Be Excellent To Each Other

I've had it now. I am actually sitting here physically shaking. How I didn't just totally unload on the poor woman on the phone I have no idea.

So on the 29th of March at about 6 p.m I ordered a desk. It's a pretty simple desk with a top and some legs. I ordered it and began to wait. Two days later I got an invoice mailed to me and they had charged me and taken the money for it. Tying me up now, so I can't cancel it and get one elsewhere without aggro. About four days later I wondered what the hold up was so I went to their site. I was going to phone them but I don't really like speaking to customer service as I don't like being read a script. So instead I noticed on their site this.



Note the part about how they usually get back to you in an hour. Two days later I was still waiting. At 4 p.m on the second day of waiting (I sent them an email two days prior when I got up at 7 a.m) I got a very sloppy email back telling me the desk was a 7-12 business day item and so I wouldn't get it until about 15 days after ordering it. Well I had a problem with that. Not on what it said or meant (in a way it was my fault for missing it) but because the guy that emailed me nearly three days after my original email made it clear that it would take the longest part of the estimate.

Now if I'm honest here I would have not ordered it at all had I known it was going to take well over two weeks. I needed a desk, not a huge wait. However, as impatient as I am I decided that two weeks of tripping over my second machine wasn't that bad and decided to hunker down and wait it out. Even though this is a business here and they sell to the trade and thus taking fucking ages to get a desk out was bad shitty business.

It turns out that my desk had an expected delivery date of Tuesday just gone. TBH with other things on my mind I had sort of forgotten about it so I phoned them (shy of emailing because I didn't fancy waiting for a reply that came after my desk) and was told that my desk was not even made yet and was running late. She put me on hold for ages and I was told that it would go into production the next day (Weds) and be shipped yesterday (Thurs) and I would get it today. She was very apologetic and I said it wasn't a problem. I was absolutely assured that my desk would be here today (Friday) at all costs and again, she was very sorry for the delay.

And the stupid fucking part is I actually believed her. So, I was actually really shocked when no tracking information arrived yesterday nor this morning. Figuring my desk was on it's way and they had merely forgotten to send tracking info I sent an email explaining what I had been told, etc etc. This was three hours ago, no response. I really didn't want to have to phone them because I'm fucking annoyed now and knew there was a chance I could lose my temper on the phone. And I really hate fucking doing that and I really fucking hate confrontation and having to argue about things.

But I knew if I played the pacifist I would likely be waiting forever, so I phoned. And as much as I tried to be calm and patient I immediately lost my fucking rag when she knew exactly what I was talking about and what was going on with my order. Well if you fucking knew that then you have obviously read my fucking email so why not fucking reply to it? (I didn't say that of course I just became even more enraged). I tried my best to explain calmly how I felt and that I was sick of waiting and then she put me on hold. Ten minutes later she tells me that my order did not make shipping and is indeed not coming today. Then she tells me that it will be shipped mid week next week and I would recieve it within a week. I told her that I didn't want to wait another day, let alone week, and that I wanted to cancel the order. But I can't do that on the phone I now need to send them an email.

So now almost three weeks after placing the order I still have no desk. And, by the time I fucking order another one it's going to be another week of my time wasted.

GRRR.

mistakes happen..

I always prefer to ring, as emails can be sen to a group email area and not checked...

Dude, in business mistakes cannot happen. If the U.K was trading with another country and fucked them around like they do here the other country would simply tell them to go get fucked.

It doesn't happen in the U.S.A and it doesn't happen in Germany so why the fuck does it always happen here?

If this was the U.S.A now I would have been offered something. Another desk, my desk at a discount.. Something. Here I have had to go to even further aggro just to get a refund. And now? Well I'm fucked if I will ever order from them again. As I explained to the woman, this is business. I have paid them my money and they cannot supply what I paid for. They are not helping me and thus have now lost my business.

I do not want to hear excuses, lies or anything. I paid for something and I expect to get it tbh.

It happened to me twice in a week too. I ordered a bike that was clearly in stock on the website (and more than one too given that it was still in stock after I ordered mine) I then recieved a tracking number and THEN was told they didn't actually have my actual bike. Sure, they were great about a replacement and I now have a bike, but they totally forgot to bother letting me know it was on it's way.

It's just a nightmare.

Chill out dude.

I have now. I ordered some higher risen bars for my bike, new grips (the stock ones are cack) and a telescopic beach rod. I am now officially free and able to reach the beach with my fishing gear. It's going to be one hell of a summer

Hang on, don't you live in the Home Counties? That's a big fucking rod.

haha.

That's actually pretty much the norm with a lot of companies nowadays. Especially furniture supplies apart from beds which can appear the next day, everything else seems to take an age.

