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

[ubuysa]

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

You make some very good points. I think the best way forward is for you to write to or email PCS pointing out your concerns and that theses reviews are making you wary of buying from PCS. These fora are not an official support channel and PCS staff don't visit here regularly.

 

[soul1]

You make some very good points. I think the best way forward is for you to write to or email PCS pointing out your concerns and that theses reviews are making you wary of buying from PCS. These fora are not an official support channel and PCS staff don't visit here regularly.

Hi ubuysa, thanks for your reply. What you have advised is spot on. I've emailed PC Specialist about this. Let's get this issue hopefully looked into and resolved as you are absolutely correct. It is putting me off from buying from the PC Specialist and it will definitely be putting other potential customers off. Cheers

 

[soul1]

Hi everyone, having emailed PC Specialist directly on Monday and received an acknowledgement confirming that they have received my email, I've so far not heard back from them or had a reply. I'm hoping though that the matter is now being looked into and a reply will be provided in due course

 

[keynes]

Hi everyone, having emailed PC Specialist directly on Monday and received an acknowledgement confirming that they have received my email, I've so far not heard back from them or had a reply. I'm hoping though that the matter is now being looked into and a reply will be provided in due course

What sort of response are you expecting?

 

[soul1]

Hi keynes nice to meet you. Was just hoping and looking for a response from PC Specialist with regards to how they are going to address the issue. I think it needs to be addressed and looked into so that it does not become even a bigger issue. That's all

 

[keynes]

Hi keynes nice to meet you. Was just hoping and looking for a response from PC Specialist with regards to how they are going to address the issue. I think it needs to be addressed and looked into so that it does not become even a bigger issue. That's all

Hi, nice meeting you too. Are you referring to the negative feedback from other users? If that's the case wouldn't that be a matter between them and the customer? I agree that PCS could spend more time addressing those issues but I assume that may require someone looking at that 24/7 and also encourage other users to use non-official methods of communication to seek technical support. If you are concern with the number of negative reviews then you may want to consider a different seller. I personally don't think it is an issue if you look at trust pilot for instance since it has a more representative sample than google review. You could also compare it to your next preferred seller.

 

[soul1]

Hi keynes, thanks for your reply. I'd be happy to buy from the PC Specialist and all being well will be making my first purchase from them later in the year. As previously mentioned a good friend of mine bought a laptop from them a couple of years ago and is very happy with his purchase. It's just not good imho seeing so many negative reviews and so many customers seeming to have issues. That's all. I'm sure PC Specialist have got the matter in hand and if there any general customer service issues within PC Specialist, then those will be addressed asap or have been addressed. Cheers

 

[Spuff]

There are 13 negative Google reviews. 13 complaints is like nothing compared to the volume of sales PCS must do. The reviews as far as I know will stay there forever, and therefore a growing number of complaints is inevitable because no vendor will have 100% customer satisfaction. As it happens the negative reviews have not grown at all for 5 days at least because there are still only 13.
The newest negative review was from 2 weeks ago, then a month, then 3 months ago. No trend is apparent.
The negative Google reviews do not represent a 'matter'. Any high volume vendor will inevitably make mistakes however diligent they are, technology can fail beyond anyone's control, and some users will not know what they are doing.

That being said it would reflect well on a company if they were to publish all the negative reviews they could find and describe how they handled the complaint, supposing a complaint was actually made and that they could match up the review name to a customer name and be sure it was the same person.

 

[soul1]

There are 13 negative Google reviews. 13 complaints is like nothing compared to the volume of sales PCS must do. The reviews as far as I know will stay there forever, and therefore a growing number of complaints is inevitable because no vendor will have 100% customer satisfaction. As it happens the negative reviews have not grown at all for 5 days at least because there are still only 13.
The newest negative review was from 2 weeks ago, then a month, then 3 months ago. No trend is apparent.
The negative Google reviews do not represent a 'matter'. Any high volume vendor will inevitably make mistakes however diligent they are, technology can fail beyond anyone's control, and some users will not know what they are doing.

That being said it would reflect well on a company if they were to publish all the negative reviews they could find and describe how they handled the complaint, supposing a complaint was actually made and that they could match up the review name to a customer name and be sure it was the same person.

