No Service

[SpyderTracks]

We are very lucky on this Forum, it's generally pretty clean and helpful, the odd disagreement, but that's quite healthy anyway even if you don't see eye to eye at the end of a discussion. But it's down to the community as a whole, and quite honestly, the freedom that PCS allow the forum to rule under, they keep it quite free and open which I admire.

 

[ECS_1]

The reality is, PCS are currently failing - badly - in their customer service obligations. These obligations are not optional.

it's currently impossible to get a substantive answer from the company in less than a week. i've got two orders in the pipeline, one was delayed due to a stock shortage which should have been flagged at the ordering stage, and which in any event was only out of stock for a week but the current delay predicted is a month.

The other is also now late and when i got my 5-day email update today, the build date had slipped back by ... 5 days. So the update emails are meaningless.

emails don't get answered for a week, and on the two occasions I've tried on the phone, I've given up after 60 minutes or so, with the waiting time having increased, the longer you hold. People are busy and need their phones, they can't be expected to hold for 3-4 hours to get a reply.

All the while, the PCS twitter feed is happily joking away. Maybe the social media manager could put Twitter on hold and answer the phones?

i've had nothing but good experiences with PCS staff in the past once I've got through to them. And if demand shoots up, it must be very difficult. Even if you can recruit, you can't spare the staff to train the new staff.

It's not the company's fault. I get it.

But there comes a point, if a company is no longer able to provide basic customer service (a legal obligation let's not forget) because of high demand, then the company must stop taking new orders, until it can once again fulfil its customer service obligations.

it seems to me that PCS passed that point some weeks ago.

 

[SpyderTracks]

The reality is, PCS are currently failing - badly - in their customer service obligations. These obligations are not optional.

it's currently impossible to get a substantive answer from the company in less than a week. i've got two orders in the pipeline, one was delayed due to a stock shortage which should have been flagged at the ordering stage, and which in any event was only out of stock for a week but the current delay predicted is a month.

The other is also now late and when i got my 5-day email update today, the build date had slipped back by ... 5 days. So the update emails are meaningless.

emails don't get answered for a week, and on the two occasions I've tried on the phone, I've given up after 60 minutes or so, with the waiting time having increased, the longer you hold. People are busy and need their phones, they can't be expected to hold for 3-4 hours to get a reply.

All the while, the PCS twitter feed is happily joking away. Maybe the social media manager could put Twitter on hold and answer the phones?

i've had nothing but good experiences with PCS staff in the past once I've got through to them. And if demand shoots up, it must be very difficult. Even if you can recruit, you can't spare the staff to train the new staff.

It's not the company's fault. I get it.

But there comes a point, if a company is no longer able to provide basic customer service (a legal obligation let's not forget) because of high demand, then the company must stop taking new orders, until it can once again fulfil its customer service obligations.

it seems to me that PCS passed that point some weeks ago.

Please read the stickies, all these points are outlined in those both from PCS directly and information gathered from new sources.

You agree to read the stickies before you post, so do familiarise yourself with them.

 

[NoddyPirate]

The reality is, PCS are currently failing - badly - in their customer service obligations. These obligations are not optional.

it's currently impossible to get a substantive answer from the company in less than a week. i've got two orders in the pipeline, one was delayed due to a stock shortage which should have been flagged at the ordering stage, and which in any event was only out of stock for a week but the current delay predicted is a month.

The other is also now late and when i got my 5-day email update today, the build date had slipped back by ... 5 days. So the update emails are meaningless.

emails don't get answered for a week, and on the two occasions I've tried on the phone, I've given up after 60 minutes or so, with the waiting time having increased, the longer you hold. People are busy and need their phones, they can't be expected to hold for 3-4 hours to get a reply.

All the while, the PCS twitter feed is happily joking away. Maybe the social media manager could put Twitter on hold and answer the phones?

i've had nothing but good experiences with PCS staff in the past once I've got through to them. And if demand shoots up, it must be very difficult. Even if you can recruit, you can't spare the staff to train the new staff.

It's not the company's fault. I get it.

But there comes a point, if a company is no longer able to provide basic customer service (a legal obligation let's not forget) because of high demand, then the company must stop taking new orders, until it can once again fulfil its customer service obligations.

it seems to me that PCS passed that point some weeks ago.

In pre pandemic times I have waited over an hour for customer service with other companies - SKY TV being one that springs to mind. It happens sometimes when demand is high. Think of the Airlines all through last spring and summer? Do you think they managed to keep call waiting times to 5 minutes through all that? Have they solved their CS issues yet?

With the sort of stuff going on in the PC Components industry in particular, and the obvious fallout that will result for the PCS CS teams to handle - in the middle of a pandemic - I personally find not bothering to wait for an answer on the phone utterly self-defeating.

And if you had waited for an answer the first time you called, you might have had your answer already and might not be here complaining about it.

But, I particularly like the idea of not being able to hold because of needing your phone - while holding on a call on your phone. How strange this modern world has become! Phones are not for phoning! An hour is too long to be kept from the interweb these days!

 

[ECS_1]

If you work for a living and in the course of your work, you get a lot of (or indeed any) incoming phone calls, then being on hold for hours at a time is a big problem.

 

[SpyderTracks]

If you work for a living and in the course of your work, you get a lot of (or indeed any) incoming phone calls, then being on hold for hours at a time is a big problem.

Absolutely, but you'll find a lot of IT companies are having this difficulty since covid started, it's just the way of things for a lot of companies at the moment.

Again, please read the stickies before posting further.

 

[ECS_1]

Don't worry, I won't be posting further.

But a word of caution.

I'm sure this forum is mainly for gamers and tecchies who are (rightly, in normal times) enthusiastic about PCS' service, and that the mods and regulars probably do a great job keeping the forum a fun place to be.

