Inwood website

[Mark_T]

Never been there in person but they were 100% on the phone, great after-sales experience once I'd kicked the website into submission

[quanter]

What I find hard to believe with the web site is that the designer actually owns up to doing it and with smug comments about himself.

Brian

[Mark_T]

What I find hard to believe with the web site is that the designer actually owns up to doing it and with smug comments about himself.

You haven't met many web designers have you?

I've yet to find one that wasn't convinced his own creations were far superior to everyone else's work even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary

[Tim Procter]

I've yet to find one that wasn't convinced his own creations were far superior to everyone else's work even in the face of mounting evidence to the contrary

If Inwoods sorted their "Bloody Awful" website out they would double their takings.

I for one don't order there because of the website being so poor.

Prices are ace, Website is worse than crap.

[Steve]

To be fair, I think people are judging their website against others in the heli market such as Midlands, Fast Lads and others, where you can search for the bits you need using many terms, by manufacturer's part number and see a little picture of it, which is great to heli flyers.

The thing is, helis are not Inwood's core business. Yes, they sell a few and a few spares, engines, governors, servos transmitters etc, but a lot of this stuff can just as easily be used in planes. They do a lot of mail-order, and I think the majority of their turnover is in plane stuff, so their website has not been designed with the heli enthusiast in mind, and we're all expecting them to work like the heli-specific shop's sites.

Maybe they have a great deal on price for a DX7 Tx this week, and something else next week, but the DX7 is not exclusive to helicopters.

I'll be going into the shop this afternoon on the way home from work.

[mark_curd]

Just thought I would add my little comment.

My experiences with Inwood Models have been A*. Spoke to Martin there, very helpfully guy, thier pricing seems to be very competetive and thier postage cost are reasonable. Delivery on all the orders I have place have arrived next working day even though standard delivery was selected.

Would highly recommend and will most certainly be using again.

[Tim Procter]

Just thought I would add my little comment.

My experiences with Inwood Models have been A*. Spoke to Martin there, very helpfully guy, thier pricing seems to be very competetive and thier postage cost are reasonable. Delivery on all the orders I have place have arrived next working day even though standard delivery was selected.

Would highly recommend and will most certainly be using again.

And what did you think to their website which is what this topic is about.

Don't get me wrong I bought my DSX9 from Inwoods but it was a telephone deal and the best around at the time.

Website was pants then and still is now though.

[mark_curd]

Absolutly pants!

The most hardest & un helpfull website to date I have come across.

Gotta sort it out!

[Mark_T]

To be fair, I think people are judging their website against others in the heli market such as Midlands, Fast Lads and others, where you can search for the bits you need using many terms, by manufacturer's part number and see a little picture of it, which is great to heli flyers.

I'm just judging it against other e-Commerce sites, not heli specific and to be honest not even model industry specific, although I'm struggling to think of a less featured web site in the model industry right now.

Search engines on web sites are not difficult to implement, but they'd probably increase business just by offering a site that was robust enough not to fail miserably if a pop-up blocker grabs their credit card page and actually implement online credit card validation with proper 3DSecurity features as they should have done months ago instead of the off-line card processing approach they have now.

E-Mailing a copy of the order itself not just an acknowledgement of the fact an order was placed would seem a basic requirement as well.

Online order status tracking would cut down on additional phone calls as well.

As I've said though, great prices and service in all other respects from what I can see, just not up to the mark with the e-Commerce side of things and apparently deep in denial about it

[barney]

Inwoods site is relatively easy to navigate..With patience!..You think its bad, try SMC..FFS they must lose oddles of business.

TBH us heli flyers are spoilt in this respect.

And todays Top Runners..

Andy/Vicky at Real Raptors get my vote for best/easiest website experience. The Knowledge Base/stock indicator/parts search are nice touches too.

Midlands little News Page on the front is cool but stock indication is well.....? and this part time phone stuff nonsense..whats that all about..maybe one of our newly redundant HeliAddict guys should offer there services to man the phone the rest of the time.

Fastlad's is not too shabby either sitting in comfortable 2nd spot with there Special Offer bit and stock levels...not three bad if I say so myself

So..RR are clearly out in front, holding the lead as we approach the finishing post..

Skyline, your at no3..defo needing a stock indicator to join the front runners, used to enjoy your Robbe spot etc Bob!.Be nice if you did some more?

Revolution..needing some work and getting left behind in the interweb race..

So who's next up for a slating then....

TBH we are very lucky in the UK to have such a good service and choice well done shop people...

[t-rex pedro]

Guys, I didnt intend this to escalate into the 'Inwoods website is crap' thread. The original post asked the question whether the online prices are up to date or not. That was all the info I needed. Before the internet we had to get the yellow pages out and ring around for the best deal its just we are so spoilt nowadays being able to order whatever we want at any time day or night from the armchair! I rang Inwoods yesterday. The online price was confirmed, my order was place and it arrived today. The service, as others have said is as good as any other store. The icing on the cake is that I saved a considerable amount of money by using Inwoods after giving my local/usual shops the opportunity for my business.

I wont allow this thread to slide into negativity purely based on a less than average website. The guys at Inwoods were great and very helpful. I would use them again after first trying my usual stores. As Bob Hoskins once said - its good to talk!!!

Cheers

[Guest]

http://www.heliguy.com/ is the best I have seen - top website

[barney]

Its better a business is made aware of where they can potentially improve themselves..than possibly go to the wall.

Over the years I have dealt with many UK companies Inwoods included and there is only one UK Company I will not deal with. (Not mentioned in the above post BTW)

I stand by my comment that SMC's website sucks and is a nightmare to find anything leaving little option but to lift the phone which I actually do 90% of the time anyway..

My post above..Is meant to be pretty much 'tongue in cheek' Pete..but If it has offended you I will remove it and this one

cheers Brian

[t-rex pedro]

Its better a business is made aware of where they can potentially improve themselves..than possibly go to the wall.

Over the years I have dealt with many UK companies Inwoods included and there is only one UK Company I will not deal with. (Not mentioned in the above post BTW)

I stand by my comment that SMC's website sucks and is a nightmare to find anything leaving little option but to lift the phone which I actually do 90% of the time anyway..

My post above..Is meant to be pretty much 'tongue in cheek' Pete..but If it has offended you I will remove it and this one

cheers Brian

Hey, I'm not offended at all Brian.

My post was not aimed at you or anyone in particular. (Dont be so sensitive!!) In fact, I thought your post was very apt.

I was highlighting the fact that it was not my intention to start a thread about a poor website and possibly tarnish a decent shops reputation were they obviously prefer to deal with customers by phone or in person and use the website as a price guide. The thread seemed to be going that way and it made me uncomfortable. Thats all mate.