A Warning, and Bewilderment - The Pom has a whinge

[bidkev]

First time out last weekend a campmaster hose blew off the stove. I was out fishing but luckily Ross was there to lend the deckie a hand before the whole bloody tarp burned down.

Back to Big W with it to find a replacement.........they have none in stock and don't know whether they will be stocking 'em in future ::)

Emailed campmaster regarding the safety issue (this is the 2nd one to blow) awaiting a reply.

Decided to try BCF (Tuesday)for a different brand hose as I now no longer trust campmaster........hundreds of hoses.......all the same ::)....all primus 3/4 thread and all the other sizes out of stock ::)

Calls back Saturday to see if they've stocked up.......Nope!

Had decided to upgrade to ally poles so took a look at them. One pack of 10 and one single. "I want 30" says I, "have you any round the back and if so, what can you do 'em for 'mates rates'. Off he trots and 5 minutes later, "No, none round the back" says he. "OK, can you order 'em in and at what price mates rates, I ask again as he had neglected to broach the subject?"...............off he trots again and reappears 5 minutes later saying, "It'll take 2 weeks and the manager says he'll give you 5% but you can only have 15 from here and you'll have to get the other 15 from the Keperra store" :o :o ::) ::)

"' They're in packs of 10 and you can only get me 15"???? says I, "so if I take 15 you will only have 5 left in stock for other customers and if I'm prepared to pay up front with a hefty deposit, why can't you simply order 3 packs.......no shelf stacking, hardly any labour, in one minute out the door the next" "dunno, that's what the manager says", says he ::)

Now this was a Saturday, arguably the busiest trading day and they've only got one brand of hose, 11 poles, and they arent prepared to let me have more than 15 if I order 'em in, and I'll have to go out of my way to get the other 15 at another store!!??

The mind boggles! Out I went with my wallet the same thickness.

Passed a store that shall not be named on the way back........same poles a dollar dearer but 20% discount (finishes today). "can you do better than that if I buy 30" says I, "hang on sir, I'll check" And check he did, and he had more than 30, and he carried 'em out to the car for me, and they ended up $2.75 a pole cheaper than the store who doesn't seem to want my business, despite me spending over half an hour in there. Saved over 80 bucks....was in the store less than 5 minutes. Noticed placcies were 20% off as well but steered clear, despite how pretty they look in the tackle box ;D

kev

The answer to having a better life is not about getting a better life, it's just about changing how we see the one we have right now. (Angel Kyodo Williams)

[bidkev]

The hose.

[Poodroo]

Well coming from a retail background myself Kev I always expect the same curteous sevice wherever I shop the same way I was trained to look after customers when I was in retail. The result is I will part with my money more readily regardless of cost so long as the salesperson earms the right to the sale. Not a lot to ask really but I am always astounded at how many out there fail dismally when it comes to getting my business. Glad you scored well in the end. The thing about retail is once you have earned yourself a sale there is always going to be repeat business and you can always do the upsell and add-ons as well which shows a well trained salesperson. ;)

Poodroo

[hussy]

why do ypu name big w , bcf , and then not name the one , on the way home? it should be the one to name, and not the others. wouldn,t go to one of them. hubby

[hussy]

lucky you didn,t have a serious fire or explosion, with that hose coming off, could have been a disaster. hubby

[bidkev]

why do ypu name big w , bcf , and then not name the one , on the way home? it should be the one to name, and not the others. wouldn,t go to one of them. hubby


Hubby, the other one (A fart All Sorts) is not to be mentioned on this site because they "borrowed" a pic (I believe) from this site without permission.

kev

[bidkev]

lucky you didn,t have a serious fire or explosion, with that hose coming off, could have been a disaster. hubby


Damn near was! ::) I explained in the email to Campmaster stoves that my complaint was not so much about a warranty issue but the fact that this was a serious safety issue and that an obvious quality control failing needed to be addressed.

kev

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Kev,

Bit of a worry, the safety issue there.

I take it the hose with the crimped end blew off the ridged male fitting?
If so, I'm not sure I'd be too comfortable with that arrangement anyway.

Why don't you just cut the hose off square with a stanley knife behind the crimped fitting and reattach it over the male fitting with a stainless steel screw up hose clamp. That way you can tighten it up yourself until you are comfortable it is secure, rather than relying on what appears to be dodgy factory produced crimped conections.

Cheers
Jeff

[bidkev]

Yeah Jeff, I intend to do that and keep it as a spare as it's only a short one and I prefer the 900mm ones. The bottle and lamp can sit outside the tarp then, whilst the stove can come under.

kev

[_Dan_]

Mate i was bewildered as you were the other day when i went into BCF, i was looking for a clip for my abu as the other had popped off. Anyway standing in the reel area for about 10 min without seeing a person, i proceed to the front counter and asked to speak to someone about what a i was looking for.

