My Nightmare with pcspecialist.co.uk

**original post**

How long does it take to source RAM, and deliver it to a person? Really.

I really don't know who to 'blame' sometimes. PCspecialist? The builders or the buyers or the technical support?

Has anyone else had to RMA some parts, and it taken a month plus to recieve them? With constant false deliveries and mess ups?

I really can't see how with the amount of misfortune i've experienced that I can be the only one.

Please take a minute to view my story on my blog.

Thanks

**blog edit due to having to remove it from signature, apologies for the fomatting**


Welcome to my on going pcspecialist.co.uk nightmare.

My PCSpecialist.co.uk Nightmare.

8th August I order my new dream, expensive i7 desktop computer.

Built By Andrew Vincent

Tested By Zbear Ramzan

QC’d By Adnaan Marban

Packed By Anthony Cunliffe

25th August, I receive my new dream PC. I’m thrilled. I’m expecting it to be worth the wait.

Later that day, I make first phone call in regards to BSOD and various programs crashing.

30th August I receive an email from Matthew Griffin Technical support at www.pcspecialist.co.uk requesting I send over system logs, I comply within minutes. Time ticks past and it passes 5pm so I realise I’ll have to wait another day for diagnostics to be done.

I do my own testing and confirm my PC has been sent with faulty memory.

I’m not too worried as I thought that pcspecialist.co.uk, might be quite considerate due to their ‘Testing’ and ‘Quality control’ stages should of picked up these issues, so I now know wrongly, assumed Matthew Griffin would do his utmost to get me replacement RAM straight away.

31st August Matthew Griffin emails me back asking me to do this 90 minutes test, 4 times on each stick of memory to find out which is faulty.

I kindly advise I’d like my ram replaced, all 8gb of it, rather than waiting 6 hours + and a few extra days to get new ram.

After various back and forth emails of him trying to get me to do diagnostics on my virtually brand new PC and faulty ram, he relents and orders me my ram which I’m advised will be with me on September the 2nd. I am very happy as I requested this, due to not being available to collect and swap the ram on the 1st.

**Various Phone calls later**

After being told multiple times and different things and many stupid cockups from Pcspecialist.co.uk (such as, sending over the paperwork for my delivery to Yodel.co.uk, without the parts which they need to send me. DUE TO IT NOT BEING IN STOCK, ARGH!)

8th September I receive an email from Darrin Cooper, technical support, advising how the RAM should be returned etc. Another lesson in never taking internet companies on ‘reputation’ alone, who knows how it’s doctored ?

4 days later on the 12th September I have another email from Darrin Cooper confirming the courier’s process, so I don’t create any more further any unnecessary delays like that which pcspecialst.co.uk have subjected me to.

**A few busy weeks for me, however I did manage to make a few phone calls and was promised various times “The ram would be in stock soon, we’re so sorry. Blah blah.”

I ring pcspecialist.co.uk AGAIN, never once being updated on parts shortage or delays or how they’re trying their hardest, as one would expect from any retail company with any customer related interest. I can only presume pcspecialist.co.uk have no such thing.

26th September I hear from Darrin Cooper, again. This time it was in regards to an external hardrive I purchased at the same time as my computer. This external HDD came without a UK power cable. Awesome. For some reason the money saving and customer-hating pcspecialist.co.uk had not sent this since I told them about it. When I first rang them, 30 days ago roughly.

27th September I confirm with Darrin Cooper that I was getting a like-for-like swap, with my RAM. He advised this was the case.

(Note: I also received my RMA email on the 27th, so according to pcspecialist.co.uk I should receive my ram tomorrow.)

28th September. My RAM hasn’t arrived. I ring pcspecialist.co.uk who confirms it is at the depot, but hasn’t been sent for delivery. They apologise to me. We make new arrangements for Friday, as I am working all weekend and have a lieu day on Thursday and cannot collect the ram.

30th September. Today. Judgment day. The day I drew a line in the sand and said, screw this. This is beyond a joke. This is beyond a customer service nightmare. This is shear and utter incompetence. This is idiocy incarnate to the point of ridiculous.

