Should I buy from PCSpecialist.co.uk?

I wanted to know from somebody who has an idea of what they are like. These are my specs:

Windows 7 64 Bit

-Processor: Intel Core i5 3.2Ghz

Mobo- Asus P8Z77 V-LX

-Ram: 8GB Kingston Hyper-X 1600Mhz

-Graphics: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB

-Motherboard: Asus P8Z77 V-LX

-Power Supply: Corsair 650W

Hi Phimo96,

In my opinion, yes you should buy from PC Specialist. I have known many people who have bought from the store and there has been no complaints as yet.

Very fast and easy site to use with exceptional end results in your build.

If you are still dubious then may I suggest having a look at their trust pilot rating. That is what eased my fears in the beginning.

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/pcspecialist.co.uk

Hope this helps.

infuze

Phimo96 said:

I wanted to know from somebody who has an idea of what they are like. These are my specs:

Windows 7 64 Bit

-Processor: Intel Core i5 3.2Ghz

Mobo- Asus P8Z77 V-LX

-Ram: 8GB Kingston Hyper-X 1600Mhz

-Graphics: XFX Radeon HD 7870 2GB

-Motherboard: Asus P8Z77 V-LX

-Power Supply: Corsair 650W

Click to expand...

Are you looking to buy a full new build?

If you post your usage, monitor details and top budget, we can give you a quote and you can see how it compares.

PCS are very good, good support for aftercare and they have an open chassis policy so you can do upgrades yourself.

I was nervous before making my purchase a few years back. Found the staff / forum users to be very helpful and knowledgable. I posted what I was after and budget and they pretty much built a PC for me which suited and was very reasonable. I am about 3 years on and haven't had an issue. Delivery was very good and smooth as well.

This is probably not the best place to ask. Not because we're all raging fanboys/girls, the community is pretty level-headed, but because anyone sticking around bothering to post on PCS's official forums is probably going to have a favourable view of them

I will nearly always look at Trustpilot when deciding whether to buy from a place or not, and infuze has linked that above. PCS's Trustpilot score is very high and build from a large sample of reviews.

I suppose the other question is whether you should buy a whole new PC, or just upgrade your existing one. Maybe add an SSD and upgrade the GPU if it's for gaming and casual home use.

I would encourage you to read the Terms and Conditions which you can find at https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/terms/. I would draw your attention to a couple of these...

6.1 If you are contracting as a consumer, you may cancel a Contract at any time within 14 calendar days, beginning on the day you received the Products. You must notify us via durable medium (email / letter) and quote your order number in any communication. Notification by phone is not sufficient.

Click to expand...

If you search these fora you will find one or two posts from people who, for whatever reason, have sent their computer back. In all cases PCS have honoured this clause without any quibbling. The simple fact is that if you don't like the computer you bought from PCS you can send it back for a full refund.

7.2 Goods found by us to be defective during the warranty period will be repaired or replaced with an item of an equal or better performance and equal or better value at the time a return material authorisation (“RMA”) is generated. All Products being returned under warranty must have been issued with a valid RMA number. Any goods received by us without a valid RMA number will be rejected and returned to sender.

Click to expand...

Again, if you search these fora you will find posts from people who have RMA's their computer back to PCS or had replacement parts shipped direct to them for installation themselves. In almost all cases the problem was solved, so you can be confident that if your PCS computer does develop a problem that PCS will fix it. The bits I greyed out I included because they're there but you can see that they are reasonable conditions.

7.7 Unlike with most computer companies, we allow you to open your case and install your own components without voiding your warranty on the following conditions:

if the actions of the person installing the components cause damage to the computer, your warranty will be void;

if you install components that are not purchased from us and they cause problems with your computer, your warranty will be void;

if you install components that are not purchased from us we will in no way support you in installing them or with any problems you have relating to the components you have installed.

we will support you in installing components purchased from us providing you have purchased them through the upgrade service available on your online account.

Click to expand...

Not many other companies allow you to open the case an install your own parts - and retain your warranty. The bits I greyed out I included because they're there but you can see that they are reasonable conditions.

All of us on here have bought from PCS, many of us (like me) have bought from them more than once. You can be assured hat PCS will not try to cheat you, quite the opposite, they will do all they can to ensure that you get exactly what you paid for.

On top of all that, the configurator lets you select exactly what components you want and it ensures that they will work properly together, you also see the total price reflected in the selections you make. Nothing is hidden from you.

And if that weren't enough you have the collective wisdom and experience of the members on these fora to help and advise you, and there are some very knowledgeable and experienced people on here. PCS themselves are open to questions on a proposed build, they're nice people too.

As others have said.

I started off as a less-than-happy customer. My laptop turned up in a frankly shocking state - there were trapped wires visible in the case, it was crashing and there were even logs left on from diagnostics that had failures logged.

I spoke to PCS about it, explaining how unhappy I was and they replaced it.

OK, it was frustrating at the time - especially after an extended wait for the build (I'd paid for the three day build but again, PCS just refunded me the costs) - but the unit they sent to replace it has worked daily since and that was in 2015.

I'm very much a believer that things will always go wrong. When you're shipping items in any kind of bulk, then a small percentage of issues will occur. What is more important though, is how the sellers of items then react and in my case, I cannot fault PCS for how they did.

I think it's fair to say that most complainants on here would tend to agree. A few possibly wouldn't but they'd be in the minority.

One thing to note by the way, if you're planning on buying new hardware, you may as well forget about Windows 7. It's not supported on the newer processors and although there are workarounds for various ones out there, you'd be better off just jumping to Windows 10 and get a fully supported system.

My personal experience with PCS was excellent. I had no problems with the ordering, the delivery was as requested and the machine they built me has been superb in the year since i bought it. I called them during the building/testing phase with a query and they were really helpful.

Having this amazing forum as a resource is also worth it's weight in gold. The moderators/regulars are incredibly helpful, knowledgeable and engaged. I still check in all the time just to see what's happening in the world of PC's, what people are buying, what issues they are having etc etc etc.

I will echo what the others have said, my experiences with PCs have been very good. I currently have a desk top on order, the last time I bought a desk top was when XP was new so the knowledge and help from these fora were vital. I originally found PCS as was looking for somewhere who would sell me a laptop with no operating system as was migrating to Linux, that was in May 2013 and my only regret was not getting something more powerful than my first Voyager machine, although it was still very good I erred on the side of caution when coming to a new company. Since then I have bought and set up four more laptops, for myself, family and friends and all have been excellent, especially the Octane which is a beast of a laptop.

I installed Linux, usually Ubuntu on all of them and had no insurmountable problems, despite the GTX 950 and 1050 have some driver issues. I appreciate PCS' honesty in saying they cannot guarantee their machines will work with Linux and do not offer support, it would be financial suicide for them to try and am happy to take the risk. With a bit of fiddling and the excellent advice on the fora all my machines have been fine.

Im sticking to this company for their great products and also the customer service is like no other, never seen a company that care so much about complaints and questions. Would recommend my friend.