RMA Time Estimates?

[sfeeju]

I see this forum has been mentioned on Trustpilot. I couldn't agree more

Once more thing that was really disappointing is their customer support. They've integrated their forum with their site so customers can ask questions etc and get help from the community. The trouble is the whole community is a few guys that take a blunt tone when you post anything other than praise for PC Specialist products. As soon as you ask for any assistance or help they're very quick to tell you that they're not members of staff and don't deal with any issues. There are 0 staff on the forum and a lot of questions go unanswered either due to lack of replies or the few moderators beat the OP into thinking he's the problem. It almost seems that their job is to discourage anyone from discussing actual issues and putting out potential fires.

PC Specialist Ltd is rated "Excellent" with 4.6 / 5 on Trustpilot

Do you agree with PC Specialist Ltd's TrustScore? Voice your opinion today and hear what 40,923 customers have already said.

uk.trustpilot.com

 

[SpyderTracks]

I see this forum has been mentioned on Trustpilot. I couldn't agree more

Once more thing that was really disappointing is their customer support. They've integrated their forum with their site so customers can ask questions etc and get help from the community. The trouble is the whole community is a few guys that take a blunt tone when you post anything other than praise for PC Specialist products. As soon as you ask for any assistance or help they're very quick to tell you that they're not members of staff and don't deal with any issues. There are 0 staff on the forum and a lot of questions go unanswered either due to lack of replies or the few moderators beat the OP into thinking he's the problem. It almost seems that their job is to discourage anyone from discussing actual issues and putting out potential fires.

PC Specialist Ltd is rated "Excellent" with 4.6 / 5 on Trustpilot

Do you agree with PC Specialist Ltd's TrustScore? Voice your opinion today and hear what 40,923 customers have already said.

uk.trustpilot.com

you’ll see it’s been mentioned on trustpilot 32,685 times, the vast majority of which are positive people even when they’ve had issues.

I’m sorry that’s how you feel, but that’s not at all what your post history suggests, for some reason you took personal offence when I was talking to another member about something different related to their own troubles.

We collectively tried to help for a long time but either you were unable to follow suggestions which is fine, then we would always suggest getting an RMA, not everyone is technically adept, or you just weren’t interested in a resolution and are more focussed on moaning which we have no time for. This forum is about fixing problems.

 

[sfeeju]

You’re perfectly within your rights to cancel, you’ve ignored any advice from us so there’s not a lot more we can suggest.

I would cancel in a heartbeat, however, I have sunk 166 days into getting THIS pc.

 

[ubuysa]

I see this forum has been mentioned on Trustpilot. I couldn't agree more

Once more thing that was really disappointing is their customer support. They've integrated their forum with their site so customers can ask questions etc and get help from the community. The trouble is the whole community is a few guys that take a blunt tone when you post anything other than praise for PC Specialist products. As soon as you ask for any assistance or help they're very quick to tell you that they're not members of staff and don't deal with any issues. There are 0 staff on the forum and a lot of questions go unanswered either due to lack of replies or the few moderators beat the OP into thinking he's the problem. It almost seems that their job is to discourage anyone from discussing actual issues and putting out potential fires.

PC Specialist Ltd is rated "Excellent" with 4.6 / 5 on Trustpilot

Do you agree with PC Specialist Ltd's TrustScore? Voice your opinion today and hear what 40,923 customers have already said.

uk.trustpilot.com

Well that's clearly been posted by someone who was unhappy with something or other - typically it's unhappy people who post on review sites. There are several things that I take issue with in that statement...

The trouble is the whole community is a few guys that take a blunt tone when you post anything other than praise for PC Specialist products.

There are an increasing number of women on these fora, one of the moderators is female, so we're not just 'a bunch of guys'. Most of us are at great pains not to simply support PCS, if you take the time to look back at a few posts you'll see that where PCS has dropped the ball we're quite critical. What you don't see is the back-channel communication that takes place between the moderators (in the main) and PCS when it's clear from forum posts that there are systemic issues.

As for being blunt, yes we sometimes are - but only with people who either break the forum rules or who are disruptive in other ways. Everyone's patience has a limit. Speaking for me, I'm very happy to help anyone who is prepared to help themselves, those who listen to advice and/or follow the troubleshooting steps I suggest will have my time and effort for as long as they need and want it. On the other hand, those who just want to snipe and moan and expect the world to rotate about them do get short shrift.