09:01 - I ring Pcspecialist.co.uk. They confirm RAM is out to be delivered today with their courier, Yodel.co.uk. They confirm I’m getting a different brand of ram. G-Skill or something RAM. I have no confirmation of this by email, or email asking if that ram is acceptable. They simple told me. And advised how lucky I was as it’s actually more expensive. I’m amused and hang up.

11.00 - ish I’m getting a bit ancy. I ring Yodel directly, I’m sick of pcspecialist.co.uk’s apologies and idiocy. Yodel advise me it’s set for a PM delivery. I advise them how to contact me if any issues, as I work on a big site. I confirm my work address, mobile number and working hours. I advise them I finish at 3.45 but I’ll happily wait if I know it’s definitely coming. I’m advised before 17:00, 100%, definitely it will be there.

15.00 – I ring Yodel again who advise RAM will definitely be with me before 17.30. I note the new time, but I say nothing.

17.00 – I ring Yodel again. I speak to Paul. Paul advises me I was advised incorrectly earlier, parts would be with me by 18.00. I’m worried, I know what’s coming but I don’t want to believe it.

18.05 – I speak to lovely, apologetic Emily at Yodel. She advises me the RAM was signed back in at the depot at 17.56 as a failed delivery. She advises they probably won’t be able to delivery RAM again until Tuesday as a ‘re-delivery’, I asked why it was a re-delivery when they never tried to deliver in the first place.

I hang up. I don’t expect to receive my new “more expensive” ram anytime soon.

In summary:

I had to spend £7.99 on packaging (due to a threat of payment if goods I sent back to PCS were physically damaged, almost £20 in phone bills from my mobile on their ‘low cost phone number’ and MANY hours wasted chasing them and waiting for phantom couriers (not to mention me having to buy a USB keyboard to check some BIOS settings for PCS technical support, as the bluetooth keyboard didn't work in bios(my fault))

**To be continued**

Hi there,

Sorry to hear about your problems.

I am not sure however that you will be permitted to have that blog in your sig on the PCS forums...just doesnt sit right.

Elaborate for us all here in a calm manner rather than linking a blog called PCSSucks and you might get some positive feedback/assistance from the community

And there are so many happy customers around that not sure "so we can change how PCS treat people" is really going to take off

Best of luck

DED

The only reason I link to the BLOG i created on the issue is due to it being a lengthy, unresolved issue.

Basically I got my new rig, it came with faulty ram. After having to justify why i wanted this RAM replaced straight away, i'm now said waiting for this RAM (a month on) with many failed deliveries and broken promises.

Now apparently i'm getting some new 'better' RAM, which i waited 2.5 hours to recieve today (after I'd finished work), only to ring the couriers myself, to find out they wern't going to deliver the RAM until tuesday at the earliest now.

Sigh.

But yes i see your misgiving about me potentially spamming my blog, but i assure you it's purely to save space and time and missing information.

you do know pcs don't do the deliveries right? they just box it up and send it out

But they employ and choose the delivery company? They also are the ones who caused me massive false-hope by sending over the paper work to Yodel, without checking if the items were in stock first. (I had to find out myself that i wasn't going to recieve the items anytime soon!) But i dunno, by your logic a company isn't responsible for their 3rd parties? That's a horrible attitude to have if it's the case.

benotton said:

Basically I got my new rig, it came with faulty ram. After having to justify why i wanted this RAM replaced straight away, i'm now said waiting for this RAM (a month on) with many failed deliveries and broken promises.

Now apparently i'm getting some new 'better' RAM, which i waited 2.5 hours to recieve today (after I'd finished work), only to ring the couriers myself, to find out they wern't going to deliver the RAM until tuesday at the earliest now.

Click to expand...

I've not read your blog and to be honest I don't plan to. I can understand that you are angry, but why post on here?

Failed deliveries are not the fault of pcs.

Because it's not just an issue with failed deliveries? It's a failure in technical ability in the building, testing and quality control? and then the even bigger failures within the customer service 'after care', when an issue did acually come up.

