View Full Version : oh god how i hate ebuyer
asteroth
17-04-2003, 18:49
(or why kustom rocks)
/rant
right to start, about 7 months ago i bought a gainward ti4200 golden sample from e-buyer. no problems delivery was prompt, right product, no worries.
about two months ago my gainward started to give out the pink screen of death [psod] (known problem apparently)
now by this time i had read zillions of posts about the ghastly e-buyer. absolutley dreading RMAing my card i clicked on the
'returns onlne' button
blah blah blah blah blah (e-buyer lingo)
posted my precious gainward off to them wrapped in layers of bubbles :)
week later: we have received your card
week later: nothing
week later: nothing
week later: your RMA has been accepted
great step one completed, atleast they admit the card is poked.
day later: got email, your card will be replaced.
great, lets see what they gonna replace it with:
"what? wtf is that? thats not what i sent in!!"
....staring dumbfoundedly at picture of G4 card costing £20 less than my RMA and is out of stock with a ten day lead........
phone e-buyer: 30 minutes on hold...(
what ? they got one guy on the helpdesk?)
'hi, my RMA is wrong'
'no its not'
'yes it IS!'
'no its not'
'yes it bloody well is! i RMAed a "insert long gainward card description" this is not what you are replacing it with!!'
'oh right, i see'
'i would like this card instead (insert crazy long card name)'
'are you sure?'
'yes'
'please bear with me'
..........on hold for 10 minutes............
'ok no problem that has been sorted for you'
'thank you good bye'
..............that was monday morning.................
..............order was 'awaiting dispatch' on monday afternoon....
..............awaiting dispatch tuesday afternoon..........
..............awaiting dispatch wednesday afternoon.............
..............awaiting dispatch thursday afternoon................
phone e-buyer:
...30 minutes on hold.........
'hi, could you tell me why my order has been awaiting dispatch for FOUR days?'
'oh thats because its an RMA'
'yes i know that, i received the RMS notification four days ago, the wrong product was RMAed and i had it changed on monday'
'well there is a 3day turn around time on RMAs, it'll be with you on TUESDAY'
'yes i know that i ordered the product on monday its now thursday'
'no, you couldnt have ordered it, its an RMA'
'right, i ORDERED the correct product because i was RMAed the wrong one, what i want to know is why has it been four days and i still have no card? its in stock'
'all i can tell you is what in front of me, your order will be with you on tuesday'
(god forbid you could ask someone)
'alright thankyou goodbye'
AAAAAAAARGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
right, go straight to pub for beer.
come back 90 minutes later and there is an email telling me that my order has been dispatched. fancy that. squeaky wheel and all that.
check consignment number on citylink website, they claim delivery tomorrow, friday.
i have sat at home for fours days waiting for this frikkin card when i should be out frolicking in the sun, as im back at work tomorrow i cant wait for the card. (if it even gets delivered tomorrow)
needless to say, still no reply from 'e-note' i sent 6 hours ago.
i will never shop from e-buyer again, thankfully for my sanity there are places like kustom.
/end rant
This is what the rant forum is for. :P
The courier is to blame for the last bit though, once the consignment number is on there systems you know they have the card and not the supplier.
asteroth
17-04-2003, 19:04
forgot about the rant forum, guess i never go there :D
no its all ebuyers fault :p i could only check with citylink once i got the email from ebuyer telling me it had been dispatched, which was uncoincedently 2 hours after i phoned.
ah well.
/me awaits MisterX's reply ;)
Moldiver
17-04-2003, 21:27
------------------------> Moved From GD
Graeme*Kustom*
18-04-2003, 15:03
www.city-link.co.uk - you can get the depot number there by typing in your post code... call em with the consignment number and ask what's going on. Best to go directly to the courier, and ask what's going on . I imagine they'll be closed today though, you'll maybe get em on Sat though and could arrange to collect your parcel or arrange for delivery on Tuesday ?
Thomas @ Kustom
29-04-2003, 15:50
Waow that's some rant, have PM'd Mister X to draw his attention 8)
Welcome to the wonderful world of ebuyer! You'd think a company turning over in excess of 30Million quid a year would actually know how to RMA a product wouldn't you?
Not ebuyer! Think of a long drawn out protracted wait involving mindless low IQ customer support members and a volley of useless communications designed to buy more time. Spend over 6 weeks waiting for an item to be replaced whilst endless other useless communications take place, expect long waits on the phone being charged 7p a minute to wait in queues for long periods of time......etc etc....Pull out huge clumps of hair during this time.