As soon as you ask for any assistance or help they're very quick to tell you that they're not members of staff and don't deal with any issues.

The forum rules prevent me from expressing my real opinion of this statement. We do all make a point of saying that we don't work for PCS because nothing that we say or tell you to do has any endorsement from PCS at all. It's important that people (new people especially) understand that they're talking to a user supported community and not PCS. As for not dealing with any issue, that's poppycock. That's what we all do day in and day out - voluntarily I might add. Where we can help then we do but of course we can't fix hardware and there often comes a point where all we can advise is to either RMA it or talk to PCS.

There are 0 staff on the forum and a lot of questions go unanswered either due to lack of replies or the few moderators beat the OP into thinking he's the problem

This is not true. There are PCS staff on the forum, though not many - because they are all doing what they're supposed to be doing and getting builds out the factory door. That's why the moderators are volunteers and not PCS employees. I've just done a quick look back through the main forums and I can find no threads that have no replies. It is absolutely untrue to say that 'a lot of questions go unanswered'. All the moderators for example, check every single new post many times a day (we have to as part of our role) and we will NEVER leave a post unanswered for long.

As for 'beat the OP into thinking he's the problem', sometimes the OP is the problem, especially where problem reports are concerned. We recognise that not everyone is a technical expert, that's why these forums exist, and it's not uncommon at all to find an issue has been caused by something the OP has unwittingly done (or not done). We will never 'beat' these users, quite the opposite - unless of course they choose to ignore our help and advice and yet still complain of a problem. In addition, those users who like to sit back and loudly complain without doing anything to help themselves are also a problem. We can advise, we can use the vast collective knowledge and experience on here to point users in the right direction, but if the OP chooses to ignore us and just keeps complaining then yes, that user becomes a problem.

It almost seems that their job is to discourage anyone from discussing actual issues and putting out potential fires.

Putting out potential fires is part of the moderator's job. We are tasked not only with ensuring that the forum rules are always observed but also to keep these forums a polite and friendly place to be. They are not a vehicle for users to rant or rage, although we do recognise that sometimes people need to let off a bit of steam. If anyone has ever 'discouraged anyone from discussing actual issues' the moderators would like to know. Failing that I know that the forum administrator (@moosEh), who is a senior PCS employee, will definitely want to know. Do you have any specific examples?

I appreciate that you probably didn't write that TrustPilot review, but you have strongly agreed with it. In that case I challenge you to find examples to support each of the claims made in that review - other than your own personal moans of course.

LATER EDIT: I should in all fairness qualify the above by saying that my comments refer to these UK forums and not to the foreign language PCS forums, over which we have no control nor input.

 

[Martinr36]

Very well explained @ubuysa

 

[SpyderTracks]

Well that's clearly been posted by someone who was unhappy with something or other - typically it's unhappy people who post on review sites. There are several things that I take issue with in that statement...


There are an increasing number of women on these fora, one of the moderators is female, so we're not just 'a bunch of guys'. Most of us are at great pains not to simply support PCS, if you take the time to look back at a few posts you'll see that where PCS has dropped the ball we're quite critical. What you don't see is the back-channel communication that takes place between the moderators (in the main) and PCS when it's clear from forum posts that there are systemic issues.

As for being blunt, yes we sometimes are - but only with people who either break the forum rules or who are disruptive in other ways. Everyone's patience has a limit. Speaking for me, I'm very happy to help anyone who is prepared to help themselves, those who listen to advice and/or follow the troubleshooting steps I suggest will have my time and effort for as long as they need and want it. On the other hand, those who just want to snipe and moan and expect the world to rotate about them do get short shrift.



The forum rules prevent me from expressing my real opinion of this statement. We do all make a point of saying that we don't work for PCS because nothing that we say or tell you to do has any endorsement from PCS at all. It's important that people (new people especially) understand that they're talking to a user supported community and not PCS. As for not dealing with any issue, that's poppycock. That's what we all do day in and day out - voluntarily I might add. Where we can help then we do but of course we can't fix hardware and there often comes a point where all we can advise is to either RMA it or talk to PCS.



