Dealing with ARCO in Australia

[rick_bradshaw]

Thought I'd post a "blurb" on my recent dealings with ARCO for winch parts for my Barients.

First I emailed them; twice. No answer. Second, I have an online friend in the general neighborhood who called them directly. They found my posts in their "junk" email file. Had a couple back and forths with them through the friend in OZ.

Finally, we got set up with Skype and I called Bruno directly as my first call. In fact, I've called him three or four times by now. First time I called was a test call at a time when it was way too early for anyone to be there and thought I'd get an answering machine so wasn't prepared with the info. You guessed it, Bruno answered the phone when he should have been asleep. Next time, I placed my order and gave a credit card number. The next time I called, I was looking for the shipment. He did some checking and when I called back again (Skype is really inexpensive) about half an hour later he found the credit card number had gotten lost between him and their accounting department. No shipment. I reordered and provided the number again. He got back to me via email with a tracking number; "3-day" FedEx at their expense. Five days later, I still could not find the tracking number in the FedEx system. Called back and spoke with "pat" who confirmed the tracking number and found a transposition in my email for that. She also said that FedEx had been trying to contact me for some reason.

Checked FedEx with the new tracking number. Located the package. Called FedEx (Skype) and found out it was to be delivered today. Today, I actually received the package. it has taken over, well over, a month to get it but it is here.

The moral of this story is: Sign up with Skype (need a broadband connection) and deal direct by phone. It's $.026 USD per minute from the U.S. to Australia and you get to talk to the people who you are dealing with. There were still problems but they were much easier to deal with on the phone. You just have to work with the 16 hour time difference (U.S. west coast to OZ).

[ken_w]

[jaime365]

My experience in dealing with Australian Yacht Winch Sales was excellent.
I had problems with 3 of my Maxwell winches, they are no longer manufactured but the above company bought the rights to Maxwell winches and produce small amounts of spares.
Called on 3 occations requesting technical assitance and was referred to Mr. Allen Hutton, phone +61 (2) 96232448, very knowledgable courteous and helpful. With his directions I was able to solve the problems I had.
Ordered spares on Jan 24th, 2007 and received them in the mail today Feb 2nd. Great!!
Parts are expensive but....

[sv pacific pearl]

[estetik503]

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