Growing Number Of Negative Google Reviews - Is PC Specialist Going To Address These ?

[soul1]

Hi everyone, this is my first post on the PC Specialist Forums. One of my good friends has a laptop from PC Specialist that he bought a few years ago and he was very happy with it. The only issue that he did have were missing stickers on the laptop. Not a big deal for any, but PC Specialist sent him the stickers. A family member of mine is in the market for a laptop and I have recommended PC Specialist. However, having seen the many negative google reviews for PC Specialist, I'm now having doubts. Many of the negative reviews comment on the really poor customer received by PC Specialist with customers being cut off, kept waiting for ages on the phone and being spoken to rudely.
I do understand that there are always 2 sides to a story, however with so many negative reviews it's concerning. Is PC Specialist having customer service issues that are being looked into or dealt with as we speak ?
Secondly I think it would be good if PC Specialist could address all those negative reviews and provide a response and or rectify the issues that there customers are facing or have faced. Thanks

 

[jerpers]

PCS have been very busy since before Christmas for some reason and have had some issues. I had a difficult experience with my latest PC, items out of stock and build delays. Despite this I would still not hesitate recommend them. Yes their phone lines take a while to get answered, yes emails take a while to be answered, yes there are delays but I am hugely surprised by the rudeness of staff comment. Everyone I have ever spoke to have been excellent.

 

[SlimCini]

All i can find is reviewcentre and uktrustpilot, both with a pretty good score for pcs. What reviews are you talking about?

 

[soul1]

All i can find is reviewcentre and uktrustpilot, both with a pretty good score for pcs. What reviews are you talking about?

Hi SlimCini, nice to meet you. They are the Google based reviews for PC Specialist. If you put in PC Specialist into Google you will see on the right the Google based reviews. Hope this helps

 

[Spuff]

I have never noticed Google reviews before.
30 self motivated reviews is hardly a good statistical analysis. As it happens only 13 of them are negative.
We all know that people are more likely to complain than to praise, especially in a place that nobody is directing them to. 17 vs 13 is a good ratio considering that.

 

[ubuysa]

Hi soul1, welcome to the forums!

In any organisation there are problems and errors. In an ideal world there shouldn't be any of course but people make mistakes. In the vast majority of complaints on here PCS have remedied the problem(s) and the customer has eventually been satisfied. Certainly my personal experience of PCS after sales service has been exemplary, they couldn't have been more helpful. Of course there are always some who remain dissatisfied or who seek a refund, no business can expect to satisfy all the customers all the time, even though that may be what they strive for.

As far as Google reviews go, I personally wouldn't give them screen space. Although these fora are not an official support (or complaints) channel you'll get more useful help, support, and advice on here than on any other forum you might find via Google.

They key fact to bear in mind, whether you look at reviews on here or on any other forum, is that in general the only people who post are those who have had a problem. They represent a tiny percentage of PCS's customer base, most people get exactly what they paid for and we never hear from them again. For example, if you come across 20 bad reviews for a PCS computer you can expect that there will be another 2000 people who were completely satisfied and didn't post that anywhere. On these Google review sites you see only the bad news, never the good.

If you look around these fora you will find several positive reviews, you'll even find some balanced and honest negative reviews too. Personally I pay much more attention to a negative review that's detailed, factual, and balanced than I do to those that scream about appalling customer service. cheap components, and abysmal quality control with no real evidence of any of that. There is one thread on here where the poster is complaining of awful customer service, yet he has only ever tried to contact PCS via email, he appears never to have phoned PCS. You can't really complain about poor customer service if you haven't explored every avenue to get your problem resolved.

I study history as a hobby and the first thing you learn is that any historical document you study was written by someone with an agenda. Rarely do you find balanced and objective historical reports (history is written by the victors, remember). The same is true of any other document, we all have an agenda (mine is to provide some balance in these negative reviews you are seeing) and people who have been disappointed or not treated as they might think they should have a tendency to over-egg the pudding and make things appear far worse than they are.

