Computersupermarket.com

How true - I wish I visited this site before I bought from them. I placed and order 10 Days ago - What have I recieved? Nothing as yet. Sending e-mails or eNotes to them makes no difference? A phone call? Has anybody tried? I know that cancelling the order will result in FIGHTING for a refund and return of my money. (Unfortunately I paid by direct debit) Do yourself a favour and read their mission statement. What a joke!

Just an update, I've receeived a full refund from my bank, I just had to send by post proof of what had gone on, letters, I also printed of all my e-NOTES from the site as well. Only took about 5-7 days. Just lost out on the return postage.
A small price to pay for VICTORY.
I don't know if VISA will blacklist a company for repeat offences, anyone from the banking industry know?
You may also wish to report them to trading stadards or the DTI. An organisation called consumerdirect is well worth a call, government run and can offer advice on how to approach and tackle these

Nice one Rockape!! Well pleased for you- didnt realise that bank direct debit payments had the same consumer protection as credit cards so that it well useful information (and comfort!) to me.
Really glad you got your cash back- albeit lost out on the postage- around a tenner yeah?
For my own ends, I made out a full report to Visa yesterday and included not only prints of all exchanges and the purchase, return and carriage docs, but also copies of postings off this site (hope no-one minds). I have asked them to review the suitability of their customer - and particularly the Visa Approved site marking they seem to have blagged. Am confident in the end of getting the cash back- but as you, will lose out on postage, the interest on the cash, and the sheer aggro of dealing with all this.
I have today written and told them what I propose to do in that I shall report them to as many bodies as possible to cause them the maximum grief in return for the grief they have foisted on people. Whilst we are "fighters" to get our money back I wonder how many others have been in the same position and just given up- thus motivating this company to continue to conduct their affairs in this fashion?
Cheers for your response and further info by the way!!

It is week three now. Still no order arriving - they took money quick enough! No responce to e-mails (10 so far) or their so called eNotes(Given up on this one) I suppose the figh for my money back will now start in earnest. Please advise me on the course of action you followed or will follow to 'blacklist' this incompetent company. They should not be trading !!! Their mission statement: We believe that the people who buy from the Computer Supermarket are smart people who know what they want, that's why we have invested time in building a website that allows our customers to completely manage their account without our intervention. Sorry guys we have all been taken for a ride- the only part that reads true is their non intervension - not sending the products on order, that is!

Well Sadsob- 3 weeks and not looking good. Personally I would just move straight away to attempt to recover a full refund here if I was you- after all we have all seen enough on here now to know what this retailer is like.

And the good news... after more threatening letters I have at last had a credit to my credit card for the refund of the goods!! Not the cost of the carriage back, but hey, progress at last. BINGO!!

I resorted to threatening actions via several routes- and in fact HAVE done so- by making a full report to Visa of their misrepresentation, a full report to TV1s Watchdog and I intended to senf to DTI and Fair Trading etc. I asked them to draw this to the attention of their Directors as they will be the ones facing the repercussions etc.. Anyway, must have worked as they have now refunded- absolutely NO correspondence confirming this refund, and this is just another example of cowardice in my opinion.
I REALLY hope Watchdog take this case up - if they contact me does anyone mind if I quote their posts here?

Anyway, good luck to all having a fight with this company- my advice: dont prevaricate and go in hard with meaningful threats of actions you WILL take.
I only wish that the laws that be had it within their remit to shut down this shower of sh** and all other companys like them.

Regards all!

Hello,

My name is Ian Bird, a director here at Computer Supermarket. I'm sure you're not going to believe this but I'll give it a go anyway. I'm really sorry to hear of the problems you've had dealing with us. I'll be honest, we've let you down, our service has not been good enough. Since June our turnover has tripled, and we haven't coped very well with the surge in demand. We have new staff starting this week and an improvement in the customer service side of things will occur immediately.

I'm not looking for sympathy, or trying to wriggle out of our responsibilities, just thought you deserved to know why things have gone so badly for you. We're not some faceless multi national company, we're hard working people and this huge upturn in business caught us by surprise.

If I can assist anyone at all with any issue please contact me directly at ianbird@computersupermark et.com.

