anyone get frustrated with the way OcUk treat their customers ?

[twoblacklines]

Even though ocuk seem to charge you vat and then vat on delivery and then add it together so you end up paying more, I stuck with them loyally.

Now i come to sell some bits and i get banned for a week for "thread bumping" after the same day i add some more bits.

Fair enough then. rules say no thread bumping in 24 hours..

But to come back a week later and reply on my thread "I was suspended for a week for bumping, but am back now" so i can answer questions. And then get banned again for "thread bumping" after 168 hours just takes the piss.

Do they not care that im about to spend around £500 on a laptop and £1200 on a gaming rig, and would likely buy from them, or do their nazi moderators and their kicks and ego's come first ?

It really doesnt make business sense to me how they can expect to treat you like that, charge you vat twice, tell you to get lost when you need an RMA or when their cheap couriers dont turn up, and then still "value you as a customer". Sorry Spie but you wouldnt be pottering round in your 599 GTB if its wasnt for US, the customer, who you treat so appalingly.

Sorry to rant, but i declare that I will no longer be using ocuk, in forums, in shop, or in advice to my own customers (i fix peoples pc's locally for cheap / free if they are elderly).

So, i guess this is my welcome thread!

Hi all.

Im 23, i own a passat pd130 run around, im into computers, gaming, and car detailing!

John.

[nightkhaos]

Even though ocuk seem to charge you vat and then vat on delivery and then add it together so you end up paying more, I stuck with them loyally.

Now i come to sell some bits and i get banned for a week for "thread bumping" after the same day i add some more bits.

Fair enough then. rules say no thread bumping in 24 hours..

But to come back a week later and reply on my thread "I was suspended for a week for bumping, but am back now" so i can answer questions. And then get banned again for "thread bumping" after 168 hours just takes the piss.

Do they not care that im about to spend around £500 on a laptop and £1200 on a gaming rig, and would likely buy from them, or do their nazi moderators and their kicks and ego's come first ?

It really doesnt make business sense to me how they can expect to treat you like that, charge you vat twice, tell you to get lost when you need an RMA or when their cheap couriers dont turn up, and then still "value you as a customer". Sorry Spie but you wouldnt be pottering round in your 599 GTB if its wasnt for US, the customer, who you treat so appalingly.

Sorry to rant, but i declare that I will no longer be using ocuk, in forums, in shop, or in advice to my own customers (i fix peoples pc's locally for cheap / free if they are elderly).

So, i guess this is my welcome thread!

Hi all.

Im 23, i own a passat pd130 run around, im into computers, gaming, and car detailing!

John.

Right, instead of complaing on HEXUS, where are are so unlikely to see it, why don't you send a complaint to them. I'm sure you'll find your experience is the exception, not the rule.

[shaithis]

Be thankful your only issues with them have been their forum moderation.

Some of us have nightmare stories regarding orders and returns. You got off lightly!

[PeterStoba]

Right, instead of complaing on HEXUS, where are are so unlikely to see it, why don't you send a complaint to them. I'm sure you'll find your experience is the exception, not the rule.

His experience is far from an exception!

They don't care about the customer, end of.

[twoblacklines]

Right, instead of complaing on HEXUS, where are are so unlikely to see it, why don't you send a complaint to them. I'm sure you'll find your experience is the exception, not the rule.

Well a google search tends to find my experience to be commen policy actually. Im guessing your an OCUK don or something ?

[nightkhaos]

Well a google search tends to find my experience to be commen policy actually. Im guessing your an OCUK don or something ?

Hmm. If OCUK provided something excerlent service that not even a god could provide if he gave you his full attention, do you think someone would blog or forum post about it? No.

Never trust Google Trends when it comes to negative feedback.

I and my friends have had no problems with them, but I would be interested to hear these horror stores you speak of. After all, it can't help to get all the info considering I intend to buy stuff of them soon.

My inital point was "this is all well and good, but if you don't tell OCUK that they're doing a terriable job, what precisely will they do to change their behaviour?"

[Disturbedguy]

I dont think he is an OcUK don, I think he either hasn't used OcUK before or hasn't seen the stories.

Actually judging from his reply I am assuming he hasn't seen other thread's that people have created in regards to the same thing/ area.

Nightkhaos, the fact is when people try telling OcUk they are doing a rubbish job, the posts vanish or the person never receives a reply.

