My Prophecy experience

[Artagra]

Great explanation but as a consumer I still prefer to pay with a CC. I can understand distrust when you're buying a car or a high end workstation on CC but for smaller items it seems a pity you don't offer CC payments. Take2's prices aren't bad compared to yours and their service has been great thus far, from TSM days.

Thanks for the feedback anyway .

No worries, my pleasaure.

It's interesting that Take2 can accept CCs. Obviously I don't have insight into Take2's business, but my guess is that a combination of them doing a higher turnover than us, plus of selling a lot of products besides computer components that run higher margins, mean that they can afford CC payments. To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me if they lose money on some IT products depending on order size, if you pay with a CC.

Random question - if you had to pay slightly extra (say 3%) to pay via credit card, would you do so? (assuming the total offering, including price / service / shipping / experience was still decent.) Or would you feel shortchanged that EFT payments paid less? Unfortunately doing this is not possible, but it would be interesting to hear what your answer is.

 

[PeterCH]

All great points, Peter. I definitely see the benefits of CC transactions, and we hope to one day offer them.

Thanks - if you're doing well enough without CC, there's no reason to add them to satisfy everybody and incur problems. Perhaps if you pushed Amazon.com type volumes and had teams of offshored Pakistani response people you could do it but I see your problems.

 

[bullfrog]

I believe a company should be judged on their response and how they deal with complaints more than the complaints themselves. There will always be a few complaints if you get to a certain size. On this front you guys have done very well so far.

I'm convinced that this thread will bring you more clients than harm done, simply because of the way you handled it

Well done and keep up the good work.

 

[PeterCH]

Random question - if you had to pay slightly extra (say 3%) to pay via credit card, would you do so? (assuming the total offering, including price / service / shipping / experience was still decent.) Or would you feel shortchanged that EFT payments paid less? Unfortunately doing this is not possible, but it would be interesting to hear what your answer is.

As usual I would compare your price to Take2, WebAntics and other sites and take the best one. The fact that you're a bunch of decent people is a positive factor for you but I've had excellent service from both WebAntics and Take2 and they also seem to be run by very nice guys.

I may be swayed to buy the item on CC if the total cost was 1-3% higher with you vs some shop I never shopped at without some good reviews.

If you're the only place offering the item - depending on the difference I would probably go CC. If it was 3% and did not go over R200-odd I may probably have gone the CC route.

 

[Monkey101]

Speaking from experience, I have had to cancel an order or two from prophecy and always got my money back after a day at most 2 days.

Now dealing with another online company (won't mention names) i was told i have to wait 30 to 60 days for my refund.
I guess credit card would be easier but its not a deal breaker to me.

 

[kayvee]

Random question - if you had to pay slightly extra (say 3%) to pay via credit card, would you do so? (assuming the total offering, including price / service / shipping / experience was still decent.) Or would you feel shortchanged that EFT payments paid less? Unfortunately doing this is not possible, but it would be interesting to hear what your answer is.

It's no secret the CC companies charge for those services and that is passed on to the end customer, up to the 5% max level.

I for one, certainly don't decide to buy something from company A because they don't accept CCs therefore their price should be theoretically cheaper. Other factors decide which company I chose, sure price is one, but there is the bigger picture.

CC payment is convenient, EFT is more of a schlep. I ordered online this morning and didn't think twice of using my CC. Sure I also do a lot of EFT's as I order stuff from other companies that do not accept CC, but for an online store it's CC for me.

I am happy to pay more for service if I know I will get it, but right now I am still in recuperation mode

 

[Artagra]

It's no secret the CC companies charge for those services and that is passed on to the end customer, up to the 5% max level.

I for one, certainly don't decide to buy something from company A because they don't accept CCs therefore their price should be theoretically cheaper. Other factors decide which company I chose, sure price is one, but there is the bigger picture.

CC payment is convenient, EFT is more of a schlep. I ordered online this morning and didn't think twice of using my CC. Sure I also do a lot of EFT's as I order stuff from other companies that do not accept CC, but for an online store it's CC for me.

I am happy to pay more for service if I know I will get it, but right now I am still in recuperation mode

Thanks for the feedback. And RE your last comment - completely understandable!

 

[wpswart006]

How long does Prophecy take to respond to payment confirmation e-mails?
I send mine before 12 and the website still says payment pending.

 

[Firestar]

How long does Prophecy take to respond to payment confirmation e-mails?
I send mine before 12 and the website still says payment pending.

