Terrible customer service!

Mupette

Ikea_no_more wrote: »

As a long standing fan of Ikea (having spent thousands there) from the early days I've been singing their praises for years loyally defending their no frills policies and innovative designs against critics.
However, that's all changed since I contacted customer services recently regarding my discoloured (high end range, Effectiv) birch office furniture, purchased end 2006. (the same range and birch finish is still available and comes with a ten year guarantee but apparently not applicable when I purchased).
With Ikea testing examples and claims of quality in your face all over their stores and impressive long guarantees I did not expect my office units to darken to the colour of oak (oak also available in store) in patches. On the top of one unit I have a pale rectangle where my printer sat until I moved it.
After jumping through hoops involving a 40 mile round trip to the store with some of the furniture to ask if Ikea could restore my units - I was not looking for money back - and a phone call from them saying they would replace my units if I gave receipt info I had a long search for receipts to supply codes. I finally received a phone call, then confirming letter, telling me the furniture would not be replaced and that was the end of the matter.

Why, if Ikea know, as customer service staff (incidentally I found some of the CS staff to be contradictory, argumentative and opinionated with no respect for customer concerns) informed me, that the pale birch Effectiv office furniture will over time turn dark (in my case yellowed in patches), do they not mention this in any of the pre sales info? I would not have purchased a blond wood finish if I'd know it would resemble beech or oak over a short time and that it might not be even discolouration depending on light etc. Had I been given this information before my purchase I could have then made an informed choice. I may have perhaps gone for a painted finish or something else altogether. The letter I've received reiterates what customer service staff say about the colour change. I also have some less expensive Ikea Lack range birch veneerd tables. They too have yellowed (they wouldn't look out of place in a heavy smokers house!) but as they were not from an expensive range with an expensive price tag I got rid only slightly irritated. The office furniture is another matter. I paid extra almost £300 for 4 small units expecting superior quality than the (what my friends refer to as) throw away range. A close friend also has a birch TV unit that has also gone so dark its more like beech now (only with a yellow tinge). I am sadly disappointed and will permanently part company from my long and loyal relationship with Ikea.
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What's has this to do with a computer...

KevInChester

To me it sounds like the computer needs someone looking at it, rather than upgrades adding. Also it baffles me why if you were so unhappy you'd pay him to add additional memory, should've got someone else to do it (and show you how easy it is).

marleyboy

OP, albeit this guy claims to be a tech savvie, I have my doubts, particularly when it comes to customer service, he does no good to his business with that kind of attitude. I would put his lack of communication skills as a side effect of his technological expertise, in effect I would shop elsewhere.

Why dont you phone him up and state that you require a full system upgrade in all departments including computer hardware, network management and server upgrades.... And could he recommend a good company with the relevant expertise and customer friendly service that you have grown accustomed to over the Years in business.

Torby

Freddie_Snowbits wrote: »

CODSWALLOP.

My local PC man built mine and after minor tweaks in the first week works fine.

The requirement I put on him was I do a lot of video work, on files between 10-15 GB, 2 at a time.

I has no complaints about him and we are looking to buy a second suite for around the same price. £3,000!

Think your local PC man saw you coming, I've done a LOT of multi cam video work using Premiere Pro using 4 streams of video in excess of an hour each (files approx 13gb/hr) using Magic Bullets at the same time in the odd case, all performed on a PC made by Dell with a quad core with a couple of spare external sata drives and a decent graphics card plus a 22" monitor for less than a grand. £3k !!!! for that I was able to include my first Sony VX2100 cam, plus tripod plus lanc controller, flight case, tapes leads, software, and still have change....

in a lot of cases...local PC men are opportunists, I've yet to see PC built by one thats any better than an "off the shelf" deal, what's more the "build your own" officianados ( I used to be one) would be really pushed to get as good a PC as you can get off the shelf nowadays, especially if you use the likes of HotUK Deals to find one.

Donnie

aliasojo wrote: »

LIBAD it's blatently obvious that you and I are simply not on the same wave level at all.

Maybe we should just wave at each other in the passing from now on?

Actually, I'm not on your wave(length) either. I simply don't understand your position here.

Clearly she is no computer expert. She didn't understand terms such as Celeron or Centrino. She just requested a system that would be suitable to the tasks that she described.

He used the cheapest components and grossly overcharged her.

Therein lies the rip off. It matters not how long she had the system, as she simply had no idea that she paid over the odds in the first place.

I know about the correct price of such a machine, because I bought a similar system around the same time. Woolworths were selling off their XP systems cheap because the new Vista version had been released. Link to original post here.

The new Vista packages were no more than £400. That included LCD monitor and printer.

So how did the price leap to £1500?

Of course if he tells her; Fast processor, latest OS...she expects that he is doing his best for her; albeit at a price. But one doesn't expect the price to have a more than 200% mark up.