Anything that involves humans mistakes can happen..
I think citation is needed about the USA, remember I do work for a huge American Company..

Christ. Storm in a teacup much?

Not much of a horror story.

Perhaps JC should give online shopping a rest for a few months and only buy things he can take home from shops on the same day? Not very 21st Century, but if deliveries are causing grief, try the low-tech alternative.

Yes of course I didn't think of that ! I'll just throw a 2 meter wide desk on the back of my BMX. I knew those stunt pegs would come in handy !

Have you ever considered just making your own desk?

Large items like desks aren't something they just stick in the post. They take a while to get delivered in most situations, so I'm not sure what you were expecting. Granted, they did delay it, but you already seemed to be steaming with rage at that point.

I've been sleeping on a mattress with the comfort of a Lego brick for over a month now while I wait for Ikea to sort out a replacement. Try that.

The desk said 7-12 business days. I waited that long and then some. If I was a business waiting for that order I would be sitting on the floor.

As for the mattress? that sucks. After living in the US for as long as I did and seeing how businesses should be ran I have a lower tollerance. And rightly so. British people put up with far too much shit.

Seriously we're a tiny little island FFS. I've had stuff rush delivered thousands of miles accross the USA faster than here.

But you started getting antsy and upset after just 6 days, then freely admitted that you didn't even notice the delivery timeframe. Which the company's website quite clearly states is nothing more than an estimate. Yes, you've put up with some mild shit from them, but there's no denying the fact the the original mistake was yours.
Unfortunately for you, when you called them you got a rather timid customer service employee who fell into the trap of "overpromise, under deliver". To get rid of you, she made a promise that couldn't be kept and hoped that someone else would have to deal with the fallout in a couple of days. Happens in retail all the time and it's not the fault of the company half as much as it's the fault of uninterested, frightened, low-paid employees.
I, like several other people, happen to think you're making a mountain out of a molehill here. Although, as a retail store manager, I'm perhaps in a biased position...

I'm so, so sorry.

Heh. Your commiserations are greatly appreciated! I could probably write a book about customer service issues I've had over the years.

I'd probably buy that book, you know.

I could cry. Why the heck has everything been going so bloody wrong lately?

So I had an 8600 gts already (a graphics card) and I have been wanting another one to SLI (link to) the original one. Sadly it seems that the 8600 gts is a lot better than I originally gave it credit for and thus they demand a premium of about £50. Which is quite a lot considering that they're three years old now and only have 256mb ram.

The other day (must have been because I had looked) Ebay sends me a pic saying "reccomended, just listed". And there was a brand new BFG 8600 gts OC (over clocked) with a life time warranty for £17.99 + £5 sh. I figured for £23 it would be worth it for 1.9x performance gains in Fallout 3 and if I really wanted to, Crysis. All I wanted to do was get Fallout 3 running along nicely so I can plug the silver machine into my TV downstairs and play down there in the summer (infinitely cooler).

Any way, the card arrived and I unwrapped it (it was indeed brand spanking new, in the shrink wrap) and I put it in the PC to test it (alone). As soon as I installed the drivers the monitor switched off. So I tried loads of different drivers but I noticed the fan was doing a mental and thus the card was a bit buggered. Especially considering that I have an older reference Nvidia 8600 gts that is bullet proof. So I was about to contact the Ebay seller when I noticed in large writing in the manual - DO NOT RETURN CARD TO RETAILER. PLEASE CALL US FOR AN RMA !

O.K, fair do's. I have RMA'd with BFG a couple of times before when I lived in the USA and it was awesome. You send back your card and both times before I got new cards, of better, newer, higher specced models. Now before any one claims that I am greedy and was trying my luck please note that no similar model to the 8600 gts would out perform SLI 8600 gts. None. So ideally I wanted an 8600 gts. If they were to replace it with a different card then it would be pointless unless it could at least (in the very least) perform as well as my existing one or as well as SLI 8600 gts..

So I noticed their customer service was email or phone the USA. I emailed and I waited close to two days and in the end bit the bullet and phoned the USA. I was best pleased that I got the call done in less than 6 minutes and was issued an RMA. The phone call only cost me about 90p which is less than phoning Tiscali. I explained to the lady three times that this card was a part of an SLI matched pair and if they did not have the exact model to please email me before sending any thing. She agreed, stating that if needs be they may even be prepared to take my stock Nvidia reference card in exchange for a different one they did have (a 240 GT for example) and then give me the other 240 so I could remain with an SLI set up.

