Refound 980 Ti and very poor customer service

[Maxwell]

I've decided to remove my 980 ti from the Azure build and to my surprize I've received a refund of 487£ when it should be more like 569£ and honestly I got tyred to call them every time and get charged like 10£ waiting for someone to pick up and help me. I changed the motherboard a few days ago and i paid an extra 59£ because it is a review computer and it was discounted so this time they should not charge extra.

 

[SteveT]

This may not be the most timely news for you but Edgy just posted that he spoke to them this morning and that Asus have just resolved the problem and PCS are going ahead with all the delayed builds

 

[mantadog]

The review computers are sold at a fairly chunky discount, so presuming you are getting the £569 figure from the configurator or the upgrade section then it will be incorrect. The review computers have certain parts that are heavily discounted and therefor they wont refund you the price you would pay on the upgrade/configurator sections because you didn't pay that in the first place.

 

[Maxwell]

I don't know what to belive anymore. It was a very bad experience buying from them.

 

[Maxwell]

From what i understand, if you change a component to the review system you will pay the full price. Which i did and the refund was not the full price.

 

[SlimCini]

So what did you pay for the build? Review price of £1499 or configured price of £1800 approx?

 

[Maxwell]

So what did you pay for the build? Review price of £1499 or configured price of £1800 approx?

1839£ In total and after that I have removed the video card and i recived a 487£ refund

 

[ubuysa]

I can understand that you're disappointed but I'm at a loss to see where the "poor customer service" that you mention in your thread title has come from? Can you explain where the service you seem to have received has been poor?

From what you've said it appears that you bought a review computer and then wanted to make a change, which PCS made. That seems like excellent customer service to me, most other vendors would not even consider changes to a discounted review machine. Remember that because of your change PCS now have to spend time and effort messing about with a review build, something they wouldn't normally expect to have to do. Who do you imagine pays for that time and effort?

You also say that "it was a very bad experience buying from them". What has been bad about your experience? You bought a review machine and then wanted to change it, and PCS made the change for you. What's bad about that? You're complaining because you didn't want to pay anything at all for the change, that's not bad service from PCS it's you wanting something for nothing. Had you placed a regular order for a computer configured by yourself and then been charged for making a change pre-build you might have been justified in complaining that you'd been badly served, but that's not what happened is it?

This is one of a small number of threads being posted lately by people who expected PCS to move Heaven and Earth just for them and charge them nothing for doing so. When they don't get what they want, for nothing, and delivered immediately, they naively think that posting threads about "poor customer service" or "a very bad experience" on here will frighten PCS into giving them what they want. One other poster has even admitted that he posted a negative thread on here in the hope of forcing PCS to give his build more priority, how selfish is that?

Theodore Roosevelt (26th President of the United States) said that "complaining about a problem without proposing a solution is whining". I'm quite sure that most intelligent people browsing these fora to learn more about what sort of a company PCS are can read perfectly well between the lines and identify a genuine complaint from a whine. PCS know that too of course.

 

[Maxwell]

I cannot get in touch with them via email, I requested an explination a few days ago regarding the system and after four days I recived an email saying that they've already sent an explination in why the Pc is not beeing buil. I've never recived anything.Every time I call them 10£ from my phone are gone and the live chat when I've tryied it to ask a question regarding my system they sed that they are only for customers that have not ordered yet and i should call them if i have a problem with my build.it's the third week since I have ordered and I do not consider it is something normal for me to chase them on the phone regarding updates on a problematic build, if you see that as something normal that is fine, i don't. I think I've spend a lot of money on calls searching for explinations and even after all that I still do not know when that Pc is going to start beeing built.sorry if i've spelled words wrong, I am not brittish.

 

[Maxwell]

I did not start to change the build because i wanted to, i've change it because they had problems with the motherboard, when I called the person on the phone sed that if i choose the Asus hero i won't have any problems and after that i see on the forum from a day before my call that all asus boards have problems. I call again and after 20 mins wainting on the phone my phone remains without credit. I send an email, i recive an answer like"but we already explain that asus boards have that issue" no you did not, the person on the phone sed that is fine. You might see things differently and I can see that a lot of people with specific "ranking" on this forum are trying to defend PCS from every explination of a bad situation, that is fine. At the and of the day, in the future it is not your choise where i will spend my money.

 

[Maxwell]

Another thing, i am not here to complain or "whine" in hope of a faster/cheeper build or anything like that. That is your perception, i am here to let others know if they decide for them selfes if they whant to buy or not from them in the future. The fact that i am not from uk and i can't express myself very well makes things difficult for me but that will not stop me to complain in my own way if i pay for something and i am not treated right.

 

[Maxwell]

Excelent custumer service on my money friend, not for free. It is a business but i guess it's to difficult for you to understand.if you change anything in the review computer you will pay extra, like i did.

 

[SpyderTracks]

Excelent custumer service on my money friend, not for free. It is a business but i guess it's to difficult for you to understand.if you change anything in the review computer you will pay extra, like i did.

It does state that before when you select a review build so you must have been aware.