[Saracen]

Can you clarify what you mean about the VAT issue?

If you mean you buy a product, and it gets added to your basket and you pay VAT on it, then you add another product and pay VAT on it, then at the end of the order, you get charged carriage and pay VAT on that, then they are doing precisely what the law requires them to do, because VAT is payable on shipping charges.


i.e.

Item      Price      VAT        Total

CPU       £100     £15.00      £115.00
Monitor   £200     £30.00      £230.00


Total Goods          £300.00
Carriage               £6.00
VAT                   £45.90

Total payable        £351.90

Not all goods are subject to VAT, but most are and I doubt there's much that OcUK sells that isn't.

So if you add up the goods ex VAT prices, and add carriage, that's what you should be paying VAT on, and almost certainly, at 15%.

OcUK don't get to keep the VAT, you know. If they charge it, they pay it to HM Revenue & Customs. And there are only two ways they can calculate the amount .... correctly, or illegally. I'd bet it's not illegally. So while it might look weird, I'd be astonished if the VAT wasn't being calculated correctly, and if it is, there's no point blaming OcUK because they've got no choice in the matter.

[Zak33]

what Saracen said it right, as usual.

It doesn't matter if they add vat on to each individual item on a per unit basis either... it'll come out at the same price. So they're not stiffing you on those invoices at all.

example

Bloke buys a video card for £100 plus vat = £115
and pays delivery at £10 plus vat= £11.50
total = £126.50

Girl buys a video card at £100 and delivery at £10 = £110
£110 plus vat @15%= £126.50

The reason the delivery is in a seperate area of the invoice could be one of millions... for example they MIGHT sell an item with no vat one day.. but the delivery would still need to have vat added, so it might just be easier for their invoice computer to do it that way.

[Saracen]

Good illustration, Zak.

There's information that must be present o n a VAT invoice, and the basis if the calculations (i.e. what you charge it on, and at what rate) is set by HMRC, but as long as you meet those requirements, the exact nature of the way it's presented is largely up to the company.

I have several different invoice templates on my accounts system, including one that deals with standard product sales where it's basically line by line lists. Another deals with service invoices, where it's essentially just a contract reference and a general description such as the time period the invoice related to. But as long as I specify the mandatory information, such as the VAT charged, there's considerable scope for variation in the precise format of the layout.

[dangel]

I dont think he is an OcUK don, I think he either hasn't used OcUK before or hasn't seen the stories.

Actually judging from his reply I am assuming he hasn't seen other thread's that people have created in regards to the same thing/ area.

+1 from me. My opinion of them is based on experience sadly.

[Syd]

OCUK bashing seems popular on Hexus - and Tbh Scan are so much better, however occasionally OCUK stock an item that scan dont or are much cheaper - at that point you make your choice and takes your chance.
I have orderd a fair amount of gear from OCuK in the past and touch wood never had any issues - but now I tend to stick with Scan purely because i like their CS and they kindly offer us free shipping

[Jay]

OcUK are a nightmare

[TheAnimus]

OcUK aren't that great when it all goes well.

Even when it just goes slightly wrong they are absolutely useless, you have to always buy on your credit card, and be prepared to threaten to take them to court!

The thing is they seam to have always been like this, i remeber ringing them once about 6 years ago because they had something that i wanted, but they had a discression between the memory of the card and the memory it only was available in, i called asking them to check that it was just a typo before i place my order, made it quite clear i was ready to buy an expensive graphics card.... They where so rude, telling me that they couldn't have made a mistake, so abrasive, i thought screw them and went elsewhere.

[Lucio]

Funnily enough the order in which VAT is applied *can* have an effect. I know this because at work we sell things that are priced down to 4 decimal places. The invoicing system calculates VAT line by line, and rounds per line. The website applies VAT on the overall basket plus delivery. More often than not, on even a £100 order we're at least 1p out, if not more.

It gets even more complicated if you order on invoicing terms, because we apply a settlement discount, you get to take that off the total before calculating the VAT, regardless of whether or not someone takes the discount.



So yeah, VAT *can* be worked out in different ways and it *can* make a difference, but never accuse a company of doing it to cheat you, chances are high that it's not being done to screw you over, only the tax man

[burble]

I got frustrated with OcUK a few years ago over their inability to not realise that a hard disc I'd received from them was DOA. I saved any future frustration by buying stuff elsewhere.