Your complaint is that they put themselves forward as ambitious and online focused but haven’t been able to match the promises made. My comment wasn’t strawmanning you either despite your offence- the alternative was for Castore to say they couldn’t deliver all product that the support want for the season starting?
What would you want them to have said? Genuine question.
They’re a new entrant into this mass market and what you can’t argue with is that in just a few months they’ve designed and delivered over 100k kits. I’m not for a minute suggesting that customers not getting stuff is right and it should be made whole as quickly as it can be. But Hermes damaging 3000 kits is entirely out with their control. COVID-19 is out with their control.
My point was that they can’t win and that’s reinforced when you said they should take less preorders. But if you do that you still have people who want the kit and can’t get it who are pissing and moaning about Castore being shit.
But my criticism of those on this thread and on social media is about what’s a fair criticism. I’ve done customer service roles in the wedding attire industry and people think that stamping your feet and being indignant is the way to solve problems but if the item of stock isn’t there to give to the customer it’s not there. If there’s only so many bodies answering emails then it’s going to take time to recruit and train more people. In the circumstances maybe they could have done it differently but hindsight is 20/20. Next year, now that they know the demand, it has to be smoother and more in line with the rest of the football world.
The reason it’s not all there is because of COVID fucking over the economy and because of a short lead up time. If being indignant makes you feel better then ok, batter in. But you’re not being entirely fair.
It's not hindsight though. I'm fed up seeing that as an excuse for fsilure
They were told what to expect numerous times by various people. They haven't met stock demands.
My point is that I didnt expect them to say anything or than a standard press release / conference.
Weve never had this from Nike, Unbro, Diadors, Adidas (or even Hummel recently) but Beahon himself was front and centre constantly pushing the 500k line and speaking of 200k strips.
They put that pressure on themselves. They just had to say less or tone down the "online distributor experts" type line and there would have been less scope for complaints.
I totally get the Covid issues. This was announced during that period though. It didn't blindside them two weeks after they spoke. They promised to deliver despite all that going on.
I cannot fathom why there aren't kits for 5-7 year olds. There's literally no excuse for that whatsoever. Can you provide one?
They've come up short in too many areas to have a "more than average" report card.
Funnily enough, I've experience in the wedding industry myself. I know what a moany bride is like when the slightest thing isn't perfect.
My main career is also in sales. I know when customers aren't happy and when its justified or not.
Things do take time and if it's all improved next year, it'll pretty much be forgiven.
As things stand, not being able to reply to customers who've been failed is nothing that can be excused. If you've got thousands of complaints, hire agency workers to deal with the complaints for a month.
Teething problems are expected. Not sorting them immediately is a bigger issue.