This is not true. There are PCS staff on the forum, though not many - because they are all doing what they're supposed to be doing and getting builds out the factory door. That's why the moderators are volunteers and not PCS employees. I've just done a quick look back through the main forums and I can find no threads that have no replies. It is absolutely untrue to say that 'a lot of questions go unanswered'. All the moderators for example, check every single new post many times a day (we have to as part of our role) and we will NEVER leave a post unanswered for long.

As for 'beat the OP into thinking he's the problem', sometimes the OP is the problem, especially where problem reports are concerned. We recognise that not everyone is a technical expert, that's why these forums exist, and it's not uncommon at all to find an issue has been caused by something the OP has unwittingly done (or not done). We will never 'beat' these users, quite the opposite - unless of course they choose to ignore our help and advice and yet still complain of a problem. In addition, those users who like to sit back and loudly complain without doing anything to help themselves are also a problem. We can advise, we can use the vast collective knowledge and experience on here to point users in the right direction, but if the OP chooses to ignore us and just keeps complaining then yes, that user becomes a problem.



Putting out potential fires is part of the moderator's job. We are tasked not only with ensuring that the forum rules are always observed but also to keep these forums a polite and friendly place to be. They are not a vehicle for users to rant or rage, although we do recognise that sometimes people need to let off a bit of steam. If anyone has ever 'discouraged anyone from discussing actual issues' the moderators would like to know. Failing that I know that the forum administrator (@moosEh), who is a senior PCS employee, will definitely want to know. Do you have any specific examples?

I appreciate that you probably didn't write that TrustPilot review, but you have strongly agreed with it. In that case I challenge you to find examples to support each of the claims made in that review - other than your own personal moans of course.

Superbly put.

On putting out fires, that is definitely one of the things we’ve had to do, and I can tell you through lockdown it’s been worse than ever. Unfortunately negativity breeds, we don’t have a lot of time for negativity because we’ve all experienced how it can bring the whole forum down quite quickly, it’s like a rolling stone collecting moss. It’s a well known trait on the internet and something we take very seriously.

At a couple of times over lockdown, a few of the mods have considered throwing in their chips because it’s affected us personally, it can be hard work.

Constructive criticism has its place entirely and we’ll work with that and push people to share their grievances wherever possible and work with them and PCS to try to get a resolution.

Negativity is a totally different thing, and if someone isn’t interested in the solution, then this isn’t the right forum for them. There are places like Reddit where they don’t moderate so heavily which is far more appropriate for that purpose. This is a well known phenomena on the internet, social media sites target peoples inherent negativity, it’s been widely documented and it’s true, unfortunately humanity will in the main gravitate toward negativity

This is not a customer services branch of PCS, it’s for technical support and sales advice. We’re not here to make anyone feel better, we’re not qualified for that, we are qualified to troubleshoot where possible and offer good suggestions on appropriate systems.

 

[AppleOfTheDark]

Ah, geez. I didn't expect the thread to get so busy before I next looked back at it, but I so far haven't had any problems with the moderators so I guess I'll put that here.

Anyway, reason I'm back here to reply is that I finally have my fault report. Apparently it was a motherboard issue, the motherboard has now been replaced and a stress-test done that the laptop passed, which means the laptop will finally be getting dispatched to me again.

Which, luckily, is just in time for important life stuff.

 

[ubuysa]

Ah, geez. I didn't expect the thread to get so busy before I next looked back at it, but I so far haven't had any problems with the moderators so I guess I'll put that here.

Anyway, reason I'm back here to reply is that I finally have my fault report. Apparently it was a motherboard issue, the motherboard has now been replaced and a stress-test done that the laptop passed, which means the laptop will finally be getting dispatched to me again.

Which, luckily, is just in time for important life stuff.

Good news!

 

[Martinr36]

Ah, geez. I didn't expect the thread to get so busy before I next looked back at it, but I so far haven't had any problems with the moderators so I guess I'll put that here.

Anyway, reason I'm back here to reply is that I finally have my fault report. Apparently it was a motherboard issue, the motherboard has now been replaced and a stress-test done that the laptop passed, which means the laptop will finally be getting dispatched to me again.

Which, luckily, is just in time for important life stuff.

