Why you should think twice about buying from PC Specialist

[boristhemoggy]

I apologise for my early flippant post. (O.k. that's not entirely true, but I do understand why it could be annoying).



However, I just wanted to clarify something about the last line of your above post. What you HAVE given us is a series of events as you see them. This could be viewed as over and above an opinion, but it is still just your take on things.

This isn't about a PCS White Knight brigade or any other such nonsense. It is just there have been so many complaint threads in the past that laid it out as if PCS are the worst company ever, only for an admin/member of PCS staff to come along and straighten things out.

I am not saying that whatever retort PCS might post should be taken blindly as fact either, but with only your blinkered understanding of events (and I don't mean that disparagingly), you are always going to receive a level of scepticism from both new and old forum members.

Remember, this isn't a review site. This is a forum owned and operated by PCS. Can you complain? Of course you can! Can you get help? Damn straight. Can you outright call out a company for being terrible with only your side of the story available for everyone else to see? [Family Fortunes incorrect answer sound].

Really, nobody that posts in here will be getting at your personally, or even blindly doubting what you are saying (apart from Steaky, he's such a fanboy), but you also have to understand long rants with little to no evidence beyond "because I said so" isn't really going to be viewed in a very positive light.

...in my opinion.

OK...you want me to post all the emails? Because I am confident that every point I made except maybe the odd one like the phone discussion about posting can be backed up by the emails back and forth between me and several CS guys.
If that's allowed and seen as warranted I am more than happy to sort them into a coherent order and post them on here.

 

[boristhemoggy]

Oddly I just had another email from them.

I offered the broken DVD last year and they said no need as they're such small cost.
Then this year they said I would have to give it back when the new one was delivered to the Post Office.
When I phone yesterday I was told categorically there was no need and the new one was in fact being sent by Royal Mail not DPD as per the email.
Then a few minutes ago I get this...

*Sorry it seems my colleague had not seen that your delivery address was a post office as this will fail I suggest getting your disk drive sent to us and we will send the replacement out to you as soon as possible.

Please let us know if we can help with anything else.

Many Thanks

Luke Earnshaw,

PC Specialist Support Team*

My address was Poste Restante, The Post Office, Inverness etc, and in fact the auto system on the computer would not accept this so we had a bit of a fiddle to get it in manually. It has to have Poste Restante as the first line. The convo lasted about 15 mins but now Luke is saying they didn't realise it was a Post Office?

This is one small indication of their utter incompetence in dealing with a simple returns issue.

Edit* fact, verifiable, not opinion.

 

[maxbor]

Why is it unfair? Legally credit card companies and many many other companies have been told that some of their finer print is not binding because it's not easily seen and understood by all. There's the precedence.

It's not small print, it is listed when you configure any computer

When you bought the computer it came with a minimum 1 month collect and return, a years parts and 3 years labour and you might as well use it. It will cost you a fraction of the cost of the PC to return it and if they can't fix it then you can claim it is not fit for purpose and ask for a refund/replacement. I could understand being reluctant if you had sent it back 3 or 4 times but you haven't and it is incredibly hard to diagnose or fix issues with PCs without having them at hand.

 

[maxbor]

How do you go from "auto system on the computer would not accept this so we had a bit of a fiddle to get it in manually" to this -> "This is one small indication of their utter incompetence in dealing with a simple returns issue." ???

Haha, clearly not a simple returns issue... Name one company that would organise a replacement handover at a post office and I will take back everyone of my previous comments.

 

[boristhemoggy]

It can be difficult to determine faults with PC's remotely, however even Gigabyte themselves said the same as me, the MB is faulty.
Aside from that issue, it's the continuing incompetence, not answering questions, answering with the wrong answers, that's a whole lot of it. I accept PSC can't govern what part will fail and what won't, but they can have a clear path of action when they do and stick to it.
Parts failing isn't really the issue, although it's frustrating in a brand new machine it's the follow up which is farcical which is frustrating.
I simply don't trust them anymore now cos they contradict so many times I find it very difficult to believe they are not now deliberately doing this: ref that last email.

I think I'd be much better off with a cheap laptop and a decent machine built by someone else. Ongoing problems are draining in terms of time, emotion and money and as said you have to learn when to cut your losses. I think it's time to cut mine.