The lady then rings someone on the phone and asked them to come down to fishing section, i keep waiting and the phone rings and its the guy asking "what is the guy looking for?" as in me. I said im looking for some parts for my reel, she explains to the guy on the phone, she replies to me.. We dont have any parts for that here, i said you. He doesnt know what i need? so i explained the part to him, a circle clip of all things.. His reply was without even seeing and speaking through the girl on the front counter the part is $8 and $5 to get shipped here so you might as well buy a new reel...

I walked out without a reply to them and went to the automotive parts shop down the road and asked the same question, got a person who gave a stuff and he even gave it to me for free saying " there only cheap mate, take another for a spare"

Never again.. this isnt the first time either..

[BrandonH]

bugger :-/

Not what you want to hear!!!! I haven't had anything that bad from BCF yet but.. have been ignored and talked to like a twat :o hence haven't been back for a good 6 months ;)

Campmaster gear I will never buy anything of theres after reading this Kev!!! thats dam outragous >:( what would have happened if it did burn down the tarp, and tent, and all your gear? I reckon you would be fighting to get anything outa them for the damage too!! Not good >:(

Primus or colman all the way as far as gas stuff goes from now ;)

Tight Lines
Brandon...

[bidkev]

Primus or colman all the way as far as gas stuff goes from now ;)

Tight Lines
Brandon...

Yeah, same here Brandon .

Got a reply today saying that they would like to test the stove and that they will replace the drip tray, trivet and hose. No mention of compensation for the tea towels that got burned, not that I am that bothered but it gives me some indication of their customer relations. They also say that they now use a different brand of hose........speaks volumes eh?! ::) ::)

As their office is at Greenslopes and I am on the Northside it hardly seems worth my while for me to go traipsing over there. I think I'll just be satisfied with being a bit more knowledgeable about their stoves and avoiding 'em in future.

kev

[Bill_Klein]

mate of mine gave me a 20 dollar gift card for BCF over a year ago i think never got around to going into the new store up here on the sunshine coast and dont think i will now might give it back to him as a present much rather go to my local tackle store where the owner knows me by my first name.

Caloundra fishing world for those who are interested
only a small shop but good range of stuff
and camping gear well Gotta go camping on caloundra road

[hussy]

not real flash service at bcf is it ,got treated like dirt by rude woman at lawnton, will never go there again thats for sure, would drive another 50ks past them ,rather than stopping and get treated like shit by them. hubby

[bidkev]

not real flash service at bcf is it ,got treated like dirt by rude woman at lawnton, will never go there again thats for sure, would drive another 50ks past them ,rather than stopping and get treated like shit by them. hubby

Lawnton ::) That's the culprit. Think they'd lift their game a bit with A Fart All Sorts being just down the road.

kev

[GBC]

G'day kingtin,

I'm pretty confident bayonett fittings for gas are illegal in OZ.

Might be worth checking out.

C.J.

[JasonT]

I'm of a similar opinion regarding the level of customer service shown by BCF lawnton in particular!

It seems the customer is no more than a distraction over there.

Went to buy some bits from there... Waited ages for help, before seeking someone out. They were busy with a customer so I hung back and waited.. He acknowledged me and said he'd get someone else to help me. That was cool.. He was serving another customer, had acknowledged me and said he'd organise help. Couldn't ask for more... I was happy..

Until...

I waited another ten minutes for no-one to help.
Determined to get what I needed I approached another employee and was told that If i'd head down to the bits i needed he would be there in a minute to help me. Suspecting it would be a long minute I nevertheless did as asked.
After another five minutes or so, not one, but in quick succession two sales people arrived to help! Upon realising that someone was already helping me, the second sales person made the comment that it was a busy day and it didn't need two people to help me out. He was obviously annoyed that I had asked someone else fo help and let me know he wasn't impressed! (Do they get commissions??).

That was it for me.. I let them finish collecting the items, then told them that on this occasion due to the poor service I have received I no longer wished to purchase the items from BCF and would rather pay more and receive decent service than save a few cents and be treated as if I'm an annoyance. I reminded them that it was customers like me putting dollars into their registers that put the money into their pay packets. I walked out disgusted.

I worked in retail as a kid and would have been sacked quickly had my performance been so poor. Where have those standards gone???
And how the hell does a business survive like that??

IT"S GOT ME :-) >:(

JT

[JasonT]

PS!
I did pay more elsewhere... A few dollars more...

BUT!
I was happy to pay a little extra for the prompt friendly service I received.
I'm a regular at this shop now! (Won't mention it as I'm not sure I can, but PM me for details if you're on the northside and/or want to know!)

