Is anyone using the glenway system? What do you think about it?

[cobblers.keys]

I need to post a customer my catalogue(s) for an event they are organising. I am sending the trendsetting catalogue and maybe the glenway card to link them to the website trophy Street however I have just had a quick look at it online and am not sure if I feel comfortable with it. I wonder if anyone else is using the glenway system and how confident are you with it?. Look forward to some feedback 

Thanks again 

[JamesST]

Think they have overthought the whole thing. To the customers i've shown the link to they have just picked from the catalogues instead so potentially pushing business away. I also think the sketchy past and websites does leave an uneasy feel about directing people to the website, essentially pushing them to shop online and buy elsewhere. Time will tell and with their prices going up dramatically it isn't going to help them.

[Dean]

First impressions were, I'm not keen and found it off putting. 

If a customer comes into my shop and I divert them straight to the Internet via their phones, I feel it defeats the object to a degree....

[Auto Key Wizard]

I think the bulk of members here kicked Glenway accounts in to touch a while ago

[JamesST]

Been a rough start first 5 items I've had customers want have all had issues. 1 - price same as last year on public site, but back end price has gone up 30%!, ordered from another supplier. 2 -  product in stock on front end, out of stock on back end, ordered elsewhere. 3 - product in stock on front end and but not available on back end, ordered elsewhere. 4 same as 3. 5 - ordered and code with picture on front end was wrong picture so was not what the customer wanted! Has plenty look at the other catalogues and pick from them in the shop though. At least a shop copy is needed, but time will tell.........

[Auto Key Wizard]

I'd have given up after issue 2 to be honest

All their catalogues went to landfill, not worthy of recycling

[hakeemz]

i tried using it but gave up after 20 minutes, shame i used to use glenway mainly and now will have to use trend

 

[Lee]

we all know things evolve and change, especially in the past couple of years. Glenway was once such a strong company & then they seemed to hit the self destruction button with the original direct to public website & don't seem to have been able to come back from it.

If someones in a shop, they want a shop service, in the retail shop world we need something tactile to show them. if they wanted to plinker on a computer they would already have done it. most odd.

[Auto Key Wizard]

Couldn't make this up...

Call from Glenway today reference our dormant account, plus new catalogues.

Advised them to closed the account and never call again.

She seemed shocked by my response and ask the reason, I filled her in on her companies past ethics, but knew nothing about it!
Good luck to them, the grass is very much greener elsewhere.

[JoeyC]

Hi does anyone know of any other trophy companies apart from glenway as im not using them anymore. I'm using trend & Goodwill at the moment. thanks

[keyman]

Trans World Trophies (TWT) in Nottingham are usually pretty good for stock and delivery.
But don't expect the same low minimum orders that trigger Trend and Goodwill's free carriage.
I think the last delivery I got from them (and it wasn't a small order) cost £9.

[cobblers.keys]

The suppliers stock availability is more important than delivery charge ATM because there is nothing worse than getting an order from a customer including prepayment then find out that most of the order is out off stock with no exact date for delivery. It's happening too often this year it's quite embarrassing when customers pick trophies etc then you have to say sorry this is out of stock and that is out of stock etc etc.

[grahamparker]

Trend have live stock listings online to check also approx delivery dates for out of stock items.

We check while the customer is with us, had more orders than expected this year so far after Covid.

[cobblers.keys]

That is good to see live stock availability but it's no help when large amounts are out of stock. I realize this is a problem for a lot of industries. I wonder how the internet trophy shops manage because they don't stock all what they advertise on the internet?

Edited June 8, 2022 by cobblers.keys

[Gray]

Glenway's carriage charges are ridiculous. 200 small trophy plates in a small box £14.99 and VAT on top of that.

[JamesST]

 

7 hours ago, Gray said:

Glenway's carriage charges are ridiculous. 200 small trophy plates in a small box £14.99 and VAT on top of that.

Use armstrong products

[keyman]

"Please bear with us at this busy time..."
Is anyone really swamped with trophy orders in the same way that we all would have been in May, June and July three years ago?

[Paul_]

9 hours ago, keyman said:

"Please bear with us at this busy time..."
Is anyone really swamped with trophy orders in the same way that we all would have been in May, June and July three years ago?

We've had an amazing Spring on engraving and trophies, probably best ever. However  two engraving businesses have closed down in towns nearby so people are finding us.

"Please bear with us at this busy time"....not good enough! We are all busy and need things sorted. Sorry Trend you've not been good enough this year! @Tim.wilford

[Trendsetting Awards]

 

Firstly, and having read  all of your recent comments posted it is clear that some of you have experienced poor service from us over this busy season and we would like to apologise sincerely for that. 