But while the above situation persists, the forum will inevitably also become a temporary refuge for desperate PCS customers who wouldn't ordinarily post here, but who are unable to get their questions answered by any other means. In some cases these people will be worrying whether they've wasted thousands of pounds.

For these customers, who are already being let down badly, to be scolded by authorised Moderators and told to go and spend an hour reading all the pinned messages in lord knows how many forum sub-sections, just in case their problem has been addressed before, is not going to improve either the situation, or their demeanour

 

[SpyderTracks]

Don't worry, I won't be posting further.

But a word of caution.

I'm sure this forum is mainly for gamers and tecchies who are (rightly, in normal times) enthusiastic about PCS' service, and that the mods and regulars probably do a great job keeping the forum a fun place to be.

But while the above situation persists, the forum will inevitably also become a temporary refuge for desperate PCS customers who wouldn't ordinarily post here, but who are unable to get their questions answered by any other means. In some cases these people will be worrying whether they've wasted thousands of pounds.

For these customers, who are already being let down badly, to be scolded by authorised Moderators and told to go and spend an hour reading all the pinned messages in lord knows how many forum sub-sections, just in case their problem has been addressed before, is not going to improve either the situation, or their demeanour

You're not being scolded, it's just that a lot of these answers are in the stickies which you agree to read before posting, so it's just a way of getting the information quickly and easily so that you can come on the forum with the knowledge of the current situation so you can ask the right questions.

It's an agreement when you join any forum that you first read the stickies, it's not particular to PCS.

 

[jamiephillips909]

It’s not just the moderators, we’ve got a fantastic community here and it’s in safe hands whenever the mods aren’t around. We’ve got resident experts, gurus and troubleshooters, all who put a fantastic amount of time in to make the forum a great and welcoming place 🙂👍

Hats of to coops and other mods keeping me firmly under my bridge

 

[AgentCooper]

Hats of to coops and other mods keeping me firmly under my bridge View attachment 23159

You’re the chief meme-meister of the forum, you provide a valuable service 😁👍

 

[jamiephillips909]

You’re the chief meme-meister of the forum, you provide a valuable service 😁👍

 

[ubuysa]

Don't worry, I won't be posting further.

But a word of caution.

I'm sure this forum is mainly for gamers and tecchies who are (rightly, in normal times) enthusiastic about PCS' service, and that the mods and regulars probably do a great job keeping the forum a fun place to be.

But while the above situation persists, the forum will inevitably also become a temporary refuge for desperate PCS customers who wouldn't ordinarily post here, but who are unable to get their questions answered by any other means. In some cases these people will be worrying whether they've wasted thousands of pounds.

For these customers, who are already being let down badly, to be scolded by authorised Moderators and told to go and spend an hour reading all the pinned messages in lord knows how many forum sub-sections, just in case their problem has been addressed before, is not going to improve either the situation, or their demeanour

These fora are not an official PCS support channel, they are a community self help group. You're a relatively new user and it is incumbent on new users to familiarise themselves with the current status of problems and issues before posting.

That's what the sticky posts are for. It's also important to read earlier posts in threads to be sure that the problems you're having haven't already been explained.

It is a sad fact that because it's difficult to get to talk to someone at PCS, given the current worldwide problems, some users see these fora as a convenient way to let off steam.

Thats OK, sometimes we need a place to vent our frustrations, but it's important to understand that because most of us don't work for PCS, we don't know what's happening inside the comosny and neither are we able to change anything.

 

[Citrus_9]

The reality is, PCS are currently failing - badly - in their customer service obligations. These obligations are not optional.

it's currently impossible to get a substantive answer from the company in less than a week. i've got two orders in the pipeline, one was delayed due to a stock shortage which should have been flagged at the ordering stage, and which in any event was only out of stock for a week but the current delay predicted is a month.

The other is also now late and when i got my 5-day email update today, the build date had slipped back by ... 5 days. So the update emails are meaningless.

emails don't get answered for a week, and on the two occasions I've tried on the phone, I've given up after 60 minutes or so, with the waiting time having increased, the longer you hold. People are busy and need their phones, they can't be expected to hold for 3-4 hours to get a reply.

All the while, the PCS twitter feed is happily joking away. Maybe the social media manager could put Twitter on hold and answer the phones?

i've had nothing but good experiences with PCS staff in the past once I've got through to them. And if demand shoots up, it must be very difficult. Even if you can recruit, you can't spare the staff to train the new staff.

It's not the company's fault. I get it.

But there comes a point, if a company is no longer able to provide basic customer service (a legal obligation let's not forget) because of high demand, then the company must stop taking new orders, until it can once again fulfil its customer service obligations.

it seems to me that PCS passed that point some weeks ago.

I'll start with a bitter sentence and then be nicer - suggestion to stop orders and focus to customers' queries when there's such a huge demand is an absolute nonsense and a ridiculous advice. PCS need a cash flow to pay wages, cover costs, bills and pay suppliers. If I had similar business, I'd probably do similar as PCS does now. They don't act quickly to recruit as they need to make sure there will still be a demand. They also need to take a few heads of experienced people off regular tasks to assign them for new guys (for training purposes). I see PCS is making some steps and gradually getting better. It was a big shock in the market for all kinds of business but due to nature of their business they can adopt quicker or not.
PCS just said yesterday in this forum, that they had a few waves of new recruits and currently have around 60 people in a call centre which helped to reduce call waiting times. My guess is that any business was waiting to make sure it's worth to commit hiring and training new staff before doing so. And now, when it's done, it will simply take some months till new guys get used to their new job to show the real performance.

I think things will get better in regards to PCS customer service level.