RAGE

[helenic]

If you are ever considering buying anything from Overclockers, don't. I ordered a Creative Sound Blaster Audigy SE 7.1 Sound Card from them in early February. There was only one UK shipping option, so I ticked it.

About ten days later I got a card from Initial City Link couriers, claiming that they had tried to deliver it while I was out, and that I could either pick it up from their depot (which is several miles out of town up the A14 and thus impossible to get to without a car) between the hours of 7-8pm that evening, or call their number and arrange redelivery. The number I called put me through to an automated machine which said "please pick a day for redelivery and leave your consignment number and postcode, then hang up". There was no option to give them a new address or speak to a human operator. At the time I knew I could be in the house on Wednesday (I had unavoidable work commitments on the other days), so I requested redelivery for the next Wednesday and stayed at home to wait for it. It didn't arrive, but I got another card through the door a few days later. There was nothing I could do but call up again and request redelivery, this time for a Saturday. Again, I made sure I was in. No sound card arrived.

I gave it another few days, and called up Overclockers. It was now late February. It took me several days to get through to them, as the first ten or so times I tried I merely got an engaged tone. Eventually I got through, and after being on hold for half an hour or so I explained the problem - that the times Initial CityLink tried to deliver unavoidably clashed with times I was required to be elsewhere. I was told that by default the courier only attempted one redelivery before returning the item to the suppliers, and that the soundcard was back with Overclockers. It could be reshipped free of charge, however, using Royal Mail. If I was out when it was delivered, therefore, I could pick it up from the Royal Mail depot off Newmarket Road. This seemed sensible, so I thanked them, and they sent me an email with the dispatch details.

Two weeks later it still hadn't arrived. What had arrived, however, were two more cards from Initial City Link. I called up Overclockers and, after waiting on hold for a certain amount of time, eventually got through to a sales assistant. Because I've worked in a number of customer service jobs, I attempted to explain as clearly and as courteously as I could what the nature of the problem was. The guy on the phone offered no explanation or apology for the fact that it hadn't been sent out by Royal Mail as promised, and said that the soundcard was currently on its way back to them from the courier, but hadn't yet arrived. Could he assure me that when it did arrive, it would be reshipped, I asked? I was anxious because of the earlier mistake. Could he promise me that it would definitely be with Royal Mail this time? After all, I pointed out, it was in their interest to actually get it to me and therefore not have to spend any more money on shipping. Yes, he said, he could assure me of both those things, and he promised me it would be sent out with Royal Mail.

Ten days later and I had received no dispatch notification from Overclockers, no collection cards from Initial City Link, and no sound card. I called them up again, waited on hold, eventually got through, and repeated the entire saga, and asked if they knew what had happened to my order. I remained as polite as possible, although I concede that by this point the conversation was slightly wearying. I had, after all, paid for this thing two months ago. The sales assistant seemed to be intensely bored. He kept disappearing to check things, and leaving me on hold.

Eventually, he came back to the phone and told me that they could only reship things once, and after it had been returned to them the second time they had cancelled my order. Without informing me. I was told, as if the fact that they'd failed to honour their promise of delivering with Royal Mail was somehow my fault, that it cost them too much to ship things out again if people weren't in to collect them. The person I'd spoken to the second time had either been completely ignorant of the procedure, or had lied to me; they had promised to deliver it by Royal Mail twice, and broken those promises both times, and then they cancelled my order without feeling the need to inform me. I had to call them to find out, and when I did I didn't even get an explanation, let alone an apology. They simply could not care less.

The sales assistant I spoke to was dismissive, unbothered, unapologetic and patronising. I asked about the complaints procedure and he said airily that I could write a letter if I really wanted, but it probably wouldn't get anywhere. I kept him on the phone at least long enough to check my bank statements online and note that I had, in fact, been refunded, before hanging up. I've wasted hours on the phone, no small amount of energy and patience, and if they hadn't kept this farce up for quite so long I could have got a new sound card from somewhere else two months ago.

Never again. Please, please do not buy from these people. They are negligent, untruthful, irresponsible and rude, they will happily waste your time and money without a second thought, and they openly do not care less how much inconvenience they have caused you and freely admit that your opinion means nothing to them. As their forum rules state explicitly that expressing anti-Overclockers sentiment will cause not only the posts to be deleted but your forum account, I am left with no way of telling people how much they suck apart from writing it here. Spread the word. They really, really should not be able to get away with this shit. Gaaaaagh. I am distinctly unimpressed.

Comments

[atreic.livejournal.com]

I'd spread the word, but your post is friends locked, so linking to it seems pointless.

[briggsy.livejournal.com]

I guess that City Link didn't helped by being useless with their redeliveries and their answerphone system. Their depot is in Bar Hill, which isn't that far away from town, but enough to be awkward (like it is for me when Royal Mail put my parcels in the Newmarket Road location, and their answerphone system is also dire).

