No one is ever held accountable, as newsagents continue to put up with this.
Vaughan Lawrence
newsXpress Seymour
newsXpress Beechworth
WE ARE NOW ONLY GETTING OUR ORDERED SUPPLY EVERY WEEK WE WERE BACKORDERING EXTRAS ALL THE TIME, NOW 2 CUSTOMERS HAVE GONE WITH SUBSRIPTIONS AS THEY WERE SICK OF WAITING FOR OURS. WE DID RECEIVE SOME BACKORDERS OF NO 1 BUT THEY WERE ALL BROKEN ON ARRIVAL SO THEY WERE SENT BACK AND ARE STILL WAITING ON MORE TO ARRIVE. WE ALL SHUDDER WHEN WE HEAR OF A NEW PARTWORKS COMING OUT AS WE KNOW THERE WILL BE PROBLEMS.
Kellie this is the overall aim and that is to piss our customers offf so they go direct
charming approach there – what would that post signal to the many readers of this site?
Mark;
UPDATE on my original post #6.
TRACTORS – Receiving 3 tomorrow……….and some suppliers wonder why we have little respect for them!
Tractors and tanks are both awful, we have never had the right amount from issue one. We have lost many customers over these two. I rang the publisher who was rude, stated that they did not deal with newsagents and hung up.
Vaughn, 3 must be the standing order untill they work this mess out
Julie ….which post ?
Julie i am not sure if you are refering to my earlier post but i was talking about the publisher not supplying enough so that way our customers get pissed off and go direct
WE STARTED WITH 20 CUSTOMERS FOR TRACTORS AT ISSUE 9 WE ARE DOWN TO 15.AFTER CONTINUAL EMAILS AND PHONE CALLS TO LIFT STANDING ORDER STILL ONLY 3 PER ISSUE.WHEN WE DO RECIEVE BACKORDERS THEY ARE BROKEN.THIS HAD THE POTENTIAL TO BE BIG BUT NOW JUST MANY UPSET CUSTOMERS (A GOOD LOOK IN A COUNTRY TOWN) AND ANOTHER TIME AND MONEY WASTING EPISODE FOR THE NEWSAGENT.WE TRY TO PROVIDE A GOOD SERVICE ONLY TO BE MADE LOOK LIKE A TURKEY BY THE PUBLISHER AGAIN!!!!
Wow. So many years after we had all sorts of dramas with Treasures of the Earth for one of my kids, this crap still goes on.
It’s outrageous. I knew there was reason why there just wasn’t any way we wanted to venture into partworks territory!
We had a standing order for 18 Tractors at issue 3, that’s now down to just 12 as customers get dejected or decide to subscribe because we can’t supply them. The most we have ever received is 3 (last week for issue 9, we got one copy). You would think that the suppliers would have things worked out by now – if we took this long to pay them, I don’t think they’d be too happy. We’ve decided to get out of partworks altogether. This happens with almost every new partworks and we’ve had enough of getting our reputation tarnished because of the inefficiencies of others.
Mark ,what have your contacts at GG had to say about this ,it is something that really has to be fixed as soon as possible or they should just cancel the partwork altogether
Shaun, It’s not a Gotch problem. They can only distribute what their client provides.
WOWWW what a shock finally got the correct supply of tractor partworks ,
wow what a shock they have cut supply again ……hopeless