It pays to complain...

[caseys]

Well, recently the interweb shopping experience has brought on the fail quite hard. Having done in the last two weeks :

 

1. Buying 2 HDDs & memory off ebuyer - 1 disk + memory arrived DOA

2. Buying 96 packets of baby wipes on offer from Sainsburys online - received 31 packets at a non-offer price

3. Buying a jacket from an online store in the states, to find they stated a Large was 44 inch chest, when in fact it was 40.

 

I found it pays to complain, as most were just of course offering a refund if I sent the goods back.

 

1. Ebuyer - Filled in the return forms, then had to call an 0845 number to show I wasn't a muppet. They agreed and paid for shipment of the HDD and took refund on the RAM as I couldn't wait and bought it elsewhere. Days later new HDD turns up fine, must say good service and good turnaround

 

2. Complained to Sainsburys as the delivery driver said I should be able to call and get it all resolved as long as I accepted the order... ho ho ho I was fooled. Though eventually after telling Sainsburys about my shonky experience they've given me a £15 voucher and also I have basically £70 worth of baby stuff for the sum of £3.35 after the refund. Bonus there.

 

3. Buying clothes from the US - forking out delivery, customs etc as you may guess you'd be a bit miffed wouldn't you if what you ordered didn't fit? Or imagine being sent wheels of the wrong offset even though you can point out you ordered the correct offset off the site and waited weeks. Well the store paid for me to ship the old one back and also then said they'd give free shipping/duty etc to ship me a correctly sized one Ok so mixup was their cost, but glad that some companies take it on the chin and pay for their mistakes.

 

So here I am today a bit of a happier chappy that complaining or standing up for your consumer rights actually does get you somewhere as I'm actually £30 up on shipping costs and £70 up on shopping and have a £15 voucher. Result I'd say

 

I think customer service has actually picked up in the recession as people actually want to keep customers coming back to them.

 

Anyone have any really good / really dire experiences with interweb shopping they'd care to share? Always nice to know what companies to avoid for computer bits / online goods and such.

[Max Headroom]

Brought a hifi that cost £80 for a teenager got it home to find some parts missing, went back to be told that was the last one so picked up a £96 hifi and they said take it as a replacement, no hassle no extra cost

[Purity14]

Went to a nightclub about 2 months ago in manchester and got asked for ID.

I didnt have it, so we went somewhere else, turns out it was in my back pocket. Doh.

.. we went back and he let me in for free because he thought id gone home for it.

 

I am still £4 better off to this day.

[kazama76]

Bought a pair of cobra seat's for my GTR, 1 came with a rip underneath, phoned them up, they sent out a replacement but didnt want the other one back ebay

[Konrad]

Ordered 2 oxygen sensors for my supra, they haven't got one of them so offered replacement. I said that it is fine if it will be direct fit. Package arrived, one was not fitting at all, so called, complained and got replacement denso one (which fit) and they said to not bother sending other one back So i have free oxygen sensor which fits old Corollas, mk3 Supras and MR2

[Whitesupraboy2]

Complained other week about Argos reserve system. Reserved phone set at £19.99 sent gf mum to get it and was £40 when se turned up.

 

Wrote an email directly to a director of Argos got a personal phone call and £40 of vouchers to get the phone for free

[caseys]

Complained other week about Argos reserve system. Reserved phone set at £19.99 sent gf mum to get it and was £40 when se turned up.

 

Wrote an email directly to a director of Argos got a personal phone call and £40 of vouchers to get the phone for free

 

I hate Argos reserve and collect. Went online to buy a kettle my mum specifically wanted as a present (exciting eh?) and found it only in stock in a store a few miles past my local one, so reserved it as on offer.

 

Got there that evening and went to collect and indeed, no stock but I was reserved a different one which i could have got from my local store. Told them to bugger off and got a refund and bought it from comet. Argos system = pants.

[neo2810]

I recently purchased a new PS3 bundle to play Heavy Rain, but things didn't go exactly to plan.

