my thoughts on scan computers

[rockcottage]

I agree with that, theres no way I would join a forum and contribute to those forums to simply make myself eligible for free delivery, in fact I actually think that a company who encourages that mentality is showing just how manipulative they are, ' join our forum and then we can boast how many members we have', ' we've got more than you,', bit worryingly immature really. I reckon they'd be far better boasting ' we will genuinely attempt to make our delivery prices as reasonable as we can '.

I totally agree...and better still...if its the same product at the same price (or lower) with free postage, then they get my business. No excuse for charging postage on items over £30. Profit margin is massive on certain items. I've just ordered two items from Ma**in and they've cost me £30 less than I would have paid at Scan. An e-mail has just arrived telling me they're despatched! Now that's service...

[Rob_B]

Cough, Cough... doesn't show that on the webpage! How does that work? Thanks for the info re' 5 posts. Mind you I'm sure a spammer could cope with making 5 posts before spamming!

Cough, Cough... doesn't show that on the webpage! How does that work? Thanks for the info re' 5 posts. Mind you I'm sure a spammer could cope with making 5 posts before spamming!

Never been able to understand why some want to Spam... Waste of time and effort.

Yes, quite...

[Chris P]

I've noticed that many retailers add VAT to postage costs. When I questioned this a few did refund. I took up the matter with Trading Standards and they told me it was a bit naughty but common practice. Even though it makes ...say a postage stamp cost above its face value - pointing that out didn't help my case. The excuse was always; cost of packaging. (Note to brain...use a company that offers free postage if the items the same price) That way you'll not be paying VAT on the postage and will feel better about it. Many companies operate on high profit margins, so there's no excuse to add such extras. I've actually discovered that in some cases its cheaper to buy electronic items from the USA; despite higher postage costs. Google 'til the cows come home until you get that "real" bargain.

Delivery is a service and so is VAT chargeable.

[Chris P]

I have used Scan computers for ages and up until recently have always considered them adequate. I don't get carried away with companies who supply computer components, it's a simple arrangement to me, I pay the money they require, they send me the goods, I won't 'pat' any company on the back for doing their job, nevertheless, I will make a conscious decision to use them again.
I purchased 4 items from scan on my last order, the delivery was prompt, the packaging substantial. Two of the items I recieved were in perfect condition, the dvd rom I recieved was broken, and I dont put broken components in computers.

The 4th item was a cpu cooler and fan, the box was already open, no thermal paste, screws missing, one of the alloy fins loose, basically, shoddy. I wasn't too bothered with the cooler, I had some thermal paste over from an existing build, I luckily had some screws and I simply clipped the alloy fin back into the retainer, but that isnt the point, it simply displays a total lack of quality control and adds some substance to customers who I have seen claiming they have recieved used goods.

I took photos of the dvd rom and sent them to scan, explaining via email, and on the phone the situation. For some reason, the brain donor on the phone kept repeating himself that the unit would have to be tested to see if it was faulty, I humoured him and asked him how that could be done, and he told me that ' technicians test them in test rigs to see if they are faulty'. So, again, I attempted to explain , in english, that I hadnt said it was faulty, at any point, and that I had provided, photos, and returned the unit , physically, so somebody who can 'see' the unit, can actually see that the unit is broken, damaged, I even 'spelled' B R O K E N and advised him to research the definiton.

I actually felt like I was talking to somebody who was stupid, I began to wonder if I had phoned the wrong place and was in fact talking to a 'rampton' inmate.

Now, countless emails, and guess what, I still dont have the dvd rom, just a pile of emails that say absolutely nothing, basically just 'empty words'.

Its a shame, Scan was a great complany, up there with the best, I wont be using them again and I wont recommend them to anybody I deal with within the industry until they sort their customer services department out, its embarassing. Saying that, I have worked for companies like this, I know they are just the 'gofors' who do as they are told.

Anybody can sell things, its not complicated, 50 million ebay sales in a year can tell you that much, ,, its when things go 'wrong' that a company has the opportunity to really make the impression, how quickly, efficiently and to what extent of satisfaction the customer receives are the things that matter.

I shouldn't have to be posting this message, I shouldn't be inconvenienced to the extent that I feel I have to make the public aware of a companies negligence , but ultimately this level of ineptitude costs me money too.

Theres just too many good companies out there now, but if and when Scan manage to get around to resolving this issue, (which could be quite a while, after all, the complications involved in replacing a dvd rom drive must be quite extensive, I just thank god almighty it wasn't a rubix cube) I will certainly update this thread accordingly,

I dont want to get 'over' accusatory and condemn Scan as being some kind of systematic con men, they arent, they just need to step back, take a good look and adapt, after all, mistakes happen, that's why there's a rubber on the end of a pencil.

nylonicyorks

Please post in the After Sales section with your Invoice Number & or RMA number so we can look into this.