That's great to hear

 

[LT0004]

That's great news @AppleOfTheDark. How long was that in total may I ask? I had to return my laptop after 3 weeks and they've had it 10 days now and I'm the same. I'mtrying to be patient as I know they're busy, but at the same time I'm back to my old laptop which is still great but just doen't cut the mustard compared to what I'm missing out on sat in a queue in yorkshire.

 

[AppleOfTheDark]

In total, it was about 5 and a half weeks after recieving. So it's a long haul for sure, don't expect to be going again too soon, unfortunately. May need to be extra patient with it, really.

 

[MintyAviation]

In total, it was about 5 and a half weeks after recieving. So it's a long haul for sure, don't expect to be going again too soon, unfortunately. May need to be extra patient with it, really.

My god, that is ridiculous in my opinion.

They CLEARLY don't have enough staff members/space to social distance in order to handle the RMAs.

I am really hoping that mine doesn't take that long. What about people who rely on their PC's for their job? They can't just not work for a month and a half...

I know I'm rambling on but given that my email said 2-4 weeks, or less, I think this is unacceptable.

 

[Ambassador Spock]

FWIW my RMA (17" Defiance laptop) just got taken care of, here was the timeline:

24 March - RMA Created
27 March - Laptop received by PCS
28 April - Laptop looked at and fixed (replaced motherboard and SSD)
29 April - Testing done, ready to ship back

So it took ages for them to look at it, but they did supposedly fix it quite quickly. (I imagine a full motherboard replacement isn't a quick job!) I'm actually considering calling and asking to pick it up in-person, since I will coincidentally be in Leeds tomorrow. I'm not in a huge rush, other than the fact I will be selling it as soon as I get it back, and it would be nice to get it listed this weekend.

 

[Martinr36]

FWIW my RMA (17" Defiance laptop) just got taken care of, here was the timeline:

24 March - RMA Created
27 March - Laptop received by PCS
28 March - Laptop looked at and fixed (replaced motherboard and SSD)
29 March - Testing done, ready to ship back

So it took ages for them to look at it, but they did supposedly fix it quite quickly. (I imagine a full motherboard replacement isn't a quick job!) I'm actually considering calling and asking to pick it up in-person, since I will coincidentally be in Leeds tomorrow. I'm not in a huge rush, other than the fact I will be selling it as soon as I get it back, and it would be nice to get it listed this weekend.

I assume those last 2 dates are supposed to be April.....................

 

[Ambassador Spock]

I assume those last 2 dates are supposed to be April.....................

Oops, you are correct!

 

[MintyAviation]

FWIW my RMA (17" Defiance laptop) just got taken care of, here was the timeline:

24 March - RMA Created
27 March - Laptop received by PCS
28 April - Laptop looked at and fixed (replaced motherboard and SSD)
29 April - Testing done, ready to ship back

So it took ages for them to look at it, but they did supposedly fix it quite quickly. (I imagine a full motherboard replacement isn't a quick job!) I'm actually considering calling and asking to pick it up in-person, since I will coincidentally be in Leeds tomorrow. I'm not in a huge rush, other than the fact I will be selling it as soon as I get it back, and it would be nice to get it listed this weekend.

Very disheartening to know that I'll probably be waiting for another 2/3 weeks until I get any news.

Not a happy man!

 

[ubuysa]

My god, that is ridiculous in my opinion.

They CLEARLY don't have enough staff members/space to social distance in order to handle the RMAs.

I am really hoping that mine doesn't take that long. What about people who rely on their PC's for their job? They can't just not work for a month and a half...

I know I'm rambling on but given that my email said 2-4 weeks, or less, I think this is unacceptable.

It is disappointing to have to wait so long for an RMA to be dealt with. In any business however there is a delicate balance between the cost of staffing levels and business premises - which are fixed costs - and the consequent cost to the customer. Were PCS to take on more staff and/or increase the size of their premises, those fixed costs would have to be passed on to customers by way of increased build prices - and those increases would have to stay even after the temporary lockdown induced surge has died away - because the fixed costs of the extra staff and premises would stay.

Anyone who has ever run a business knows that keeping careful control of your fixed costs is critical. It would be madness for PCS to increase their fixed costs to cater for what is almost certainly a temporary blip in volume.

