My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I was looking for a wireless router, and i duly searched through all of the online shops that i could find to get the best deal, i knew i wanted a linksys WRT54G, and ebuyer was the cheapest i could find.

I read a couple of reviews of the company, there seemed to be a few complaints, but i figured that this was normal for any company and i thought i would go ahead with the purchase.

Five days later, the router arrives... so far so good. But then three days later, the router died. dead as a dodo. I tried reboot/ resets/ reconnections, the lot, but the router was not accessible from the outside or the inside. So i call up linksys technical support (how by the way do answer very quickly but are infact completely useless- clearly following a script) and they inform me that the router is completely dead and i should returned it to the shop.

So, off to ebuyer i go, and as instructed, request an RMA number. This is given to me, and i send the router back by first class insured royal mail. A week later, i have not heard anything from ebuyer, and royal mail have confirmed the parcel as delivered. So i leave ebuyer an 'enote' for those of you that or not familiar with this, it involves posting a note to them through their website that will then be answered sometime later...

A week past and i still had no answer... so i left another note.... still no reply. So i bit the bullet and called their national rate customer services, knowing i would have to wait an age for an answer. And, sure enough, 45minutes later the call was answered. I was told that they had never received the parcel, and me giving them the royal mail ticket number to track online was not proof of delivery. I needed to call royal mail and have proof of signiture sent to me. Apartently ebuyer couldn't do this. So i did, and three days letter post from royal mail, with proof of signiture. I posted this to ebuyer and awaited a response.

A week or so wait again... and still nothing so more enotes, to which i had now got a response saying 'we have not updated the status of this RMA request because we have not received the item.' So i called up again... waited 45minutes to be told, sorry our computer system is down, we can't help you. Couldn't the IVR at the beginning of the call have said this?!?!?!?!

Getting slightly :mad: now, another called to customer services a few days later, and they told me that they hadn't received the proof of signiture from me. Somebody is not checking their post, methinks. Very annoyed now, and knowing what it is like working in a call centre, i asked to speak to a manager. The agent i spoke to said 'no'. That was it, just 'no'. not an apology, a reason, excuse, nothing! me very :mad: now. So i asked for the agents name, VALERIE. a surname? no, ok so i can understand why not, an extension number? no. 'I am the only valerie here.' Hmm... not very happy with this, but it will have to do.

A couple of stiff drinks later, another phonecall to them, asking if they had yet received the proof of postage... no we haven't, and we can't do anything until we do. 'sometimes royal mail are very unreliable' i was told. This time, i managed to have a call back from a manager organised. I waited in baited breath, i was promised a call back the same day. Two days later, nothing at all... so on the phone again. I reluctantly agreed to send the proof of signiture again (i had taken a copy) and thought this would resolve the issue.

Nope, two more days and nothing. Now it was time to call trading standards, over 6 weeks had passed and there was no sign of a refund, and i had no router, no money to buy another one, so lots of unhappy housemates. Trading standards said they needed 24hours to examine the case, then they would get back to me. They did so, and said yes, they would call ebuyer to investigate. Later that day, trading standards phoned me back to say that ebuyer had told them they had never received the parcel, or any proof of signiture from me.

So, i phoned ebuyer AGAIN... this time they knew that i had complained to trading standards, and miraculously they found the proof of signiture, but said they couldn't have associated it with me because i didn't provide a covering letter. Which of course, i did. At this point i was absolutely fuming and informed ebuyer i was going to issue a rit against that and wanted the postal address to have it delivered to. The agent got me to hold while she went to find out. Funnily enough, when she came back they had refunded the money onto my credit card. I wasn't happy with this though... so i asked for the address anyway with the intention of legal action to recover the costs of my postage/phone calls etc and the agent refused to give it to me. Onto a manager again, told them the whole story. 'Which valerie was it you spoke to?' i was asked, i don't know, she said she was the only one there. 'well you have to understand we are a very large organisation and there is likely to be more than one valerie.' At this point i was scared that i would break something or somebody in my house, so i said '**** this for a laugh, **** you, **** your company, see you in court' and hung up. I know it was harsh, but you can understand my frustration.