Perhaps if you asked on here about the particular computer you're interested in buying from PCS and asked for people's views and experiences you'd get a more balanced set of reviews. The world is rarely as black as some people would wish to paint it, and if PCS were as bad as some reviewers like to claim they would have gone out of business long ago.

I will most certainly buy my next computer from PCS.

 

[SlimCini]

Hi SlimCini, nice to meet you. They are the Google based reviews for PC Specialist. If you put in PC Specialist into Google you will see on the right the Google based reviews. Hope this helps

Nope. I'm on my phone looking at mobile Google and there is no 'right'. If/when I'm on a desktop I'll have a look.

But my gut feeling is... Google reviews? Never even noticed them before really. Why would anyone leave a positive review for a company on a pointless place like that? I'm surprised it's not 100% negative.

 

[soul1]

Nope. I'm on my phone looking at mobile Google and there is no 'right'. If/when I'm on a desktop I'll have a look.

But my gut feeling is... Google reviews? Never even noticed them before really. Why would anyone leave a positive review for a company on a pointless place like that? I'm surprised it's not 100% negative.

Hi SlimCini, thanks for your reply. To access Google reviews on your mobile, you do the following. Just put in PC Specialist into Google search and if you go further down the page, there will be a blue arrow pointing downwards saying More about PC Specialist and all the Google reviews are there. To be fair though, User Based Reviews have got more and more popular over time and in some respects may have taken over other review sites e.g. Trustpilot. That is why I think it's important that they are addressed by Senior Management at PC Specialist.

 

[soul1]

Hi soul1, welcome to the forums!

In any organisation there are problems and errors. In an ideal world there shouldn't be any of course but people make mistakes. In the vast majority of complaints on here PCS have remedied the problem(s) and the customer has eventually been satisfied. Certainly my personal experience of PCS after sales service has been exemplary, they couldn't have been more helpful. Of course there are always some who remain dissatisfied or who seek a refund, no business can expect to satisfy all the customers all the time, even though that may be what they strive for.

As far as Google reviews go, I personally wouldn't give them screen space. Although these fora are not an official support (or complaints) channel you'll get more useful help, support, and advice on here than on any other forum you might find via Google.

They key fact to bear in mind, whether you look at reviews on here or on any other forum, is that in general the only people who post are those who have had a problem. They represent a tiny percentage of PCS's customer base, most people get exactly what they paid for and we never hear from them again. For example, if you come across 20 bad reviews for a PCS computer you can expect that there will be another 2000 people who were completely satisfied and didn't post that anywhere. On these Google review sites you see only the bad news, never the good.

If you look around these fora you will find several positive reviews, you'll even find some balanced and honest negative reviews too. Personally I pay much more attention to a negative review that's detailed, factual, and balanced than I do to those that scream about appalling customer service. cheap components, and abysmal quality control with no real evidence of any of that. There is one thread on here where the poster is complaining of awful customer service, yet he has only ever tried to contact PCS via email, he appears never to have phoned PCS. You can't really complain about poor customer service if you haven't explored every avenue to get your problem resolved.

I study history as a hobby and the first thing you learn is that any historical document you study was written by someone with an agenda. Rarely do you find balanced and objective historical reports (history is written by the victors, remember). The same is true of any other document, we all have an agenda (mine is to provide some balance in these negative reviews you are seeing) and people who have been disappointed or not treated as they might think they should have a tendency to over-egg the pudding and make things appear far worse than they are.

Perhaps if you asked on here about the particular computer you're interested in buying from PCS and asked for people's views and experiences you'd get a more balanced set of reviews. The world is rarely as black as some people would wish to paint it, and if PCS were as bad as some reviewers like to claim they would have gone out of business long ago.

I will most certainly buy my next computer from PCS.

