Pixmania customer service is TERRIBLE!!!

Gambit

I ordered an LCD TV on 26th Sept from Pixmania. It was delivered to me at the end of the month and after only 2 days I noticed that there was a fault with the TV. It seemed to be turning itself off randomly. After looking through the manual and contacting Panasonic support, I realised that something was indeed wrong with the TV, so I called Pixmania about it. The customer service representative was very helpful and said that there would be no problem replacing it and that I could expect an email confirming delivery within a few days. I called back a few days later and after being told the same thing by 4 other people, I was informed that before they could authorise an exchange I would have to get an uplift number reference provided by an engineer after a home visit.

First thing I asked the supervisor who informed me of this was why it took 6 days talking to 5 different representatives (including herself) to be told I needed this number. She apologised saying they had new staff that weren’t aware of the procedure. I proceeded to call the engineers, the Tech Guys, to find out about getting this uplift number but unfortunately their engineers only work Monday to Friday and wouldn’t be able to confirm a time until the day of the appointment. This means that I would have to take a day off for this and I didn’t understand why I would have to do this when this clearly wasn’t my fault… After much arguing with the staff and after they had checked with head office in France, they told me that they need an uplift number as this was their policy and that was that!! :mad:

Not being one to back down I decided to look into my rights and after talking to the very helpful people at consumer direct (www.consumerdirect.gov.uk) I discovered that under the Sale of Goods Act 1979, Section 48B the following is stated:

“If the buyer requires the seller to repair or replace the goods, the seller must repair or, as the case may be, replace the goods within a reasonable time but without causing significant inconvenience to the buyer”

I thought that all the phone calls and the fact this was taking weeks to resolve is in itself causing me ‘significant inconvenience’ let alone requiring me to take a day off for their engineers to come round. :idea:

So now I’m claiming this back off my credit card under the Consumer Credit Act, Section 75 which states that I can claim back for faulty good and we’ll see how I get on. I don’t know what the consensus is on Pixmania as a company as I’ve used them before without any problems. But I think when judging a company the real test of how good they are is how they respond when things go wrong… and to me this shows that they are not working with customers’ best interest in mind. Especially as most of the calls have been made by me with them not returning my calls and not offering me any solutions. I would ask you to think carefully before buying from them as I would discourage anyone from using them ever again!!!

Gambit

Finally got Pixmania to collect my faulty TV after the Tech Guys kindly gave me a uplift number without sending an engineer out. Currys came and picked up the TV on Sunday on behalf of Pixmania and I was happy to be finally rid of it!

Now comes the second part of the process - getting them to give me a refund. Apparently it takes up to 7 working days although the customer representatives were vague about time scales as apparently before the refund is issued it first must be authorised by the head office in France who then contact Currys in the UK. Once Currys have got back to them they will then issue the refund to go through. Unfortunately though, today is apparently a national holiday in France so this is stuck on the first stage :wall:

So I've decided to go through my credit card company to see if they can resolve this any quicker and finally get me my money back... fingers crossed!!!

phill79

Pixmania are most definately the worst company I have ever dealt with. They are useless and their site is very misleading as they are actually based outside the UK.

vikingaero

Sounds like good old standard Pixmania service to me!

Gambit

I just cant believe that can get away with this... and I'm STILL waiting for a refund even though they said it should have been done by now! :wall:

System

i ordered a mobile phone from them via amazon, the instructions came in french when i contacted them they basically said what do you expect we are based in france. the phone was supposed to be sim free but was clearly unlocked. never again!

mishkanorman

I cancelled an order after 15mins and it took 5 months and the intervention of my CC company before i got a refund, and then it was a £1 short !!

My SIL bought us a webcam last year for xmas, it was returned in january and she has had no refund or repair, biggest bag of !!!!!! company ive seen in a long time !!

mishka

dantheman80

I just got my new camera from pixmania, I paid an extra £7 to get express 24-48 hour delivery, which actually took 5 days.... Standard delivery only takes 3-4.

I've tried several times to get the money back, but for £7 I just don't have the energy. I wish I'd just spent an extra couple of quid and bought it somewhere else.

I didn't even manage to get a response from a human on the matter, just a raft of automated responses. They really are the worst company for customer service.

Gambit

Well its good to see that it's not just me that has such a low opinion of them! I've dealt with a LOT of online companies as I've been an online shopper for years now. But never have I had such bad customer service from any one company. To be honest if I was anyone else I might even be put off online shopping from this experience, but luckily all this has done is put me off Pixmania FOR LIFE and I hope others learn from my experience too.

p.s. I'm STILL waiting for my refund!!! :wall:

dantheman80

Same for me - I decided to give their customer services one more try and got this back:

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Thank you for your e-mail.

We apologise for the inconvenience and delay caused.

Your request for refund of the EXPRESS DELIVERY has been sent to the accounts department, as soon as we have an answer fromthem, we will get back to you with further information.

Thank you for your comprehension and patience.

Best regards,
Team Pixmania

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2 days and counting....
hopefully they are just busy doing your refund first Gambit

codger

They're doing pretty well on eBay UK.

Just wish their dozy employees would wake up to the fact that the two-pin Continental plugs they ship out with the Continental market products don't work here.

And this despite promises of 'UK plugs'.

Just saved myself over £100 though on the lowest UK retail price I could find on Pricerunner. So mustn't complain too much. . .