Newsbites

Why can’t British retailers succeed in Taiwan?

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Another British retailer bites the dust in Taiwan, and the list of failures gets longer…

  • TESCO – sold out to Carrefour;
  • BOOTS – merged counters and business with Watson’s;
  • Marks & Spencer – Now closing;
  • Mothercare – only a few stores in Taiwan;

… can anyone add to this list?

In the rush to expand, many British companies are eager to expand in Asian markets… but they fail to grasp the complexities of the local market, the sheer amount of competition, the fickle nature of Taiwanese shoppers, and the importance of branding, but the worst sin of all: thinking you can make a quick buck here. What’s weirder is that each of these companies has successful operations in other Asian countries, including Thailand, Hong Kong, China, and Singapore… So what’s going on?

Lets start with TESCO. TESCO entered the local market and opened stores in Taipei, Taoyuen, and a few other locations. They were intending to open in December 2000 after purchasing their first location from Makro Asia. Shortly after they expanded to four stores in Taiwan, and a bullish statement by Peter Bracher, head of Tesco International Corporate Affairs, made it clear that they were intending to open upto 10 stores by 2004/5. Then in September 2005, Tesco sold their stores in Taiwan to Carrefour and closed them early in 2006. So what went wrong?

Well, I don’t have access to any of the sales figures, but as a customer I shopped their on more than one occasion. Frankly, I was not impressed. The format of the store was quite similar to the Carrefour stores that dot the island, the product quality for the local products were just not good enough, and they were very slow to introduce their own branded local products. There was an assumption that their typical model would work in Taiwan without sufficient localization. Only later on, when sales lagged, did the management act to introduce local products, such as Tesco Rice or Tesco Oil. While the pricing for these products were quite keen, we weren’t very keen on the freshness of the products, or the store arrangements.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20000812/ai_n14321366

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/biz/2005/10/01/2003274021

FatChance you’ll get that deal next year: false advertising in hosting?

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OK. Here’s a follow up on the story that I’ve been writing about for several days about FatCow Hosting, and their misleading advertising and unhelpful staffing. Despite two chats, quite a few emails … and their seeming unwillingness to recognize, nevermind amend, their dubious claims about the value of their hosting deal. This is a form of false advertising, and something that they are just unwilling to deal with.

Here is the reply that I received from Benedict Reyes who represents the FatCow Moo Crew.

Hello Kenneth,

Thank you for contacting Support.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. When a customer signs up for a new hosting account, the hosting price would be $66 which is given as an offer and will be valid only for one year. The hosting price will be changed to a normal value of $88 after the completion of first year. Just for your reference, I’ve copied a statement which signifies the above mentioned rate.

Statement: ‘$66 sale price for first year only. Plan renews at regular rate of $88/year’.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are available 24×7.

Sincerely,

Benedict Reyes
FatCow Moo Crew

I simply replied to this email but I don’t expect any further replies because two chats and four emails later the ambiguous language is unchanged on the website. There isn’t even any recognition that this is a problem… Why do I bother? I’m not sure, any more. Originally, I wanted to host with them one or two of my smaller sites… but that ain’t gonna happen unless they can prove that they are able to make something happen. Here’s my reply:

Dear Benedict,

Thanks for your replies. I appreciate your situation, and I agree that your offer is reasonable and generous. The only problem lies in the fact that your website doesn’t state THIS OFFER clearly or accurately, as I wrote last time. If it were a simple inaccuracy on your website, that would be easy enough to change.

But the fact that your website states unambiguously five times that $66 per year or $66 yearly or $66/year is enough to convince me that FATCOW is either unwilling to update their website or unable to do so. Please clarify the language on your website so that it means $66 in the first year in EACH of the instances I have already highlighted.

You may wish to follow this discussion on my blog. I would like to be able to report to my readers that you were responsive to prospective (and confused) customers but so far you have only been responsive repetitive.

Yours sincerely.
Kenneth

Who knows? Oh, well. Can they do anything about the advertising? That is the $22 question.

