Not exactly the best impression made

[LSG501]

Not exactly the best way to start a membership on a forum, my first post is I suppose a complaint and maybe even a bit of a rant!

Warning may be a long post but I think a bit of history is needed too

Now I'll be honest, I try to keep an open mind when it comes to online shopping, we all know what can happen but I thought having read all the good reviews of scan and their customer focused attitude that I would have a service that rivals any other company. Here's my history so far, I have made three orders, but I'll start at the beginning so you can see why I'm not overly impressed so far.

first order was for well basically a whole computer, some stock was out of stock at time of purchase and so I knew there would be a delay. So I wait for the delayed items to come in, minus the money from my account (losing me interest) only to find out on the day that all the items have supposedly come into stock that an item was missed off the out of stock listing, but I'd checked and this item had been in stock during the period I was waiting and still was when I queried it.

Get the products and find the 2 silverstone hard drive cases are missing their plugs (didnt realise straight away, more concerned with the pc build) and the case is missing a fan that is advertised (I'll give scan credit on sending it out at a later date) as having

I then find out one of the products is faulty after about 2 months use, get it replaced but can't just have my money back even though I have bought another motherboard due to not getting a response from scan in over 2 days and needing the pc for my business. When I do get a response I have to send it back to them fully packaged at my own expense with no apparent compensation for cost of postage (something most companies I've had to deal with rma's do), which is not cheap when they specifically state on the rma page that scan prefer us to use a registered delivery.

Just found out that another part of the original order is faulty too, but this has been responded to rapidly and should be rectified next week, again at my expense (thats nearly £15 in total extra now).

Now as I said I try to keep an open mind with online shopping so I thought I'll give scan another go. The order which involved the replacement motherboard went smoothly, I also made sure everything was in stock this time.

So I think that obviously to get the best service make sure everything is listed as in stock.

And onto my latest experiences with an order. At the time of ordering (26/6/06) ALL products were listed as being in stock on the website and I get to stage two by 2.30pm, having ordered around 1.30. I then wait for stage 3 and 4 but I don't get a response until the next day saying one item is out of stock with a lead date of 3/8/2006, the site is still listing the product (shuttle dvdrw black -LN10283) as preorder but I have not been informed when or if the product is coming into stock again. It would be nice to know this due to the fact I have 2/3rds of a pc built sitting waiting for the psu and raid card in the order which were all ordered at the same time but from another online store.

I personally now feel that it is not a wise option to purchase via scan online, the communication of information which in my view is important especially for those who work during the day and require a day off to collect the item, seems to be lacking in its urgency.

The stock status on the website needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, why isnt there a system that links into the stock of the warehouse/store and deducts purchases as they are made and then updates the status on the webpage, its possible because other stores employ it. Or even at the very least order more stock earlier.

A suggestion which may keep customers a little happier too, well it would have kept me happier, put an option available to customers to have the products dispatched in two packages when items are out of stock, to recoup the additional cost, stop the free gifts, the last one I had is now basically sitting in a drawer due to me buying one anyways.

And now a question which wasnt answered in my recent rma request.

What is the policy in regards to the cost of postage of faulty goods under warranty conditions?.

Sorry all for the long post but I felt this needed to be said, I've never had service/stock issues like this with, arguably, Scan's main rivals

[LSG501]

UPDATE:

I have now been informed that the product I have ordered and was found to be out of stock has undeterminate delay due to supply issues

I only found this out AFTER I HAD ASKED, I should not need to have to chase up why a product is still delayed, I have now had to do this on two orders.

For a company that has
"SCAN is arguably the UK's most customer focussed retailer of PC technology" in the forum title this is not exactly what I would class as customer focused


Now for those wondering why I have kept the order this long, scan is the only place selling the 5 port raid card and tagan 480w psu that I want.

[Lee H]

Let me first of all apologise for any inconvenience you have had when ordering from us.

If you drop me any invoice reference numbers I can get this checked for you and see when the goods are going to be arriving.

Please note - a few things are getting a bit hard to get at the moment due to the RoHS laws coming into force, but manufacturers are slowly picking up production and things are starting to get what I would call as back to normal.

Best Regards,

[LSG501]

thanks for the reply, I have since cancelled the part of the order which was the cause of the dealy. I have also had the email saying dispatch code etc so the rest should be here tomorrow

It just would have been nice to have known that there were supplier issues, I could have saved the wait of over a week, and I thought this the best place to raise the issue and suggest the things above.

Now is there any chance that you could answer the question I seem to be having difficulties getting an answer to

What is the situation in regards to return postage costs under warranty conditions?

[wesleyaldred]

Please refer to our Terms & Conditions :

http://www.scan.co.uk/Terms.ASP

Everything regarding returns is in there, It's hard to answer your question here becuase the answer varies dependant upon different conditions / factors / time past since purchase. ETC

If you want to PM me with more in depth details of your situation i will reply directly for you taking your circumstances into account.

Wesley

[Wills]

Well, his first post seem pretty in depth to me . . .

[wesleyaldred]

As I said all of the answers are in the Terms & Conditions.

[LSG501]

As soon as I get my other pc back up to get to my emails stored there I will pm the info requested

In regards to the return of my postage costs being in the terms and conditions, this is not clearly defined in my view, if it is there can I please have a copy and paste.

In regards my initial post and the delayed order

I'm now even more annoyed, Scan sent the email to me monday morning (after I asked how much longer for the drive) saying that they had no lead date to when the shuttle drive would be coming in. The product is now in stock again on the site.

How can your stock/order control not know if you have a product coming in within the next 48 or less hours when you can give an estimated arrival date over a week after the initial order?

Because I was informed that "we are still no closer to obtaining any lead date" I cancelled that part of the order and have since ordered else where at additional cost.

It would also appear that the today only "free gift" (bought tagan psu) was out of stock because I didnt receive the lan port splitter

[DavidM]

It does actually explain on TodayOnly that the free gifts are while stocks last. The order may well have been placed in between more of them arriving.

[nvening]

All the companies i have ever RMAd to have made me pay for sending it back, it seems to be the done thing now, it keeps costs down and i dont really have a problem with it.

Free gifts can go out of stock but they are generally not actually that great so i wouldnt complain too much.

The only thing i can find about charging for sending faulty products back is

In any case where the goods fail to meet your expectations we invite you to return them to us with an explanation of the problem.

Note it says YOU are invited to send them back meaning YOU pay for it.

However i agree its not too clear but thats for scans legal team to decide.

[Ozymandias]

If you send something back under the Distance Selling Rules then it seems fair that the purchaser should pay the return postage. If the items fails under warranty / is DOA then it doesn't seem unreasonable for the vendor to pay - but the rules do seem a little unclear.

[LSG501]

It does actually explain on TodayOnly that the free gifts are while stocks last. The order may well have been placed in between more of them arriving.

I wasnt disputing that I was just noting that it was missing

EDIT: as for returning faulty packages - most of the companies I have had to deal with do pay for return postage or a percentage of assuming the goods are faulty

[BigBry]

Yep, if it's faulty the postage cost should be paid (or subsequently refunded) if it's found to be faulty when the supplier tests it.

[Koolpc]

Well, be glad that you bought from Scan anyway as if you bought from some other companies out there you would be in a real pickle!! Scan will sort everything out for you mate. A lot better than most PC companies.