Hi ubuysa, thanks for your reply and nice to meet to you. I have no doubt that there are many satisfied PC Specialist Customers including my friend. I have read a few user reviews on this forum about their new laptop and they are delighted. I too hope to buy a high end laptop through PC Specialist later on this year. However the fact remains that a 3.2/5 score on Google in my opinion needs to be addressed. Granted, if people have had issues, they are more likely to post negative reviews. However having read some of those reviews, I as a customer would not like to end up being in their situation. Nowadays more and more people are relying on Google and other review sites before they will purchase from a particular store/online site. That is why I feel that this should be addressed by the Senior Management at PC Specialist as a matter of urgency. As a Moderator yourself, perhaps this could be fed back to the relevant department/team who hopefully can look into this. It would also be nice to see a response from PC Specialist with regards to those negative reviews so that anyone who reads them can get a balanced view of what has gone and what PC Specialist has done to rectify the issues and/or make unhappy customers happy again. Just my opinion

 

[ubuysa]

Hi SlimCini, thanks for your reply. To access Google reviews on your mobile, you do the following. Just put in PC Specialist into Google search and if you go further down the page, there will be a blue arrow pointing downwards saying More about PC Specialist and all the Google reviews are there. To be fair though, User Based Reviews have got more and more popular over time and in some respects may have taken over other review sites e.g. Trustpilot. That is why I think it's important that they are addressed by Senior Management at PC Specialist.

You've convinced me to take a look. As Spuff said there are ONLY 30 reviews there and only 13 are negative. In addition some of the things they've written are pretty dumb...

I purchased a high end laptop from them in December which has features that are not reflective of what I initially ordered, however a refund is apparently not an option because they make their own rules about return periods, and the 30 days given in consumer rights laws is apparently irrelevant when challenging their 14 day return policy.

Then why didn't he contact PCS immediately and get his order corrected or returned instead of waiting over two weeks? PCS gets the blame because he didn't contact PCS as soon as he realised something wasn't right with his order (and what does "features that are not reflective of what I initially ordered" actually mean?).

3. It's massive and its hard to carry it around.
4. It's so heavy!
5. It's a very old laptop.
6. Lots of viruses can get in.

The physical size and weight of each laptop is stated right there on the PCS website. PCS gets the blame because she didn't do sufficient research. (I've struggled to avoid comment on the virus nonsense, but it tells you something about the reviewer).

Worst experience of my life, bad customer service

And that's it. That's all they wrote. No details no facts, nothing. PCS gets the blame - well, for what exactly?

People before ordering at PCSpecialist consider the fact that you will be waiting for a 1 month before you will receive your order

This one is a joke, surely? It's a custom-built PC built to your spec, what do you expect? PCS gets the blame because the reviewer expects a custom-built PC delivered immediately.

...however there is a severe error with this laptop and it frequently crashes, there is no solution to it and there are multiple other people having this problem with this laptop. I feel betrayed that pc specialist has allowed it and haven't advised the buyer on this problem. its not their fault that this problem occurs however would have been nice to have been told in advance that there is a current problem, which is unsolvable right now. don't buy windows 10 with any Optimus Series for gaming.. that's my advice. windows 10 + Nvidia GPU + Optimus Series = BSOD constantly. avoid this setup.

There is a known problem with Windows 10 and NIVIDIA Optimus technology. This is nothing at all to do with PCS, it's a Microsoft/Intel/NVIDIA issue that hasn't yet been resolved. If the reviewer had done his research he'd have known about this problem. PCS cannot advise customers of a problem that neither Microsoft, Intel, nor NVIDIA have even acknowledged exists. PCS get the blame because the reviewer didn't do sufficient research.

Can be really good or really bad, pot luck not good enough

This has to be the most useless review ever written. We don't even know whether this reviewer has actually bought a PCS computer, never mind what negative experience he might have had. PCS get the blame because, well, again, for what exactly?


Soul1, I commend you for doing your research but do you really think those 13 negative reviews (of which these six are useless) are representative of the volume of computers that PCS build? As I have said, there will, sadly, always be problems for some because people make mistakes and because technology sometimes fails. The overwhelming majority of those Google reviewers were very happy - and notice they were VERY happy. Nobody posted to say their PCS computer was just adequate.....

 

[soul1]

You've convinced me to take a look. As Spuff said there are ONLY 30 reviews there and only 13 are negative. In addition some of the things they've written are pretty dumb...