I've used that company in the past, but I've never found their prices that appealing, nor their service very good, although I never had to go as far as you. I usually just stick with Scan, Dabs & Ebuyer (who are a lot better than three years ago) for computery purchases.

[artela.livejournal.com]

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1714.html

[suzerain.livejournal.com]

Even though you're not a gamer, I'd suggest thinking about sending a copy of this saga to "PC Zone" magazine. If my memory serves me, they have a "watchdog" style section for this sort of behavior off computer suppliers (or at least, they did, last time I looked at the magazine a year or so ago). It might well be of use for other buyers, and also because the good old negative publicity the magazine would give is likely to get their customer service to respond fairly quickly to you.

Might be worth at least a look in the back of PC Zone magazine in WH Smiths and see if they still have the watchdog section, and try it if still around.

[kmazzy.livejournal.com]

i think i said this before (not that it helped then or will now) but the dude in charge of OCUK is a dubious chap and it's good not to buy things from them anyway.

if you have any spare time you could read this (a story from an exOCUK employee) http://forums.overcockers.com/viewtopic.php?t=90

so at least you know you're not alone.

[smcv.livejournal.com]

It's possible that I recommended Overclockers to you (I bought from them a couple of times without problems), in which case, sorry. I certainly won't be recommending them again!

[ashfae.livejournal.com]

Sounds very like my experiences with RCA and the MP3 player I tried to buy from them. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh.

[mejoff.livejournal.com]

Meh unto them!
Do I take this to mean that you still don't have a soundcard? because i have an audigy 2 that I can't use because it lacks a midi port (the seller lied to me). It cost me a tenner, you can have it for a fiver if you like :)

[dennyd.livejournal.com]

(1) Google for forums that PC builders are likely to use. Re-post this on all of them as a new thread in an appropriate section. Also, find any threads that ask 'Are Overclockers a good company to buy stuff from?' and reply to them with this post.

(2) Go to the library or somewhere else that has free access to magazines. Get the letters page or complaints/watchdog (email) addresses out of all the PC magazines. Send them all a copy.

(3) http://www.howtocomplain.com/cgi-php/complain1.php3?MajorID=2&MinorID=1&ID=2586

See also: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=13691

PS: Scan and eBuyer both have similar reputations for stupendously useless customer service departments, although I've never had a problem with things I've bought from either and so have never had to deal with them.

[crashmatt.livejournal.com]

I've spent a great deal of money with them in the last couple of years, and several people I know have spend far, far more with them that I have.

I have never encountered anything but polite, knowledgeable, helpful and courteous staff. All products have been as stated, and I have been very pleased with them.

Dennyd mentions eBuyer, I've had problems with them, as have several people I know - problems which were far worse than the ones you've had with Overclockers.

I suggest that your experiences are the exception, not the rule.

[tbrd.livejournal.com]

I had similar issues with Overclockers about a year ago. Went something like:

Ordered
Received confirmation
No delivery

Called them up. Sorry, I was told, but the order had been misplaced. He's now fixed it and it'll be in the post tomorrow.

No delivery.

Called them up, was told that the item was out of stock, contrary to the opinion of their stock records and the website. This is completely contrary to what I'd been told 2 days before, so I accused them of lying to me. They got a bit uptight and said it was only a few days to the next delivery, so I decided to wait. They'd send me an email when the delivery came in.

No email, no delivery.

Called them up. According to this man, there was to be no delivery for x weeks, so perhaps I'd like a different item? At half as much again? After complaining quite a lot and being so sarcastic that people on the other side of the office were giving me looks, I said, No, thanks, I'll wait. It's not urgent.

No delivery.

Called them for the fourth time. Man goes out to warehouse floor, finds abandonded box with my stuff in it. Sends it out next post.

So, lied to not once, not twice but three times. No refund, not even a bloody apology. Avoid at all costs.

Not as bad as Scan, though.

[arachne.livejournal.com]

You might also want to post this in blacklist_co.

[smhwpf.livejournal.com]

They are without honour. Reading this and all the comments, it sounds like they will also be without customers before very long.

You could report them to the BBC's Watchdog (http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/)

There is also Which (http://www.which.net/aboutus/index.html), the Consumers' Association.

[weaselspoon.livejournal.com]

I'm so sorry for recommending them. All I can say is I've spent more than a grand with them over the last three years and I've not had a single problem.

[echan.livejournal.com]

I found this rather shocking. I work doing tech support for BFG (http://www.bfgtech.com), and many of our UK customers report purchasing their card from OverClockers, and never said a word about any issues with them. I'll have to remember not to talk them up to anyone looking for a good vendor.