Hi Spuff, you have hit the nail on the head. That is exactly what I was thinking too. Hence why I posted this thread in the first place. As previously mentioned when my friend bought his laptop from PC Specialist a few years back, there were no bad reviews whatsoever and they were all positive. That is one of the reasons why my friend bought his laptop from PC Specialist. Obviously now, there seem to be more customers experiencing issues and problems, hence more negative reviews. Like I said before, I'm sure PC Specialist has got the matter in hand. Here's hoping

 

[ubuysa]

Personally I think soul1 is over-reacting in a massive way. As Spuff says, there are only 13 negative reviews on the Google page soul1 refers to (and 6 of those are useless in any case as I pointed out). There will always be problems in any business, that's a fact of life, but I don't think 13 negative reviews on Google is anything to get worked up about.

 

[soul1]

Hi ubuysa thanks for your reply. I don't think I'm over reacting at all. I'm just pointing out something that in my opinion should be looked into and addressed. After all this is a general discussion thread. Some companies who really care about their reputation will try their utmost to resolve and address even one negative review. That is how much they care about their reputation. Just to add that I will not be commenting further on this thread as I've made my point and imho it's a valid one.

 

[diverzeusy]

Hi Soul1
it's now about a week since you mailed PCS with your concerns, have you heard from them yet?
bet you have not??
Have a read of the latest google review, it sums up everything everyone is going on about, i.e. bad communication and customer service and this is not even from someone complaining, he has not purchased yet!
PCS need to sort this,before it gets out of hand, i'm sure they are a 'good' company but like a fish'n' chip shop, you are only as good as the last bag of chips!

 

[Stephen M]

I cannot be bothered to search but remember a guy posting on here about a badly wired computer that could have killed him. The truth, when pics of the "bad" wiring were posted on here was that he had seen a few red wires and totally over-reacted as everything was connected properly and clipped into place, there was no problem at all. While that is a rare idiot complaint the regulars here will remember others and certainly some malcontents who post here basically just to stir things up. I am not accusing you of that soul1 but think you should bear in mind there are a lot of trolls out there and people who post out of spite. It would be difficult for any company to monitor reviews all the time, the net is too vast, and with companies like Google there is little you can do. Plus how do we know these are genuine, of the 13 on Google there could be several from the same poster using an alias.

While on the subject of Google, I find this a better search engine as it does not spy anywhere near as much: https://duckduckgo.com/

 

[keynes]

PCS need to sort this,before it gets out of hand,

I think that's a bit of an over reaction. What are you expecting PCS to do? Respond to every bad review and publicise it? Any company will have good and bad reviews.

 

[Wozza63]

Always take review sites with a pinch of salts. There is no verification to their purchase and as said previously, it could be just a single person posting regularly because they had a bad experience and it's very easy to do as their is no verification to their process. I can go there right now and write exactly what I want. And some of the reasons are ridiculous, if they were to read the terms and conditions they would have known that something like a single dead pixel is not covered. It's almost standard for laptop and monitor vendors to refuse replacement for just a single dead pixel. People expecting complete replacements instead of repairs as if PCS just have money to burn, it's ridiculous, the guy has a broken keyboard (easily replaced) and is expecting a brand new laptop! People also complaining the laptop is heavy and "can get viruses". The weight is listed on the website and PCS laptops aren't magically capable of fighting off viruses with a stick of magic RAM.

No, most of these reviews are completely unreasonable and are stupid complaints. Some of them are valid though and provide some constructive feedback. PCS should definitely take those on board and use them to help improve.

And writing a review without even making a purchase. That's just completely wrong.

 

[ubuysa]

Hi Soul1
it's now about a week since you mailed PCS with your concerns, have you heard from them yet?
bet you have not??
Have a read of the latest google review, it sums up everything everyone is going on about, i.e. bad communication and customer service and this is not even from someone complaining, he has not purchased yet!
PCS need to sort this,before it gets out of hand, i'm sure they are a 'good' company but like a fish'n' chip shop, you are only as good as the last bag of chips!

This is what I mean by over-reaction.

...it sums up everything everyone is going on about...

"Everyone"? 13 bad reviews, 6 of which I have shown to be worthless, is hardly "everyone". It is an undeniable fact that the overwhelming majority of PCS customers are extremely satisfied, the only sad thing is that few bother to post a positive review which skews the proportion of negative reviews (on here too). It is also an undeniable fact that any company will have problems, people make mistakes and technology fails. And, as Stephen M rightly pointed out, it is an undeniable fact that some people "over-egg the pudding" when complaining.

Your analogy about a fish 'n' chip shop is entirely wrong, the success of a fish 'n' chip shop is not about 'the last bag of chips' at all, it's about how you deal with problems and how you treat your customers. When you have a problem and you've remedied it to the customer's satisfaction, what you don't do is broadcast to all and sundry how you dealt with it. That may be because you gave the dissatisfied customer some freebies that you can't afford to give to everyone, or it might be because you don't want to publicise what you got wrong, and that's a perfectly understandable and reasonable response. It is also true that there are a few awkward customers and barrack-room lawyers who think they should get something for nothing, no company can ever satisfy these people.

