Atuleon
Gold Level Poster
It's a horrible feeling waiting for your new system, isn't it? There are quite a few posts on these forums were people are anxiously waiting for their desktops to leave pre-production, some spending the 14th working day or more still sat in this dreaded status. It's like being a kid and waiting for Christmas. You can imagine people logging on to their account everyday hoping to see their status change from 'pre-production'.
Reporting one of their busiest periods ever around Christmas 2011, have PCSpecialist managed to keep up with the increase in demand? My own order is still sat in ‘pre-production’ 14 days after I have parted with my cash, which works out to be 10 working days (not including Saturdays). Other forums users are reporting their desktops recently leaving pre-production after 14 working days. When comparing this to similar orders made four years ago, it looks like their turnaround time has almost doubled. Below shows dispatch times of my own personal orders:
Order1 30/05/2008 dispatched 7 working days
Order2 07/11/2008 dispatched 9 working days
Order3 07/04/2012 pre-production 10 working days and counting
PCSpecialist do great systems and at a very decent price, with first-rate customisation options including full details on all the components (sometimes minus the brand names); I think the large increase in demand since they first began operations shows this. However, they get a fair amount of negative reviews due to the time it takes them to get their finished products dispatched. This is an area that I personally feel they should be focusing a little more on. However, maybe hiring that extra computer technician to help resolve the bottle-neck causing the delay, will result in a negative knock-on effect to their prices; which would mean less customers (and our poor new computer techy, we just hired, will be twiddling his thumbs, back in his parent’s basement, as there would be no need for him due to drop in demand). Could it therefore be naive to assume it is not an executive decision to just ‘power through’ the delays hoping that the existing techys are a healthy bunch getting plenty of sunshine and exercise in their stress free lifestyle and therefore not likely to get ill and have time out of the office and escalate delays?
Anyway, avoiding debating and speculating on PCSpecialists’ cost efficiency practices and price sensitivity, at a minimum I think they need to update their order status guide to be a little more realistic/transparent when showing the potential time delays in each of the statuses listed, (as for example it currently states “normally <1 week” for the pre-production status). An alternative would be to list any extra current delays that are in addition to the ‘normal’ guide’s time frames for easy viewing on our account pages. These will help prevent customers fretting that something has gone wrong with their order, such as components out of stock or whatever else you tend to imagine after paying anything from £400 to £4000 to a company over the internet. To PCSpecialist’s advantage, they have a very prompt sales and customer relations team responding to e-mails, (although getting hold of them on the phone can be a pain).
I think the solution to all this as a buyer, is that if you purchase a new computer from PCSpecialist, simply assume that it will take a month to get your goods delivered, and then you should not be disappointed when you receive your shiny new PC within this time period. I don’t know about everyone else, but I think a little patience is a small price to pay, as you can rest assured that overall you have almost certainly gotten a very good build for your money.
Reporting one of their busiest periods ever around Christmas 2011, have PCSpecialist managed to keep up with the increase in demand? My own order is still sat in ‘pre-production’ 14 days after I have parted with my cash, which works out to be 10 working days (not including Saturdays). Other forums users are reporting their desktops recently leaving pre-production after 14 working days. When comparing this to similar orders made four years ago, it looks like their turnaround time has almost doubled. Below shows dispatch times of my own personal orders:
Order1 30/05/2008 dispatched 7 working days
Order2 07/11/2008 dispatched 9 working days
Order3 07/04/2012 pre-production 10 working days and counting
PCSpecialist do great systems and at a very decent price, with first-rate customisation options including full details on all the components (sometimes minus the brand names); I think the large increase in demand since they first began operations shows this. However, they get a fair amount of negative reviews due to the time it takes them to get their finished products dispatched. This is an area that I personally feel they should be focusing a little more on. However, maybe hiring that extra computer technician to help resolve the bottle-neck causing the delay, will result in a negative knock-on effect to their prices; which would mean less customers (and our poor new computer techy, we just hired, will be twiddling his thumbs, back in his parent’s basement, as there would be no need for him due to drop in demand). Could it therefore be naive to assume it is not an executive decision to just ‘power through’ the delays hoping that the existing techys are a healthy bunch getting plenty of sunshine and exercise in their stress free lifestyle and therefore not likely to get ill and have time out of the office and escalate delays?
Anyway, avoiding debating and speculating on PCSpecialists’ cost efficiency practices and price sensitivity, at a minimum I think they need to update their order status guide to be a little more realistic/transparent when showing the potential time delays in each of the statuses listed, (as for example it currently states “normally <1 week” for the pre-production status). An alternative would be to list any extra current delays that are in addition to the ‘normal’ guide’s time frames for easy viewing on our account pages. These will help prevent customers fretting that something has gone wrong with their order, such as components out of stock or whatever else you tend to imagine after paying anything from £400 to £4000 to a company over the internet. To PCSpecialist’s advantage, they have a very prompt sales and customer relations team responding to e-mails, (although getting hold of them on the phone can be a pain).
I think the solution to all this as a buyer, is that if you purchase a new computer from PCSpecialist, simply assume that it will take a month to get your goods delivered, and then you should not be disappointed when you receive your shiny new PC within this time period. I don’t know about everyone else, but I think a little patience is a small price to pay, as you can rest assured that overall you have almost certainly gotten a very good build for your money.
