Pixmania problems - a warning

aloise

total crap company, delt with them about 4 years ago. Seems they haven't improved yet

Toe-Jam

I am just beginning my Pixmania saga.

Ordered a set of speakers on the 17st July, never arrived. They say they were sent out on the 22nd July.
They never showed up. They can't even give me a tracking reference number for Royal Mail, because they sent them out in the Regular Post.

Have now had to sign a sworn statement that i didn't receive them and they are going to do an investigation that can take up to 3 weeks. In the mean time I have paid £50.00 for something that I don't have through no fault of my own

makmcclean

Wish I had read this thread before I bought from PIXmania. Order a washing machine before christmas. It arrived and worked perfectly. However they didn't take their money (from Credit Card) straight away. So I waited and watched my statements then in February this year they sent me an email saying a computer error prevented them taking the payment and requesting we do a bank transfer (to a UK bank). The bank details they sent us were incomplete so I emailed back asking for correct details. A week or so later I get a response from a different customer services (in France) telling me to now transfer to a bank in France. I don't have the facility to transfer to non-UK banks. So I responded informing them of my problem and offered to pay by credit card or cheque. A month went by then I got an email saying my case has been passed to their Curry's Department and they will be in touch. To this day I have not heard a thing and they don't respond to my emails.
Today I finally got a response, from a French Debit Collection Agency asking for immediate payment in Euros including various charges or court action and balifs will follow.
Email doesn't work and the UK phone number was pointless. Does anyone have any contact numbers that work or advice on were I go from here.
Thanks

Toe-Jam

Toe-Jam wrote: »

I am just beginning my Pixmania saga.

Ordered a set of speakers on the 17st July, never arrived. They say they were sent out on the 22nd July.
They never showed up. They can't even give me a tracking reference number for Royal Mail, because they sent them out in the Regular Post.

Have now had to sign a sworn statement that i didn't receive them and they are going to do an investigation that can take up to 3 weeks. In the mean time I have paid £50.00 for something that I don't have through no fault of my own

Got a full refund today , so took 2 days to get my money back. Sorry my experience has been pleasant enough, although they lost the item in the post thats not really their fault its royal mails.

I hope all of you struggling to get your money back and products fixed get it sorted soon.:beer:

kitekat

Dont be fooled by their cheap prices they are a company that dont give a stuff about the customer.BUYER BEWARE

SEF

I am in the same situation, have got to the French Debit Collection Agency asking for immediate payment in Euros stage. Have found the following email address which apparently has been successful for some others [EMAIL="mediator_uk@pixmania.com"]mediator_uk@pixmania.com[/EMAIL] Sent the email today and will wait.

markbloke

Utterly useless customer service.
Ordered a portable CD player (showing in stock) on 23rd July for my daughter's birthday a month later. Waited for delivery, eventually checked tracking online and found it had gone out of stock until 6th August (no email from customer service to warn me). Checked again today, found it's gone out of stock until 23rd August (again, no email to warn me).
Luckily I've got my money back and can now start looking for a proper retailer. I will never use this time-wasting shower of incompetents again.

av_help

I ordered a Sony camcorder online from Pixmania on 17.12.2007. The parcel arrived on 21.12.2007. As I was at work and the parcel was being delivered to my home - My father accepted the parcel and noticed the outer packaging was open and the inner packaging looked OK and so signed for the parcel as 'not checked' as he was being rushed by the courier driver. My father then called me and advised outer parcel was open so I instructed him to check the contents, he later confirmed the battery and some cables were missing. I called Pixmania and reported this to them. After pursuing this with them by making several calls and emails - they agreed for a replacement item (17.01.2008). I was made to send the item back to them at my cost, £7.75 which I did so on the 22.01.08 and they confirmed that I would be reimbursed for this. On the 05.02.08, I received a parcel hoping that it was my replacement camcorder - instead and to my disappointment I discovered they sent the same parcel to me with a note in French, stating 'this item is incomplete, please return all items and resend'. I was amazed as this was the reason for my return in the first instance. After calling Customer Service they confirmed an error had been made and request that I sent the item back to them for an exchange. 08.02.08, At this point I requested that they reimburse me for initial postage as I was uncertain that they would pay up. They agreed and I sent them my account details 12.02.08. I waited for a few days and then followed up with telephone calls and left many messages, none of which were returned. After making several calls and emails they said I would be refunded by 20.02.08. Still nothing. At this stage I was really fed up - I had been trying to sort this out for over 2 months and could not see a positive outcome. I contacted by bank and requested for a charge-back to my account, which they had done. A few weeks later I received an email confirming my initial postage was refunded. Then a few days later received another email saying, refund was not possible due to fraud on the account. I contacted them for further information and had the same response. As I received the refund for the camcorder from my bank, I requested that they arrange uplift of the item. I did not hear from them and so 2 weeks later decided to return the item my post, hoping that this would be the end of my encounter. Last week, 17.08.2010, almost 2 and half years later, I receive an email from debtor, FIRST COLLECT INTERNATIONAL LTD, acting on behalf of Pixmania, demanding funds from me. I am totally shocked by this as thought this has all been resolved as item was returned to Pixmania and refund was returned by bank. I am the one at loss hear, as I still have not received funds for initially returning item to Pixmania, £7.75, as well as all the 0870 phone calls and 2nd time return of item, £2. Can anyone advise as I really do not know what to say..!!!

D_Dickenson

I am in the same boat as the poster above - some two and a half years after I was messed around by Pixmania at my own expense I have suddenly been contacted by FIRST COLLECT INTERNATIONAL LTD demanding full payment for a TV I never received.

Pixmania are the worst company I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with.

If anyone has any advice how to handle this situation with the debt collection agency I would be very grateful.

girlinscotland

This thread is very interesting. I am suddenly in a similar situation which came seemingly out of nowhere. I've received 2 threatening letters from (alledgedly) First Collect International in the last couple of weeks, demanding personal information in very short timescales.

I bought a camera on ebay 3 years ago, via an ebay seller and she appears to have used this company as her supplier. Having contacted her, she and others have also received similar letters. We all have evidence of payment.

The biggest thing however about these letters (the second threatening legal action - I didn't respond to the first - or the second as yet!)
...they sound to me like scam letters. The reason is they ask for credit card details to be sent by email.

The collection company is listed with companies house, but Companies House is no proof of good practice as far as I'm aware. Perhaps they are ok but have been fed false information about made-up debts?...Alternatively, perhaps these letters aren't from the company, but rather from someone masquerding as an employee and using convincing looking headed paper...and requesting you reply specifically to an email address to mask the cover?
Or perhaps customer details have been stolen and this made up debt is now emerging as a big organised con?

Do I sound paranoid? Or just sceptical?!

I'd be interested to know if others have followed the same pattern of requesting credit card details by email (there is no chance I'd be sending anyone that!!) and also whether this insecure and (to me), highly suspicious method is ever used in genuine debt collection cases. To me that one sentence in their letter undermines the credibility of the whole letter. But having never been in debt, I don't know how a real debt would be chased!

I have yet to decide whether to ignore or respond. I'll hopefully have time to phone Consumer Direct (part of the Office of Fair Trading) tomorrow to ask their advice.