Matt Coldron Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 I have a order in with 4max and other than telling me what I paid 4 and taking payment I have had no more contact. I have tried ringing face book and emails can anyone help please my dad is sick and this is a last gift for him Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Walby Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 Ring George at 4Max between the times on their web site and have a chat to see what's happening. Failing that email him as that normally works for me. I have had nothing but good service and advice over the years (although sometimes it takes a day or two to get a response). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stearman65 Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 If he is away he usually puts a note on his web site? The date is up to date but that is probably an auto feature? No sign of an absent note. **LINK** Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jon Robb Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 I spoke to him the latter part of last week so he is still around, in the past he has advised mornings are the best time to get hold of him or to email him and he will call me back. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 4-max do seem to be held up as a great example of good customer service by those on this forum who use them, so don't lose faith just yet. How long ago did you order, and how recently have you tried ringing / email / facebook? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Coldron Posted March 14, 2019 Author Share Posted March 14, 2019 He has messaged me now he is waiting for out of stock items Nothing showed up as out of stock. Don't know what this is for my sick farther I'm gutted Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan W Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 Matt, maybe he can send you the items in stock and refund you for the others. What are the out of stock items? Then we could suggest to you an alternative source. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Coldron Posted March 14, 2019 Author Share Posted March 14, 2019 Tried to find out but nothing other than waiting for items and could be as late as Monday. Refund will not allow me to buy a replacement faster than he can sort it as I will have to wait for the money to show up. I Just hope its tomorrow but it better be Monday or I think its miss advertising as the attraction was the fact everything was in stock or 90 odd % Iwould have paid more else where so long as dad gets to enjoy the plane. I will stick with it he seems respected so I will try to do the same just wish I knew more about the problem Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Smith 1 Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 Matt, as has been suggested many times before in various threads, before ordering online ALWAYS telephone to see if the availability is there. It would avoid all this angst you are experiencing. For my own standpoint I use 4-Max regularly and find George excellent. In fact it's quite pleasant to speak to a human being before ordering on the web in his case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Miller Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 I know that George is there, I emailed him with instant response. I always order by phone and get my goods next day. I cannot reccomend 4-max highly enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kc Posted March 14, 2019 Share Posted March 14, 2019 When a supplier is contactable by phone it makes sense to phone and discuss the situation and see if an alternative item is available or whether a partial shipment is acceptable. If there is a special reason as there seems to be in this case then maybe 4 Max can do something special to help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 It's 2019, not 1919. If a trader has a website through which it is possible to make an order then that ought to have decent stock control, not require a telephone call to check stock availability. Those who are not retired and do not have spare time during the day might wish to order online in the evenings, when a telephone call is not appropriate, The mantra to always ring to check the availability of stock simply isn't right for everyone, and it falls on the retailer to know what they have in stock. If you are showing something as in stock on the website then it ought to be in stock. If it isn't in stock, because and your website doesn;t have decent stock control then the correct thing for the retailer to do is to contact the customer immediately - not for the customer to have to wait and check by telephone on their own initiative. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Coldron Posted March 16, 2019 Author Share Posted March 16, 2019 Leccyflyer Thankyou so much for seeing it on the other side of the coin. As it happens I a single Dad raising A 6 year old boy 7 girl 14girl and 15 year old girl and a sick Father ontop. I took reports on this forum that I would have no trouble and his advertising bragged about stock. To top it all my parcel is at Dpd now but in a cage until Monday go figure if I had known I could have paid extra and got it today but communications from 4max are rubbish so now I paid best part of £10 to have to wait 4days for £500 of stuff. Surely he should have covered it for the inconvenience. Wont use them again Never have this with Fpv parts if it's not in stock it says so. And as for ringing its like when my ex calls I ignore the phone if it's a mate I pick up Same with 4max I called at least 10 times got a answer 0 times ... this is the end roll on Monday at least my dad has been spared the stress Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 I really do despair! Whilst I accept that the 4-Max website should not have shown stock if there was none available, I know only too well how these things can happen (I run an internet based shop too), mistakes do happen to the best of systems. I state on my website that things can take a few days to get delivered (most are usually within a couple of days), the reason I've had to put that on the site is that everyone expects instant delivery, patience seems to have gone out of the window. I would not let one bad (ish) experience sully your views towards 4-Max, there are far too many positive views from many forumites that tell me you were unlucky, as simple as that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel R Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 Can't help agreeing with leccyflyer here. However. I'm confused. Are all the things ordered now on their way? Ron I think part of the issue here is the difficulty Matt is having getting 4max to answer the phone. When things go wrong the communication needs to be better not worse. Edited By Nigel R on 16/03/2019 22:31:12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adrian Smith 1 Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 Well Matt, leccyflyer welcome to the real world! It may be 2019 and not 1919, but what is self evident is that the suppliers to our specialised hobby are quite often one man bands or small outlets that work to a small operational budget and hence the website stock control is less than perfect. We are not dealing with the likes of Amazon, Ebay etc who have large resources, but are clearly unable to supply a wide range of R/C equipment that we hobbyist require and with an instant gratification tag to it. If you want to find a supplier that provides the wide range of electric R/C gear that 4-Max attempts to for example, then I wish you luck with that and I would be interested to hear who you think might do it better. Additionally, if I was going to spend in excess of £500 in equipment I would certainly check beforehand as to availability because to do otherwise is frankly naive even in this day and age. Furthermore, leccyflyer’s assumption that only “retired people” have time to phone is a generalisation without any basis of hard evidence. Many of my working R/C contacts seem to find time to check stock availability so I don’t buy that view. Ron’s opinion is quite reasonable and I don’t take issue with it. If we operate in a slightly specialist hobby then we have to be a little more understanding of our hard pressed retailers otherwise we will all end up having even fewer outlets to go to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan W Posted March 16, 2019 Share Posted March 16, 2019 To put this in another perspective, last Sunday evening I placed an order online with Model Shop Leeds for value approx £50. On Monday morning they emailed to say that one item was out of stock but was expected in 2 or 3 days. Would I mind waiting? I replied to say that so long as I received the items by the next weekend, that would be fine, thank you. On Thursday I received a dispatch notice by email and on Friday all the items arrived as ordered. That is how it should be done. I've also experienced good service from 4-Max, so the hiccup on this occasion for a significant value order does not appear to be typical. There must be times as a single father that you are overloaded and cannot get everything done perfect. Maybe 4-Max was overloaded and consequently dropped the ball on this occasion.Hopefully after some reflection you will give them another chance in future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 Yes Jonathan, that's how things should be done -which is as I described earlier. If something isn't in stock the retailer should contact the customer, not the other way around. All of the entreaties to telephone seem to have missed the point made by the OP more than once, that he has telephoned and hadn't got an answer multiple times after having not received his goods. Furthermore I made no assumption that only retired people had time to telephone, I pointed out that always telephoning to check stock availability wasn't for everyone, especially those folks who choose to order online in the evenings, in their free time- using the actual website ordering which is the virtual shop window for the retailers. I've dealt with lots of one man bands in the hobby trade, including those very small operations with ebay shops and, funnily enough, they seem to have working stock control systems on their websites and web shops which indicate what is in stock and what isn't, without needing any checking by telephone beforehand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Walby Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 While I have sympathy for the OP as I have been there plenty of times, reflecting on why I use certain suppliers and not others I think it boils down for me on the urgency of the order. This not only applies to 4Max, but all that I pay money for goods I expect