HEXUS.interview: Tony Riccardi, Mesh General Manager

[Steve]

What are your thoughts following the announced closure of all 78 Time stores and the laying off of staff at the company?

A lot of companies are reporting that retail trading conditions are challenging right now. It is always unfortunate to hear that good people have lost their jobs.

The last time I met with Brian Flynn (former Financial Director with Time), it was obvious that they were a hard-working company with a lot of dedicated staff. Let’s hope that any redundancies are only short-term.

http://www.hexus.net/content/beanz/b...lld19JRD0xNDE1

[rc55]

Nice of the chap to offer some jobs to the London ex-Time's.

I've not heard a bad thing about Mesh, their boxes have always been pretty darn solid.

Ruairi

[Dingo]

Message for Tony,

We have two of your systems because after much research you seemed to offer the best "bang per buck", and generally speaking, the systems perform well.

Have had two occasions to require RMA and both have not been pleasant........bad attitude from the employee from the first experience (even though I had done most of the leg-work in terms of fault finding).....Engineers are supposed to be able to do more than change out pieces of kit....they should have diagnostic ability!!.......and second experience was with a faulty psu which I was not prepared to send the whole pc back to base for and wait two weeks to be told I had a faulty psu!!......so I changed it out and took it back myself!!

Note for the future.......get your house in order re: your "Service" ..........I am an ex Evesham buyer and would categorically state that their service is second to none.......yours currently is second to everybodies, and considering I purchased the three year onsite deal......I am one unhappy camper......either don't offer the service or live up to the title "Service".

Would I buy again?........

[YorkieBen]

When my brother had problems with his pc I found Mesh's returns service good once they finally agreed to take it back but it took ages to get it back becuase the guy on the mesh helpline refused to accept it was a harddrive issue despite reinstalling windows twice (on Meshs instructions) and it cost £20+ in multiple phone calls. Plus the guy I spoke to was so rude it was untrue

A few years earlier I had found Mesh's customer service to be much better and polite

[Steve]

Guys, I had to clean this thread up due to unnecessary posts that were making claims without any justification.

Can we be more sensible in how we convey our opinions please.

[exAndrzej]

My background is in the PC industry and I can tell you that companies cannot survive unless they take service very seriously

However, in any major manufacturing organisation, there will always be times when one customer's experience is far from what it should be

What can a company do in these situations ?

Ideally, they will put their hands up, admit the mistake and review their personnel & procedures to see if the issue can be prevented from happening in the future

If they were really serious, they would come on to a public forum and invite customers to speak about their experiences

Customers with genuine grievences would appreciate the opportunity to put their case forward, get a mutually acceptable solution and go off happier in the knowledge that they were improving a company for the benefit of all future customers

Alternatively, you can always just toss the dummy out of the pram

Let's see if this interview was a publicity exercise or a genuine attempt to reach out to customers...

[Twigman]

Guys, I had to clean this thread up due to unnecessary posts that were making claims without any justification.

Can we be more sensible in how we convey our opinions please.

You mean you deleted all the posts by people who had a bad experience with one of your clients and are justifably very annoyed and trying to vent they fury? If you dont want feedback from the real customers who actually buy their machines and have to deal with them then why bother starting the thread?

If you would like justification (proof?) I can start scanning in all the paperwork and other stuff associated with the fiasco of dealing with them? We had over a ringbinder full of RMA documents and other things dealing with it. Printed screen shots showing they lied to us etc. Phone bills as well? Im sure I could dig them out and scan them in and post them. I'll even host them on my own webspace so hexus dont have to pay for the bandwidth.

I think dealing with Mesh pushing you over the limit and you cant be sensible with them. I was told on the phone one day when their call centre was playing up that an unhappy customer had driven up in a JCB and cut through their phone cables so the staff were passing round mobile phones...
How try this is I am not sure (maybe someone could confirm this?), but I am not suprised that someone would be pushed to such lengths by this company.

Im sure this post won't last long either.

[Steve]

Twigman, of course we want feedback - that's why we have this forum, for feedback for both us and manufacturers - but there's a way to do it.

If you have any issues you are welcome to PM me. Otherwise, you are free to post your grievances (I'm sure we can believe you without the need for you to host images of documents to back your claims up,) but please avoid insults.

[nichomach]

So a rep from a competing system builder can fabricate all 3 and then post whatever they like, then claim that the company in question are lying if they state that they're fabricated, whereas a genuinely hacked off customer might have to dig out multiple details from months ago to substantiate their story before it's regarded as a valid post and not deleted on sight? In the first case, I would imagine that it would be fairly provable, so the target company would be protected, but the second just seems like a good way to make fair comment so bloody awkward that no-one bothers to comment at all. Ah well, them's the rules then.

[exAndrzej]

...can fabricate all 3...

You cannot be serious

HEXUS is a thriving throng of hundreds of thousands of people across the planet...

...can you imagine the unbelievable pain & grief that would be vested on a manufacturer that was caught out in a scam like that ?

No chance

Every person reading this has purchased TONS of products throughout their lives

The small stuff (groceries etc) are supplied with a receipt that - most likely - we bin before we get back to the car

Products costing several hundred pounds/dollars are normally accompanied by the kind of invoice that you file away (sophisticated term for 'bung in a kitchen draw' )

Whatever system you use - genuine customers will definitely be able to put their hands on their order details - no matter which supplier they chose

Please correct me if I am wrong - but there are two ways in which HEXUS can play a part in the customer->supplier relationship:-

1) Provide a 'slamming board' where a handful of customers get to make 99% of the posts - each more 'hardcore' than the previous one... and the supplier thinks 'No thanks - we are happy to carry on with the existing support system - no way are we going to get involved in an egg-throwring contest'

or

2) Provide a 'sounding board' where genuine, unresolved issues can be raised and brought to the direct attention of a supplier's senior management. These issues get resolved swiftly - and the HEXUS Massive get a chance to help the supplier improve their systems and procedures

Given a choice - I would always prefer '2'

It might not give some individuals the 'outlet' that they want...

