Anyone else having trouble with CPC billing?

[ProDave]

Twice in a row now, I have had a CPC order blocked due to unpaid account.

Now I am not the sharpest when it comes to paperwork. The way I work is simple. When a bill comes in, I clip it to a clip on the pinboard and it gets paid by the end of the month.  No bill, no payment, I don't loose sleep if someone forgets to bill me.

But CPC lately seem to not be sending out invoices?  I just looked at my latest statement and there is one from last October, unpaid. and it's unpaid because it was not billed and was not even on last months statement, but when I checked back, indeed I have not paid it because I have bot been billed for it.  So they seem happy to let something go unpaid for months without even sending a polite reminder in case the original bill got lost in the post, then block your account because it was not paid.

Am I the only one having issues with them lately?
 

 

[binky]

I've had problems with other companies failing to e-mail invoices - the downside of electronic billing I suppose.

 

[Andy™]

i just pay for stuff when i buy it...

 

[Lurch]

I have had trouble with Farnell recently, in that they aren't applying the correct discounts to the account. When I first had a CPC account (2000ish) their website was useless, so I complained, and they said they were redoing it. They redid it, it was worse, and then they have just redone it again (along with the Farnell group websites) and they are all worse than ever. I am not in the least bit surprised the backend is also broken, I have spent many hours trying to sort out terrible service from them over the last few years and it only gets worse.

So basically, it is probably not going to get any better.

I also have a cash account with CPC, which does sort of work but then they forget to process returns and refunds all the time so even that's not a lot better.

 

[steptoe]

the biggest issue I have with CPC is when something is out of stock,

they put it on backorder for you, thats fine, they give you an expected date of back in stock, thats fine,

you call them up 3weeks after restock date,

' oh, I'm terribly sorry, yes, that item was out of stock, we will not be getting anymore stock in'

WTGrape?!?!?!?!?

just tell me that at the time,  :shakehead

 

[Lurch]

The biggest issue I have is the fact that a lot of things are way more expensive at Farnell than CPC, but CPC have no stock but the stock comes from Farnell, who are more expensive. We have long standing accounts with both and have regularly spent large amounts with both over the years (multiple k per month). Their response; *shrug*.

 

[Evans Electric]

I've had a few problems with electronic billing ....my own fault TBH ...invoice appears in my emails  but I don't see it , or they go to Spam .

 

[ProDave]

I'm not talking of electronic billing. I am talking of put it in an envelope and post it billing.

If they send an invoice in October and it's not paid then they would include in in the November and December end of month account statements. But they didn't.  It first appeared in the latest statement under the "3 months" column, it was not there before otherwise it would have been paid last month.  But last month was the first time I got billed for a purchase in SEPTEMBER.

So it's definitely an accounting issue not a "lost in the post" issue.

I don't mind extended free credit. It's having to keep phoning them to explain they have a problem and get my account unlocked again.
 

 

[Lurch]

They're a funny bunch, we have been on stop over the matter of a few pounds unpaid, which is usually because of an error or late credit on their end but they aren't bothered that it stops us from ordering anything at all, and again it goes into several thousand per month at times.

It used to be OK when there were local UK based reps and managers, now they are all in Poland.

 

[phil d]

I have a cash account with cpc, and must admit I've had issues lately, the branch is at Preston, but their stores are at Darwin, I ordered some kit on a call and collect and when I went the day after to get it part of it was missing, "that's at Darwin, do you want it delivered?". Why would I have ordered it call and collect if I wanted it delivered? Another thing is the special offers, quite often they don't have them, or, you go online enter the part code and get " Item does not exist" ! Recently I bought some stuff and amongst the items I ordered was a bag of M4x 25 brass screws and a bag of M4 nuts, the total cost was around 2 quid and they were identical to ones I had paid dearer for elsewhere, so a couple of days later I decided to order some more, I entered the codes from my invoice and got the message "codes not found" it turned out in the end they'd stopped selling them as unbranded and were now selling them as Schneider, the nuts were about £4 a bag and the screws about £6 a bag, needless to say I didn't bother.

They seem to be getting more expensive lately and a lot of the stuff is cheap carp, there are odd bargains to be had, I got an Extech, phase rotation tester, clamp meter and voltstick in a case for about £60 quid, a cracking piece of kit, but a lot of the smaller stuff I used to buy they've stopped selling, plus they now sell a lot of the cheap nasty Duratool or Rolson stuff. Only think is you only find out it's the nasty stuff when you get hold of it, and quite often it isn't sold at the cheap nasty prices.