Stage LX Web presence

[Bryson]

Has anone looked at Stage LX's website recently? They seem to have totally revamped it - it's looking rather good. Certainly much much better than their previous effort, anyway:

 

Or am I just totally miles behind the times?

[peter]

Noticed it a few days ago, but as I find drop down menus on websites to be incredibly annoying, especially if they lose their place as soon as you move your mouse out of them, I left fairly quickly.

 

From what I can see, its basically an online version of their catalogue, which isnt much help as the prices bear no resemblance to what most people will end up paying anyway. And as they haven't reduced their prices, I see no reason to use their webshop over LX Store.

[benweblight]

they have online hire list, yey, this has always bugged me as I know their catalouge is not very uptodate, or renewed often

[Stu]

Their site doesn't like Opera 7.23, and I still don't like their prices! :) Forgotten how expensive they are, and remembered why I use the smaller guys! Mark my words, I shall never, ever use SLX, however desperate I maybe for kit.

 

This Stu doesn't forget :D

 

Stu

[peter]

I wouldnt necessarily trust their online hire list 100% - I don't think they're stocking Mac 550s yet, but they're on their hire list.

[benweblight]

they let me down last year

 

though this may have been partly becuase theyre london branch had moved recently

 

I think ill look around a little more in 2005

[DickM]

The web site hire list seems to only contain movables and power/cables - where's all the standard lighting & sound stuff? It'll only be of any use when it contains a complete and up to date hire list.

 

I've hired a lot of stuff from their Cambridge branch (starting wth Ancient Lights, through Theatre Direct, and now S.E.) and never had any major problems.

 

But I agree with other comments - the published prices are only starting point to test your negotiation skills!

 

DickM.

 

EDIT... to be fair, I did just notice the main Hire page of the web site says it's still under construction, so hopefully the full catalogue will be there soon.

[SparkySteve]

the website + intranet was updated about two and a half weeks ago, internally... but wasn't made public till this week. It's still being updated daily with new items etc being added all the time

I shall never, ever use SLX, however desperate I maybe for kit

Maybe a bit unfair.... it all depends which branch you go to.... and who you speak to.

[Bryson]

Well, you're all entitled to your opinion - but as Steve says, I've had nothing but good service from Stage LX. In particular, Andy in sales at Cambridge is utterly fantastic. (Although he once - following my 8th call that day - seriously indecisive client - threatened to take out a restraining order on me. I think he was joking... ) :D

[P. Funk]

ben, not trying to be offensive in *any* way, but I think what happened with yr modular gig is that the staff thought u wouldn't care, as you're only 12 or whatever. I think its really wrong that people do that...

[Stu]

I shall never, ever use SLX, however desperate I maybe for kit

Maybe a bit unfair.... it all depends which branch you go to.... and who you speak to.

Perhaps it's a little unfair, but I have my reasons - All I'm saying is when you've been let down in the past, it takes alot of convincing for you to go back (same with supermarkets, shops or any other form of retailing I thinks! :D)

 

Stu

[benweblight]

it wasnt hired to me!!!

 

it was hired to thames valley university!!, they have an account

 

anyway, in that case it would be a very poor excuse

 

edit: yeah stu, and I just lost my contact at se, so they ownt automatically me top of my list anymore (more near the bottom five)

[SparkySteve]

working with guys in newcastle, it really amazed me how bad a condition people sent kit back in, and they all do an awesome job to get it back to how it should be, but some of the stuff that came back was absolutely disgraceful.... if I was bringing stuff back like that (first of all I would make sure it wouldn't get in a state)I would be deeply embarraced, so whenever you returning kit just remember that someone's actually got to get it sorted and prepped for the next guy

[benweblight]

well, if its regional, then london branch are maybe worse

 

certsinley didnt approve of the £100 3hr+ late delivery service

[Guest lightnix]

Greetings from Lanzarote :D I was about to post this yesterday, but some computer geek started fiddling around with the site :D

 

Looks wise, I can´t say the Stage LX site does much for me, there´s nothing to really mark it out as exceptional or grab the viewers attention.

 

More seriously tho´, I have to lower my firewall settings in order to use the site. With my normal (quite high) security settings I can´t access the shop pages let alone see what´s in them. Even once I´ve lowered my security settings, I then have to register an account. For this reason, I simply would not by online from SLX, unless they were the only source for what I was after, even if I wound up paying more elsewhere.

 

The Click and Build e-commerce solution we use doesn´t require any of this uneccessary nonsense, I can go into a CnB store with my security settings at the max and still access all pages and buy stuff, without aving to compromise my security settings.

 

An e-commerce site has to be accessible to everybody, equally, regardless of their CPU, O/S, connex speed, whatever. Te SLX site fails t do ths and will not generate as much business for them as it might otherwise have done.