dabs.com

pigeonpie

Are dabs.com ok as I have a habit of attracting problems with machines and after sales support and they have no help line, just online support, so what if you buy the PC and er, can't get online?

they have a good offer on a FS laptop right now but I can't find warranty info or how to ask if they can change the spec from XP Home to XP Pro.
Are there any other good retailers of Fujitsu Siemens laptops?

cheers
sorry about all the questions: remember patience is a virtue, even if overrated

WelshHybrid

Try Insight (http://uk.insight.com/apps/nbs/index.php?C=102&S=1015&P=&search_type=&K=&M=FJS&AM=) they're similar prices to Dabs, but you can actually get to speak to someone. You may also be able to haggle over the price, not guaranteed though.

Mark_LJ

We have a business account with Dabs and its superb - very good support from the person who deals with our account. However, I stopped using them from a personal viewpoint as their after sales was a disgrace and it was impossible to deal with them by any other means than email. Their appraoch was that if somethings not working its the manufacturers fault and its got nowt to do with them.

You would have to keep repeating "patience is a virtue" over and over again if anything went wrong.

You could try Insight as an alternative - dealt with them a couple of times but nothing went wrong so can't say what after sales is like..

Edit: Beaten to it in mid post

dro

Dabs are ok until you get a problem.

I bought a printer from them for my office which exploded after a couple of months. Was told I could have a refund if I sent it back. After I sent it back (at my expense) they changed their mind a said it had to be repaired (which would take up to 6 weeks).

After a couple of months and many emails (you cannot imagine how annoying it is having to wait 24 hours for a reply in which they don't even answer your questions) I had to go through the small claims court to get a refund. To their credit they did pay up a soon as I had the judgement against them!

I'll admit that it was a couple of years ago and things may have improved since but I certainly don't intend finding out. There's plenty of other places out there now where you can get similar or better prices anyway.

pigeonpie

I'd rather speak to a real person, even if they are in Bangalore or on the dreaded 0870
I'll try Insight. FS's website doesn't have contact us details either omg I'm wondering if I'm walking into yet another consumer disaster....is there a record of those?! :-S

I wanted to buy from John Lewis but they only do Sony and HP and I've heard both give lots of trouble so I'd be bound to get the one made on friday at 4.30pm.......it would probably explode too :eek:
[I gave up ironing after a czech iron did that while I was using it!]

cheers

Mark_LJ

Theres nothing wrong with Sonys - my works laptop is a Vaio with a 17" XBlack screen. I think its a very good piece of kit. The only downside is that Sony make them impossible to work on - in other words if owt goes wrong then it has to go back to Sony who can charge what they want.

StockportGerbil

Hi!
I very strongly suspect that Fujitsu Siemens has minimal end user support - they are primarily geared up to selling large quantities of kit to corporates / large organisations, who they expect to do first line support.

Having said that the large organisation I work for exclusively uses Fujitsu Siemens kit and by and large it is well built and reliable, to the extent that I can only get an upgrade when I pour a can of coke into the thing! :-) Comparing my experiences with mates in different organisations I think FS kit is as good as if not better than their competitors.

I do share your concerns about what happens if it goes wrong. It's why I very rarely buy high value items over the internet, as I can't take it back to a shop and shout very loudly at someone.

Regards

Kev

pigeonpie

Totally agree Kev - being a laptop you could even chuck it at them too :rotfl: Costly but immensely satisfying.
That's why I'm thinking about buying from John Lewis after 2 nightmares living on 0870 to Dell customer 'support'.
It's too important to me as a work from home user to have immediate, reliable support when (not if) it goes wrong.
The value of buying on the internet is a refund for anything that is clearly an immediate disaster purchase (eg the Dells) or sounds like a hairdryer.
JL appear to do the new Sony but I'm worried the X black screen will trigger migraine; it's very shiny.
What's your keyboard like, Mark, as it's got to take loads of typing. Minimal DVD watching usage!

cheers

beautifulgorgeous_2

Just bought a fs from laptopsdirect and so far they have been great. Only got it this am so time will tell.

Little_John

Dabs were great untill they got very big, I used to work for the company that built their custom built pc's for a year or so, but I worked in an other area. I also bought loads of stuff from them becasue they were the cheapest place arround during the week Bowlers computer fair's at the weekend was cheap no no longer.

They built a new automated distribution centre in weshoughton accross from their old place and they got very slow so closed the sales desk becasue the automated system took about 40 minutes to pick the order and get it to the desk. once they closed that I refuse to pay for delivery of somthing from a company that I pass at least once a week I now buy from Scan they are cheaper now.

I have bought remotly from Dabs, a drive bay to fit 4x3.5 drives in to 3x5.25 drive bays and a customer of mine bought a motherboard, cpu and memory from them with me present as I was fitting it. The cpu was the wrong one they had them mis labed in their automatic warehouse so we got a 775 cpu when we ordered a 478, they sent a replacement but ignored what we told them so we got another 775.

Unless I can go to them to buy stuff I wont again, the fact that they no longer post a phone number for public sales and support is a pain as well. just send an email or any corespondence to Dave Atherton, he is the DA of DABS and owns the company well he started it.

pigeonpie

dabs have got the new IBM/lenovo laptops too, so now they are the only ones with quick delivery and good prices on either the FJS or IBM :mad:
Insight don't have them yet and I can only wait until next week
I emailed dabs but they don't reply & their website feedback is for general website qs,not pre sales or post sales queries.

I can't buy from them!!!! I got so desperate I have contacted Dell omg that's bad. Mind you when I see their desktop prices and know that I can't have one (flat too small) :mad: :mad:

Do you have an address or email for Mr Dave Atherton? I can feel a rant coming on