It was Celeron D and Vista Basic running on 1 GB for goodness sake. That was never a £1500 system.

He cheated her and then added insult to injury by charging £89 for popping a RAM module into place.

aliasojo

Donnie wrote: »

Actually, I'm not on your wave(length) either. I simply don't understand your position here.

Clearly she is no computer expert. She didn't understand terms such as Celeron or Centrino. She just requested a system that would be suitable to the tasks that she described.

He used the cheapest components and grossly overcharged her.

Therein lies the rip off. It matters not how long she had the system, as she simply had no idea that she paid over the odds in the first place.

aliasojo wrote: »

More than likely, but to be fair, he's in the computer business, he's not in the business of making people into savvy shoppers. We all have to be responsible for our own decisions. The OP runs her own business and is far from stupid, if she knew nothing about what she was buying she should have sought advice.

I'm not defending him mind, just pointing out you can lead a horse to water etc etc....

Sorry Donnie but I don't know how else to put it?

Maybe I'm too anal about these things but if I were spending that kind of money on a computer system (which I actually have done in the past before prices fell hugely), I would be doing some research before I parted with my cash. Just because the chap told her it was the best system for he doesn't mean it was, imo she should have accepted his advice....and then checked what she was told either by researching herself or asking someone in the know.

I understand the point you make about 'therein lies the ripoff' but the point I'm making is, it was within her power to not allow him to do that if she'd been a little more pro-active and taken some responsibility for understanding what she was buying. However, as I said, I'm not excusing him in any way. It's just my opinion that there were two parties in this deal and this situation doesn't seem like a clear cut consumer gripe to me. She paid out a lot of money for something she knew nothing about, wasn't pro-active enough in dealing with the issues when they arose and voiced her feelings 3 years later when she then said he could get her another (discounted) computer.

Most people would not give more money to someone they felt had not provided them with a good service, perhaps the computer chap thought she was at it, which is why 3 years later he wasn't keen to help her? (I'm sure she's not btw....just pointing out that we haven't heard his thoughts.)

Lifeisbutadream

aliasojo wrote: »

Sorry Donnie but I don't know how else to put it?

Maybe I'm too anal about these things but if I were spending that kind of money on a computer system (which I actually have done in the past before prices fell hugely), I would be doing some research before I parted with my cash. Just because the chap told her it was the best system for he doesn't mean it was, imo she should have accepted his advice....and then checked what she was told either by researching herself or asking someone in the know.

I understand the point you make about 'therein lies the ripoff' but the point I'm making is, it was within her power to not allow him to do that if she'd been a little more pro-active and taken some responsibility for understanding what she was buying. However, as I said, I'm not excusing him in any way. It's just my opinion that there were two parties in this deal and this situation doesn't seem like a clear cut consumer gripe to me. She paid out a lot of money for something she knew nothing about, wasn't pro-active enough in dealing with the issues when they arose and voiced her feelings 3 years later when she then said he could get her another (discounted) computer.

Most people would not give more money to someone they felt had not provided them with a good service, perhaps the computer chap thought she was at it, which is why 3 years later he wasn't keen to help her? (I'm sure she's not btw....just pointing out that we haven't heard his thoughts.)

Except that this particular thread wasnt about someone ripping me off three years ago, it was about the fact that his customer service was horrendous, as he could have easily sorted out the whole thing by refunding me £89 and possibly even giving me a discount on another PC.

Which was why I pointed out that you had misread my original complaint. I was not complaining about being ripped off in the first place.

aliasojo

Lifeisbutadream wrote: »

I was not complaining about being ripped off in the first place.

Donnie wrote: »

Just for the record I consider that he ripped her off.

How else can I make it clear that my post was in answer to Donnie and not you?

System

Personally I would have thought one of the benefits of running your own business is that you can be rude to people who annoy you. Obviously you can't in Dixons or Comet as they can complain to your boss but in this case you can't go any senior to complain about the guy. He's been in business 3+ years so probably does alright for himself that he can pick and choose who he does business with! Plus I work in IT myself and you get some weird people in the business, to say not everyone is a people person is an understatement!

Lifeisbutadream

goater78 wrote: »

Personally I would have thought one of the benefits of running your own business is that you can be rude to people who annoy you. Obviously you can't in Dixons or Comet as they can complain to your boss but in this case you can't go any senior to complain about the guy. He's been in business 3+ years so probably does alright for himself that he can pick and choose who he does business with! Plus I work in IT myself and you get some weird people in the business, to say not everyone is a people person is an understatement!

LOL you wouldnt be in business long if you were rude to everyone who annoyed you

I have only ever been rude to one person (he complained that his door lock was not working, so I sent someone out to look and it turned out he had had a new key cut and the new key didnt work! ! ) I told him that he had waste my time and that he was lucky I didnt charge him a call out fee.

I usually find smaller businesses much more helpful and personal (as I am )