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Question of the Day: Which compact crossover would you choose?
None of the companies you listed there are retailers. We are a retail company and it is straight forward you need proof of purchase. For many reasons. People buy from us and sell to others with out invoices and tell people they bought from us but sometimes they don't. It is not a simple task of tracking serial numbers, we buy thousands of products weekly from many different suppliers, we would have to hire 2 or 3 extra people to scan in every item, then scan out every item when it leaves the warehouse, then scan it back in when delivered to each store. Would just drive the cost up. So think a little about the entire process. The distributors you mentioned multi national comanpies that can afford to hire teams to do this. We are a small privately owned company trying our best. Granted there are things that can improve in our systems, but have looked into serial number tracing and not cost effective at the moment. You can't bring in any hdd drive cause when we invoice it out they put the serial number on that invoice, hand written or scanned in as a line item. So when you book in the item serial number must mtach the invoice.
We have many secuirty ways to deal with this, for obvious reasons can not let you know what they are. Not sure what the complaint is though??? if you don't want to pay cash then don't. Pay the normal price. Like I said when we never offered the discount people complained. We don't force you to pay cash, it is just an option.Indeed... unless it is a washing machine...
We do use fincon. The problem is the man power having to scan in each and every item, that comes to us then out to each store. Lots of products come without serial numbers aswell. Maybe when you guys buy one and twos it works for you, but we buy 1000's of units a week and many many times our distributors have problems tracking serial numbers and we have to send drives back 3 or 4 times. You guys have listed many of them aswell. If is not a flawless system. Bring your invoice proof of purchase is required. You know it from the start, so keep it in a safe place. Makro tracks everything via your Makro card, that is why they do not require invoice. You can't compare us to multi nationals.
D3x!
Banned
if you are buying 1000's of units a week then surely you have the man power.
if it doesn't have serial numbers on you can get serial numbers easily from places like ADE but most should have on.
take this scenario, a customer buys an LG 18.5" LCD and has one already at home that he bought elsewhere, comes back a month later with his invoice but the wrong monitor, how do you know the difference?
Also I assume you purchase from multiple distributors based on price, so this week you get monitors from say rectron, next week from sahara, how do you know where to send them back to?
I am sorry if what I say seems to be said in a negative tone. I cannot understand how serial number tracking for a computer retailer is not seen as a fundamental necessity. From your own insurance cover in warehouse / stores to customer returns... it should be the 1st thing that is implemented. Stock from suppliers comes in, serial numbers tracked and scanned, goods go out, scanned and reconciled... sales at stores, serial numbers scanned.... there is then ZERO comeback from all concerned regarding the validity of warranty or validation of supplier. Customer brings in stock, serial number confirms a) valid purchase from store b) supplier sourced from c) warranty... no need to ping pong.
To me it is a no brainer... implemented at conception.
[DISCLAIMER ... I am in NO way insinuating that PC ZONE is doing the following]
With regards to the washing machine remark... it is a tinfoil hat theory relating to using a company with large cash based sales generated by huge turnover in cash to "launder" money... just like in gangster movies with casino's etc... a business front to turn dubious cash into a legitimate revenue source. Take a no fills business, deal in cash turnover with no real stock tracking and "badabing"... kapeeeeeesh ?
Eish again. :wtf: Just where are these being sourced from then ? Hong-Fong ?
D3x!
Banned
i can understand consumables, cables, cases etc to come without serials, but monitors, cpu's, motherboards, ram, laptops, webcams, mouse, keyboards etc etc should definitely have both a barcode and a serial number
Well spotted...
D3x!
Banned
i know this from experience, not just with pc products but other items as well, for items we stock that dont we get custom serial numbers and apply them, only certain items we leave without serials, but those are like very cheap connectors etc.
I really don't know how we would function without using serial number tracking, our business would have crashed years ago
That is what does my head in as well... it is vital in the computer component retail / wholesale / et al environment. A few seconds spent when goods are received with a hand held scanner makes the world of difference all the way down the line... all the way to the invoice. it would actually save money, pay for itself. It just does not compute NOT to do this.
Having a rock-solid back-end is what makes makes a company. Capturing / scanning 100000's of items presents very little overhead when it is done at the point of reception...