 

[Maxwell]

I was aware, but if I payd the full amount then why do I recive a partial refound ? That was my question...but you guys are right, we whine because we like to be absurde but I do not feel like that is the case and I really do not whant to wait on a phone 30 mins again because I am waiting on my money, money that I do not see a point in spending after 15 working days(and still in Pre-Production)of running after explinations when in reality PCS should keep me informed about the problems they have incountered.

Thank you

 

[ubuysa]

I was aware, but if I payd the full amount then why do I recive a partial refound ? That was my question...but you guys are right, we whine because we like to be absurde but I do not feel like that is the case and I really do not whant to wait on a phone 30 mins again because I am waiting on my money, money that I do not see a point in spending after 15 working days(and still in Pre-Production)of running after explinations when in reality PCS should keep me informed about the problems they have incountered.

Thank you

You have a point about the communication. It seems from several threads on here that communication is currently a weakness at PCS and one would hope that's something they will be looking at. That said, there is no such thing as a free lunch. If someone at PCS has to spend more time finding out whether there are delays, what they are, which orders are affected, and then emailing or phoning those customers on a regular basis, there is a cost involved. That cost may be an additional employee or it may be existing employees being diverted from other work to do that. The result will be an increase of PCS's costs and that will mean an increase in prices. Is that what you want?

The wait for your new computer to arrive is horrible, we have all been there and done that. We would all love PCS to phone or email us every day telling us what was happening, especially in the very long pre-production wait. But that's not a realistic expectation and in the total time that you will be using your PCS computer the time you spend waiting for it to arrive is a mere trifling.

The (new) fact that your are not in the UK is not PCS's fault nor is it their problem. I'm in Greece and I understood that there would be an additional risk and additional costs in buying from a UK supplier. The large cost of an international phone call to PCS does soon mount up, but again, that's not PCS's fault, nor can they do much about it.

You said "I was aware [that here was a cost in changing a review build], but if I payd the full amount then why do I recive a partial refound" because you have to pay for the change to be made.

You said earlier that "I did not start to change the build because i wanted to, i've change it because they had problems with the motherboard". It would be interesting to know exactly what PCS told you, did they for example say that there were problems with the original ASUS board and you'd have a long wait, but if you changed to the Hero you could have it sooner? If that's the case you can expect to bear the cost of the change. On the other hand, if they told you that they would not be fitting the original ASUS motherboard in that rig at all because it was never going to work, then you should not have to pay for the change. Which was it?

Your comment "money that I do not see a point in spending after 15 working days(and still in Pre-Production)of running after explinations when in reality PCS should keep me informed about the problems they have incountered". Lots and lots of builds wait longer in pre-production than 15 days. You'll see that once you move into build everything happens in a rush, typically two or three days later your computer is shipped. Pre-production is the longest wait. If you read the Terms and Conditions you'll find that you agreed to give PCS 30 days to build our computer, so at 15 days you really have little to complain about.

I do share your frustration in having to wait. If you look at some other threads you'll see that moosEh (who does work for PCS) pasted here an explanation for the recently log delays on some builds with ASUS boards.

For the record, I'm not a "PCS Fanboy" and where I think they're wrong I will say so. The fact is that we often get threads on here from people who think they are PCS's only customer and when they don't get what they want, in the time scale they want they grumble about "poor service".

 

[Maxwell]

After i've ordered the Pc I started to follow threads on the forum about the same type of build, after a while(whitout any type of contact from PCS) i saw people saying that they have problems with the motherboard.I like the way Asus boards look and that is why after i've changed the board to a gigabyte one and found out that I need a bigger Psu for Sli i called back to change the psu as well and when i did that i've asked the person on the phone if they have any problems with the Maximus Hero board and he sed that they do not and I can chose that board.It felt wrong not to be informed by them and chase every change via Forum.

 

[moosEh]

I have got your PM Maxwell.

I will get the marketing team to look into this to check if the refunds were correct vs the payment made in terms of the review system. I am afraid I wouldn't know personally if the prices are wrong or not.

Again I would like to apologise for the below acceptable communication we have at the minute with our customers. We are working overtime to bring down the leadtimes, emails and call waiting times.

 

[Maxwell]

Thank you

 

[mantadog]

Communications needs to be improved as everywhere i look i see people complaining about this aspect of the company. Reviews are really good though! Come on PCS, improve this part of the business and i am sure you will gain more custom.

I think its a fairly short term issue. Mainly caused by the issue with motherboards everyone has had recently. As soon as PCS can clear the backlog I'm sure it will get back to a more normal state.

 

[ubuysa]

Communications needs to be improved as everywhere i look i see people complaining about this aspect of the company. Reviews are really good though! Come on PCS, improve this part of the business and i am sure you will gain more custom.

Like many things in life what you propose is a double-edged sword. I won't argue that PCS appear to have dropped the ball on communication of late, as mantadog says, this is probably because it's been "all hands to the pumps" on the motherboard issue.

BUT, and here's the quid pro quo, will you communicate back when your PC/laptop arrives? Will you take the time to write an in depth review? Will you contribute on these fora to help others? The overwhelming majority of PCS customers are never heard of again once their PC/laptop arrives. That's ok of course, as long as they haven't been complaining about PCS's poor communication whilst they wait for it to be built.......