Regards

Ian Bird

Well, first of all Ian, I will comment that I admire you for responding so publicly and I am sure others on this board will also welcome your comments and reassurances. Hence I would reply via these boards rather than by private email- although it is my intention to write separately as I am yet to be refunded the postage I am entitled to.

The reasoning behind the appalling customer service level may be difficult to accept for some- although I personally in my professional life was accustomed to seeing companys expand at such a rate as to outstrip current resources. Without going into the corporate logistics of this situation it is an unacceptable but not too uncommon event I can assure other readers. Although some may still of course reflect why there is a direct telephone number ONLY for new sales- clearly the attraction to new sales weighing greater with you than service to those who have already presented you with their money. Hopefully this will all change with the influx of your new staff and operations will continue upon accepted methodology and standards.
Whilst I have now received my refund of the goods (lacking only postage as I said) and I am happy to accept your apology and explanation, there are others here that still have issues to resolve and hope that they have contacted you accordingly. This does not of course account for any unspoken-for customers with you maybe having the same problems, and all I would ask is that these also are afforded the respect and service they deserve and now get their issues dealt with.
At the very minimum a short email at least acknowledging their concerns is the very minimum that I would expect each complainant to be provided with. I hope you will take this on board when prioritising your new available resources. Thank you for your response.

Avoid like the plague!
(long review coming...)

I was looking to build a machine, but while searching for components i found Computer Supermarket's 'Ultimate Gaming system'. For the spec it was an absolute snip - i couldn't afford to put this together for the money. Problem is, neither can these jokers.

Once the system was ordered it was due to arrive in four to seven days (allowing for a weekend). It actually arrived two weeks after ordering, after many emails and phonecalls. A swift check of the unregistered, almost certainly not genuine copy of Vista revealed the last system backup point was fully one week after the machine was due to arrive.

All would have been well had the system been up to the specification they'd given, but it fell far short. It would be quicker to recount what was satisfactory - it did have an E6850 inside, the DVD re-writer and hard drive weren't the brands specified but were just as good, and the speakers and the gpu were as specified, but seeing as they were the weakest links in the system, and quite mediocre, i couldn't get too excited.

As for what was wrong...

2gb of slow, generic memory provided instead of the 4gb of Kingston specified.

Monitor only had vga input and not dvi as specified.

One european power lead provided with monitor (despite psu having 12V output) and no leads with cpu at all. Not a big issue, but annoying nonetheless.

No registration number, recovery discs, documentation, pre-registration nor even hologram sticker for "genuine" Vista Home Premium 64bit.

The case was only slightly shoddy, but considering the size of the chip i doubt they'd seated the heat probes correctly because it was apparently idling at about 17°C. Inside, the cable management was very poor and the cooling could best be descrbed as 'adequate'.


After agreeing to give them the chance to put the system right, on the basis that they might try it on for those customers who might not spot the problems, i was pessimistic about what was going to eventually arrive. I wasn't to be disappointed (that is to say, i was). If they'd just stuffed another two gig of the same cheap memory into the old box it would have been an improvement on what did arrive: it did have 4gb (still not Kingston or even near equivalent) but now on a different mobo (admittedly with an e-sata port this time, but with an insufficient set of drivers) inside a totally shoddy case (in fact, supplied broken in several places) and some of the specified software not included. I'd waited a further week for this privilege, as well.

It didn't take as much persuasion as thought for them to potentially agree to a refund, but but i'm still anticipating difficulties, as the machine has yet to be returned. The credit card company has been contacted, as have certain other parties. Customer service has been totally frustrating, hard to reach by phone (even with a direct number) and email replies are infrequent and unsatisfactory.

I shall be building my own machine... i won't be spending much more than i would on this system, but i will be getting premium components and it will take a fraction of the time and effort involved than when dealing with this shower.

Users will have noted Ian Bird's intervention. Appears pretty reasonable doesn't it / he?