Regards

[Chris P]

I agree with that, theres no way I would join a forum and contribute to those forums to simply make myself eligible for free delivery, in fact I actually think that a company who encourages that mentality is showing just how manipulative they are, ' join our forum and then we can boast how many members we have', ' we've got more than you,', bit worryingly immature really. I reckon they'd be far better boasting ' we will genuinely attempt to make our delivery prices as reasonable as we can '.

nylonicyorks

Thanks for the feedback, immature, manipulative wasnt the feedback we expected for offering a FREE next day service but you have your opinion, if be it misguided ( In my opinion )

The SCAN2HEXUS free delivery was launched to give back to our customer's, it certainly isnt compulsary or a right, more of a privilage and if you belive you are being manipulated the FREE service doesnt need to be activated.

Our carriage charges for paying customer's are good starting from £3.99 + VAT for a next day service.

Best Regards

[Chris P]

I totally agree...and better still...if its the same product at the same price (or lower) with free postage, then they get my business. No excuse for charging postage on items over £30. Profit margin is massive on certain items. I've just ordered two items from Ma**in and they've cost me £30 less than I would have paid at Scan. An e-mail has just arrived telling me they're despatched! Now that's service...

I would be extremely interested in you confirming to me, which item you were able to but from Maplin for £ 30 less from SCAN. This certainly shouldnt happen and something we can look into with the Supplier's.

Only had a quick look and it jogged my memory as to what a bad experience I've had. As for invoice numbers...Its a bit too late for that as I stopped going to Scan after the last episode. Waiting ages to get served only to find that the item in the boxes had been out before or were some sort of refurbished stock.
Last thing I bought was an external hard drive for £100. Got it home and discovered it was also a return of somekind with power supply and leads missing. On returning it to the store. I had to wait yonks for service and the counter staff accused me of removing the items and trying to pull a fast one! Since then I've dealt with Maplin. On average a bit more expensive, but they've never let me down or insulted me.
I have to add that friends of mine are reasonably happy with Scan, despite, at times, having had similar, but less problems. From the experience of all my colleagues and friends, it seems a chap has to go back to the store a second time before the product is up to scratch. Maybe we are just unlucky?

You have raised some very strong points here and I understand that allowing us to look into the issues you have raised may not resolve this now, however after raising these points publicaly I would like to be given the opportunity to verify the points you have raised.

If you are happy for us to do so then I can give you my personal E-mail address, all I need would be your post code to view your order history and notes.

Best Regards



Regards

[rockcottage]

I would be extremely interested in you confirming to me, which item you were able to but from Maplin for £ 30 less from SCAN. This certainly shouldnt happen and something we can look into with the Supplier's.



You have raised some very strong points here and I understand that allowing us to look into the issues you have raised may not resolve this now, however after raising these points publicaly I would like to be given the opportunity to verify the points you have raised.

If you are happy for us to do so then I can give you my personal E-mail address, all I need would be your post code to view your order history and notes.

Best Regards



Regards

Hi
One item is a 1TB external Hard Drive. However, its the postage costs that I find unnacceptable.If Maplin can do it at no extra cost, so can Scan. Its more important than ever to stay competitive these days. Its bad enough that VAT is so high and about to increase. Also, Maplin always give discount via vouchers, this can really help buyers to pick up a bargain.
At NO extra cost. Items are delivered the following day.
Hope this is helpful. I can't offer you my details due to the nature of my "business" (Security)

Cheers

Richard

[kalniel]

Hi
One item is a 1TB external Hard Drive.

I can't see anything £30 cheaper at Maplin that fits this description. The closest is if you compare a maplin today only deal to Scan's non-offer, and maplin only ends up being £10 cheaper, when it's normally £20 dearer.

[Chris P]

rockcottage

There are offer's available online for a 1TB Seagate® FreeAgent™ External Drive, which usually sells for £89.99, the offer is for £30 less, than their standard Retail price not £30 less than SCAN.

With prices and margins such as this I don't see it difficult to offer a temporary offer, plus free carriage, which is only £ 8.83 cheaper than our standard Price.

We prefer to offer consistently low prices by buying directly from the manufacturer, where possible, we do genuinly offer on a low profit margin and we also offer a FREE next day delivery service, we do also have the Today Only page where products are sold through at an even lower cost and free next day delivery still also available.

I'm not saying that every product at SCAN is the cheapest, it isn't, many etailer's have adopted the approach of being the cheapest at what ever cost and have failed, we are still here 20+ Years later, holding genuine stock and we believe we offer a good service at a good price, backed up through the awards we have.

I can't offer you my details due to the nature of my "business" (Security)

I can only look at the same details, which you would already have offered if you have placed orders with us.