Then why didn't he contact PCS immediately and get his order corrected or returned instead of waiting over two weeks? PCS gets the blame because he didn't contact PCS as soon as he realised something wasn't right with his order (and what does "features that are not reflective of what I initially ordered" actually mean?).


The physical size and weight of each laptop is stated right there on the PCS website. PCS gets the blame because she didn't do sufficient research. (I've struggled to avoid comment on the virus nonsense, but it tells you something about the reviewer).



And that's it. That's all they wrote. No details no facts, nothing. PCS gets the blame - well, for what exactly?



This one is a joke, surely? It's a custom-built PC built to your spec, what do you expect? PCS gets the blame because the reviewer expects a custom-built PC delivered immediately.


There is a known problem with Windows 10 and NIVIDIA Optimus technology. This is nothing at all to do with PCS, it's a Microsoft/Intel/NVIDIA issue that hasn't yet been resolved. If the reviewer had done his research he'd have known about this problem. PCS cannot advise customers of a problem that neither Microsoft, Intel, nor NVIDIA have even acknowledged exists. PCS get the blame because the reviewer didn't do sufficient research.


This has to be the most useless review ever written. We don't even know whether this reviewer has actually bought a PCS computer, never mind what negative experience he might have had. PCS get the blame because, well, again, for what exactly?


Soul1, I commend you for doing your research but do you really think those 13 negative reviews (of which these six are useless) are representative of the volume of computers that PCS build? As I have said, there will, sadly, always be problems for some because people make mistakes and because technology sometimes fails. The overwhelming majority of those Google reviewers were very happy - and notice they were VERY happy. Nobody posted to say their PCS computer was just adequate.....

Hi ubuysa, thanks for your reply. All I'm trying to say is that if you filter the Google reviews to the most recent ones, there seems to be a growing trend of unhappy customers and any good company who cares about their reputation needs to try to address them. Whether the customers negative review is justified, or not, well that is a separate matter. All I'm saying is that it would be good if the management at PC Specialist could address it. When my friend bought his laptop a couple of years back, all the Google reviews for PC Specialist were 5 star so something has gone wrong along the way somewhere that the most recent reviews are not too good. Could it be that it's a case of addressing Customer Service Issues because the Company has grown recently ? I don't know. I don't have the answers as I'm not running the company ! If more and more negative reviews keep appearing, then it's going to put off a lot of people from buying from PC Specialist regardless of what people say in the PC Specialist Forums or elsewhere

 

[soul1]

Just to add that I've just looked at PC Specialist's Facebook page and again there are several posts from customers with regards to poor customer service from PC Specialist. Again it would be good to see PC Specialist addressing these

 

[ubuysa]

Hi ubuysa, thanks for your reply. All I'm trying to say is that if you filter the Google reviews to the most recent ones, there seems to be a growing trend of unhappy customers and any good company who cares about their reputation needs to try to address them. Whether the customers negative review is justified, or not, well that is a separate matter. All I'm saying is that it would be good if the management at PC Specialist could address it. When my friend bought his laptop a couple of years back, all the Google reviews for PC Specialist were 5 star so something has gone wrong along the way somewhere that the most recent reviews are not too good. Could it be that it's a case of addressing Customer Service Issues because the Company has grown recently ? I don't know. I don't have the answers as I'm not running the company ! If more and more negative reviews keep appearing, then it's going to put off a lot of people from buying from PC Specialist regardless of what people say in the PC Specialist Forums or elsewhere

I don't work for PCS so I have no idea how they're organised. Only PCS will know for sure whether the number of complaints has increased of late, if it has I'm quite sure they're addressing the issue.

I think you're wrong about the negative reviews, especially those I've seen on Google. Most people looking to buy a custom-built computer are smart enough to read between the lines and to tell whether the reviewer has a genuine complaint or not. The reason I point you strongly to these fora rather than others is because you usually don't just see the first post on here (as you do on Google). Here you'll generally see how the problem develops, what PCS have done to address the issues and whether the customer ends up satisfied or not.