Follow up to yesterday’s complaint about FatCow dot com Hosting

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After yesterday’s post about a complaint about a hosting company’s ‘special offer’, I filed an email to their legal department about the issue that they were facing.

Dear Legal,

I apologize that I can’t address you by name. But I’m confused by your company’s current offer. I’m including a transcript of a conversation about the issue:

Harriet Anderson: Hi. My name is Harriet, how are you today?
kendickson98: hi, harriett.
kendickson98: fine.
kendickson98: i’m needing a little help with the pricing on the sales page…
kendickson98: is it The FatCow Plan $66.00 billed yearly
Harriet Anderson: Okay.
kendickson98: or is it 88 per year?
kendickson98: there are some places that say renews at 66 and others at 88 …
kendickson98: https://secure.***.com/register/registration.bml
Harriet Anderson: Actual price of our FatCow plan is $88.00 per year.
The offer price is $66.00 per year and this is only for the first year.
Harriet Anderson: Next year, your account will be renewed with the
actual price $88.00 per year.
kendickson98: then i’m afraid you NEED to change your website..
because that’s what it doesn’t say clearly on the billing page that I
sent you…
Harriet Anderson: Okay.
Harriet Anderson: I apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you.
Harriet Anderson: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?
kendickson98: no that’s fine… i just needed to clarify that before
signing… tks. have a good day…
Harriet Anderson: Okay.

I would be interested to know why the website states no less than five times in three pages that it is $66 PER YEAR, not $66 in the first year; and yet I find a disclaimer on this second page claiming otherwise. Even the shopping cart claims that is $66 PER year, not $66 in the first year.

So, would you care to comment on how you plan to fix this issue? Isn’t truth in advertising important?

Yours,
Kenneth

To which I received two (yes, TWO) replies both in denial about the problem, both confirming the original claim in the chat, and both unable to find out the problem.

Here is one of the samples: from Benedict Reyes at FatCow Dot Com

Hello Kenneth,

Thank you for contacting Support.

We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused you. As mentioned earlier the actual price of our FatCow plan is $88.00 per year but the offer price which is offered to our customers is $66.00 and will be applicable only for one year after which you will be charged the normal price of $88.00.

Per your request, I’ve provided you the proof which shows the actual price of the hosting plan. To veiw the proof , please go to the link: http://www.fatcow.com/fatcow/fatcow.bml
Note: Scroll down to see the proof at the bottom of the page.

If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We are available 24×7.

Sincerely, Benedict Reyes
FatCow Moo Crew

I’ve now replied, with another email, stating clearly my original complaints and asking for their website to be fixed. Perhaps someone will see what the problem is, but I’m not hopeful.

Dear Benedict,

Thanks for your response, unfortunately, in signing up for your
service I counted FIVE instances where that wasn’t the case, including

Example #1

http://www.fatcow.com/fatcow/index.bml
which has 2 images that state that clearly… PER YEAR! (see
attachment taken yesterday from your site)

Example #2
The second page is …
http://www.fatcow.com/fatcow/fatcow.bml

Where the phrasing used changes to $66/year. That choice also means
per year… eg. km/h means kilometers PER year, etc.

This phrase is used twice on this page.

Example #3
The billing cart page… the cart itself shows the pricing. This clearly states: “billed yearly.”

So I don’t know what proof you need, but to me, it reads clearly as
$66 PER YEAR, and it’s stated 5 times in three different ways. Ask ten
people who speak good english, show them the three pages I copied and
you ask them for yourself, how much do you expect to pay in year 2?
I’ll bet you most will be either confused or think it’s $66 per year..

I’m sorry… but you really have to take the time to go through your
billing process to see what I mean… I don’t know what more I can say
– except amend the graphic and text to SHOW what you REALLY mean, not
what you would like it to mean. Otherwise when billing comes around in
a year’s time, you will be dealing with complaints, chargebacks,
trouble from your credit card vendors, and from PayPal.

Best Wishes
Kenneth

Having already met with four denials about the issue, I can’t see what more I can do to persuade them that this is a real problem… I won’t be using their hosting for sure, because their staff refuse to see what the problem is.