GSF website revamp :(

Post by **CitroJim** » 16 May 2011, 18:37

Thanks Jonny,

My experince after reading your post..

I tried to register... Address line 2 is mandatory. I live in a small town. I don't have a line two in my address so I had to insert a dash..

The CAPTCHA is hard to read. Too hard for an e-commerce site..

I was unable to log in immediately after registering as I was unsure of my username. I triedf my email address and it was not happy with it.

I then looked for my confirmation email. Not arrived. Not in my spam trap either.

10 minutes have no elapsed since registering...

It's a good job I like GSF and have had may dealing with you over the years so I'll be patient.

However, many, being used to normal e-commerce, will now be very miffed and will have gone elseware by now.

Just my two'happennyworth...

Post by **CitroJim** » 16 May 2011, 18:52

I'm still waiting for my email.... And here am I a potential customer desparate to order something...

jcw · Post by **jcw** » 16 May 2011, 18:54

Could you drop me and email to jonny.west@gsfcarparts.com and i'll sort this out for you latest first thing in the morning.

I'll let you know what caused the hold up as most are now turned around pretty quick!

With thanks!

Jonny

Post by **CitroJim** » 16 May 2011, 19:01

Thanks Jonny, I do appreciate that as I actually do want to place an order in the near future...

I do appreciate you also, with my forum admin hat on, in taking the time to reply to this thread...

I'll send an email right now...

dnsey · Post by **dnsey** » 16 May 2011, 19:52

what our online catalogue does is tie your reg number pretty damn tightly to our parts inventory

OK, that's obviously a useful feature when it's required, but say I'm thinking of buying a new car, and want to get a general idea of the price of spares. It doesn't matter if the quoted part is exactly the right one, as long as the price is in the same ballpark. Similarly, I sometimes want to compare, say, the price of a Citroen part and the equivalent Peugeot component. It would be handy to be able to log on when specific parts are wanted, but to be free to browse without registering.

You seem to be in the same situation as my own employers, who recently adopted a huge and very expensive software system to replace a lot of obsolete stuff. It seemed good on paper, and we were told that it would be fast and easy to use once we were used to it, but in practice it takes ages to find the information required, and has needed loads of workarounds to get it to do even an approximation of the job one wants. As a result, everyone's frustrated and takes longer to do anything useful, so often the data ends up not being entered

addo · Post by **addo** » 16 May 2011, 22:59

Jonny,

1. Can you tell me why Oscaro, Pieces-Voitures, Mister-Auto and Webdealauto (four well-used examples) can offer better cataloguing for the user with less hassle?

2. Manufacturers supply you with merchandising template materials in the form of spec summaries and stock photos. Use them. It's a darned sight better than ECP's cretinous blather, too.

3. Many people like to compare brands, prices and then make a choice - if we didn't we would all just (for example) buy tires simply on size and rating. GSF largely fails to offer such choice and for overseas shoppers this makes you a destination to avoid.

4. The £340 I spent on UK-sourced parts within last four weeks could have gone to GSF if they better presented their stock lines. I can't say would have, as they are still frequently lagging in competitive freight pricing.

It's money for jam if the setup is properly organised.

Cheers, Adam.

jcw · Post by **jcw** » 17 May 2011, 22:07

Sorry for the delay in getting back on this - ok, so let me do my best with the problems that you've raised just now...

The issue with "pre-registration browsing" is annoyingly not yet possible as the parts basket would be "communal" which would be a pain for anyone adding to the parts basket! Just right now, the parts basket cannot be deactivated but we are working on sorting this to sort out easier browsing.

I just want to stress again that none of the registration information is used for any purpose other than to set up the mail order account. It is not passed on to any marketing people and will not be used by us to SPAM.

I do see that it is at best quirky to have to set an account up to browse. Just right now, when anyone does register there are some manual elements to the process. This is down to the complex relation between the catalogue and our EPC. We've actually had a completely unthought of volume of customers registering and using the site. But, this has created a bit of a backlogue in dealing with the manual elements of the process. We have already addressed this by lengthening shifts and getting in extra help. We're not far now from getting this competely automated which will relieve frustration when registering since the account and the login details will be created immediately!

CAPTCHA had to be introduced after the registration process was attacked by a BOT. There is a refresh button on this to change the image if it is difficult to read. It is not ideal, but unfortunately, there is a significant element on the internet hell-bent on spoiling it for normal users.

VRM links in this catalogue provide the most accurate VRM lookup to vehicle in the UK, due to the cost, it is not feasible to have an open access on this for our competitors to use!

Most catalogues for items other than car parts are nowhere near as dependent on exact application details as in the car parts industry. This means that anything other than a very basic parts lookup is by nature very complicated, but to provide an as accurate as possible catalogue, it was decided to go down this technical route which after research, most specialist club members preferred over the vagueness of many of our competitors equivalent sites. The examples given in the thread are French specialist companies based in France while the GSF catalogue covers all makes of car so the complexity of the cataloguing is significantly greater and the cost implications for creating a separate catalogue for each production country or vehicle manufacturer would be prohibitive.