 

[maxbor]

Surely the cost justifies sending the whole thing back to them to fix? Not giving them another chance to service the computer on site undermines your argument I'm afraid. How can anyone verify that there is a problem without you returning it to the supplier under RMA for review?

 

[boristhemoggy]

How do you go from "auto system on the computer would not accept this so we had a bit of a fiddle to get it in manually" to this -> "This is one small indication of their utter incompetence in dealing with a simple returns issue." ???

Haha, clearly not a simple returns issue... Name one company that would organise a replacement handover at a post office and I will take back everyone of my previous comments.

Maxbor...I am of the opinion that you are simply looking for things to pick me up on now.

If you read what I said about the whole post office thing from start to finish, you'll see why said that. Also for the last 8 years I have had only a very rare problem in using Poste Restante all around the UK and in Europe too. I have had a DAB radio replaced to me at a Post Office, and a faulty camera lens, and last spring Hdewcameras sent out my replacement Canon 5D MK III, a £2,500 camera to the tiny Post Office on the Isle of Skye.
Now, you have no experience of this it seems, so are you now contradicting yourself by offering negative views base on opinion rather than fact?

 

[boristhemoggy]

Surely the cost justifies sending the whole thing back to them to fix? Not giving them another chance to service the computer on site undermines your argument I'm afraid.

Right, I believe you are either a representative of the company, or simply trolling. So it's probably best if we don't continue discussion.

 

[maxbor]

I'm not trolling I just find it hard to believe that given the issues you've had you wouldn't continue with it until you get to an acceptable resolution. I'm sorry I have never heard of Poste Restante so I was talking without any understanding of the matter and I apologies for that. PCS use DPD so does Royal Mail have to be used for Poste Restante to work? That might explain the confusion.

 

[maxbor]

P.s. don't work for PCS either

 

[mantadog]

You will have got a welcome pack with the machine, its about the size of half a pizza box and has the driver CD's, manuals, cables and anything that comes bundled with anything you purchased like stickers etc.

I don't work for PCS and nobody that has commented so far does as far as I know. What you must understand is that almost inevitably when an issue like this crops up is after 5-6-7-8 pages someone from PCS logs in and clarifies 1 point that makes the whole thing clearer as we then have both sides of the story. It can and has happened the other way, people are given unreserved apologies and whatnot but it is incredibly rare.

I know from my own dealings with returns/problems that if its not bog standard then it is SO easy to foul up. You have had unusual circumstances in everything from being in Italy when the machine broke to having to have replacements sent to a post office. Believe it or not I don't hold PCS as some sort of shining beacon of light that can do no wrong, but I do believe if you do everything properly they are head and shoulders above some others in terms of how they go about fixing it. It's so difficult getting that across in a forum post which is why I tend to stay away from these types of threads now, I think most of the regulars are the same to be honest.

I sincerely hope you can get it sorted and the easiest way to do that is via the telephone 100% of the time. Emails can take forever to respond (rightly or wrongly due to the way PCS is setup) and just necessitate going back over old ground with the callcentre when you do call them.

Driver issues etc well they seem alright to me. Downloading and installing em should be fairly straightforward but I have no idea how familiar you are with the workings of a PC and I do understand that sometimes it can be confusing. That's EXACTLY the type of scenario these forums are brilliant for. Trouble with drivers, post a message, explain the situation and we can point you in the right direction rather than waste data allowances etc on it.

 

[keynes]

I sympathise and I also think you have been very unlucky. Things would have been better if you are located within the UK or chosen a company that offers worldwide warranty cover. I found it frustrating to send my system back and forth and I was located in the UK so I can sense it would be even more frustrating to arrange delicey and collection outside of the UK. Looking at reviews from trustpilot there are a lot of positive reviews and PCS got a high score so they are definitely offering good customer service but your circunstances are unual (at least from my point of view).

 

[boristhemoggy]

The issue of being in Venice at the outset was the least of the problems.
It's the subsequent ones I think that are worse, and suggested putting together all of the emails so people could see before them the evidence.
I suspect that would be wasted time now because the feeling in here is very much that if you complain you get shot down.
The fact no-one from PCS has come in to say anything ought to back me up but clearly for whatever reason most have chosen to discard a review of an extremely poor customer experience brought about by nothing more than inefficient systems and staff not reading emails.

I'll not post anymore now as I feel you only want to hear happy stories in here so really I've wasted my time trying to redress balance, so I wish you all well, especially if you experience a problem.