I sent the card the very next morning (this is it here, just so you know, brand new with the packing)







So I packed it up and sent back.. The next morning I checked the RMA status and to my amazement they had recieved the card in the small hours of the morning and within 18 minutes had packed and sent the new one. I cheered ! I was amazed, I was very happy indeed. However, I started to get nagging doubts about the whole thing. I tried to remind myself that this was BFG who have been superb in the past but then I remembered that this wasn't the USA. And I had this really bad feeling. That really bad feeling wouldn't go away and it was really bothering me.

And today when it came I got this.





Which is utter fucking shit. It's smaller, different, has no power input and FFS isn't even the same fucking colour. It's also very clearly visually different. Not only can I not SLI with this it's also not even new. Now the new thing wouldn't bother me if it just so happened to be a working 8600 GTS but the 8600 gt is a budget pile of fucking arsehair that couldn't run a bath, let alone a game. In fact, this card is so shit it would fetch about 2p on Ebay and wouldn't even recover the costs I have put out (about £32).

I emailed customer support (this legendary thing) and waited four hours before deciding if I wanted this taken care of I would have to call the USA again. I phoned (this time at 17.5p a minute) and waited 11 minutes before deciding that another £2 had gone down the toilet and I should stop chasing my losses. Then Lacesensor offered to do the call for me as he has an international calling plan. I gave him all the details and he phoned them.

First they called him a liar. Apparently there is absolutely no way that he could possibly have recieved the wrong card as they are all barcoded and mistakes like this one do not happen.

So they asked him for the SKU on the card which we gave to them, which clearly included 8512GTOC (8 series, 512mb, GT OC, or GT over clocked). My model was a 256 mb GTS OC. Completely different. At which point they began doing the motor bike (but but but) and when he gave them the serial number they finally admitted the mistake and said they would issue an RMA. However, no matter how hard or long Lace pushed for they point blank refused to reimburse any shipping or phone call costs. So in other words they probably still thought he was lying to them.

Well what fucking winds me up is with BFG when you do a return if it's not UPS or Fed Ex, fully tracked and insured they won't even open it. They will immediately turn it around and send it back. So the fuckers have expensive taste, hence why it had cost me over £8 to send my original card back. And because of their clause about not sending back to the retailer and how I now didn't even have the old card it was going to be either £8odd more (plus the fuckin £2 I had done on trying to get through) or nothing.

So now I was fucking fuming so I ran some google searches and in the end managed to not only find the phone number for Wales but also the person I needed to speak to. One phone call later I had obtained the owner's email address and an email and ten minute wait later Fed Ex were coming on Monday to collect the wrong card and rectify the mistake.

I'm just sorely dissapointed at BFG. In the two instances I dealt with them in the USA they were fucking excellent

/
Screw you too.

1) Did you get your desk, yet?
2) Did you buy Just Cause yet?
3) Who did you buy the gfx card from?

You wouldn't have so much graphics card troubles if you stopped buying new graphics cards

Buy

How do you always seem to end up with these problems?

I'm just happy that I don't feel the need to chase after 1.9x performance increases.

a

3

60

That's almost double, amn, you should chase that.

Also, I bought a gfx card for £29 and had no problems with it at all. I've decided I pwn PC building.

How does 'Dwarf Fortress' look on it?

Fuck off and find me a snozcumber !

Mal.

1) No I got a refund. I didnt want to be fucked around any more as I become very stressed over shit like that.

2) Three days after I downloaded it. Annoyingly I have not played it since but ho hum.

3) Ebay. They also (BFG) tried telling me that this invalidated my warranty so I challenged them over it and won. Nowhere in any of their T&C does it say that Ebay is not a valid retailer. Infact, googling again I found three instances of them trying to shirk warranties by using that excuse, only to fail each time. What they failed to miss was they also have a clause stating that anything made before April 08 did not fall into that clause and would be covered, even if it was ten years old and you found it in the street. They obviously had to alter their warranty in 08 because of Nvidia's apalling failure rates due to heat.

If you look closely at the packing for the card you can see where it came from. Tech Guys will wank over your card for £30 by simply plugging it in and installing a driver. So it's obviously unsold PC world stock and thus I am obviously perfectly entitled to RMA and warranty.

But 1x is perfectly acceptable, cheaper, and much less hassle.

1x doesn't run Fallout 3. Not properly. It was fine until I got more into the game and loads of enemies and explosions started showing up.

Works fine on my 360...

My 360 only shows explosions as yellow 'X's and enemies as brown 'X's

Are you sure that's not the XBLA version of Dwarf Fortress?

Slight update. I awoke this morning to an email from Phil from BFG tech. He said that Fed Ex were on way and would be here between 12 and 4. I didn't fancy staring out the window all day so I decided to refurb the front door. They came at 12ish and when I came in at 4 I had another email from Phil making sure they had been and got it OK which really cheered me up.

Just gotta see what happens next...

You got your desk, then?