I called a gaming supplier (lets call them "G") to find out what bundles they had to offer with Heavy Rain. I was told at their store A that they had a PS3 Slim with Uncharted 2 and Alien vs Predator for £325. I asked if I could swap AvP for Heavy Rain but they had none in stock. I was told Store B around the corner may have stock and they may swap, so I called Store B. The girl told me she had stock of HR and would happily swap for AvP and put a copy behind the counter.

 

I bought the bundle from Store A, walked over to Store B and was told, after asking for the swap, that they had made an error and HR was not included in any bundle so they couldn't do the swap. I argued that the mistake was theirs, and I'd only bought the bundle on their misinfo so they had to swap. Up steps manager Ian to save the day, or so I thought. In reality, all he wanted to do was flex his newfound corporate muscles and tell me I could trade the newly purchased AvP as second hand and pay full price for HR. We argued corporate responsibility for a while until I decided I was getting nowhere with the fool, so I took his name and their HQ address.

 

Being the twat I am, I did a quick search for the CEO of company G and emailed her the following:

 

Dear XXX,

 

Let me begin by saying that I am an avid gamer with enthusiastic kids and over the last 3 years have bought an Xbox360 and Wii fully accessorised, a PSP, DS Lite and around 150 games. All of this purchased through "G", and by my reckoning totalling around £6k. In this time, I have always found "G" to be a company with exemplary service and flexibility showing you value your customers. I prefer to be loyal to a brand and this is what I look for in a retailer. Price point is not a deciding factor for me, although "G" always seem to be competitive.

 

Yesterday, however, I experienced my first bout of painful service from one of your stores.

 

Let me explain…

 

I've been tracking progress of the game "Heavy Rain" (which is an exclusive PS3 title) for a couple of months. Yesterday I decided to purchase a new 250Gb Slimline PS3 for the sole purpose of playing Heavy Rain and Uncharted 2. I called your XXX store in Newcastle Eldon Square to enquire about bundles available which may contain those 2 titles. The woman (who was excellent as I've always come to expect) talked me through some options which included a PS3 bundle with "Uncharted 2" and "Alien vs Predator" for £325. I asked if she could swap "Alien vs Predator" for "Heavy Rain" for the bundle and was told she didn't have that title in stock, but to try the YYY Newcastle store as they may do a swap for the game.

 

I called YYY to be told by a woman that they had a copy of "Heavy Rain" (which I reserved) and that they would be happy to swap the game for "Alien vs Predator" on the bundle deal (I called in on the 0191 number but I'm sure you record all calls so you should be able to listen to that call made on Sunday 28 Feb, at around 12.30 - 12.40pm I believe).

 

Happy that I had an invitation to tender on specific terms, I bought the bundle from the XXX store and proceeded to YYY to swap the game as promised.

This, however, is where things begin to go downhill.

 

Upon reaching the counter, I told the girl who I was and she confirmed it was her I'd spoken to, but that unfortunately she had made a mistake on the phone. After hanging up, she had checked and discovered that Heavy Rain is not available on any bundled deals and they therefore could not swap "Alien vs Predator" for it. Instead, she offered me the option to trade the sealed "Alien vs Predator" game (which I had bought on the bundle 5 minutes before) as second hand, at a loss of £26.99 on your retail price and I could then pay full price for Heavy Rain, suggesting that I was getting a nice discount on the new game. As you can imagine, I failed to see where I was to benefit. I told her that was unacceptable and that I had just spend £325 on a deal with the information given to me by her that I could swap the game. At that point her manager, Ian (I asked for his full name but he refused to give it to me), stepped in and re-iterated that they were unwilling to budge and my choice was to take the bundle as is, or trade in "Alien vs Predator" and pay full price for Heavy Rain. I asked if there was anyone with the authority to make the deal and he told me no. I find it hard to believe you don't give your managers authority to give £27 discount to a customer who has just spent £325, especially when you will just restock the sealed game and sell it new, but never mind. He said he was the highest authority on site, and Head Office was closed. Having no choice, I left the store with the bundle as I had purchased it, and bought Heavy Rain from a competitor for £40.