However here are a few email exchanges you may be interested in. I won't bore you with the inaccuracies in Ian's statements, his complete failure to acknowledge non-timely delivery of the product, that it wasn't the one I'd been promised, that its manual was unusable and, not least, that the product (an MP3 player) suffered from the fundamental drawback of not playing MP3s in a way which sounded anything like any other MP3 player I've heard. Judge for yourself whether this is a man lijkely to be able to resolve the issues he invites you to email him.

Finally he says the returns procedure is clearly set out on the website. we did not find it so at the time and, once again, no reply was received to an e-note requesting clarification. It is IMHO unlikely that a company can place restrictions on a consumer's right to return goods. It's likely to be an unfair contract term I'd have thought, not that we need to go there.

I'm now off to Mastercard and Birmingham Trading Standards...


************************* ************************* ************************* ************************* ****

Ian

I note from this link http://www.consumeractiongroup.c o.uk/forum/computer-services-reviews-write/110720-computersupermarket-com.html
that you are a director of Compueter Supermarket. I have to say that I am shocked by your language within the current email exchange. It is rather different from the customer-focussed picture you presented online, in response to people whose expressed views were much more aggressive than mine.

It's one thing for a customer (who thinks they've been treated badly) to sound off. Quite another for a director of the company to do so. I had assumed that you were an under pressure customer services person. It is clear that I am far from the only person who has issues with your company.

Anyway, since you have *again* not replied to my email - a trait other customers have noted - I am posting an update to the above address. I will also be asking for a full refund from my credit card company and reporting you to Birmingham Trading Standards. I never threatened legal action and, given that your posting to the above address seeks to paint you as a successful company overwhelmed by customer demand, am again amazed that you have the time to tie up your resources in the way you suggest. I for one intend to take matters further while minimising inconvenience to me.

Just in case you don't remember the material in the above link - and since this material will form a key part part of my complaint to Birmingham Trading Standards, I set out some of the material below. It's a sorry tale, seemingly including allegations from your customers that you are engaged in illegal activity. I'll leave an assessment of that to BTS of course.

A very final point on enotes. I raised the mechanism for returning goods in an enote. This remained unanswered. Funnily enough none of my enotes were answered, none were assigned, but all have status "closed". What on earth is going on?



************************* *************************** *************************** *************************** *************************** *************************** *************************** **
Lots of quotes from this website to remaind Ian of your views followed ...
************************* *************************** *************************** *************************** *************************** *************************** *************************** **



Ian

I am sorry you found my email overtly aggressive. I note that you did not reply to my email dated 12 October and this, of course, did not help matters.

In terms of the misleading nature of the website, the website showed hundreds of the make of MP3 player I ordered as being available. The player took an enormous time to turn up (I was promised an MP4 player as compensation) and I queried the delay. I was told that there were none in stock and that the website was wrong. My wife stayed in one day when we were told it would turn up. It didn't. Eventually two players turned up and we had to refuse delivery of the second. Much (or even all) of this is covered in my e-notes. Please feel free to consult them.

Taking any of the forms of action below is very much *not* what I want to do. However the goods were not of merchantable quality and I do expect to be able to get my money back. The fact of the matter was that your company has received the goods back and I've not had any evidence that the refund is going to be made.

I look forward to your confirming the date by which a refund will be made.

Regards

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian
Sent: 22 October 2007 08:16
To: coolactuary
Subject: RE: Complaint to Computer Superstore, Computer Components, Computer Cases, Graphics Cards and Mp3 Players in the UK

Our returns procedure is very clearly laid out on our website, I did not authorise your return simply stated we would be happy to have this item back, I then assumed you would follow the correct return procedures and obtain an RMA online as set out when placing your order, when you agreed to be bound by our terms and conditions of sale. In my email I did not issue you with a returns number so your claim I authorised this is not correct. I also notice from your mail that you are complaining that the batteries on the MP3 are not rechargable, we did not say they were are and they are not, I think you may be mistaking this with our MP4 player range.

Despite your overtly aggresive email, despite you not requesting a return online, despite one of your complaints about the MP3 player being frankly ludicrous, despite the fact that you did not request a refund for this product until 6 weeks after receiving it I will attempt to resolve this situation. I do suggest you follow through with all your threats listed below as I can assure you we take all complaints like this extremely seriously and would welcome the opportunity to defend ourselves in a much more formal setting. You claimed our website is misleading, can you please confirm exactly what on our site is misleading prior to my passing this case over to our legal department.