To this day, i have not recovered the money, got a solicitor i know to write to them to demand the money and threaten legal action, but they never replied, looks like that got lost in the post too :rolleyes:

cost of posting item back: £5.60
cost of sending proof of signiture: 56p
cost of phone calls: £23.

It would have been cheaper for me to get a taxi to the nearest pcworld and buy it from there!!!!

So my advice... insight and dabs, much better than ebuyer. :D

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

We're having a similar problem with Dabs at the moment, you leave a message with details of the problem, and you get an automated response. You try again and get the same, finally you get a real person emailing you back to ask what the problem is (detailed in all the replied from us to them) :mad:

Then you mail them back and they don't bother to respond. We rang their 0845 number to be told by an answer machine that they no longer take ANY phone calls. I found another number for them (0800) but when I got through the lady on the other end of the phone seemed very startled, almost as though that number shouldn't be working!! She then went and cut me off. I'm now at the point where I just cant be bothered anymore, if it wasn't for the printer sat in the spare room and my other half complaining that it doesn't work I'd jack it all in.

I think the next step is going to have to be a recorded letter :(

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Man, and I thought Ebuyer had messed me about! Speak to Citizens Advice (save your money) and see if you are able to take them to county court, I've been waiting for an RMA number for a motherboard delivered DOA for over a year now, I gave up a long time ago. (Oh, and expect a lot of replies from people that say "I use Ebuyer at home and at work and I've never had a problem" because that will really make you feel so much better about them :rolleyes: )

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

lol..... Well here comes 1 Bifta :D

Ive used Ebuyer for quite some time now, spent just over £6000 with them in the last 2 years for personal products..... Due to their support level tho, wouldnt touch them for our work needs... we tend to go straight to supplier.....

Hope you get something sorted...... ive only ever had 1 experience with ebuyer, and theyve been pretty good.... Faulty HDD, DOA, they offered to send a next day replace and collect.... that was it :) no extra charges or anything :)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

weird how there can be such a difference in the quality of service :( , i think i will stick with my local computer shop / fair :)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

How come ebuyer are so slow at delivery, i ordered from them on Wednesday, and the earliest they could deliver is this coming Tusday, eh...WTF!!

I stick to www.scan.co.uk or www.aria.co.uk whenever possible.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

When I had a clash with Ebuyer, I received an email stating " you threatened legal action.......so sue us!"

All because they decided I had damaged a motherboard and they wouldnt replace it. I explained that they were being pathetic, why would I damage a motherboard and ask for a replacement board of the same type?

I do still use them, only because they are so cheap. And I know now form speaking to trading standards about them how to deal with it, send them a letter, give them a max of 21 days to put things right, if no response send to trading standards. It makes no difference if they have seen the letter or not, if royal mail have a signature then it has been delivered. If ebuyer have taken no action Trading standards will contact them on your behalf.

Also the ****e they spout about their warranty is crap, the items have a 1 years manufacture warranty on them. Ebuyer send them for repair after a 28 days i think. Thats illegal, your contract is with Ebuyer, not the manufacturer. I was quite alarmed when trading standards informed me of that. Ebuyer should replace the item and then send the faulty ones back for replacement themselves.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I stopped using Ebuyer a while back and switched back to overclock.co.uk, they're a fantastic company but they're still at the mercy of the couriers, I ordered something on Wednesday from them and it was due for delivery (having paid 15 quid + vat) the next day, Business Post (*spit*) decided that they couldn't be ar$ed delivering on Thursday and after speaking to someone very rude at my local (70+ miles away) depot I was told it'd get here yesterday, come 5pm it still hadn't turned up, I called them again and was told "the driver is ill" and that it "might" get delivered on Monday but they couldn't guarantee it (pretty good going for a "Guaranteed next day service"), I then called overclock who were very helpful and called the depot and told them to put it on a Saturday before 10.30am delivery ... I've yet to see whether it turns up as the tracking section of Business Post's site say's it's still in the warehouse and it takes at least 90 minutes to get from Belfast to Derry.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I have found DABS.COM to be the best for delivery, they use royal mail parcel force. I ordered after 6pm one night, standard delivery, it arrived before 10am the next morning.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Sounds very similar to my problems with Inital Citylink, but saying that my experience of Business Post is not good either, was told by BP that they could not find my address, "it must be a new estate, and therfore not on the A to Z maps yet", I replied "get some new maps, the estate's only been built about 12 years".