 

[MintyAviation]

It is disappointing to have to wait so long for an RMA to be dealt with. In any business however there is a delicate balance between the cost of staffing levels and business premises - which are fixed costs - and the consequent cost to the customer. Were PCS to take on more staff and/or increase the size of their premises, those fixed costs would have to be passed on to customers by way of increased build prices - and those increases would have to stay even after the temporary lockdown induced surge has died away - because the fixed costs of the extra staff and premises would stay.

Anyone who has ever run a business knows that keeping careful control of your fixed costs is critical. It would be madness for PCS to increase their fixed costs to cater for what is almost certainly a temporary blip in volume.

Exactly right. I guess customers having to wait a long while is a small trade of for them, whilst cutting down on fixed costs.

To me, I'm just curious as to how many systems there are in the queue, and how many technicians they have in the RMA department.

For systems to be looked at after a month is a very long time, and something makes me doubt that they are getting through that many RMA's per day..

Any thoughts on this?

 

[Ambassador Spock]

It is disappointing to have to wait so long for an RMA to be dealt with. In any business however there is a delicate balance between the cost of staffing levels and business premises - which are fixed costs - and the consequent cost to the customer. Were PCS to take on more staff and/or increase the size of their premises, those fixed costs would have to be passed on to customers by way of increased build prices - and those increases would have to stay even after the temporary lockdown induced surge has died away - because the fixed costs of the extra staff and premises would stay.

Anyone who has ever run a business knows that keeping careful control of your fixed costs is critical. It would be madness for PCS to increase their fixed costs to cater for what is almost certainly a temporary blip in volume.

Conversely, however, do you think choosing not to augment staff has not caused PCS to lose potential sales from people who frequent these forums when looking for a new system to purchase? Personally I spent a lot of time (some would say too much time) here before pulling the trigger on my Vyper last year. I had read a few bad stories, but most reviews were good, so I went ahead and bought it. I RMA'ed the Vyper after a few weeks due to several quality issues, and proceeded to buy a Defiance instead. In my opinion the forums have had more and more negative experiences in the past year, which 1) is completely understandable due to covid-related issues, yet 2) has undoubtedly scared some people off PCS systems. Hiring more staff and/or working out a system of letting techs look at RMAs at home would certainly have cost PCS money, but would that have led to less income loss due to fewer bad experiences being posted here? Only PCS can say, but I suspect it would have.

If I was looking for a new computer right now I would absolutely be scared away from PCS due to the quality issues/lengthy RMA times I've seen posted over and over. Indeed, as soon as I sent my Defiance in for its RMA I purchased a stock ASUS ROG gaming laptop from Argos (of all places) right away since I knew it would be weeks until I got the Defiance back and I could not be without a computer for more than a few days due to teleworking. I've been absolutely over the moon with the ASUS laptop, and even though I have full faith the Defiance will be returned in excellent working order next week, I'll be selling it immediately because I cannot risk another lengthy RMA.

 

[MintyAviation]

Conversely, however, do you think choosing not to augment staff has not caused PCS to lose potential sales from people who frequent these forums when looking for a new system to purchase? Personally I spent a lot of time (some would say too much time) here before pulling the trigger on my Vyper last year. I had read a few bad stories, but most reviews were good, so I went ahead and bought it. I RMA'ed the Vyper after a few weeks due to several quality issues, and proceeded to buy a Defiance instead. In my opinion the forums have had more and more negative experiences in the past year, which 1) is completely understandable due to covid-related issues, yet 2) has undoubtedly scared some people off PCS systems. Hiring more staff and/or working out a system of letting techs look at RMAs at home would certainly have cost PCS money, but would that have led to less income loss due to fewer bad experiences being posted here? Only PCS can say, but I suspect it would have.

If I was looking for a new computer right now I would absolutely be scared away from PCS due to the quality issues/lengthy RMA times I've seen posted over and over. Indeed, as soon as I sent my Defiance in for its RMA I purchased a stock ASUS ROG gaming laptop from Argos (of all places) right away since I knew it would be weeks until I got the Defiance back and I could not be without a computer for more than a few days due to teleworking. I've been absolutely over the moon with the ASUS laptop, and even though I have full faith the Defiance will be returned in excellent working order next week, I'll be selling it immediately because I cannot risk another lengthy RMA.

I agree.

I did scour the internet a bit though, and I saw PCS were hiring more RMA technicians about a month ago.

They should probably sack them though as it only seems to be getting worse! 😅