thomson speedtouch - worst service ever?

njb2808

I have a faulty Thomson Speedtouch 580 broadband router - by the by, it is faulty due to some bad technical advice from Thomson's Tech Support service - it is still under guarantee, but the original supplier has gone out of business (nickknows.com). Thomson told me (incorrectly) that the unit could only be returned to the supplier. When I pointed out that this was not he legal position, they said they didn't know how to return something to Thomson direct but they would try and find out. After a week of email silence (and reverting to an old modem) I started to trying to track down a phone number for Thomson (a big international company), which seemed to be impossible. I found a sales number which for a whole day referred me to a voice mail service: I left a message and no-one called back. I was finally left with the option of calling their technical support line (at 50p a minute) or going mad with frustration, so I bit my lip and dialed. A very nice but completely hopeless woman told me that they didn't know how to return a faulty item, but they had been trying to find out for another customer. A request to speak to the supervisor received the old "unfortunately he's just left" line. The woman suggested I call back again the following day - when I asked for a non-premium number to call back on she said that this was the only one they had. Does this mean head office have to call the premium rate number? I doubt it somehow.
Today I finally received an email reply (it's only taken two weeks and a number of follow-up emails from me) which said that they were still trying to find out, but a lot of people from marketing were on holiday so it would be September before they had an answer.
The word inadequate hardly covers this completely hopless display of "customer relations" - I suppose that Thomson work on the basis that there enough new customers for it not to matter if they alienate existing ones, but my advice to anyone looking for a router/adsl modem etc is DON'T BUY THOMSON SPEEDTOUCH.

griff.

I have a Thomson Speedtouch modem, it's never given me any problems, so I have not had the need to contact Thomson. I have been able to easily able to download upgrade for the software from their website.

I am sorry to hear that your modem was faulty, and it must be very frustrating for you, but it is very unfortunate when key people are on holiday.

This situation does depend on whether nicknows.com was an agent of Thomson when they passed the modem to you - do you know ?

Zippy123

As far as I understand it, Thomson have no obligation to you as your contract was with the original supplier.

Try the receiver of the company or your credit card company.

wrexhamandy

If it's faulty you can do either the manufacturer or supplier.

That is awful service fair do's, I'll remember that as I need to buy one soon.

kuohu

njb2808 wrote:

I have a faulty Thomson Speedtouch 580 broadband router - by the by, it is faulty due to some bad technical advice from Thomson's Tech Support service

Faulty due to some bad advice? What does this mean? What did they tell you to do to it?