HandNav - Brodit Supply Problems(Was HandNav - the bad news)

Glyn · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 29, 2004 Posts: 29

After scanning this forum and seeing many comments about the lack of customer service & response from HandNav in general & Chetan in particular I would like to add my own experience.

I see a disturbing trend here in that customers complain about lack of service & response and then Chetan pops up and says he is aware of the problems and will improve his service back to previous levels.

Just what were these previous levels you attest to Chetan and have you delivered on your promise to 'sort it out'?

My own experience goes back to last August - it is now some 7 months later and I see you are still peddling the same lame excuses. Grrrr

You will excuse the tone of my post but I can only speak as I find...

Undoubtedly I will acknowledge that there will be customers who have used HandNav and are satisfied but human nature being what it is means we will usually take the time to complain but rarely take the time to praise good service although I firmly believe in giving credit where it is due.

In my own experience I have had excellent service from Global Positioning Systems on many occasions now (and would highly recommend them :-) but I am guilty in that I have not taken the time to write about their good service until now when I am writing to complain about bad service from HandNav.

Short diary follows;

25/8/03 - emailed HandNav to buy iPAQ/TomTom BT bundle - ignored
28/8/03 - ordered from GPS - next day delivery - excellent service!
1/9/03 - ordered a second bundle from GPS - next day delivery again!

Result?
HandNav lost sales to the value of £1200 because they couldn't be bothered to reply to a genuine customer enquiry. Crying

1/9/03 - ordered iPAQ holder/ProClip (not Brodit SmartClip due to delays)
3/9/03 - rang to check - delivery promised 5/9/03 - not delivered
6/9/03 - emailed and asked when I could expect delivery - no reply
11/9/03 - goods finally delivered

I am not complaining about the 10 days taken to deliver but the almost total lack of response to my emails. The one time I managed to get through on the 'phone I was fobbed off with a non-existent delivery date to placate me. It is a pity the website does not advise of stock levels when you place your order. Angry

The saga continues;

24/9/03 - emailed asking about active holders for iPAQ - again ignored
30/9/03 - rang with same query - spoke to Chetan who apologised for lack of response (there is a pattern emerging here)

I told Chetan of my perceived 'lack of response' from HandNav with emails ignored because, in all fairness, having run a Limited Company myself for 10 years if it was my business I would want to know if there was a problem as I could either take action to correct if needed or write it off as a whinging customer if I didn't! Wink

He apologised and when the conversation finished I had that 'feel good factor' that he was sincere and would contact me when the active holders arrived.

Needless to say he didn't and when browsing the HandNav website at a later date I noticed the exact holders I had enquired about were now listed as available. :o

27/10/03 - ordered two of the active holders from HandNav
As above I was surprised to see they were available as Chetan had promised to inform me when they came in but despite assurances to the contrary he had reneged on his promise again. :x

13/11/03 - I received the two active holders after the usual no response syndrome and thought it only fair that I emailed him and outlined my grievances again suggesting sarcastically that he change his Company name from HandNav to HandJob as they were obviously a bunch of w*nk*rs who didn't give a toss! Twisted Evil

Bearing in mind his 100% track record of ignoring my emails I never expected a reply to that email! Joker

15/11/03 - received a reply from Chetan who graciously accepted my comments(!) Embarassed

and after talking to him I gave him the benefit of the doubt (again) as once more I had that feel good factor despite his abysmal track record.

This was in no small way due to the fact that as way of recompense he generously offered to take back my original passive holder and would send a pre-paid envelope for return of same.
He even waived the £5 cost difference between the two items and promised to send the pre-paid envelope to me by Monday 20/11/03 Cheers!

24/11/03 - no pre-paid envelope as promised so I emailed him.
I also pointed out that he had made a mistake in his costing the items in question - the price difference was not £5 as he had stated but £22.
Not wishing to hold him to his promise I offered him an alternative exchange - I would buy some more goods and he would still take the holder back as promised - the shortfall was now only £3.99 - a quid less than he had already offered to waive so being in his favour.