Regards

[TAKTAK]

I agree with that, theres no way I would join a forum and contribute to those forums to simply make myself eligible for free delivery, in fact I actually think that a company who encourages that mentality is showing just how manipulative they are, ' join our forum and then we can boast how many members we have', ' we've got more than you,', bit worryingly immature really. I reckon they'd be far better boasting ' we will genuinely attempt to make our delivery prices as reasonable as we can '.

How are SCAN encouraging it? They don't have it splashed all over their website, you only know about it because i mentioned that active HEXUS users were eligible and linked to an appropriate thread. That's me encouraging it, not SCAN...

This isn't SCANs forum, this is HEXUS' forum, SCAN pay for the privilege of having a forum section here...
As do the other care@HEXUS entities past, present and future, from Lian Li, Mesh etc. right up to the current day of SCAN, Corsair, Antec etc

SCAN offer an additional service to the active users for no extra cost (to the user), much like they used to offer to Bit-Tech and still do offer to AVForums (Although there is alot of user crossover anyway).

It makes sense from a business point of view to offer an incentive over normal users to what is your high spend user base.

Namely, because we're the sort of people that will chuck thousands of quid through them without batting an eyelid thanks to the support we see and have had...

One big one stands out to me, the MSI promotion, where SCAN accidentaly released their stock early, so they offered some more boards up to forum users, the next day i got a call from Paul to sort everything. And that was that, saving me ~£60. SCAN didn't have to do it, but they went beyond the call of duty to fix a problem.

[jim]

SCAN offer an additional service to the active users for no extra cost (to the user), much like they used to offer to Bit-Tech and still do offer to AVForums (Although there is alot of user crossover anyway).

They've started again

[mightymouse]

so far my dealings with scan have been great. in fact i just spoke to them this afternoon to try and get a sneaky discount but since i am buying it on corporate so no go there... the person on the other end, explained why and gave me quite a valid answer. I was happy enough to proceed. I think the most important thing is to see both sides of the argument and try to be fair sometimes.

Also regarding the OP's ipod touch. if it was me I would have just gone to an apple store. It is a hassle and yes scan should do whatever they did but then you would have got a one for one swap. Albeit some are refurb but it looks just like brand new and you can have them test it for you.

I returned my imac 24" three times for repairs at an apple store and eventually they swapped a brand new 27" just for my troubles.

Just a thought

[nylonicyorks]

What would be worth noting with my comment, regarding 'free postage for forum users' is that I didn't actually mention Scan.
Scan arent the only company to offer free postage to forum users. My observation was directed at 'any and all' companies that adopt that mentality.
Nobody minds paying postage, it would be ridiculous to expect free postage on small , inexpensive items, but people are far more aware of postage costs thesedays, probably because of ebay, we all know how much it costs to package and post items.
I just priced two vga coolers on the scan site, two of the same models, the postage was £8.21. Now, please dont start explaining 'how' I can get cheaper postage. I am familar with that, its like an 'echo' in this forum.
I am simply saying that £8.21 isn't at all reasonable, which basically takes this back to my orginal thread, regarding p&p.

Scan were slow and somewhat naive in dealing with my particular problem, but nevertheless they did resolve the problem, and of course I recognize and appreciate there are 'procedures',

As somebody mentioned, this is a hexus forum, a place for folk to voice thier experiences and options regarding any issues, whether they be good or not so good.

I like the idea that a forum can offer advice, opinons and unknown information regarding products etc, but, and I mean this with respect, as it obvious that there are individuals employed by Scan who are making the effort within this forum to resolve issues, I just cant help but think issues shouldnt get as far as forums with all the existing options of customer care, customer services on offer.

[Funkstar]

I arent comfortable with the idea that this is becoming a forum where customer complaints are addressed and resolved by company employees.

What do you mean "becoming"? That is exactly what the Scan support forums are for, that is what Scan pay HEXUS to provide. Sure in this particular forum other users can chip in, but in other sections, like the After Sales forum, it is for the original poster and Scan employees only, others chipping in will have their posts removed.

[nylonicyorks]

Just my opinion, but the point being there would be the particular part you chose not to include,

I just cant help but think issues shouldnt get as far as forums with all the existing options of customer care, customer services on offer.


Respect.

[Robert]

It's funny how we're seeing a slew of posts from new guys...

And some of the comments made by said guys do make me despair.

I agree with that, theres no way I would join a forum and contribute to those forums to simply make myself eligible for free delivery, in fact I actually think that a company who encourages that mentality is showing just how manipulative they are, ' join our forum and then we can boast how many members we have', ' we've got more than you,', bit worryingly immature really. I reckon they'd be far better boasting ' we will genuinely attempt to make our delivery prices as reasonable as we can '.

What on earth are you going on about? I've never read such drivel in all of my life.

What's really immature is the garbage that you're posting. I'd be happy if you were making constructive discussion, but you aren't.

And some of the comments RE failing components...er what? How in God's name is that Scan's fault?