 

[maxbor]

Sorry you've had a bad experience, I hope I don't have the experience you had. I've only been hanging around these forums for a couple of weeks but it seems the people here are keen to help customers with problems. I think the main reason you feel that it wasn't a constructive thread is that you weren't asking for help and when people tried to inform you of how to proceed you just said you're cutting your losses. As a new customer of PCS, I want to see your issues resolved and I would like to think that if you post your computer back to PCS they will sort it out for you but you don't seem to want to give them a final chance. Some people on here have had to return their computers several times before finally getting everything sorted, it's sad but it happens occasionally. Faulty motherboards for example can cause a knock on effect that means things don't all go wrong at once. £5 would have given you a years worth of collect and return warranty with PCS so maybe consider what warranty options are available with whoever you buy your next computer from. Buy on credit card or with finance as you can then get assistance if anything goes wrong and insure it against damage.

As for posting emails, it really won't make a difference. Not that no one cares but how can anyone know what is actually wrong with your PC unless you send it to PCS? If you call them they may even be able to organise collection from you at a lower cost than you can arrange yourself.

Final note: "I have had a DAB radio replaced to me at a Post Office, and a faulty camera lens, and last spring Hdewcameras sent out my replacement Canon 5D MK III, a £2,500 camera." - maybe look after your stuff better

 

[mantadog]

Unfortunately the forums are not an official channel of support, I can see from the names below someone from PCS has seen your complaint. However as a rule the don't get involved in these threads, it really ant be solved here.

 

[maxbor]

Mantadog, he's gone. At no stage during this thread did he ask for help and he doesn't want to get it sorted. He wants to have a thread out there that says pcs is awful.

 

[boristhemoggy]

Unfortunately the forums are not an official channel of support, I can see from the names below someone from PCS has seen your complaint. However as a rule the don't get involved in these threads, it really ant be solved here.

I was never looking for it to be solved here. I have spent about 9 months looking for support and it's been patchy, contradictory and hasn't resolved the problem. As I've said before, my aim is simply to ensure that instead of nothing but happy posts, there should be a balance so people are better able to make their minds up.

I took the point about language and took out the bit about scammers. That was said in anger, and have since revised posts to ensure that only facts that are verifiable are there. However my experience here has been very much a one of sorry, but we don't really want to hear it because it's negative.

And Maxbor you really are nothing more than a troll. The fact mods choose to allow you to remain makes me think 2 things. They don't give a hoot if anyone has a negative experience, they want it shot down so it doesn't impact on precious PCS, or, you work for PCS.

 

[keynes]

I was never looking for it to be solved here. I have spent about 9 months looking for support and it's been patchy, contradictory and hasn't resolved the problem. As I've said before, my aim is simply to ensure that instead of nothing but happy posts, there should be a balance so people are better able to make their minds up.

I took the point about language and took out the bit about scammers. That was said in anger, and have since revised posts to ensure that only facts that are verifiable are there. However my experience here has been very much a one of sorry, but we don't really want to hear it because it's negative.

And Maxbor you really are nothing more than a troll. The fact mods choose to allow you to remain makes me think 2 things. They don't give a hoot if anyone has a negative experience, they want it shot down so it doesn't impact on precious PCS, or, you work for PCS.

there are negative reviews here, most of them have been handle well and admins occasionally post their version of events. It is an open forum and you are free to post your view as other are.

 

[maxbor]

Me: "At no stage during this thread did he ask for help and he doesn't want to get it sorted."
You: "I was never looking for it to be solved here."

Me: "He wants to have a thread out there that says pcs is awful."
You: "my aim is simply to ensure that instead of nothing but happy posts"

Lol, never been called a troll before, thanks.

Why would the mods care? They don't work for PCS and they volunteer their time to help out others because they have an interest in custom pcs.

 

[mantadog]

I have re read all of maxbor's posts and can't see anything worthy of removal. He does not work for PCS and PCS do not go about creating forum accounts to shoot down complaints. I think max has put forward some valid counter arguments that you cant really argue with so have resorted to calling him a troll.

As I said before, had you come to us with help on any of the individual issues as they occurred, we would probably have been able to be much more helpful. As it stands now nobody here can help you and you seem determined that PCS are the worst thing ever. Resorting to attacking admins/mods and individual users is not going to help. I think it is hugely telling that a user who only registered this month has seen the post for exactly what it is.