WTF? RS Components soliciting post-purchase product reviews

[HwAoRrDk]

So it seems RS Components have jumped on the customer interaction bandwagon, and are now sending out e-mails post-purchase that are soliciting feedback on certain items bought.

I've had two e-mails now in the space of a week soliciting a 'review' on some 74-series logic ICs I bought as part of a larger order back in April.

I can understand reviewing other types of product RS sells (tools, equipment, etc.), but electronic components? C'mon! What am I supposed to say? "Really flips those bits like no other, very impressed with the way it switches electrons, would buy again, A+++"

It appears they are soliciting reviews through a third party, Bazaarvoice. But I've not noticed any review content or anything to do with Bazaarvoice appearing on RS's website, so perhaps this is something they are trialling.

Anyone else received any e-mails soliciting reviews?

[bd139]

Yes had a few of them. Reported as spam and filtered.

[RobK_NL]

Don't order much from RS, but Farnell does this too. Last one was for a reel of 0805 resistors 

[bd139]

Perhaps we should just start leaving funny reviews for stuff. Complain about the colour of the resistors or something not being exactly the same as the image.

[tszaboo]

Well, you should be lucky that you got your parts. The usual email we are getting from RS is "sorry, we told you that we have X in stock, but in fact we dont. You will get your order week 51 of 2019.

[bd139]

Yeah I had that yesterday actually. Bloody alps motorised pot. In stock within 5 working days. Turned out to be in 5 working months. So much for repairing that

[Cyberdragon]

Perhaps we should just start leaving funny reviews for stuff. Complain about the colour of the resistors or something not being exactly the same as the image.

These logic chips seem to have failed their 240V AC test.

[mikeselectricstuff]

Yeah every so often they statr thinking they're Amazon. I've totally given up trying to tell them to spend the money on making their website more tolerable instead of this bullshit.
You still can't even search with an "in stock only" filter FFS 

[bd139]

I had a whinge about that on a call with them and they said they were going to implement it. It’s apparently because their ERP and web site are completely separate.

[mikeselectricstuff]

I had a whinge about that on a call with them and they said they were going to implement it. It’s apparently because their ERP and web site are completely separate.

I think that's the same excuse I got maybe 5 years ago when I mentioned it....

[bd139]

Yep probably is. Looking at how it barely works on a good day, particularly the delivery and consignment crap, which actually gives me murderous thoughts, I suspect it's a big old monolithic mainframe/mini they have slap bang in the middle of everything. This clearly doesn't have the throughput to chuck directly on the web so it is handling everything via a deep messaging abstraction. Probably some crap IBM sold them and they haven't finished paying for yet so don't want to invest further.

Either that or they got a few consultants in to fix it but they went "pfft" and gave them the runaround for 6 months and walked off with the cash and that was it.

Current business methodology is: APPLY TURD GLITTER.

[HwAoRrDk]

TBH, I find the RS website more tolerable than the Farnell one. Both have their pros and cons, but at least the RS one is usually fast, unlike the glacial pace at which the Farnell site works. Oh, and they also don't have the habit of taking the entire site down late at night for hours-long 'maintenance' like Farnell do.

These review solicitation emails from Bazaarvoice do actually have an unsubscribe link in the footer, which goes back only to them (i.e. not RS), so hopefully having clicked it I won't be bothered by this nonsense again.

[bd139]

I've done a couple of late orders from RS before and they never got confirmed and disappeared never to be seen again.

[Stray Electron]

So it seems RS Components have jumped on the customer interaction bandwagon, and are now sending out e-mails post-purchase that are soliciting feedback on certain items bought.

I've had two e-mails now in the space of a week soliciting a 'review' on some 74-series logic ICs I bought as part of a larger order back in April.

I can understand reviewing other types of product RS sells (tools, equipment, etc.), but electronic components? C'mon! What am I supposed to say? "Really flips those bits like no other, very impressed with the way it switches electrons, would buy again, A+++"

It appears they are soliciting reviews through a third party, Bazaarvoice. But I've not noticed any review content or anything to do with Bazaarvoice appearing on RS's website, so perhaps this is something they are trialling.

Anyone else received any e-mails soliciting reviews?

   Ebay has started doing the same thing.  No matter how inconsequential the item was!

   I'd hope that most people would be smart enough to realize that a shortly-after-purchase review will always be more positive than a later review since the item won't have had a chance to fail yet (most likely) and the buyer won't have had a chance to find the flaws in the item yet.  So this is why these type reviews are usually worthless IMO.

[Synthtech]

I actually left a review on the Farnell (Element14) site last week, I bought some Duratech desolder braid that was on sale on a whim to add to a components order that I was placing. The stuff arrived and the braid looked good but as I half expected it had no solder wicking ability at all, it was utterly useless and I binned it. I left a very negative review saying that it was rubbish and to stay away from it. I got another email the nest day saying that my review had been reviewed and accepted and now it’s up on their site.