 

Effectively, I was given an invitation to tender with specific terms, and then once I had accepted the invitation and completed the sale, the terms were changed.

 

So as a result, I'm now left with £40 extra cost, a game I have no intention of playing or even opening, and a very sour taste from an encounter with a company I have always found to be excellent in this type of situation.

 

Everyone makes mistakes, and I'm more than willing to overlook them when it does not have a negative impact on me but in this case your employee gave me information which led to me making a large purchase, and then rescinded on her offer once that purchase had been made. I'd really like to know if it is your company's policy to misinform customers and then penalise them for this, or if the employee's at this particular store were acting in an ill judged manner.

 

In order to rectify this situation, all I am asking is that you accept Alien vs Predator back for a full refund at retail price, which should cover the cost of my purchasing Heavy Rain elsewhere. If this is not possible, then I'd like to register my intent to return the PS3 bundle for a full refund under the 7 day return clause, and with regret I would take my custom elsewhere in future.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Me

 

To which I recieved this response:

 

Dear Mr Whaling,

 

Thank you for your email to XXX. As XXX is out of the Country your email has been passed to me to respond.

 

G is very passionate about the products we sell and our staff are hand picked and trained to the very highest standards to help meet our customer needs, as the largest specialist games retailer we are committed to providing our customers with the best service possible, with this in mind, it is very disappointing to receive feedback such as this.

 

I can confirm that all bundles are set to automatically discount on our systems; therefore it is not possible for stores to change items within the bundles. I apologise if this was not explained to you at the point of purchase.

 

It is disappointing to hear that you were given the incorrect information when you contacted the YYY store, please be assured that your comments have been passed to the Regional and Training Managers who will investigate and take any necessary remedial action.

 

Our Store Managers are empowered to make good customer service decisions and therefore the exchange that was offered should have been honoured upon your arrival, again it is disappointing to hear that this was not the case.

 

In order to resolve this matter I am suggesting that you keep the Aliens vs Predator game and that as a gesture of goodwill I send you a £40.00 Gift Card, this can be used in any of our stores at your convenience. Alternatively if you would like to return the Alien vs Predator game for a full refund then this request will be honoured.

 

Please contact me via email to advise which resolution you would prefer and I will be more than happy to help.

 

Once again I apologise for any inconvenience caused.

 

Regards,

 

XXX

Customer Service Supervisor

 

So, I'm off this weekend to get my free game from Ian, while asking him how his retraining is going...

[ivan]

Looked on the Staples website for the price of their printer cartridges for my HP printer and seeing they were a fair bit cheaper than near competitors went to the store to buy some.

 

When I found they were actually £8 more expensive I queried this with an assistant who initially told me that that price was only if I bought more than one. I argued that the web price was indeed only for one at which point he went off and checked. Sure enough, I was right and he gave instructions to the till-girl to charge me the web price. Result! £8 saved.

 

Got home and checked the web again only to find that the price was only if ordered online - Oops.

 

 

 

 

 

As an aside, while I was at the tills paying another gent told me about the supplier he uses, a web service called JustInkandPaper based in the Channel Isles, so I checked them out. Talk about cheap!!! So I'm getting all my stuff from there in the future.

[Graham S]

I'm just to try out some of these techniques mentioned above to Samsung after my 13 month old £900 TV has a really bad flashing backlight... And to think i've bought 2 of them too!

 

Any tips on getting a good responce guys?

[caseys]

I'm just to try out some of these techniques mentioned above to Samsung after my 13 month old £900 TV has a really bad flashing backlight... And to think i've bought 2 of them too!

 

Any tips on getting a good responce guys?

 

Yep you're covered under the EU Sale Of Goods Act. They either have to repair, replace or refund it free of charge if under 6 years old.

 

See here http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showthread.php?t=202264&highlight=Sale+goods+act

http://www.mkivsupra.net/vbb/showpost.php?p=2456668&postcount=9

 

 

I got my ps3 repaired then replaced even though it was over 3 years old with no store warranty. You just don't need it.