PIXMania - Avoid like the plague!

mishabgt

Having used Martin's mantra of "Can I get it cheaper" I Ordered a car stereo through Pixmania (via Rpoints) on the Sunday afternoon as a present required for a week the following Tuesday (10 days). Decided as I had plenty of time, to use "Standard" delivery, which was quoted on site as 2-3 days as even if it was a little late, would still arrive by the end of the week.
Checked on the "Order Tracking" on the Monday afternoon, and saw the Item had been paid, order had been verified, and that item was in "Preparation" ready for dispatch.
"Wow," I thought, "that's what I call prompt service. It could be here by Wednesday".
Wednesday arrived with no sign of a parcel.
Thursday came and went.
Friday - still no parcel. A check on the "Order Tracking" showed it was still in "Preparation".
A call to Pixmania that morning confirmed that the order was still sitting in dispatch, but I was promised that it would be sent out that day, so I should arrive it Monday/Tuesday.
Monday I checked the Order Tracking to check it had gone out and, you guessed it, it was still in "Preparation".
Another, now slightly irate, call informed me that it would be sent out either that day or the following day (so would not be likely to arrive in time for the birthday on the Tuesday), but they did say they would remove the delivery costs as some way toward an apology for the delay.
Tuesday arrived, and checking on the site I found it was still in "Preparation"... now how an item can sit in dispatch for 10 days without someone wondering why it either isn't parceled up, or hasn't been put on a lorry is now getting me annoyed, so another call was made to speak to a manager.
"We don't have any managers", I was told.
"So who do you speak to if you have a problem at your end?"
"We have supervisors"
"Fine. Can I speak to one of them then please?"
"They're all busy"
"Well how long are they going to be busy for?"
"They're not available"
"When will they be available"
"You can't speak to them"
"So how do I get anything done at a higher level?"
"You can send them an email"
So I fire off an email (9:30am) stating the entire saga, and that I am now seriously disgusted with their service, and that I want Pixmania to put my order on 24hour express delivery at THEIR EXPENSE (Figured Martin would be proud of my "negotiating" skills!) as this was now 10 days since ordering on a "2-3 day delivery".
By 4:30pm I had still not even received acknowledgement of my email, let alone explanation as to what was happening, so I ring the helpdesk again.
"It's in Preparation, so it should be sent either today or tomorrow"
"It's been in Preparation for 10 days now.. how do you explain that? How difficult can it be to put a car radio in a box, address it and put it on a lorry?"
"I don't know. I don't work in the warehouse"
In the end I decided to cancel the order and buy from somewhere else.
Strangely enough, when I cancelled the whole process was as quick and smooth as you like, which makes me think they have more practise at this than sending items out, including an email from the superviser apologising for the delay in the order and telling me she had sent the refund request through within 10 minutes of cancelling!
The amount was credited back to the credit card (which when I looked at the bank statement, had been taken out on the Monday (day before) - INCLUDING postage which I had been told had been removed!)

All I can say is, I will NOT be using Pixmania again, and will not be recommending them. If anything I will be dissuading people from using them. The customer service is appalling, and the whole order process seems littered with holes where your order can get lost in the system.

-10 out of 10

Poppycat

I have heard bad things about them, delivery slow, sending foregign manuals and instead of UK manuals as they are French. I wouldnt touch them with a 10ft bargepole.

superscaper

I bought a printer off them a couple of years ago, I didn't know at the time that they are NOT a UK based company so the power lead was European and they'd just thrown in a UK adapter (not really ideal). They'd also left two parcels and when I opened the other one it was someone else's printer, the order sheet even gave a German address but the parcel note was to me??? I phoned them up and they wanted ME to pay for delivery back to them. I told them I don't see why I should pay for their mistakes and they eventually agreed to have a courier pick it up. I've only had one order with them an I am not happy with their service. Doesn't seem like much has changed either.