yes, dabs delivery is good, but their returns policy smells of poo!

Jon

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Heh, I've just called Business Post, apparently they have no idea where the van is from yesterday and consequently have no idea when my parcel is going to be delivered. That's pretty impressive for a "Guaranteed Next Day Delivery" I guess it's true, tomorrow and next day never come.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

To balance the thread I have to say I have used both ebuyer and dabs a lot and never had any problems, although I have never returned anyting to dabs.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I believe you can get that router from Amazon for near to the same price.

They are reliable so I'l go with them.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Wow, that sucks. I've used Ebuyer 3 times and found their delivery to be prompt. I had to return an Antec PSU which melted my floppy, but that went smoothly, too.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

My last expierence of ebuyer was when a mate bought a case and psu of them.....we managed to blow 3 cpus before we found out the psu was faulty, the replaced the case, but they have been processing the cpus for a 3 months now, we have looked into it and as they supplied the faulty equipment which blew the cpus they are liable for them....they don't want to see it this way as the cpus where not bought from them.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Had quite a few things from Ebuyer and never a problem with them. Mind you, that doesn't make them good for everybody, just look at NTL who have some people saying that they have never had a problem with them. ;) :LOL:

A lot of problems are caused by courier companies who don't know how to handle goods, read maps or comprehend the English language. Marking an item "fragile" means the courier should throw it into the van first and then toss as many heavy items on it as they can. Before noon delivery means anytime after their afternoon nap if they happen to pass your street, otherwise leave it till tomorrow.

Last year I had a motability scooter delivered after chasing the couriers up for over a week. I think that they went through the entire A to Z of delivery excuses as to why it took so long. When it did eventually turn up on a large lorry the driver knocked on the door and asked me if I could get it off the lorry for him as he had a bad back. The delivery note clearly stated that a tail lift and pallet truck was required, but neither were, and the packaging clearly indicated what was being delivered.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

For any broadband equipment i would really recomend http://www.nickknows.co.uk/ . Really quick delivery and also put a free bag of jelly beans in the parcle!!

Proper Bo!!

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

The printer we bought was delivered the next day, I was very impressed until I opened the box a few days later hooked it up to the new comp and it made this terrible noise. Canon say that as its DOA it's Dabs that have to sort it, but they just don't respond to emails. :rolleyes:

I won't be using them again, I'll stick with Savastore.com.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

about a year ago noww, my computer went bang, so I was given about £200 to rebuild the PC, I needed a new motherboard so decided to bite the bullet and upgrade.

I ordered an

AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (Retail)
MSI Motherboard
512 Meg PC2700 RAM
and a case with power supply / side window

All came in at about £200 by the time postage and all that was added up.

Arrived via delivery

Power supply was DOA on the case, (Found out after fitting that with everything)
The Ram was proven faulty, (tested it in my mates PC, that same day)
Motherboard was also DEAD, tested that with a Spare PSU that I had around

Athlon is installed and has worked fine to this day.

The whole system of returns with ebuyer is appalling, the stuff I sent back took about a month and a half in total to get them to return the money for, as they issued a replacement motherboard out in error, which meant that I had to pay for two lots of posting on that one motherboard.

Ebuyer are cheap enough, but personally I would never buy anything from there that I cant take back to a shop immediately after that experience.