Images are being added at every update, which is on a monthly basis. As there are over 50000 items catalogued, this is a huge and time consuming exercise, but eventually every part will have an image. Unfortunately, even though some ecommerce businesses do use them, our suppliers have prohibitive clauses which generally protect the use of their images in anything but the narrowest of circumstances.

The level of detail displayed for each part has been kept to a balance. We know that we have some very techinically-savvy customers but we also have customers who need things a bit more simple.

Any joint platform part, e.g. fitted to Citroen and Peugeot would be catalogued as the same GSF number. There is an extensive OE and aftermarket cross reference in the back ground which can be search by typing in the relevant number into the top search box on the left hand margin. If you want to check the OE numbers, the click on the details tab in the main window which reveals OE numbers, larger images where applicable and fitment criteria and parts details where applicable. Please bear in mind when using this that VMs regularly change their references so there are some omissions in this. The catalogue is supported by OES xreferencing but I do need to stress that it relies on VRM/Model search > product type to yield results and not xref.
Orders over £25 are carriage free on GSF’s website. However, for our customers outside of England, Scotland and Wales, we do have to quote separately for freight. Drop our export team - export@gsfcarparts.com - an email you feel we've made a mistake with our freight charges outside of the UK and we'll get them checked!

Anyone who has not received their registration confirmation within 24 hours, if they send a contact form on http://www.gsfcarparts.com/contact.asp it will be looked into as a matter of urgency.

In terms of relevancy, all of our cataloguing is updated monthly with more important safety critical changes upgraded to sameday updates. Regarding parts that take a long time to find, it is true tat non UK users will have to identify their vehicles manually as VRM will not work, but part criteria and specific fitment information relating to the selected vehicle are displayed on the parts listed.

Lastly, please consider that some issues are addressed at http://www.gsfcarparts.com/faqs.html or more detailed guide to using the catalogue can be found at http://www.gsfcarparts.com/images/Webka ... ctions.pdf

I hope this is helpful for anyone who's struggling or still feeling highly irritated! Would welcome any further comments!

With thanks,

Jonny

Post by **CitroJim** » 18 May 2011, 20:54

Jonny,

I got my GSF login details today and I've been all over the shop like a rash.

That's better

It was worth the wait and things look a lot better there now.

Just get the registration hiccups sorted and automated and all will be very good.

Thanks again for taking the time to explain what has been happening behind the scenes...

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 19 May 2011, 07:18

I applied to 'join' the new GSF website two days ago and I'm still waiting for the login details, it'll be easier to join the 'Masonic Brotherhood' than buy parts from GSF.

Looking at this from the customers point of view, unless I'd read this thread there's no way I could be bothered to suffer such a long delay in buying parts before they are even ordered and I'd take my business elsewhere if I was wanting to buy parts at this moment of time.

This new website is giving me the impression that its been launched 'British Leyland style' i.e. Far too soon then allow the customers to do the research for the company, terrible PR with the serious risk of customers never returning, shocking.

addo · Post by **addo** » 19 May 2011, 09:48

What's the risk of having your left sphere torn open with its diaphragm and LHM taken hence, if you reveal secrets of the website?

addo · Post by **addo** » 21 Jun 2011, 11:30

I just spent £590 (thirty minutes ago) on French car parts with a competing business. It was a mixture of Febi, Federal, Lemförder and PSA stock.

Their website doesn't require a login to browse, indicates price per part number/brand, and freight is a running calculation also immediately shown. As I'm outside the EU, they also deduct VAT from the final tally.

Suppose with the relative savings, I owe Vince a pint or two...

Xaccers · Post by **Xaccers** » 11 Sep 2011, 22:10

Used my login details for the first time. Wish I hadn't bothered.
I'll just phone Heathrow tomorrow and place my order rather than fight my way through their new site.
Hurry up and open that MK store!

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 11 Sep 2011, 22:21

I know just what you mean Andy, having seen Vince's post re HDi pulleys I've been looking for them ever since on the site without success, I've now given up searching for something that I know is there but cannot find when I finally discovered where you can enter the part number directly

What a useless website, just how much business is GSF losing to ECP, AEP and Neat Auto's due to that dreadful website, no excuses, there's been more than enough time to sort it out

Dippy · Post by **Dippy** » 11 Sep 2011, 23:33

Dictating to the Customer is a very perilous business .

GSF may wish to remember that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, though it will be of little consequence when your customer base has disappeared ?

DickieG · Post by **DickieG** » 11 Sep 2011, 23:54

Google "GSF website" and you get loads of threads on many different forums complaining about how useless the new/irritating GSF website is, how can a company such as this allow this debacle to continue?

As an incentive to look elsewhere, ECP are offering 20% discount using code "PARTS20CC"