Regards

Ian

 

From: coolactuary
Sent: 21 October 2007 18:56
To: ian
Subject: RE: Complaint to Computer Superstore, Computer Components, Computer Cases, Graphics Cards and Mp3 Players in the UK

 

Ian

I have no such number and, despite the insistence of your website on procedures, could find no means of getting one. I do have an email from you (personally) authorising this and a recorded delivery record, ensuring its delivery.

Hopefully this is more than sufficient. As you can see from the email trail below, my order number was 53637

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian
Sent: 11 October 2010 11:56
To: coolactuary
Subject: RE: Complaint to Computer Superstore, Computer Components, Computer Cases, Graphics Cards and Mp3 Players in the UK

Dear Sir,

If you can please confirm your returns authorisation number I’ll look into this immediately.

Regards

Ian

From: coolactuary
Sent: 20 October 2007 19:12
To: ian
Cc: support@computersupermark et.com
Subject: FW: Complaint to Computer Superstore, Computer Components, Computer Cases, Graphics Cards and Mp3 Players in the UK
Importance: High


Ian



** Please reply to this email **



I have had no reply to you, and just want to ensure you appreciate the seriousness of the situation. It occurs to me that Computer Supermarket may claim non-receipt of the email. Therefore I am copying this email to your support address to increase the chances of this.



Let me again reinforce the points in the email below. Should the refund not appear on my next credit card statement I will commence some or all of the following:



- referral to your managing director

- referral to the Birmingham Trading Standards

- a Statutory Demand against Computer Supermarket

- setting my credit card company on you

- in due course publish details of the (non-)correspondence on my protest website



Please do the easy (and right) thing:

- reply to the email

- refund the money



Regards




-----Original Message-----
From: coolactuary
Sent: 12 October 2007 09:39
To: ian
Subject: RE: Complaint to Computer Superstore, Computer Components, Computer Cases, Graphics Cards and Mp3 Players in the UK
Ian



I sent the unit back recorded delivery with a request for a refund. Nothing has turned up yet, including on the credit card statement which arrived yesterday. Let me be polite but firm, since I do not want this issue to take up much more of my (or your) time: if our next credit card statement does not show a refund and you have not made a refund by another method, I will report Computer Supermarket to Birmingham Trading Standards (referring to the lack of refund and misleading information on your website and other issues) and get my credit card company to pursue Computer Supermarket for a refund. Dealing with your company has not been a good experience I'm afraid.



Regards

-----Original Message-----
From: Ian
Sent: 07 September 2007 08:47
To: coolactuary
Subject: RE: Complaint to Computer Superstore, Computer Components, Computer Cases, Graphics Cards and Mp3 Players in the UK
Dear Sir,

This unit does not come with a rechargable battery, it uses AAA ones. We are more than happy for you to send this item back to us and if faulty to have either a refund or replacement.

Regards

Ian Bird

From: coolactuary
Sent: 06 September 2007 22:46
To: sales@computersupermarket .com
Subject: FW: Complaint to Computer Superstore, Computer Components, Computer Cases, Graphics Cards and Mp3 Players in the UK
Importance: High
Sir



Not for the first time, there has been no response to my enote. I wish to return good below as faulty. Please confirm that I can do so. My order number is 53637.



I llok forward to your response.



Yours faithfully




-----Original Message-----
From: coolactuary
Sent: 04 September 2007 12:17
To: coolactuary
Subject: Complaint to Computer Superstore, Computer Components, Computer Cases, Graphics Cards and Mp3 Players in the UK
Online form sent to www.computersupermarket.c om
Category : Returns Sub Category : FAQ - Questions relating to Returns Order Number : 53637 Subject : : Request to return goods Message :
************************* ************************* ************************* ************************* ************************* ************************* ************************* *******************
Sir
I raise this note having read http://www.consumerdirect.gov.uk/after_you_buy/know-your-rights/electrical/
My son's birthday was on 10th August and the MP3 player arrived just in time (after several chases). Bizarrely we have now had to reject another MP3 player twice. On 16 August we went on holiday (leaving the Mp3 player at home). He has not been able to use it since.
My complaint is that:
- voices are almost inaudible on songs (e.g. the track "Chasing Cars")
- the manual is unusable, being written in pigeon English
- the battery seems not to be chargeable
- as a result(?) the MP3 player is not usable
So, while this MP3 player was cheap, it was not fit for purpose.
My son has used the MP3 player only 2 or 3 times and I believe I am within my rights to request a full refund. Please confirm that you agree to this and the mechanism for achieving it.


