3XS System build process - Customer service experience

Like other I took a quick look on these forums to get an idea of what the customer experience is like.
I'd like to share my experience to assist Scan and future customers.

3rd September
Order placed and paid for.
Email received indicating up to 14 days delivery

10th September
Email received indicating potential stock issues (but would be resolved in a couple of days)
Build booked in for 20th September with completion date estimate of 25th September

19th September
Email received indicating build still scheduled for 20th Septmber, but a part was out of stock.
Requested to select alternative to avoid delay.
Promptly called to customer service to select in stock alternative. Email recieved confirming change.

20th September
Called customer service to confirm build on schedule.
Customer service confirmed build on schedule

24th September
Called customer service to confirm on schedule
Customer service advise build should be ready for collection on 25th Setember, but to call again if email not received on 25th September

25th Sepember
In response to another call to customer service received an email indicating that everything is 4 to 5 days behind schedule. No date given for build and completion.

I not in a postion to comment on final build quality, but it would be fair to say I am disappointed with the quality of communication to date. I opted for a pre-built system because I though it would be a painless process.

Of course this only one side of a story. I would welcome Scan checking my version of events and highlighting any differences.

I have to agree, the customer experience with Scan is pretty bottom of the barrel.

I'm on my second 3XS system order, the previous was 2 years ago. The same phone calls, the same emails, the same mistakes.

I also ordered a "Ready To Ship" system at the start of the month, a Monday. Payment cleared two days later, and I had to chase them for order progress. By the Friday I'd been informed my build would be ready by the 18th October, and was given a build & invoice number for build tracking.

They'd given me someone else's tracking link.

That took until Monday night to sort out (you won't get an email response during the day unless you're asking for quotes, and my phone calls led to more emails). The new date was for the 25th October (today). I emailed 2 days ago asking if the build would be ready, as it was still at Stage 2. Two minutes ago I got a reply saying they're over-loaded with work and it's going to be another 3-4 days.

So I get two things from this:

1. Ready To Ship is a lie.

2. They're busy, so business is good. For them. (good tip: Hire people and deliver on promises).

This is the last time I use Scan, and I won't recommend them to anyone else. Everyone that works for me has already been told to avoid them like the plague. They build really great systems, but they're completely useless as a reliable supplier.

I recently slapped down £1400 for a new PC- my first order with Scan was back in 2006 when i built the computer myself.

I do not think that they are bad company- in fact the quality of the goods is great.

I think they just need to be honest about expectations - I work for a Huge retailer and we frequently find ourselves in situations where we can not ship for weeks - but - what we do is to over estimate and be honest about the situation.

Because of this, when we beat that estimate the customers are very happy!

If, Scan decided to call me and say hey look, I'm sorry but we are behind and we really want to get this right so it will be with you on 28 days- I would be fine.

I would not call. I would snot email because I know what to expect.

The over promise- under deliver option is what is letting the side down.