My experiences with a 3XS system

[coldpenguin]

I have got to say that I am really disappointed by my experience with Scan and their 3XS system I recently purchased.

I used to buy a lot of equipment from Scan both personal and business, but stopped after really poor delivery by their chosen delivery company, CityLink.
I also used to build my own desktops, but after my 5 year old one recently started playing up, I decided I didn't have enough time to build one at the moment, and apparently as 3XS had good reviews, and there was a new delivery system (DPD) I thought I would give it a go.

Kinda wish I hadn't.

I ordered the system in December. Ok, to be fair, it was the 30th December, and I was expecting the delivery to be slow due to holidays, and supposed increased work-load due to the VAT rise. So don't get too hung up on December.

But I have only just received the system. When I have emailed Scan requesting updates, or replying to queries they had, I didn't get a response on several occasions, and when I did get a response, it was usually more than a day later. I made it quite clear in the setup of the computer how I wanted the 4 disks configured. Not exactly difficult, SSD for OS, Two 1TB disks in raid 1 mirror for data, and I was going to use the 4th 2TB disk for internal backups. Yet I am still contacted again to ask how I want the machine configured. I respond with the same information, that I want user data configured for the second virtual disk, i.e. the D: .

I originally ordered with an invoice address, and a delivery address. I emailed on several occasions, and also asked twice on the telephone that the machine be eventually delivered to the INVOICE ADDRESS, due to the likelyhood of it being delayed. (when I ordered in the past, it was necessary for Scan to check both the invoice address and delivery address when used with a credit card, so I gave both in this case, just-in-case I needed to move delivery).

At the beginning of January, I get an email stating they are checking/reserving stock. On/around the 14th, I get a similar email.

Around the 20th January (can't be bothered to find the exact date), I am informed that the speakers for the order are not longer a stocked item. (so why wasn't this picked up when they reserved the stock?). I email back to ask for the removal of the item from the order. They are common speakers and can be gotten from many other places at the same price, just a couple of quid delivery charge, no biggie.

On the 23rd January I had to call up to find out where the system was, and was told that my previous email had been received, but hadn't been read. It would be out for delivery soon. I also complain about the fact that my credit card has been charged more than what the online invoice states. Apparently there is a minor bug where you get charged 3 times for delivery on your credit card, rather than the twice it shows on the invoice. I am told this will be sorted. The 25th is slated for delivery.

On the 27th I call up to find out what is happening, when will I be contacted for delivery? I get an email from the 'courier company' a day later stating that arrangements had not yet been made, and they would contact me in 24 working hours about delivery.

3 working days later I contact scan again to find out what is happening to both the refund (it is actually a week after the original query). I am told that this will be dealt with soon, and to ?Sanjay?'s credit, this did get fixed now. As to the delivery time, all I am told is it is out for delivery. I ask for confirmation that the address was changed. Unfortunately, it seems that delivery by DPD is not an option (although I got a tracking number for the DPD delivery), this is in the process of being fixed too aparently.

I am contacted around an hour later whilst I am in a meeting to confirm that there will be a delivery made on Friday 4th Feb. I cannot really talk, and the person calling me was very out-of-breath, so it is a quick conversation.

Friday comes and goes. No delivery, at least, not to the invoice address as requested. Instead I am informed later that it was delivered to the old address.

So I have to arrange collection from this address to myself.

Now when I get to the computer finally,
User data is on the SSD, seems that a lot of people have this problem, they request that user data is on d:, but this instruction is not followed, even though scan state on here they are looking into it
The setup of the fans on the system are done in a very strange fashion.
Although the order contained two fans which were identical, Apache 120mm, one of these is missing. A push-pull situation has been set up on the CPU cooler (this in itself is OK), using one apache fan controlled by the CPU Fan control of the motherboard, and then a second fan, an akasa 120 has been installed opposite it, controlled by the chassis control for the motherboard. This is silly. Both fans should have been from the same control point for a start, otherwise the system cannot succesfully use its control mechanisms (a standard Y-cable is easy enough to get, Scan could have added the £3 cable to the order, or perhaps even taken the hit on it). And if you are going to set up a push-pull on the system, you should use the same types of fan, otherwise one fan is going to be over-worked (either a positive or nagative effect from the other fan).
Also one of the fans from the system is missing completely.