Times this by 100 and you might, you just might get somewhere close to what its like for an ebuyer customer to get a product replaced.
Its utterly disgraceful, Plain and simple. Worst still is instead of investing in more staff they've just spent millions setting up the Arizona using the same business model that so obviously holds customers in such low regard.
I guess thats why the office of fair trading is investigating them.
PJ Matthews
30-04-2003, 22:31
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/perfect.lady/Pauls-house-screwed%20up%20letters.jpg
My god you need to get yourself a woman - your getting through too many kleenex - lmao!
Humm, ebuyer....
I ordered an G4MX card from them last year, the wrong card arrived. I returned that (at my cost).
The next card they sent, whilst being correct, didn't work. So I RMA'd it, and stated on the RMA request that I wanted to switch to a G3Ti200 instead. I also included a note to that effect in the returned cards packaging.
A couple of weeks went by, and finally another G4MX arrived, which I returned (at my cost again).
Finally, I received the G3Ti200, and all was well, until it stopped working. I RMA'd it, and four months later received a new card.
Sadly I do still use them though - they're cheap, and so long as nothing goes wrong they're fine.
Thomas @ Kustom
01-05-2003, 15:03
bit like saying, my system 100% stable except when it crashes, why buy from a company that can't get something right after 3 times?
Fireblade
01-05-2003, 17:10
Couldn't agree wi' ye more Thomas!
Once is bad enough SJP (but acceptable)... twice is once too many... three times on the trot is frankly unacceptable! And... as if to add insult to injury, you accepted paying the cost of return postage for those faulty goods as well... twice :eek: Yet... after all that grief, you're going to keep buying stuff from 'em, just for the sake of saving yourself a few quid? I'm totally :confused:
That's just asking for more trouble IMO, coz if they think for one minute they can get away wi' sloppy support, yet still have the same/mistreated customers return for more, they'll do absolutely nothing to try and improve matters!
No siree-bob... it's always worth paying a bit extra (to any supplier really), if/when you know you're gonna get genuine support, a speedy response to enquiries, and absolutely no hassle whatsover if goods develop a fault ;)
Thomas @ Kustom
01-05-2003, 17:26
Not to keep harping on about this, but havent you nprobably wasted more money(taking into account time as well) returning that, over the space of months than you would save?
Off topic example, Just changed one of my cars, phoned on a saturday asking for a cover note(the car wasn't to be ready until tuesday). I said it was vital as it was needed to tax the car. operator says no problem will post that first class(the stingy so and so's usually post 2nd class). tuesday came and went and when it didn't show up, I phoned again on the tuesday, the operator again said it will be posted 1st class, wednesday nothing, thursday nothing. The previous car I had ensured through them took 8 days for the cover note to arrive, and that was two requests.
So I went to the nice people on newmarket street eindsley i think, they gave me a cover note on the spot, i went got the car and that was that, cancelled the other insurance!
Basically my view was that they weren't fit to perform their duty in a business like way, and for such unprofessionalism I made sure they didn't get anymore of my money!
I've never been one for going for something just because it's cheap, I don't pay for designer stuff either, I just look for names and people that I trust. People will get one or two chances with me, if they consistenly can't do what they advertise or preach I just don't go back, the best protest is not giving them your money.
/finnish rant
I know you're right, I shouldn't use 'em, but I'm a sucker for a bargain :rolleyes:
Their 68p 80mm fans (including screws!) were a steal. The £5-odd postage for four of them was OTT though :mad:
What really gets my goat, more than price differences, is extortionate P&P charges (something which Kustom don't suffer from) which are only added at the very end of the order process.
Kustom's just got my order for a Vantec Aeroflow and some grills as they only charge £2+VAT :D
Thomas @ Kustom
01-05-2003, 18:15
good time to point out we only charge that for all orders, and strictly speaking it's not postage, it's order processing it's the time for the person to pack your order, so it's flat all round even on a case, your postage is free.
Graeme*Kustom*
01-05-2003, 19:22
to add to Thomas' post there - obviously there's no such thing as entirely free postage, as some of the shipping costs are built into the product prices for heavier items, and the 2.35 charge at the end just tops that up and as thomas says is a flat fee for the order placed.
Ultimately, we'd possibly be better off charging full courier costs and dropping prices across the board slightly, but we find that our customers really like being able to browse the site, see the inc vat in large, bold print and not be hit with large shipping costs at the end - it's very user friendly and means you know what you're paying without having to go to the final stage of checkout...