We usually check periodically during the day, and our accounts will update orders, depending on how busy they are, throughout the day. However, they do some times wait for the money to reflect, if something looks out of the ordinary, or if they cannot make out the order number on a fax (or for whatever reason). It's only an issue if you do not get the email from us by the next morning early, as we place orders with our suppliers 8 am every day only. Usually our accounts checks payments in our bank account and make final updates somewhere between 4am and 6am, so you can expect emails around that time.

So, in short, if you don't get an email by 8 am tomorrow morning, please give us a call, and we'll check it manually for you

 

[wpswart006]

Thanks Firestar, I posted this on the prophecy forum aswell.
Thanks for the quick reply here.

 

[PeterCH]

We usually check periodically during the day, and our accounts will update orders, depending on how busy they are, throughout the day. However, they do some times wait for the money to reflect, if something looks out of the ordinary, or if they cannot make out the order number on a fax (or for whatever reason). It's only an issue if you do not get the email from us by the next morning early, as we place orders with our suppliers 8 am every day only. Usually our accounts checks payments in our bank account and make final updates somewhere between 4am and 6am, so you can expect emails around that time.

So, in short, if you don't get an email by 8 am tomorrow morning, please give us a call, and we'll check it manually for you

You see your system is not very effective. Customer has to make the EFT, then fax or email the confirmation, then one of you sees it and flags the account as PAID FOR. Then you place the order with your supplier.

If you took CCs, your system could automatically flag the account and make that order with your supplier, moments after the customer clicked the "Submit" button with his CC details.

Similar for refunds.

FedEx (SupaSwift) is similar. They no longer accept COD (tax, duty) so you have to EFT the funds to them first. However, on top of that, these chops make you send them a fax or email confirmation which their operators don't always check. You end up with 48h delays while your stuff lies in their local warehouse. BTW avoid FedEx South Africa when finding a courier for deliveries - they are terrible in this regard.

 

[Monkey101]

You see your system is not very effective. Customer has to make the EFT, then fax or email the confirmation, then one of you sees it and flags the account as PAID FOR. Then you place the order with your supplier.

Don't see the problem here, this is how all companies work with EFT. And the ones who don't ask for payment confirmation just wait the 2 -3 days for the payment to clear. I just paid last night for an order on Prophecy and i see this morning that its been approved. I do not find that uneffective at all.

Credit card's might be better but they don't offer it so all you can do is use EFT. And it seems you really have something against EFT. :wtf:

 

[greggpb]

I dont trust the CC companies as far as I can throw them.... remember all the CC companys bailing ppl out and insuring goods as soon as they are bought and all the good stuff is limited to oversea's market.

1 In south africa a CC means the merchant can refund you if he see's fit.. you can't withhold payment. you can maybe have it reversed for R350...

2 the Credit card company take a percentage(3% or somthing) in the IT trade with low markup's that can be 50% of the profit and if you sign up with a merchant according to T&C's you are not allowed to discount non cc purchases. so Basically 50% of your business is owned by visa/Mc with no risk to them.

Then the CC company will change you 200 rand a year for the card as well.

its a real crock..

/Rant

 

[Artagra]

Fortunately EFT orders are not delayed at all compared with how CC orders would be (or where, when we accepted CCs) because the bottleneck for orders is physically collecting / having delivered the products, and the suppliers needing some time to place an order. But an automated system would be awesome, we might do it for EFT's if volumes justify it

At this point though, for the amount we would pay on CC transaction costs for our EFT payments I can hire more than one staff member (infact, a lot more than one!) to just sit and look at the bank account, email address and fax machine all day

 

[Tweak]

They managed to mess up the same order twice and also didn't reply to 4 emails. I wonder how guys of this sort manage to stay in business.

Maybe I can help you out there? You're head seems to be stuck up your ass

If you've ever been to any retail stores in bloemfontein you would think these guys Prophecy are driving on hell of an operation. Which is certainly true..

 

[JIMMYtheSKULL]

Just got my second gfx card through them ordered on sat 19th arrived tues 22nd december for christmass last minute orders i think this is f***ing remarkable, kudos to prophecy and there team.

 

[iron man]

Just got my second gfx card through them ordered on sat 19th arrived tues 22nd december for christmass last minute orders i think this is f***ing remarkable, kudos to prophecy and there team.

if you ordered the 5870 im gonna fskn kick your a*s so hard. i just missed out on stock. i had my order confirmed when they emailed me that it was out of stock. i will find you!........................................but seriously

 

[Artagra]

Sorry Iron Man - we had a whole bunch of orders & payments come through in a short period of time!

Precisely because of this problem is why I said we would do our absolute best but could not guarantee it prior to you placing the order - sorry to let you down!