Accidently missing off one of two identical fans from an order, is semi-reasonable (sometimes people cannot count).
Throwing away a fan supplied with the system is not really acceptable.
Some slight delays from being busy is acceptable, but to be honest, it seems that Scan are more dis-organised than just over-worked.
It shouldn't be necessary to have to chase updates on a system (no matter how busy you are, over a day to respond to a simple answer is not good)
It shouldn't have been necessary to chase the repayment of the money (I accept that the original over-charge is an honest mistake, but how many other people have been caught by this? My main problem is that I had to chase again a week later)

Edit:
Ok, so a bit of an apology on the fan front. I have checked the model number of the two fans on the CPU cooler. One appears to be retail, the other perhaps just an OEM version of the same fan, still doesn't excuse the fact they are plugged into different PWM controls.
Also, I have located the other Antec fan, it was set up as an exhaust fan, at the front of the case, and not plugged in. So had it been connected, it would have drawn hot air across my hard disks and SSD.

[coldpenguin]

Well that just about sums up my day now. I noticed glitches on the new screen, (not monitor 1 for some reason), so ran the burn-in test software. It recorded memory errors quite quickly. I took a screenshot of these, and then rebooted. I selected the non-overclock profile, and booted again. I started the test again. Went out of the room for a couple of minutes, and when I came back, both screens were blank.
Rebooted the machine, and took the side off, the mem-ok light was lit constant. Tried pressing the switch, and the light flashed and went off.
Machine doesn't appear to post any more. Now the power button appears to be instant off.

Looks like I will be calling in Scan onsite support for this.

[nick_h]

Return it under DSR and build your own.

[Disturbedguy]

Return it under DSR and build your own.

He said himself that he wanted the system built for him as he doesn't have the time now.

Cold, it could be a RAM issue. Try taking all of the RAM out and try booting one stick at a time, in the different slots too. I had a faulty stick in mine which I had to remove to get my system to boot.

Will also be returning it as faulty and getting replacement, next week.

[nick_h]

Yes he did but he's not happy with the service he has recieved. In the same position I would return it under DSR. Perhaps because the system took so long to arrive he now has time ?

[coldpenguin]

I do now feel as if I have more time to build a system than I had two months ago.
However, although I am very p***ed off with scan, I don't see a lot of point returning the items, just to buy them from another place.
Now that it has been delivered that is. Last week I was at the point of considering cancelling the order, but was actually too busy to do it.

However, I also believe that DSR covers mainly items, and not custom services. Although the items are apparently faulty, I could claim this as the reason for refund.

I have taken out all 3 dimms, and placed one into slot A1, and pressed the Mem-ok button, still no effect.
I am actually thinking that it is not a RAM fault. If it were, I would not expect the system to instant off. Usually if a RAM fault occurs that is capable of stopping a system from displaying a POST, it will also have hung the processor. This means that it would require the ATX over-ride of pressing the button for 10 seconds before the system will turn off.
(I usually set the bios to 4-seconds, but I didn't in this case, haven't had it for long enough!)

I think I shall ask for an onsite call, and if the response is that it needs to go back, then I shall have to see whether it is worthwhile it being sent back to me or not.

[Webmonkie]

I hope you get it sorted out, I have to say I think the level of service from Scan as dropped over the last few years.

[Disturbedguy]

I hope you get it sorted out, I have to say I think the level of service from Scan as dropped over the last few years.

Thing is though, while SCAN do have there bad points, people are very quick to post complaints but never praize.

Cold himself says he used to buy a lot from SCAN..not one word of praise or a well done SCAN, yet seemingly the first time they screw up, he posts about it, im not saying he cant or that he is wrong, but people only ever see the bad stuff posted about any company, never the good stuff.

I will be rma'ing some RAM next week, so I will hold my judgement on how "bad" they have got until then.

I am actually thinking that it is not a RAM fault. If it were, I would not expect the system to instant off. Usually if a RAM fault occurs that is capable of stopping a system from displaying a POST, it will also have hung the processor. This means that it would require the ATX over-ride of pressing the button for 10 seconds before the system will turn off.
(I usually set the bios to 4-seconds, but I didn't in this case, haven't had it for long enough!)

