24studio / studio cards rant

hmaffin

I feel i have to vent - I was browsing for watches a week ago and found a lovely one on the 24studio.co.uk website, half price - £14.99. Brilliant, thinks I!

I tried to add it to the basket and it kept saying item not found. Emailed them to ask them what the problem was, but in the meantime with a bit of tinkering I managed to find the item code and add it manually, filled in my name and address and ordered. Wondering why no payment page I read the help and discovered you have to pay by invoice. No problem, thinks I - as soon as i get it i'll just pay by card and be done.

Got my confirmation email through, about 3 days ago I email to ask how I track my order as I don't yet have a customer reference number.

This morning I get a reply to the 1st email I had sent - asking the technical question - with an email telling me I had been refused credit and the order was not accepted. I shot back with "I asked a technical question without having ordered and you send this response to me?".

Then when i get home tonight I find a letter saying my credit application had been denied and the order was not accepted. Now pardon me but i didn't know I was applying for their "credit" account. I phone them up and get an indian call centre with a bored young man who tells me I can't order if I have been refused credit. I say I don't want credit, I want to pay with a card and be done. He says that's the way it works - I say "so you don;t want my money or my business?" - he says they cant if my credit is refused. I say I only gave you my name and address, but he tells me that's enough to refuse me. I tell him they are going to lose a hell of a lot of business if they choose to operate this way, tell him I don;t want to know and hang up.

Now on their website it says that they will be introducing direct payment in 2008 - but I imagine that either the watch will be gone by then, it will be back to full price, and frankly, as much as I love and want that watch, do i want to have dealings with a company i've just read so much bad press about in here, takes a week to reply (badly) to emails, and tells you you basically can;t buy from them? I think not.

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Hi, im afraid to say you can only order on studio with a 'credit account'. They dont accept straight out one off payments as far as im aware. Sorry! HTH

hmaffin

No I know that now - which is a horrible idea - and demeaning and frustrating when they say you can't shop with them.

All I wanted was that lovely watch *sniff*