It is wise to consult all reviews you can find, but you have to be able to 'read between the lines' and decide for yourself whether the reviewer is being reasonable, fair, and accurate. A review that simply says "Worst company ever, don't buy from them" is absolutely worthless, for example. It is also ridiculous to keep claiming that "the sky is falling in", when all there is is a little bit of rain. Perhaps the actual number of complaints about PCS builds has gone up, I don't know and I doubt you do either, but if the number of builds they are producing has also risen then that really shouldn't be a surprise.

 

[soul1]

Hi everyone. I feel that I need to jump back in on this thread lol. My concerns are exactly the same as diverzeusy. That was the reason why I posted this thread. I have no hidden agenda. I have not purchased from PC Specialist myself as of yet but intend to all being well later on in the year. A good friend of mine purchased a laptop a few years back and had a good experience with PC Specialist. Having said that one of the main factors at the time to decide to purchase from PC Specialist were all the glowing reviews on the Web including Google reviews. Forward onto 2016 and now, something has changed. There are more unhappy PC Specialist customers and more negative reviews. Yes it is true that those negative reviews can't be verified as either true or false but if there was a response from PC Specialist then customers and potential customers could see both sides of the argument and see what has gone on. In my opinion, PC Specialist is having some sort of customer service issues which definitely need to be addressed before they got worse and possibly ruin the reputation of a very good company. I don't want to see that happen and that is why I posted this forum thread. I will just add that there have been some comments made with regards to what exactly has been posted in those negative reviews. I say who are we to judge what is valid or not. Let me give you an example. The review that said that the laptop was heavy. Do we know anything about that person. For all we know they could be ill or disabled and yes the laptop will be heavy for this person. What I'm saying is let's not judge any reviews as pointless or silly. Everyone has the right to say what they want and should not be judged.

 

[Wozza63]

Hi everyone. I feel that I need to jump back in on this thread lol. My concerns are exactly the same as diverzeusy. That was the reason why I posted this thread. I have no hidden agenda. I have not purchased from PC Specialist myself as of yet but intend to all being well later on in the year. A good friend of mine purchased a laptop a few years back and had a good experience with PC Specialist. Having said that one of the main factors at the time to decide to purchase from PC Specialist were all the glowing reviews on the Web including Google reviews. Forward onto 2016 and now, something has changed. There are more unhappy PC Specialist customers and more negative reviews. Yes it is true that those negative reviews can't be verified as either true or false but if there was a response from PC Specialist then customers and potential customers could see both sides of the argument and see what has gone on. In my opinion, PC Specialist is having some sort of customer service issues which definitely need to be addressed before they got worse and possibly ruin the reputation of a very good company. I don't want to see that happen and that is why I posted this forum thread. I will just add that there have been some comments made with regards to what exactly has been posted in those negative reviews. I say who are we to judge what is valid or not. Let me give you an example. The review that said that the laptop was heavy. Do we know anything about that person. For all we know they could be ill or disabled and yes the laptop will be heavy for this person. What I'm saying is let's not judge any reviews as pointless or silly.

The weight is listed on the website in the specifications. They are to blame if they did not check that before hand, regardless of being disabled or ill or not.

As for the majority being negative. If you take a look at TrustPilot they are almost entirely positive. 9.3/10 is quite amazing. Amazon UK has 5.3/10 yet they are possibly the biggest online retailer in the country. Plus there hasn't been a drop in recent months, only two 2 star reviews in a month and not a single 1 star review. It only seems to be on Google that any negative reviews are being posted and only a small number total compared to 12,000 on TrustPilot.

 

[keynes]

In my opinion, PC Specialist is having some sort of customer service issues which definitely need to be addressed before they got worse and possibly ruin the reputation of a very good company.

we don't know what % of customers are not satisfied.

Do we know anything about that person. For all we know they could be ill or disabled and yes the laptop will be heavy for this person. What I'm saying is let's not judge any reviews as pointless or silly.

that's a good point but on the other hand we could also argue not to judge them as valid since we don't know both side of the story. I am also unsure on what sort of response you expect from PCS, "yes we are taking care of it........." ?

 

[soul1]

Hi Wozza365 thanks for your reply. I have to slightly disagree with you there because if you read the customer comments on Facebook, they are similar to the Google ones and highlight ongoing Customer Service issues which again need to be looked into and addressed.