I had an issue with my RAM last week where the system refused to boot, it would boot, give a black screen, if I was lucky display the post screen, pressing the power button once turned the entire system off, removing the RAM, it worked.

If they wont give an onsite, which they should if thats what the warranty states it covers then they probably will, I'm still betting on it being RAM related.

[coldpenguin]

Cold himself says he used to buy a lot from SCAN..not one word of praise or a well done SCAN, yet seemingly the first time they screw up, he posts about it, im not saying he cant or that he is wrong, but people only ever see the bad stuff posted about any company, never the good stuff.

....

If they wont give an onsite, which they should if thats what the warranty states it covers then they probably will, I'm still betting on it being RAM related.

I used to buy a lot from Scan, and at that time, I did praise them and recommend them to people. But that was quite some time ago (5+ years). I stopped using them. The main reason was actually about their courier company. Although, 3 or 4 years back I did purchase a set of 12 disks (NS) for a raid system, from scan again to give them another chance. They were substituted for cheaper AS disks without any warning. Given the system they were going in, AS really were not really suitable.

This was intended as a truthful record of my experience. If there had been anything positive, it would have been recorded. Perhaps I should say that I only had to download 430MB of updates from the windows update site before I started to install my work programs?

I mean an onsite FTF, perhaps I am being too cynical as I am dealing a lot with Dell and HP, and although the claims there are NBD Engineer FTF, it rarely is.
The basic warranty on the 3XS system was listed as Year 1 onsite, Year 2 RTB

[coldpenguin]

An update on this.

Ben called me back after I left a voicemail for Scan technical on Monday. It was agreed that Scan would send a replacement graphics card and I could fit it.

Fitted the card last night, and the system is now back to life. Have briefly run the stress test and the memory fault wasn't there (will re-run fully when I have a bit more time). Temperatures seem lower than they were previously (extra fan fitted though).
Only concerning thing was that items in the BIOS and profiles had possibly changed, have sent this to Scan for their perusal. The machines that I usually deal with don't have profiles, but I wouldn't have expected them to change.

Just a quick note on the AWR. Scan requested that I confirm by email that if the return is not received within 7 days to 14 days, they are authorised to take payment for the item from the credit card. This is a relatively common practice in consumer tech, companies.

Anyway, many thanks to Ben for sorting out the AWR, and fingers crossed this is the end of any problems.

[fadsarmy]

I have got to say that I am really disappointed by my experience with Scan and their 3XS system I recently purchased.

I used to buy a lot of equipment from Scan both personal and business, but stopped after really poor delivery by their chosen delivery company, CityLink.
I also used to build my own desktops, but after my 5 year old one recently started playing up, I decided I didn't have enough time to build one at the moment, and apparently as 3XS had good reviews, and there was a new delivery system (DPD) I thought I would give it a go.

Kinda wish I hadn't.

I ordered the system in December. Ok, to be fair, it was the 30th December, and I was expecting the delivery to be slow due to holidays, and supposed increased work-load due to the VAT rise. So don't get too hung up on December.

But I have only just received the system. When I have emailed Scan requesting updates, or replying to queries they had, I didn't get a response on several occasions, and when I did get a response, it was usually more than a day later. I made it quite clear in the setup of the computer how I wanted the 4 disks configured. Not exactly difficult, SSD for OS, Two 1TB disks in raid 1 mirror for data, and I was going to use the 4th 2TB disk for internal backups. Yet I am still contacted again to ask how I want the machine configured. I respond with the same information, that I want user data configured for the second virtual disk, i.e. the D: .

I originally ordered with an invoice address, and a delivery address. I emailed on several occasions, and also asked twice on the telephone that the machine be eventually delivered to the INVOICE ADDRESS, due to the likelyhood of it being delayed. (when I ordered in the past, it was necessary for Scan to check both the invoice address and delivery address when used with a credit card, so I gave both in this case, just-in-case I needed to move delivery).

At the beginning of January, I get an email stating they are checking/reserving stock. On/around the 14th, I get a similar email.