Hear hear Graeme!
Even though there is some delivery built into the price of heavier and more expensive items, it remains the fact that if your big bold price is good enough to interest the buyer, he knows he's not going to get slammed with a big delivery charge on top. I know it works for me.
Some sites, I see a good price - say for a CPU cooler, - say to myself "that's good" then fall back to earth when I remember, or discover, a £10 delivery charge on top!
whenever i buy stuff i pick it up, but i fancy some nice packing chips etc next time i buy something... can i pay the extra and get a jumbo padded envelope or sommit that good please?
PJ Matthews
04-05-2003, 11:50
Im sorry but if you look at Ebuyers postage charges now they are anything but OTT and compared to many sites are very reasonable indeed. Few sites have free delivery, dabs has small package charges and OCS is completely free which can only boost business for them. Kustoms £2 charge is entirely reasonable, I don't think anyone wishes to argue there. Its companies like Aria and OCUK who want to charge you £10 to post you anything that is rediculous making these guys only suitable for large orders such as monitors and PCs.
PJ
dfrancis
05-05-2003, 01:22
I have to say in Ebuyers defence that when I ordered my Ti4200 and a sony cd rom drive arrived, they sorted it pretty quick. At least they did when I got the credit card company involved.
I too called Ebuyer, got the run around from some snotty little *****.
Called my CCC, twenty minutes later, Ebuyer called me to say that my card was being delivered the next day,lol
As you say, squeaky wheels!!!
It's not nice but sometimes "voltage" really is the only way
sambartle
10-05-2003, 17:07
I buy a lot of stuff from many companies, in my case (im not defending them just putting forward my views) eBuyer are nearer the top of the list that the bottom. (they still way below KustomPCs though)
The one that gets me is Scan, if i ever think about buying from them again im gonna jump off a bridge, eBuyer at least dont have that effect on me.
Kustom however ive never had a problem with, the prices are good, and the Postage (however its paid for) is amazing to be honest. Special delivery makes it to my door before 9am each time i order, now thats pretty amazing.
Just please odnt change the way you do stuff over there, the way you price up postage is probably the best ive seen. including it in the one big price works well for me, the £2 handling charge is welcomed as my stuff always seems to be packed well, and protected, which is a definite plus. And not using City-Link is definitly a bonus.
Thomas @ Kustom
10-05-2003, 17:10
to be honest we use a few couriers, we work through a company that have accounts with multiple couriers, so we use ups, parcelline, citylink and interlink, interlink the most all be it.
sambartle
10-05-2003, 17:28
I hadnt noticed that, i thought everything came the same.
that wasnt very bright of me.
Seriously though my stuff could arrive by City Link? this is bad as ive seen the 'care' they take with stuff in the warehouse. Vans reverse up and the stuff it literally thrown onto the warehouse floor to be stacked ready for delivery.
Thomas @ Kustom
10-05-2003, 17:34
Hi Sam,
as i say generally the courier is interlink, so i wouldn't get worried. :)
Ive only had a delivery off Kustom by Citylink once, and all the rest were Royal Mail but mainly Interlink as mentioned, nothing wrong with any of the citylink parcels i have recieved from here and other companies though, it just depends on the depot thats near you and the staff working there.
Graeme*Kustom*
10-05-2003, 19:43
85% of courier orders go by Interlink, who visit us just after 3pm for collection. Citylink pickup at 4pm, so anything we're squeezing out at the last minute we send by Citylink.
If you would prefer a specific courier to be used, please email this instruction to sales with a note of the order number immediately after the order is placed - we'll be happy to book it out with Interlink / Citylink depending on your preference.
Citylink on the whole are still ok, but I appreciate that some depots are better than others...
asteroth
10-05-2003, 20:19
hehe a monster! ive created a monster! no one wants shady no mor......
*cough*
well, this thread seems to be expanding rapidly :D
littel story about aria... bought my lian-li pc61 usb from them, only cos lived nearby at the time an d i wanted it now :D
asked them if they could deliver it
'no we only delivery on internet orders'
she says while swiping my card
'so i could use that aria terminal over there to order my stuff online and then you'll deliver it?'
'no because ive just rung it through'
needless to say, useless customer service and i had to walk home with the bulky case.
tsk tsk
:D
rick
Graeme*Kustom*
10-05-2003, 20:34
I better just close this thread , as it's really not right to have bad stories about other retailers on here...
best place for that is www.romulus2.com...
If anyone wants any more info from us regarding delivery , either email me or open a thread in 'rate our service'...
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