I'm posting here as a record for any potential customers to see what they COULD be in for. As a record.

yes this is very much mr postmans fault

for a start they couldnt get any delivered to them, not their fault, the guy on the phone/email doesnt know everything

then when they did, they sent them out within pretty decent timing, and then the postman decides not to deliver it

if it is anyone to blame it is yodel and whoever sent it to PCS

also dont say change delivery company because they are all pretty bad

also you never know what might happen on delivery, ive heard many stories about damaged parts from delivery, often being £500 graphics cards, all because of delivery, it is all tested

and did you try reseating the RAM as it may have been knocked out of place during delivery, even if its solidly in place

I'm not saying change the delivery company. Or saying it's completely PCS's fault over Yodel. I'm saying PCS need to hold their sub-contractors to account.

Various issues causing the delays have been both PCS's and yes, Yodel's fault. But ultimately PCS are accountable.

30 days after me sending pictures off MANY memory faults, and i still don't have replacement RAM! If it was that big a deal for the 'specialists' to get a hold of the RAM, i'd of simply asked for a refund at the begining and sourced it myself!

All this is simply down to PCS's lack of customer care. Once they'd taken payment, they'd moved onto the next willing dupe.

benotton said:

Because it's not just an issue with failed deliveries? It's a failure in technical ability in the building, testing and quality control? and then the even bigger failures within the customer service 'after care', when an issue did acually come up.

I'm posting here as a record for any potential customers to see what they COULD be in for. As a record.

Click to expand...

I havent read your blog either, and also dont plan to because I have too much work to be fdoing right now, but just thought id pop on quikly to reply. By bad testing etc what exactly do you mean? Are you referring to the fact fauly memory was not detected? If so I can assure you you could test ram, cpu, gpu etc for days and days, even months and youd never have a problem, then one day, can be completely random, it fails. You were just unlucky tbh, nothing PCS could have done about that if nothing came up in testing.

As for yodel and PCS being partially responsible, while I agree this is partially true (that someone is responsible for 3rd party contracts), in the majority of cases Yodel do a great job, however, as with many many companies there are always going to be the occasional problem. If you knwo of a courier that will insure PC that has a 100% record of deliveris, maybe you would like to share that information with the rest of us.

personally all ive ever known there customer care for is ultimate amazingness, that is one of the most commented things and always given 5 stars, they often get what you did like 'we left a card' even though you were there the whole day, email is also a very slow process which slowed it down and changing between that and the phone also didnt help the situation

Frenchy said:

If you knwo of a courier that will insure PC that has a 100% record of deliveris, maybe you would like to share that information with the rest of us.

Click to expand...

Taking what I say and exagerating doesn't really add anything to the situation, I'll hold it down to the fact that you're very busy that you went for a cheap shot,

When I initially recieved the PC, it was on time. On the right day. With no physical damage to the box whatsoever.

Yes, it could be that i'm very unlucky, that's it's a completely random incident. But it doesn't change the fact that i've been waiting 30 days for new RAM? Everyone seems to be missing that point. If Yodel, messed up 15 times, and delivered it fine on the 16th time, (as they're mostly a next day delivery company i'm told), then I'd have it by now.

The main issue on this delay is PCS didn't have the stock. And they did nothing about trying to resolve this by alternate methods. That's the bottom line which you all seem to be missing.

benotton said:

Taking what I say and exagerating doesn't really add anything to the situation, I'll hold it down to the fact that you're very busy that you went for a cheap shot,

When I initially recieved the PC, it was on time. On the right day. With no physical damage to the box whatsoever.

Yes, it could be that i'm very unlucky, that's it's a completely random incident. But it doesn't change the fact that i've been waiting 30 days for new RAM? Everyone seems to be missing that point. If Yodel, messed up 15 times, and delivered it fine on the 16th time, (as they're mostly a next day delivery company i'm told), then I'd have it by now.

The main issue on this delay is PCS didn't have the stock. And they did nothing about trying to resolve this by alternate methods. That's the bottom line which you all seem to be missing.

Click to expand...