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Like I said we all have our systems that work for us and make sense to us. Nowhere did I imply our system is perfect. Like you saying it is easy to do, I disagree and we have tried it. I think it is even easy to just keep your slip when you buy something. We let you know upfront that you need your invoice, so it is simple. Keep your invoice for proof or purachse. Should you not have, we do track and try help out, but there is a charge to that, before we implemented the R150 labour charge nearly 70 percent of returns to our Pinetown store were of products not purchased from PC ZONE. Agian with this customers who do pay the R150 we still find many products being returned not purachsed from us but we get replaced for them. So not all doom and gloom. We not ripping anyone off. If you want to return a product under warranty bring in your proof of purachse, it is not a lot to ask and that is in terms of the CPA, so nothing under handed happening. I accept the advice from many of you and will look into it again, in the new year. But the plain and simple truth is that you would still need to return items with proof of purachse.I am sorry if what I say seems to be said in a negative tone. I cannot understand how serial number tracking for a computer retailer is not seen as a fundamental necessity. From your own insurance cover in warehouse / stores to customer returns... it should be the 1st thing that is implemented. Stock from suppliers comes in, serial numbers tracked and scanned, goods go out, scanned and reconciled... sales at stores, serial numbers scanned.... there is then ZERO comeback from all concerned regarding the validity of warranty or validation of supplier. Customer brings in stock, serial number confirms a) valid purchase from store b) supplier sourced from c) warranty... no need to ping pong.
To me it is a no brainer... implemented at conception.
[DISCLAIMER ... I am in NO way insinuating that PC ZONE is doing the following]
With regards to the washing machine remark... it is a tinfoil hat theory relating to using a company with large cash based sales generated by huge turnover in cash to "launder" money... just like in gangster movies with casino's etc... a business front to turn dubious cash into a legitimate revenue source. Take a no fills business, deal in cash turnover with no real stock tracking and "badabing"... kapeeeeeesh ?
Indeed... all this is just speculation... it is your business and it must be working.
Just thinking about my experience with the Pinetown store... and what I have heard from friends and family in Durban (also the Pinetown store)... it was the physical lack of space in the store, the lack of any interest of the staff and the impossible wait at the single till point that really worked against you.
If this is being worked on then there can only be an improvement.
Just thinking about my experience with the Pinetown store... and what I have heard from friends and family in Durban (also the Pinetown store)... it was the physical lack of space in the store, the lack of any interest of the staff and the impossible wait at the single till point that really worked against you.
If this is being worked on then there can only be an improvement.
D3x!
Banned
@PC Zone, could you answer my questions on the scenarios please?
Maybe it could be we not as good as some of you guys with Fincon. Maybe you could suggest to me a company that could come help us out setting it up. It is hard to deal with them over the phone trying to set things up. When you have compliacted queries only really two there that can help you. My understanding of it was that you would have to scan in every serial number when you receive the stock at your warehouse. Then in our case we have 3 stores, so we would have to scan out each serial number when we transfer it to the other locations in Fincon. Then went they received it they would have to scan it in to their location and then out when the invoiced it. Like wise when we biult up pc in our workshop we would have to scan out the items to each biuld, 5-6 items for each pc and we biulding anywhere from 10- 200 pc a week, sounds like lots of work. Not just straight forward someone holding a barcode scanner scanning all the things in. Is this not how it works? help appreciated
Sorry I am trying , new to the forums. Dont have time to just sit here and look, trying my best to come in a few times a day to check. See my post below. yours should answer your questions. I have already answered youyr first scenario. When you purachse your serial number is typed in on your invoice, so when you return it, the serial number would have to match your invoice. Scenario 2: when we recieved the stock into the system (via a GRV) it shows the date. We buy 100's at a time. So we can match invoice out date against stock received date. Seems to be working.
D3x!
Banned
You are welcome to ask questions and I will answer to the best of my abilities.
How is yours setup, different companies or different stock locations etc I.e what do you do at the moment to transfer stock between stores, invoice out to other store and they grv or location transfers etc?
And yes when you receive stock, i.e purchase order then grv you would have to scan grv, but in any case surely it is counted, scanning doesnt take all that much longer and assures you it is accurate instead of human error etc
D3x!
Banned
so they are typing the serial number in as a comment on a line? that must take longer than scanning.
they press f3 then scan it in
we have 4 locations. we grv everything in at the default location (warehouse) , that is received by an employee, you checks and signs for it, then is taken to someone, who does the grv as soon as he gets a chance. Person counting and receiving stock is not computer literate. but this could change should the system beable to work, without to much time being added on. Then the stores request stock from the warehouse, they send us a quotaion, we pull the stock out. Price it and security tag it. Then do a stock location transfer to that location. The stock transfer is given to the driver who then packs the delivery vechicle. Makes sure transfer matches the stock he is packing. When he arrives at the store, they check the stock comming out of vechicle to against what the stransfer says.
When it comes to biulding pc the stores take the order and make a sales order which is emailed to the warehouse. It is printed and technician pulls the stock as per sales order, it is then checked by a senior technician, the pc is then biult. Once biult the technician completes a check list. The pc is packed in a box, then once all biult a copy is made of all those sales orders for that store, then stock transfer is done for all the pc at one time.