to receive a service. If its not urgent then order with stock showing and don't worry about the two missed deliveries on two consecutive days and drive 15 mile round trip to collect when it suits me. If it was that urgent I would phone the supplier ask if it was in stock and delivery method, then work out if I need to take a days holiday just to get the part I need so urgently. Yesterday I was at my LMS (70 mile round trip), they had a phone order for an IC engine (bet they don't shift many of them compared with keeping one of every size in stock) and they sold one overnight the previous evening. Just unlucky they have nothing and then two sales.in less than 12 hours. Phone customer was informed that they would back order and it would be with him by the end of next week. My point, if you want it urgently then communicating with the supplier is key, 4max have a comments box on placement of order, did the OP explicitly state at that point that it was urgent and either dispatch the complete order or cancel notify the OP and refund the payment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stearman65 Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 At the other end of the spectrum, I've been looking around for a camera. The three biggest retailers I have bought from previously, had one or more in stock. I'm talking about Amazon Jessops & Wex. I also wanted to buy a few ancillaries with the camera such as a memory card, bag & a spare battery. I had whittled the dealers down to two, Amazon & Jessops. When I totted up the cost with ancillaries, Amazon came out cheapest, so I proceeded with the order. On the last page before I pressed the final button, Amazon told me "they were giving me a 20 day trial of Prime" I didn't want prime as a few years ago I inadvertently took them up on a free trial, I think it was a book club. Unbeknown to me the trial didn't automatically expire & I paid a fee for 12 months before realising what was going on, I hadn't bought anything after the expiry of the free trial. Eventually I got my 12 months payments back. Back to prime, Amazon had done this before a couple of years ago, eventually I got them to cancel the Prime trial automatic payment.. I was so p****d off with Amazon I cancelled the whole order & went with my second choice which cost me a few £'s extra, but with the satisfaction I wasn't being manipulated by Amazon. Back to 4Max, after reading all the OP's posts, I think there is more in this than meets the eye. IMO 4Max are one of the better dealers I've dealt with including, Steve Webb & Leeds Model shop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matt Coldron Posted March 17, 2019 Author Share Posted March 17, 2019 Last post on this Matter 4max posted goods but Dpd refused to delivery before Monday because postage needed to be upgraded, which they want 24hours notice So if he had not been a cheap skate and sent it next day I would be a happy customer. How ever its stuck in a cage till Monday afternoon at Dpd Lincoln if prior experience is anything to go by it will be 3pm before it arrives. If he had just picked up the phone 1time I would never have complained. If he sent the kit and was waiting for me to pay the £500 I guarantee he would pick up. Please close this now we all have our opinions and We all know the score with 4max if you friends cool if not jog on as far as phone calls Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leccyflyer Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 I've never dealt with 4Max and have no axe to grind with them whatsoever - my comments relate to the general principle of doing web business and the statements made about it being absolutely necessary to check stock availability by telephone before ordering. As previous posters have also mentioned I've had excellent service from Steve Webb's Servoshop. Leeds Model Shop and also from Gliders UK (my current lipo seller of choice) and ElectricWingman . There are a number of ebay shops that I regularly use as well, for specific items, and their service has been very good indeed, with no hassles. I've never called to check stock availability before ordering online with any of those retailers.. I'd note that I previously received superb service from Puffin Models, before John Emms retired and from Giantcod, before they expired. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ron Gray Posted March 17, 2019 Share Posted March 17, 2019 Posted by Matt Coldron on 17/03/2019 08:23:20: Last post on this Matter 4max posted goods but Dpd refused to delivery before Monday because postage needed to be upgraded, which they want 24hours notice So if he had not been a cheap skate and sent it next day I ...... Standard courier terms I’m afraid, 4-Max state that despatch may be up to 3 days. Please close this now we all have our opinions and We all know the score with 4max if you friends cool if not jog on as far as phone calls Statements worded as above not likely to endear oneself to the forumites - just saying! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Robertson 3 Posted March 18, 2019 Share Posted March 18, 2019 "Statements worded as above not likely to endear oneself to the forumites - just saying!" - I agree. I have been happy with 4max's services. Edited By John Robertson 3 on 18/03/2019 00:31:50 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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