Web stock wrong, customer service inadequate and rude
Be aware that the stock on this website is not kept accurate, so you will pay for an item, have that money inaccessible to you while they check for stock, and then get the money back in your account in a week or more when the refund clears. Thats a cashflow killer for me. I thought at first that it may be good for their cashflow (get money for phantom products, hold onto that money for a few days then refund it back), but the credit card fees would surely make their business model unprofitable (?), so I decided that they were just incompetent and not dishonest. The "customer service" pretended to offer me an alternative, but when I requested information on anything in stock in my size they didn't answer (despite 2 requests) and offered a refund. Unfortunately I thought they were based in the USA and was expecting an overnight email reply (based on their lack of response the previous day I thought they were closed - but no they were just bad at service), so I sent an unfortunately snarky email in the morning when I woke up and didn't see the expected email from them. The "customer service" person replied saying that she didn't work in the middle of the night! Fair enough. Although I apologised, the customer service person clearly didn't forgive me and refused to offer me any service. Each time I asked for a dialogue about alternatives, she shut me down and said she was refunding the money. She did check one other product that I specifically requested (after I found it myself on their website that was similar in description and price and was apparently in stock), but that item too was not in stock (another error on their website). She refused to check the item I ordered in alternate sizes (well not refused, she just didn't do it although I asked). Unfortunately these people are the only Australian distributors of Inov8 products, which are head and shoulders market leaders in Trail Running shoes, so I will probably have to attempt to deal with them again. I encourage Inov8 to get a decent distributor in Australia.
3 March 2016
Unprompted review