I dont mind the fact I pay a few quid more for my goods now at the local PCWorld or Computer shop, its worth it just not to have to go through all that hassle again.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Have used ebuyer and not had any problems (touch wood).
Have used PC World and have had problems (never using 'em again).

Horses for courses!

However, the best company for delivering promptly and on time has to be www.pcnextday.co.uk - bought an old socket 370 mobo from them that I couldn't find elsewhere, ordered it at about 4:30pm, and it arrived at 8:00am the following morning! Was very impressed with that. :)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

just a nice little note. i heard this on the radio so this is how it goes....

when a firm ask you to do something like prove the item was sent, they are asking you to do work for them. you should tell them that to send proof you will have to actually work, and therefore there will be a charge of £xxx for you to do this and yo will send them then bill and the proof.

On the bill state you are giving them15 days to pay, and remind them that if they dont pay, they must be broke and you will file for bankrupcy against them.

The vast majority of firms will pay. this also includes companies like NTL who have done things like this.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

now that is quite cheeky :pp but i like it :D

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

The returns policies on Dabs & Broadbandbuyer both look very
dubious.
I.E. they only appear to give you a 28 day refund/replacement guarantee, after that you only get a repair?

I was under the impression that if its guaranteed for 12 months then it should be the customers decision whether or not it gets repaired.
Also, if they repair it & the customer is not happy with the repair (I.E. its ben done with a welding torch rather than an SMT soldering iron) has the customer comeback?

I want to order something but am wary of mail order unless I have a really good returns policy to back it up.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

No, they have it right, after 28 days the order goes: repair, replacement, refund. unless a repair or replacement is going to inconvenience the customer by an "unacceptable amount", exactly who decides whats unacceptable is anyones guess. We tried to return a DVD recorder to Argos the other day as it has started having trouble, but they insisted that they would only repair or replace, Jay rang trading standards and they confirmed Argos were right :(

As for Dabs, they are crap, I try not to deal with them now, if something goes wrong you have to send it back to them so they can test it and then they will refund you the amount, then you have to buy it again (and pay a second lot of postage :mad: )

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

It is worth noting that during the first six months after purchase, it is the responsibility of the seller to prove that any fault was not present at the time of buying, irrespective of their terms and conditions.

If they cannot prove that the fault was NOT present at the time of the sale, then you are entitled to a refund, repair or replacement. If you ask for a refund the retailer is within their rights to reduce the amount you receive based on the number of months that you have had use of the product.

Also as long as you bought the goods on a credit card (not debit card) then the credit card company has the same legal obligations as the retailer you bought them from.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Works even better when the company has a tarrif of charges. It's very easy to do this, Like NTLs £50 call out charge, they have done the work as to priceing a reasonable cost for the work they are asking you to do.

Same with banks, they make an error on your account, look up what it would have cost if you made the same error.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Hmm, missed this thread originally. Funny how different people have different experiences. I use ebuyer for work and spend £1000's with them in a year - and have never had a problem - including returns. :)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Same here....amazing delivery!

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

OK, about time to add my experiences of online shops and real shops as well for good measure....

Ebuyer - Bought a 17" TFT - arrived DOA, called support number (0845) got them to pick up at there cost. They took 1 week to fix the problem (dead power supply) and using it now. Def will be carefull what I order through there.

BigPockets - bought many a blank DVD/CD from here, arrived always the next working day (depending at what time I ordered it) and even happily replaced a batch that were in a bad condition (dye missing etc). A1++

Dabs - Everything i have ever bought over the years from here is either Dead or fauly or has broken since. Returns is a nightmare and pray you dont have to return anything as it can be a uphill struggle to say the least.

Scan - I think these people are fab, gfx card i had for some time died, i rang them up and they sent me a brand new one and picked up the old one, no questions asked. All they asked on the phone was if i knew what i was talking about (techie then) and were happy with the diag i gave them.

PC World - Very Bad on Price but the upshot is that if it all goes wrong, very easy to return though they struggle with long term broken things such as a DVD writer i once bought years ago which at the time cost me £500+ - in the end i had to take them to court and I won.