Around the 20th January (can't be bothered to find the exact date), I am informed that the speakers for the order are not longer a stocked item. (so why wasn't this picked up when they reserved the stock?). I email back to ask for the removal of the item from the order. They are common speakers and can be gotten from many other places at the same price, just a couple of quid delivery charge, no biggie.

On the 23rd January I had to call up to find out where the system was, and was told that my previous email had been received, but hadn't been read. It would be out for delivery soon. I also complain about the fact that my credit card has been charged more than what the online invoice states. Apparently there is a minor bug where you get charged 3 times for delivery on your credit card, rather than the twice it shows on the invoice. I am told this will be sorted. The 25th is slated for delivery.

On the 27th I call up to find out what is happening, when will I be contacted for delivery? I get an email from the 'courier company' a day later stating that arrangements had not yet been made, and they would contact me in 24 working hours about delivery.

3 working days later I contact scan again to find out what is happening to both the refund (it is actually a week after the original query). I am told that this will be dealt with soon, and to ?Sanjay?'s credit, this did get fixed now. As to the delivery time, all I am told is it is out for delivery. I ask for confirmation that the address was changed. Unfortunately, it seems that delivery by DPD is not an option (although I got a tracking number for the DPD delivery), this is in the process of being fixed too aparently.

I am contacted around an hour later whilst I am in a meeting to confirm that there will be a delivery made on Friday 4th Feb. I cannot really talk, and the person calling me was very out-of-breath, so it is a quick conversation.

Friday comes and goes. No delivery, at least, not to the invoice address as requested. Instead I am informed later that it was delivered to the old address.

So I have to arrange collection from this address to myself.

Now when I get to the computer finally,
User data is on the SSD, seems that a lot of people have this problem, they request that user data is on d:, but this instruction is not followed, even though scan state on here they are looking into it
The setup of the fans on the system are done in a very strange fashion.
Although the order contained two fans which were identical, Apache 120mm, one of these is missing. A push-pull situation has been set up on the CPU cooler (this in itself is OK), using one apache fan controlled by the CPU Fan control of the motherboard, and then a second fan, an akasa 120 has been installed opposite it, controlled by the chassis control for the motherboard. This is silly. Both fans should have been from the same control point for a start, otherwise the system cannot succesfully use its control mechanisms (a standard Y-cable is easy enough to get, Scan could have added the £3 cable to the order, or perhaps even taken the hit on it). And if you are going to set up a push-pull on the system, you should use the same types of fan, otherwise one fan is going to be over-worked (either a positive or nagative effect from the other fan).
Also one of the fans from the system is missing completely.

Accidently missing off one of two identical fans from an order, is semi-reasonable (sometimes people cannot count).
Throwing away a fan supplied with the system is not really acceptable.
Some slight delays from being busy is acceptable, but to be honest, it seems that Scan are more dis-organised than just over-worked.
It shouldn't be necessary to have to chase updates on a system (no matter how busy you are, over a day to respond to a simple answer is not good)
It shouldn't have been necessary to chase the repayment of the money (I accept that the original over-charge is an honest mistake, but how many other people have been caught by this? My main problem is that I had to chase again a week later)

Edit:
Ok, so a bit of an apology on the fan front. I have checked the model number of the two fans on the CPU cooler. One appears to be retail, the other perhaps just an OEM version of the same fan, still doesn't excuse the fact they are plugged into different PWM controls.
Also, I have located the other Antec fan, it was set up as an exhaust fan, at the front of the case, and not plugged in. So had it been connected, it would have drawn hot air across my hard disks and SSD.

You could have built a system in the time you spent typing this post.

[usxhe190]

You could have built a system in the time you spent typing this post.

He already brought the system.

[coldpenguin]

You could have built a system in the time you spent typing this post.

It does depend a bit on how long it takes one to type I suppose
I was also taking the opportunity to type it up whilst Visual studio and all my other stuff installed.

He already brought the system.

Quite, if I had this amount of time two months ago when I purchased it, then it might have been an option, but as you correctly say, I already have it bought now.

[coldpenguin]

Item has been marked as being received, and also credit authorised now from some emails that I got today. So hopefully that is now that for this (as charging for the item shouldn't have been authorised in the first place, as it was received back within 7 days).

The return of the faulty item has gone pretty much without a hitch