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System Fail: Online Ordering Ace Hardware Version

Posted on Dec 24, 2023, jshell55

Here is the story of the System Fail: Online Ordering Ace Hardware Version on Christmas Eve. We have talked about a similar story before on this blog, and were it not infuriating, I might almost be happy about another opportunity to complain about it.

Here is the Story

It’s possible that I need one of these tankless water heaters on Christmas Eve. The background on this is not important at the moment except to say that having warm water on Christmas Eve is normally considered an essential element of a pleasant holiday.

my System Fail: Online Ordering Ace Hardware Version screen shot

See where it says “pick up today?” That’s what I decided to do. I ordered it online, checked it out using “guest” from my PayPal account.

Ace System Fail: Online Ordering Ace Hardware Version Store

Online Order Fail: Hardware Version

So naturally when I drove 20 miles into the place to pick it up, which the website said I could do in 15 minutes, they said “do you have the order number” and I, of course, said “nah, it says here you have it in stock.”

The attractive person at the desk looked it up in her “system” and said, “no, we don’t have that, and we don’t have your order number.”

To her credit, she made a couple of calls and said “no other stores have it either. You can order it online and have it delivered in a couple of weeks.”

To which I asked the important question:

What’s the feedback loop? How do you tell the “system” that you don’t have it anymore. It says right now, with me standing in the store, that you have it for pickup.

To which she said “oh, they do that at corporate.” There was no apparent action on her part that she would do to feed back to the system that you actually can’t get one of these.

So this much was a bit of a mystery, frankly.

“Why People Don’t Do Their Jobs” revisited.

So let’s look at this through the lens of my new book, “Why People Don’t Do Their Jobs” and look at the four root causes of everything and see what happened:

From a people standpoint: The young female at the counter was very helpful, but she was untrained in exactly what to do if someone comes in and can’t get their online order. In the “real world” there should be some sort of process to push on her inventory screen that tells the system that it failed.

If there isn’t one, then it is an “Amorphous They” issue. Whoever set up that system either didn’t set up that process in the first place, or more likely, set the system up and didn’t train anyone what to do if this kind of customer-infuriating thing happens.

So you’re in a situation where there either is no procedure, or no one trained the employee.

“The System” is a mess, obviously. The inventory doesn’t talk to reality. The stores don’t talk to each other. If “the system” gets bad enough, the store managers will start to ignore it, and the whole thing will collapse into pointless ness.

Control systems? What is the high level system to gather this data and feed it back to management so that they can admit the reality that if someone orders for store pickup it won’t happen? Well the marketing department might have something to say about that since they have set up their web presence and spent a lot of money on Google Ads to promote it.

System Fail: Online Ordering Ace Hardware Version

So I left without my water heater. None of the other normal hardware places have a similar unit. The most optimistic scenario is that I order one, and have it arrive on the 28th, which means three days of a chilly shower.

There is a glimmer of hope, however, since that happened, the website has been updated, and you now, apparently can’t make this transaction.

Further Project

I am glad I did the pubic service of getting this transaction taken out of the system, but the System Fail: Online Ordering Ace Hardware Version is still in progress.

The project of the moment will be to reach out to management and see what they have to say.