JT

[atlantic_salmon]

sorry to get off topic as it is potentially a serrious issue, but im glad someone else is not impressed with BCF, just coming back from five years overseas i had never been into one, with my americanised (bigger and better) brother playing tour guide we trotted into BCF lawnton and fair juice to them they do have everything anyone would want.

after wandering around i remembered a few things i had been putting off getting, so i finnaly tracked down one of thier uninterested staff who was hidding in one of the isles talking about fridays night activities with two others, after finnaly tearing him away from his riverting conversation when i was explaining what i wanted and where to find when i got stuck on a word (i have a small stutter) when this pimply faced little twat started grinning and almost laughing, i think the look i gave him spelt out my thaughts, would not touch a kid but this one almost went home with a soft nose, BCF can bite me, ive got a new name for BCF and it aint BCF... never again...

[JoeMcDonald]

I tried to get jets for my campmaster 500cp light, I gave up.

[Braddles]

SOrry to digress on the safety issue initially raised re/- the gas fitting - that is bloody dangerous... but I couldnt help but smerk when I read those comments about BCF.

The closest store to I (salisbury) I think is Springwood - so my mate and I go for a wander through the shop. I was in the isle near the soft plastics, crouched down on my haunches looking for a particular soft plastic, when this lard arse feline with a BCF shift barges through, no excuse me or sorry I just bumped you, and hit me it the head with a box she was carrying. I was absolutely flabbergasted, then to look up and see it with the attitude on her face as she looked back, shook her head at me and grunted, and kept walking!

We walked over towards the rods, and I was toying if I should give this rude slob a piece of my mind as she was eating, leaning on a shelf, continuing to complain. Dan my mate pointed to a rod that had a runner at 90deg to the rest and the guy she was talking to was setting up the display. He literally pulled the rod back down, looked at it, laughed, and on his tippy toes put it back on the higer rack on display for some untrained eye (eg perhaps a mother buying her young child an Xmas pressie) to get stuck with.

I could then hear her fowl mouth from the isle with the fishing rods in, talking about how "Fu&ki^g hot" it was and how she wished she didnt have to be there - loud enough for all customers in the vacinity to hear.

I was absolutely dismayed... I joked to my mate that there must be a hiden camera there for candid camera or something...

Then I went searching for the rego stickers for the jet ski (to meet the 100mm regulations)... I asked at the counter... and it must have been her brother, as he said "sorry mate - you have to order them, we dont stock them" and pointed to a flyer on the counter, and walked away. Just then I look down in the glass cabinet and low and behold - there they are.... Obviously too far to bend down for him. I pointed out that he did sell them and then he could give an informed response to his next poor customer.

As we were leaving, I didnt hear it word for word, but heard the massive dimply legged bulldozer made a comment and laughed as we walked out of the shop, empty handed.

Sure they have a large range - but seriously - HOW do they stay in business? Are they franchised? I was going to make the effort to make a formal complaint over their www but if my experience is endemic of all BCF experiences of fellow Ausfishers, its probably not worth it.

I know I would NEVER shop at a BCF again, and I would never advise anyone to ever shop at such a pathetic establishment again.

[dogsbody]

Gday
My experience with bcf is that it offers a wide range of no service and higher prices.
We've been starting to get a bit of camping gear together and after standing around looking for some sort of staff, i walked. Glad i did, went to Tentworld and they had the same tent 70 bucks cheaper and the rest of the gear was a few bucks cheaper as well. Lesson learnt!

Dave.

[Rod_Bender]

Gee sounds like the bad service is south of Townsville. I regulary visit the Townsville BCF and have had no such problem. I can understand each experience, but the guys up here seem to be spot on. There seems to be more people working there in their 50's then pimply faced kids... Can't say i have visted the other stores, but the Townsville store is a great way to kill time. Theres a few guys there i always seek out, and one particular big fella always gives his honest opinion on a product i'm after. I feel sorry for those Aus fisher's whom have had sheet service at any branded store. I think it pays to make offical complaints though, otherwise its never gonna change.

[Fat_Chilli]

Sure they have a large range - but seriously - HOW do they stay in business? Are they franchised?
Braddles - they are owned by SuperCheap.

I regularly shop at the Labrador BCF and have had one bad experience; however, they were very apoligetic and even gave me 5% - 10% off on everthing I purchased over a 4 month period to make up for their error. So I can't complain.

I agree with Rod_Bender, put in a formal complaint or email them a copy of the posts on here, the Lawton store sounds like it needs sorting out, I know if any of the above happened to me I too wouldn't go back.

[REEDA]

Word of mouth...best advert...for AND against some retailers.

[JohnDoe]

I have been using anaconda for camping gear of late, their service is actually quite good. There fishing gear is no where near as comprehensive as BCF, but that doesn't worry me as i use a couple of local stores for that.

For those on the n'side, may i reccomend tackle world at sandgate and jones bait and tackle at lutwyche.