Since then I have had no response whatsoever from Chetan despite my emailing him repeatedly - the last being 21/1/04

So Chetan if you are reading this did you decide to withdraw your offer or just bury your head in the sand and hope that it would go away? Burn In Hell

Whatever your mindset I would have been able to at least salvage some respect for your professional integrity had you had the common courtesy to actually deliver on your promise or at the very least reply to my many emails on this issue.

I would have driven to Wimbledon had I an address for you instead of a just a postcode on an invoice (which means I broke one of my golden rules and purchased over the Internet from a Company who does not show their address on their website) which would have saved you the cost of return postage on the non-existent pre-paid envelope.

What a way to run a business...it is no wonder HandNav is mentioned so many times in here if my own experience is anything to go by Crying or Very sad

Leeus · Posted: Sun Mar 07, 2004 10:03 am Post subject:

I know what you mean, it took ages for my arkon to arrive!!! I now want a proclip/brodit and that is the only thing holding me back!

Glyn · Occasional Visitor Joined: Jan 29, 2004 Posts: 29

Well it would appear that this finally done the trick.

After trying & failing to illicit a response from Chetan by fair means I turned to foul by posting here and he rang me on the 'phone. :o

Now credit where credit is due - that must have been very difficult to pick up the 'phone and talk to someone who has aired their opinions in public so Chetan I take my hat off to you.

Pity it had to get this far though...

The two SmartClips that I asked for have arrived as agreed and Chetan also wanted to send me something else to make up for the problems but I declined - all I wanted was what was agreed but thank you anyway.

Despite the delays this proves to me that Chetan is serious about his business and I think we have both learned a lesson and understand each other a little bit more.

I run a business myself and am not too blinkered to know that no matter how hard you try there will still be times when you are unable to satisfy a customer whether it is your fault or something beyond your control.

I must say that despite my previous problems I would still use HandNav in the future - in fact a friend of mine is going to order an iPAQ active cradle.

Lets hope he doesn't have to give me a hard time if the thing doesn't turn up! Laughing

wHIZz · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 7:42 pm Post subject:

I have to say that I was almost about to hit the submit button for a brodit clip and holder on the HandNav site but thought I would check the forums first................ low and behold I found this thread.

Have postponed the purchase! - the sooner companies realise that consumers will not accept poor customer service the better.

To date are there any other dealers I could purchase the Brodit Proclip and Holder for a brand new Fiesta?

Thanks
wHIZz

wHIZz · Posted: Sun Apr 11, 2004 9:31 pm Post subject:

Well, I've read that Chetan has personally responded to several forum users and that deserves credit - also some other users with good experiences. So I've gone ahead with my order in the last few mins!

Lets see how it goes!!.

wHIZz

Yorkshireman · Occasional Visitor Joined: Apr 16, 2004 Posts: 1

Hi wHIZz, I had trouble obtaining Brodit producrs from Nav City so I tracked down the importer, go to nemesisgb.com, I have had 2 deliveries from them and if the items are not in stock they will tell you and will not require your credit card details untill the items are in stock, a good company to deal with.

Stoneghost · Posted: Sat May 08, 2004 9:28 pm Post subject:

I emailed Handnav to ask a question before I made a purchase, that was 2 weeks ago!! I still haven't had a reply.

If they're that slow to respond when you want to buy something, God knows how long I'd have to wait if I was experiencing a problem!

I think I'll be looking for a different supplier.

wHIZz · Posted: Mon May 17, 2004 7:31 pm Post subject:

Well............ I eventually had to cancel my order. Crying or Very sad

Chetan did call me personally when I emailed to cancel the order and he told me that the clip for my model of car was due in the following week (4 weeks after original order). The following week the "supplier" had let them down again so no clip (5 Weeks).

Chetan sounds like a nice guy but that's irrelevant, I think a company is commiting commercial suicide offering service like this - if I were running HandNav I would be holding an emergency meeting witht the Brodit supplier or else I would stop stocking them all together before my company took any more of a pounding on forums like these! :x

These days, where buyers have a miriad of companies willing to take their cash, companies can ill afford to offer sub-standard service and hope to stay aflot very long!.

HandNav - Not Impressed!!! Evil or Very Mad

wHIZz

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