Shocking Customer Service from PCS

Long story, stick with me for some exceptionally bad customer service that almost makes you want to laugh!!!

- Laptop ordered April 10th
- 9 working days pass so I email [email protected]
- Informed will be built in 2-3 days, actually took 4 further days
- Laptop first dispatched 30th April (whoohooo!!)
- First fire up noticed CPU temps high and fan working overtime so emailed tech support
- They want me to take machine apart and replace thermal paste which surprised me, I know they are specialists but I am not.
- First RMA created & returned
- Receive laptop "fixed" back on 27th May

Here's the funny part....
- Boot slowly straight into Windows 8, funny, I have Windows 7 installed on my "SSD"
- Someone's files on the system called "Will"
- Appears I have someone else's hard drive in my machine (where mine is nobody knows?!)
- 3 screws loose on the back of the machine

Call them straight away & they say I cannot have a refund as I've had the machine for longer than 14 days even though it's not once worked correctly. So I reluctantly let them organise a DPD exchange it service for today (Friday) and organise to have it collected from my head office so I change my work diary to ensure I am in the office all day. Receive an email this morning informing me it will now be collected Monday not today.

How on earth is this acceptable??? I've emailed a complaint but heard nothing, at wits end I truly am!!

Sorry to hear that, have you try giving them a call? Am I right to assume you had the laptop less than 14 days after dispatch? (Between RMAs?)

I've called, email, live chat - the lot. Now waiting for them to call me back after 11.30.

Amazed it's been so poor, I really am, especially after reading so many good things on here.

Paulo said:

I've called, email, live chat - the lot. Now waiting for them to call me back after 11.30.

Amazed it's been so poor, I really am, especially after reading so many good things on here.

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I'm sorry you've had problems, and that is truly awful and can't really be excused.

I wouldn't rely on email, response times are LONG, best to phone.

Well I've been told 11.30 is the call back time, I'll give them till 12 & I will call again.

All the time I have a laptop in a box that is pretty much an £800 paperweight.

Sorry to hear you've had a bad experience.
I just had a RMA but didn't have to clear my schedule at work for it. DPD texted me a hour slot in which the driver would come to collect, so I just made sure I am at my desk at that time and the driver came by within the designated hour slot.

I hope your laptop is going to be sorted out, or your money back if it's the case where you've had the machine for less than 14 days (between dispatch and RMA)

Yeah I struggle being field based, I have to commit myself to a full day in the office.

Hello there Paulo,

First of all my apologies about the issues you have had with the system and the support you have had. This is not the service we aim to provide. I have passed this onto a senior member of staff to investigate this further and will be contacting you shortly.

Thanks moosEh, much appreciated. Await the call

Did the problem get sorted out eventually? Looking to buy a laptop, but not if their service is mediocre at best..

accip said:

Did the problem get sorted out eventually? Looking to buy a laptop, but not if their service is mediocre at best..

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I would stress this kind of service is unusual from PCS, 99% of the time their service is excellent. Certainly my experience has been and continues to be excellent.

I'm with the majority, any problems i've ever had with my laptop from PCS has been dealt with professionally.

accip said:

Did the problem get sorted out eventually? Looking to buy a laptop, but not if their service is mediocre at best..

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Don't forget that the only posts about customer service that you see on here are those where something has gone wrong, what you don't see are the thousands of people who get excellent customer service and go away satisfied. Also this is one complaint, you'd be very unwise to base you opinion of a whole company on one bad review.

I bought from PCS without knowing anything about them, I did spend some time on here looking around and reading what people were saying, but I also recognised that you only see the problems on here, not the successes. I've had my Optimus IV for over 18 months now and I have had a couple of minor issues that were dealt wit rapidly and in a very helpful way. I will buy from PCS again, and that's the very best recommendation anyone can give.

I can see some similarities in my current case. I am on the 9th working day and still in pre production. Called today and was told I would have the PC delivered on monday. Wow great I was glad to hear. However dwelling on the fact the Desktop still had to go through "In Building, In testing , In quality control" between now and monday I felt that the person I spoke was being too ambitous!

So I went on live chat was told that was the quickiest timescale. i.e 11th working day. Explaining that I couldnt care less about the quickest timescale as I could have worked that out myself and that I wanted the REALISTIC timescale of when it would actually be dispatched I was simply told. Realistically dispatch wednesday for thursday delivery.

Perfect example of being told one thing, then another. However with that being said. perhaps I might recieve it on monday and perhaps I am being sceptical! I will keep you posted.

I don't really see what you're unhappy about. You know they're giving you an estimate and estimates by definition are not certain. So how can you get frustrated when an estimate isn't accurate?

Ceejayx said:

I can see some similarities in my current case. I am on the 9th working day and still in pre production. Called today and was told I would have the PC delivered on monday. Wow great I was glad to hear. However dwelling on the fact the Desktop still had to go through "In Building, In testing , In quality control" between now and monday I felt that the person I spoke was being too ambitous!

So I went on live chat was told that was the quickiest timescale. i.e 11th working day. Explaining that I couldnt care less about the quickest timescale as I could have worked that out myself and that I wanted the REALISTIC timescale of when it would actually be dispatched I was simply told. Realistically dispatch wednesday for thursday delivery.

Perfect example of being told one thing, then another. However with that being said. perhaps I might recieve it on monday and perhaps I am being sceptical! I will keep you posted.

SlimCini said:

I don't really see what you're unhappy about. You know they're giving you an estimate and estimates by definition are not certain. So how can you get frustrated when an estimate isn't accurate?

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I'm sorry, but this is nit-picking at it's most extreme. We were all on the edges of our seats waiting for our new PC to arrive, that anxiety is normal, but to be this critical over delivery times of a custom built PC is a bit much. In any case what would you rather have the staff at PCS doing; building and testing your PC or sitting down scratching their heads to work out exactly when you're going to get it?

Trust me, all this will fade into insignificance when the thing arrives and you'd starting using it. We've all been there.

Ceejayx said:

I can see some similarities in my current case. I am on the 9th working day and still in pre production. Called today and was told I would have the PC delivered on monday. Wow great I was glad to hear. However dwelling on the fact the Desktop still had to go through "In Building, In testing , In quality control" between now and monday I felt that the person I spoke was being too ambitous!

So I went on live chat was told that was the quickiest timescale. i.e 11th working day. Explaining that I couldnt care less about the quickest timescale as I could have worked that out myself and that I wanted the REALISTIC timescale of when it would actually be dispatched I was simply told. Realistically dispatch wednesday for thursday delivery.

Perfect example of being told one thing, then another. However with that being said. perhaps I might recieve it on monday and perhaps I am being sceptical! I will keep you posted.

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The time they give you is an estimate only. It says in the T&Cs that it can take up to 30 days. The estimates are worked out from last weeks average. If you stop asking them about when it will be build then you'll stop being disappointed each time.

If you ask "when will my pc be build?" they'll give the optimistic answer, otherwise they'd say within 30 days of purchase.