No cheap shot, I wasnt commenting on PCS at all, nor would I try to considering I have not read your blog. I was pointing out the fact you say part of it has been down to PCS not taking responsibility for the 3rd party couriers they use. I think they chose their couriers carefully and that yodel is a great choice. My "cheap shot" as you put it, I believe is a valid point, if you can point out a better courier for them to use, one which delivers excellent service everytime then I would very much like to hear it. Im not trying to have a "cheap shot" im trying to establish the companies against which you compare yodel.

I'm not a delivery company critique or do I claim to be. Which isn't my point, as you seem to have missed? or ignored?

I received my PC. On day one it had issues. Day 1 discovers these issues to be memory issues. 30 days later I have the same issues. Who's fault is that? Is that the delivery companies fault for not receiving the items to send me until Tuesday of this week?? No, that's PCSpecialists fault. Is it Yodels fault, i didn't receive those items wednesday or today? Yes. I'm claiming both parties are at fault, but PCS in this instance are the major fault.

Is this clearer for you?

You have legitimate cause for complaint,
but the way you're going about it is simply ridiculous.

benotton said:

I'm not a delivery company critique or do I claim to be. Which isn't my point, as you seem to have missed? or ignored?

Click to expand...

Tbh with you if you want to complain about something then fair enough but by bringing childish links in like that then you are going to take the focus off of your main point.

vanthus said:

You have legitimate cause for complaint,
but the way you're going about it is simply ridiculous.

Click to expand...

In what way ridiculous? Blogs are a mainstream way for people to voice opinions. I have an opinion i need to voice. And the name is only meant to be a quick reference so people know what it's in regards to..

Fear said:

Tbh with you if you want to complain about something then fair enough but by bringing childish links in like that then you are going to take the focus off of your main point.

Click to expand...

Anyone who reads the blog or speaks to me will know the main point. If people see the URL and disregard the content then I have no time for them..

benotton said:

Anyone who reads the blog or speaks to me will know the main point. If people see the URL and disregard the content then I have no time for them..

Click to expand...

I have no time for people that come up with childish names for their blog posts, id hazard a guess that we are talking to a 12 year old.

My point about delivery company critique is completely valid since you posted " But i dunno, by your logic a company isn't responsible for their 3rd parties? That's a horrible attitude to have if it's the case." This suggests you were not happy with the service from yodel which is why I asked you to provide a better courier. I dont see why thats unreasonable. To compare yodel, it would have to be a relative comparison, and to have a relative comparison you obviously need a comparator. So could you please tell us who you are comparing against and what criteria it is based on. That way I can start to take what you say seriously, at this point in time its just words and nothing more.

If you had have come on here with a link to a post possibly named "myBadPCSpecialistExperience" or something along those lines, I may have had some respect for you, however you came on with quite possibly the most childish blog post title and expect us to actually bother to read it?

Well I have read your blog, despite the somewhat childish title. It is always frustrating when something you have looked forward to lets you down and you seem to have lost your sense of proportion and are lashing out at all and sundry. I'm unsure what you intend to achieve other than p*ssing off the people named in your blog. PCS have a great reputation and numerous awards and I cannot figure why you think your blog will dent that in any way. Yes none of it should have happened, but as usual with this sort of issue, errors are heaped on errors as people try to do the right thing under pressure. You do have a legitimate complaint, no doubt of that, but I think you're going about things the wrong way to get it resolved satisfactorily. I'm sure PCS don't want disgruntled customers any more than you want to be one.

The Yodel issue is just that, a Yodel issue. I'm sure PCS will monitor delivery performance and react accordingly, not go over the top on what is after all a single complaint. I have had similar things happen with just about every courier company, including Royal Mail, so regrettable as it is, it is not unusual.

I am surprised you didn't just send the computer back by return with a request to fix it, I'm also surprised PCS seem willing to supply replacements for components you have indicated may be faulty without detailed testing.

My advice, for what it is worth, would be to stop for a while and think it through. I feel sure PCS will come right on this.

Now having said all this, my new laptop is due to be delivered this morning. If it doesn't arrive because of Yodel, or is DOA, you ain't seen nuthin yet