Local shops - well my only bad dealings so far was a local shop in Doncaster, faulty motherboard but in the end had to talk to trading standards to get them to give my money back even though i was happy just to recieve a replacement, a diff model etc. They banned me from there - no loss this end :)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I thought he did DIY programs not broadband equipment!

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Erm, true for many things, but not proof of posting, now most companies will accept a web proof, those that don't are being difficult or have crap goods in staff that cannot match the return to the warehouse content.

The RMA is part of this process, it advises goods in that you are sending a WRT54G, so if one turns up and you are the only one on the system sending one back then they can reconcile it...

Back to my point, Royal Mail (or any other delivery company) have the contract with you the sender, not the recipient, so any query on that delivery must be made by the person who entered into the contract. On the flip side something like Dells collect and return, where they send DHL to collect your PC, Dell contracted the collection and are the contrator of the service and the recipient, so you have no involvement in that process from a legal standpoint.

They will only really intervene if it costs over £100.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

:rofl:

The ones that does the DIY programmes is Nick Knowles ;)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I Knowles that :D . It's the strange way my brain works at times that makes me post these things.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I have heard lots of problems with ebuyer and never used them. Its just not worth the (potential) hassle.

On the other hand, i have had problems with products from dabs and they have resolved them without much greif if any.

Maybe someone should create a Feedback chart for e-commerce companies like the Ebay feedback system...

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

ebuyer sounds like they could replace microsoft for worst customer service possible :D

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Overclockers UK did that to me a few months back when I returned something. They refused to accept the Royal Mail online tracking as proof of delivery, so I had to ask Royal Mail for written confirmation & a copy of the recipient's signature. And even after that I had hassle...


But that's another thread ;)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I dont know, maybe their different warehouses are worse than each other :shrug:

Actually, ive found microsoft to have superb service..maybe not on existing products..but things like activating software (ive installed office on numerous machines and they just keep on giving me activation keys...) plus when a friend returned a mouse which he blantantly broke, the replaced it, no questions asked!

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Have you ever had cause to call someone at Microsoft? Their customer service is superb.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Have to agree with you there, I rang MS customer services after rebuilding my PC at which point XP locked me out due to hardware changes. 2 mins on the phone and the young lady was reading out my new key number and double checking each segment of it to make sure I had it right. Excellent service without any arguments :)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I ordered a camera from them for 270, then noticed it was 240 at Amazon, I told them, they told me to refuse delivery, and my credit card was credited :)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I've ordered quite a bit of kit from Amazon recently and as with their book they are quick at replacing it.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Is anyone else having trouble with ebuyer today? I've been trying to search for labels and keep getting the message "session halted". :confused:

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Looks like the site search engine is fubar'ed, just tried a couple of searches and got the same message.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Got to reccomend SPD Limited, Overclockers, and MicroDirect.
Had absolutely great service and no hastle whatsoever.

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

I've got a free delivery to use up so I'm trying to sort out an order. :erm:

Even going through the menu system I get the error message :(

Bugger

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

depends on who you get

my bro called xbox support cus his halo was doing some strange things and they were very helpfull but couldnt resolve the issue and suggest he called their other support number

which he did

they told him that this wasnt for xbox support and for him to tell xbox support to F**K off and stop wasting their time :Yikes:


btw i orderd a ebuyer router and 54g wlan card to make a gaming lan @ college (for use in tne room im gonna be staying in) turned up when they said it would, although what i hear about their customer support i just hope it dont go wrong...

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Generally, the e-shops and regular shops, can only return items that are faulty ect, back to their suppliers within the suppliers own terms and conditions. But, any product will have at least 1 years manufacturers warranty that will cover you anyway.

Has anyone tried www.it-shop-online.co.uk ? They are fairly new, but I found them really helpful. They advised me on my home wireless network which was all in stock and with me the next day...pretty cool. :)

Re: My Terrible Ebuyer experience...
 

Thanks for that Corky and welcome to the forum :D