...but it has the greatest chance of providing them with a swift, effective solution - and improving the market for everyone else


That is my 10p/cents worth

[nichomach]

...can you imagine the unbelievable pain & grief that would be vested on a manufacturer that was caught out in a scam like that ?

I believe I already noted that:

In the first case, I would imagine that it would be fairly provable, so the target company would be protected...

.
And I think that the point is that this is not a "support" forum, this is a forum for comment on news and in this case interviews; this is where Mr. Riccardi gets to boost his public profile with the interview, and people get to comment on that interview, and on the company being promoted by it. This has nothing to do with "existing support mechanisms" - people post opinions; save the name, rank and number stuff for the manufacturers and dealers who are kind and committed enough to, for instance, have a dedicated support forum here.

Unless one is demanding performance metrics to back up assertions like "Customers know that MESH are the experts and that our combination of price and service cannot be beaten.", then demanding similar detail from people commenting on those assertions seems manifestly inequitable to say the least.

[exAndrzej]

...performance metrics...

This is the last time that I will post on this particular thread because I have put my view across already, but in terms of metrics you might want to try a little exercise...

Go back to the days when computer magazines had over 1,000 pages in them

Think about all of the major manufacturers that advertised PCs back then, including Escom, MJN, Time, Tiny, Opus, West One, PC Science, Holly, Fountain, KT, Gateway, Pacific, Mr PC, Multivision, Highmead, Maple, Atlantic, Colossus, Dan, Panrix, MESH, Evesham, etc...

We all know that the population is becoming more and more tech-savvy as the market matures

We also know that service and support are critical factors in influencing a customer's decision to buy

It is a reasonable metric to say that companies from that era who are still winning lots of reviews and supporting thousands and thousands of customers are 'expert' - and that it must be hard to get a better combination of price and product or they would simply no longer exist... i.e. customers will choose the 'winning deal'

I won't argue the point further, but I think having direct access to manufacturers is a great thing and I hope that more will join in the future

[nichomach]

By that "metric", Time made decent computers and provided WONDERFUL support; after all, they existed for donkeys' years and shifted a lot of units. Oh, and they got good reviews from magazines too. Shame that anyone who had to deal with their end users after their "support"...didn't...knows the truth. Frankly, I don't much care about magazine reviews anymore, since they never actually review the one thing that counts; support. Anyone can whang a seemingly good spec together at a cheap price, but it's what happens when it goes wrong that counts, or when an order is mismanaged.

If YOU want to try some metrics, compare the awards that say the READERS of PC Pro voted in 2004 against the editorial awards - for PCs and notebooks? No Mesh in the readers' awards for service and reliability, but surprise surprise, they're there in the editorial awards. Why? Because the latter are picked by journos who never actually have to rely on the companies providing the machines.

So, what does (or should) that tell you about magazine awards as opposed to actual end user experience? So, Joe User decides to buy a PC. Being a careful punter, he decides to do a bit of research, and sees BigPCCompany winning lots of awards in <insert name of magazine here>. He also sees big ads for BigPCCompany all through the mag, and buys from them. He doesn't factor in that although the machine has 2 or 3 years warranty, no-one's actually tested whether the support provided is any use - he takes it as read that it is. Yes, service and support are critical, as you say, but in terms of review coverage are almost ignored in the review process, and consequently Joe User has made a rational decision to buy a machine with support but in fact has made a very poorly informed decision. I had to laugh when I read:

Solid ‘repeat business’ means you don’t need to outspend your competitors on advertising in order to enjoy good revenue.

So if I go to my briefcase and take out this month's PC Pro, I won't see huge multipages from Mesh, then? Give me a break...

I agree that having direct access to manufacturers and suppliers is a good thing; I note and appreciate the involvement of people like yourself, and of those suppliers who have opened up dedicated support fora here. However, this interview isn't "direct access". At best, it's an opinion piece, at worst a piece of marketing puff; and as I noted that shouldn't oblige people to provide invoice details before they comment in what is not a support forum, but a forum for comment upon news articles, reviews and interviews.

edit: Sorry, this isn't an anti-Mesh diatribe, or isn't intended to be; I know that there are many worse manufacturers out there, and I don't actually have anything against them in particular. I just think that demanding order details off someone in order to allow them to comment on a news article or an interview is excessive and unjustified.

[autopilot]

Ah well, worse things happen at sea!

[Jonny M]

I'm going to jump on this "how the hell are Mesh still in business" bandwagon by referring to an incident in 2001 where a PC was delivered to us and a credit card charged without an order even being placed, the sales person said a credit check would be carried out and get back to us, then it seems they put the order through themselves, after some commission no doubt. Oh, and it took about 3 months to get the cash back. Once a company abuses your trust like that, there's not much left which can outweigh that.

There's also the fact that they are made of average components at best, I'd rather have a Dell / HP / Evesham etc system, at least I know what the support is like with those guys (read: great).

[exAndrzej]

...metrics... ...awards for service and reliability...

<irony> Dan Computers </irony>