 Genuinely, letting our customers down is horrendous and we all feel it here at Trend.  The last two years and in particular the last 6 weeks have been incredibly hard.  We were forced to make over 20 redundancies of experienced staff in August 2020, some of which had been with us for over 25 years.  We have not been in a position to replace this experience and this year we have had to rely on agency workers who take a long time to train.  We now have more staff than pre covid.  Whilst we have put out a strong new catalogue for 2022 with lots new which we have backed up with strong stocks, we could not have forecast or anticipated the demand that we are experiencing and have experienced over this busy time.  We have competitors who have not done catalogues or catalogues late with late stock deliveries.  We’ve also had a competitor admit that they have decided to go direct via online retail.  All of this has created a situation which we have not experienced before and a level of demand which is welcome but unprecedented and obviously causing us problems.  The service levels have dropped and we have not been able to maintain our normal high standards over the past six weeks.  The end of the season will be a welcome one here at Trend.  Anyhow, we thought it would be worthwhile to try and paint a picture for you about what is happening here and give some reasons as opposed to excuses.  The four day turn around will last for a week to ten days until we can reduce the order book.  The season will soon slow down and we will return very quickly to our normal high standards of service and 48 hour turnaround.  Again, we apologise sincerely if you have suffered poor service from us and we can promise that there are big changes planned so that this does not happen again.

 During COVID we remained open the whole time and tried to support our customers as best we could.  We have admittedly experienced an extremely tough time with the massive demand during this busy time and let our customers down at times.  Most of you will know that this poor level of service is just is not like us and that our normal service standards are very high.  We will be making some big changes and have some exciting plans which we will email you all about in the next six weeks.  We hope that you can see this for what it is and support us to make the changes that we need to make sure our service levels remain the same during these important busy months next year.

 Sincerely All @ Trend (Julie, Tim, Karl & John)

[Paul_]

Really appreciate you giving this explanation. I for one am a fan of Trend in usual circumstances but have been very disappointed this year and business has been pushed elsewhere I'm afraid.

Hopefully things are getting back to normal both post-covid and after this busy season. Fingers crossed you can get things back to how it used to be! 

Paul 

[Trendsetting Awards]

Just now, Paul_ said:

Really appreciate you giving this explanation. I for one am a fan of Trend in usual circumstances but have been very disappointed this year and business has been pushed elsewhere I'm afraid.

Hopefully things are getting back to normal both post-covid and after this busy season. Fingers crossed you can get things back to how it used to be! 

Paul 

Thank you for the positive feedback Paul.  It is much appreciated.  There is little we can do now as the planned changes/investment will take time to implement.  We have a new website, an 18 months build, launching early winter which is a significant investment and and much more happening which we will communicate with you all soon.  Safe to say that all of the changes, some big, some small will have a huge and much needed positive impact on the business and our service.  We just ask and hope that those who have experienced poor service can give us the benefit of the doubt for next year.  Our normal service levels will resume soon once the season calms down. 

[grahamparker]

Wasn't the Furlough scheme intended to stop companies making staff redundant ?.

 

[Trendsetting Awards]

8 minutes ago, grahamparker said:

Wasn't the Furlough scheme intended to stop companies making staff redundant ?.

 

The furlough scheme helped massively but by Autumn 2020 the percentages of support reduced (from memory furlough reduced to 60% of salary) and we simply could not afford to carry that cost when we could not see an end to the pandemic.  Whilst we let 20 go through redundancy (a huge cost in itself)  we kept around 40 core staff at a time when we were doing 20-25% of normal turnover.  

[windycity]

3 hours ago, Trendsetting Awards said:

The furlough scheme helped massively but by Autumn 2020 the percentages of support reduced (from memory furlough reduced to 60% of salary) and we simply could not afford to carry that cost when we could not see an end to the pandemic.  Whilst we let 20 go through redundancy (a huge cost in itself)  we kept around 40 core staff at a time when we were doing 20-25% of normal turnover.  

Hi I think I was probably harsh with my comments especially in public on here, I think it’s frustration etc. I personally forget that as my business which is a really a small micro business unlike (to me) the big businesses in our trade group what they have been through, the decisions that had to be made over the last few years and the fallout from those times. So I personally hope that all of the businesses affected start to find their new normal again, that all repairs, keys and trophy suppliers continue to survive and supply us so we can then continue to make a living too. In a way it’s a positive that trend have found themselves too busy as it proves the business we all want a piece of is still there. So going forward cheers. 

[Gray]

Always been a huge supporter of Trend, It's been tough for all of us. I wish them all the best in trying to get back to normal. When customers come in with an order I always take time to go online and check stock for them and offer alternatives if there are no items in stock. once they are happy i complete the order and can give them a delivery date. TBH at 69 years old half way through the pandemic I thought of packing in, glad I didn't really, things are starting to pick up slowly. There is life in the old dog yet, also I'd be bored if I retired.