I've been on these fora for almost three years now and I'm not aware of an increase in negative reviews.

 

[soul1]

Hi ubuysa, fair enough. I just don't want to see more negative reviews as it definitely will put off potential customers buying from PC Specialist which is the reason why I posted about this on the forums so the issue could be addressed

 

[gunsch]

Another thing to consider is (didn't read the full thread, i hope this hasn't been adressed already)
People who are perfectly happy with their Computer mostly just enjoy the experience and go on with their lives, not thinking about the company they bought it from.
Whereas people who have the slightest problem tend to write reviews/forum posts etc. much more because something is bothering them.
so the ratio of positive/negative reviews never represents the actual percentage of customers who are happy with their purchase.
This is comparing people who might only have a single problem that they could (most of the time) fix themselves
against people that are so hyped about the product that they take the time out of their lives to support the company.
As an example i think it's safe to say if the reviews are 80% positive then ~95% of all people who bought a product are happy with it.

 

[Spuff]

Again it would be good to see PC Specialist addressing these

As far as I can see there is no facility for a vendor to reply on Google reviews. How do you know what PCS might have done?
Do you think PCS should set up a reply to complaints on Google Reviews website?
It would be crazy for PCS to enter into a public discussion with people every time a complaint, however idiotic was made.
In cases where the same complaint was made by a lot of people a company might make a statement in response, but no company conducts a complaints procedure in public.

 

[soul1]

As far as I can see there is no facility for a vendor to reply on Google reviews. How do you know what PCS might have done?
Do you think PCS should set up a reply to complaints on Google Reviews website?
It would be crazy for PCS to enter into a public discussion with people every time a complaint, however idiotic was made.
In cases where the same complaint was made by a lot of people a company might make a statement in response, but no company conducts a complaints procedure in public.

Hi Spuff, nice to meet you. You do have some valid points which I totally agree with. However it is possible for the vendor to reply to both the Google reviews and to also customer comments on Facebook. Yes conducting a complaints procedure in public is wrong, but what some companies do is post a reply on the lines of Dear Customer, sorry to hear about your issues. If you could contact myself or one of my team we will do our best to get things sorted.
Some companies on the other hand who know that they have done all they can to satisfy the customer will post all the details of what has gone on minus obviously personal info that should not be disclosed. At the end of the day it's up to the management at PC Specialist about how they deal with this. Having said that, a growing number of negative reviews on Google and comments on Facebook need to addressed in some way. That's all I'm trying to say

 

[soul1]

Another thing to consider is (didn't read the full thread, i hope this hasn't been adressed already)
People who are perfectly happy with their Computer mostly just enjoy the experience and go on with their lives, not thinking about the company they bought it from.
Whereas people who have the slightest problem tend to write reviews/forum posts etc. much more because something is bothering them.
so the ratio of positive/negative reviews never represents the actual percentage of customers who are happy with their purchase.
This is comparing people who might only have a single problem that they could (most of the time) fix themselves
against people that are so hyped about the product that they take the time out of their lives to support the company.
As an example i think it's safe to say if the reviews are 80% positive then ~95% of all people who bought a product are happy with it.

Hu gunsch, nice to meet you. Again all valid points. Just concerning for myself and probably others the growing number of negative comments/reviews. That's all

 

[SlimCini]

Finally read some. Most of them are hilarious. And Google reviews are to be taken seriously? Come on now. I'm no PCS fanboy and will boycott them happily if I feel like it. But those reviews are just amusing.

 

[SpyderTracks]

I've learnt that when it comes to tech products, you can read behind a lot of user comments especially the negative ones, quite often it's people not having a clue on how to work the thing properly and reviewing based on their own ignorance.

It's amazing how many people we get here on the forum flaming about how terrible their laptop is from PCS, then it turns out they ordered it without an OS and don't know what drivers are and so haven't installed any. It happens more often than not.

I'm not saying PCS are faultless, they certainly have made mistakes, and I know their telephone support can be useless depending on who answers the phone, but generally I think they're exceptionally helpful.