Aria Technology

robhall1973

I bought two flatscreen monitors form Aria Technology (https://www.aria.co.uk) One was fine, but the other had 8 sub-pixel faults (seven and above is classed as faulty) so I went through their returns procedure and was issued with an RMA.

On their website it said to return it recorded delivery and that they would pay £10 return carriage and to contact them if carraige was more than this. It took the monitor to the Post Office where it cost £19 to send using the method tha Aria specified.

When I got back home I rang them and told them and they said that they would arrange for a courier to collect it at a cost of £12. I explained that it had already gone and they said that they could only refund £10, leaving me £9 out of pocket for returning a faulty item!

On 24th May I wrote to their MD and asked him to refund the £9 and to amend their website to say that customers should obtain a shipping cost and then contact customer service to check that the price was acceptable.

Having not received a reply by 21st June, I wrote to their Customer Service Manager, again asking for the £9 and pointing out that their MD hadn't had the common courtesy to respond to my letter. I also said that if I did not receive my refund with 7 days then I would use https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk.

Having not received a reply to that letter, I e-mailed them this morning and received an apology for their slowness in replying. However, they still maintain that they will only refund £10.

I checked their website and they have now amended the text (as I suggested!) so that it reads "Please note we have a limit on what we will pay for return carriage, this differs from item to item. Any carriage fees over this amount, will be the customers responsibility. Please contact our customer service dept prior to shipping."

So - what do I do now? Their MD doesn't bother replying, their Customer Service Manager doesn't bother replying, they alter their website following my suggestion and I still stand to be £9 out of pocket for returning an item that was faulty in the first place!

Grrrrrr!

pennies2pounds_3

Had the same problem mate ! Eventually after lots of phone calls got a refund and didnt bother to buy another flat screen from them until 6 months later when it was £50 cheaper!

madfrenchgirl

they are useles and some of their products are phoney

I ordered a CD/MP3 player back in 2003 for 30 pounds. Receivec it, and it worked ok for 2 hours, the following morning it would not even switch itself on!!! so I sent it back... I had to wait fro 3 months to get a new one, it took 6 phonecalls and 12 emails to actually being told it was because they had to sort themselves out after Xmas (i ordered the dam stuff before xmas). The new thing I received was exactly the same product BUT after 1 week it stopped playing MP3's, decided to be awkward with CD-R and will only display one frame every 30 sec when playing Video CDs. APALLING, I NEVER RECOMMEND THEM TO ANYONE!!!

Now after a year and a half of playing nice normal cd (perfectly unscratched and flawless), the damn lid poped out of the rest of the player! USELESS and SH!TTY products i tell you!

your better off ordering from e-buyers!

davidjwest

Same here, avoid Aria!

Teak

Ditto here too. 2 months for a refund, totally unacceptable service. They kept fogging me off and never refunded the return delivery cost.

I think sometimes there is too much emphasis on 'lowest cost' instead of the best deal. No good getting it cheap if the quality/service is rubbish. That is wasting money in the end, not saving it.

Stonk

On their website it said to return it recorded delivery and that they would pay £10 return carriage and to contact them if carraige was more than this.

Quite obviously, this means you have to contact them BEFORE incurring any cost over £10. Honestly, do you expect you could post it for, say, £1,000 and expect to have that refunded just on the grounds that you contacted them, albeit afterwards?!

robhall1973

To be fair, that was not the exact wording on their site at the time. I can't tell you what the exact wording was as they have now changed it However, I can say that all 17 people in the office I work agreed that it didn't read that you should contact them before sending it.

If they are going to specify what method you have to use to return an item and then declare that they won't refund this amount that this method costs they should expect complaints. Having investigated further, I have found no company that I could've used to return an item of that weight and value that costs £10 or under!

I have previously used https://www.dabs.com but Aria were cheaper this time - I shall never use them again.

After a lengthy correspondence via e-mail last week they say that they have refunded the £10 to my card and given me the name of the person who handles complaints to write to about the outstanding £9. Apparently he's unavailable until 12th July!

I do not intend to give up on this one!

sockospice

maybe I'm just lucky but I've never had a problem with Aria. Polite, knowledgeable staff, and great bargains.

underdone

Unlike you guys I have only had great experiences with them. I think you're being a bit pedantic frankly.

Consistently, they present excellent prices which are a mile better than Komplett, Dabs, Scan and all the usual suspects. I have been buying kit off them for years - the staff are always helpful and I think their website is excellent.

Please don't cut off your nose to spite your face!

Wig

I would have saved the webpage to my harddrive, ( I did this with Condor Ferries just incase, but they refunded me what I wanted when they realised I was right.)

Having said that, the fact that you didn't will make your case all the more difficult, especially as you didn't write it down or copy and paste it. I would atleast argue that even they admit they would have had a cost of 12 pounds so you should be given 2 pounds more.

I'd probably give up on this one. So it is now end of August, so what was your outcome?

underdone

Unlike you guys I have only had great experiences with them. I think you're being a bit pedantic frankly.

Consistently, they present excellent prices which are a mile better than Komplett, Dabs, Scan and all the usual suspects. I have been buying kit off them for years - the staff are always helpful and I think their website is excellent.

Please don't cut off your nose to spite your face!