Yours faithfully

i bought a computer from computersupermarket on sept 25th it came late and broken since then i have returned it asking for a refund and have heard nothing ive now threatened them with court action and still nothin from them. it was my kids christening and they got money as gifts so they put most of their money in to buy it while i payed the rest. i dont know how a company can treat people like this they wont return ur notes or even acknowledge you. all i want is my money bacxk but as yet i havent and from what i have read on here i dont think its gonna be anytime soon either. can anyone tell me what i can do next.

Well Sharon, I did get my money back (only around £35) eventually, but it took a couple of months and many chasing emails.

I hope you asked for an RMA number before returning the goods. I was too wound up to find how to do this. I phoned for instructions but no one answered. I did at least pay by credit card, so would have been able to get the money back from them if it they hadn't eventually coughed up. Probably best to keep away from legals I'd guess. Their pockets will be deeper than yours. There's always trading standards as well as the c/card company.

i did get an rma number and have followed the instructions on returning the computer they have had it back 3 wks now and i still haven't heard anything from them. i paid with my bank card an i dont think i can get the money back via the bank can i? i e mail and send them rma notes and still nothing heard from the company.

I bought one of their MP4 Players with built in FM Radio.

I currently can't record from the FM Radio, although the manual and their website tells me I can.

Can anyone help?

it runs firmware 00.00.0000 does this need upgrading?

*This is quite a long post as I've included emails sent between myself and Comp Supermarket.*

I am so at this company!

My dad ordered a pc for me for Christmas last year, and it still doesn't work in February.

It has been sent back to them on 3 separate occasions and each time it returns, there's another problem.

When it first arrived in November, the USB port at the front of the tower collapsed into it and the CD drive would not work.

On the second occasion, the PC died completely and the back of the tower caved in ie. where the keyboard, mouse is plugged in etc.

It came back to me again in January and now the front cover of the USB port is missing and the tower is all scratched. I obviously won't accept it as my dad paid over £350 for it.

After months of trying to get to speak to someone, I find the manager's email address on the Consumer Action Group website and contact him directly.

Here's some of his emails. Let me know what you think.

Hi,

I'm just off the phone to Neil at Tech Support.

The first return was due to the front USB ports on the tower caving into the system and the CD rom not working.

The second return was due to the tower 'dying' and the back of the tower caving in ie. where you plug in the keyboard, mouse etc.

It is being returned again because the USB ports are still not secure enough to be used regularly and the door which covers the USB port has been snapped off, as well as it being scratched all over.

Neil said it was due to the couriers being rough with the parcels and it was being damaged in transit. This is certainly not the case in the latest return as the door that covers the USB ports should be in the box, but it's not. Besides if it was due to the courier damaging the products, surely that is between yourselves and them, not us.

Regards

xxxxxxxxxxx

Reply

Mr xxxxxxx,

Regards

xxxxxxx









Dear Sir,

The item was signed for when it was received and was set up immediately. Whe I set it up the product was not in the advertised state ie. the USB ports were caved in and the CD rom wouldn't work. This was reported and returned to you immediately. It is your slow pace at getting things returned to me that has meant that in February I am still without a working computer.

I don't like your tone either. 3 months have passed and I still can't use your computer; your phone lines obviously aren't open until 6pm and your own staff have admitted that it could be due to couriers.

Be assured that I will take action against you if you do not refund me immediately. I'm sure you're aware, that any consumer who receives a product which is not in its advertised state, is entitled to a full refund. I am exercising that right as a consumer.

If I take legal action against you, I will also forward on the legal costs and charge statutory interest.

Regards

xxxxxxxx