LOL Scan censor their forum

I posted a mildly critical post in the Scan subsection after seeing ChrisP fail at customer service in a thread I was sent a link to. As I currently work in a role that is client-facing I have some experience in this, and a fairly basic rule is not to insult or belittle the customer. So I told him this, and a day later that post is gone. As I don't really approve of censorship this is going on record in a forum Scan don't have mod rights to.

 

Print screen of the thread, or you fail.

 

Yeah they deleted my post too about them heavily advertising on Bit Tech and not stocking the recomended motherboard...

Instead of just saying "It was end of life".

Dick move.

In fact he was just a complete tool in that thread end of, what the hell was all the "If you'd just ask not assume etc" horse crap. He's their retail customer services manager? I'd hate to see their junior staff! I also don't buy the crap about the second hand CPUs, why would you put CPUs that had gone out to a mag anywhere near retail stock? Especially two of them, sounds too fishy to me.

 

If it's true, and they edit that forum, that's a serious no no... Plus, I don't understand why they would need to. There are enough happy customers out there to address the balance. No company can get it right 100% of the time, and the reality is, people are only vocal when they have concerns. For every 1 angry post in a forum like that, there are probably 5000 happy customers.

If Scan are sweeping dirt under the carpet they will seriously go down in my estimation, and that would be a shame, as I've been a dedicated Scan customer since they began way back in the late 80s!!... that's right folks.. 80s!

Come on Scan... Please don't **** up over something as trivial as trying to hide someone's less than favourable comment. Be honest... you sometimes get stuff wrong.

Sounds to me like 1 person may be single handedly ruining 14 years of excellence there.

 

To be fair I've never noticed them edit a complaint and they didn't really do it in this case either. My post was in a complaint post about them not stocking the MSI board recomended in the hardware guide (slightly more to it than that but that's the gist).

It was a flippant comment but rather than just say "The board is end of life, we've run out of stock and can't get anymore" he deleted my post.

I presume similar happened to the OP as well.

 

I'm a big fan of Scan and use them pretty much exclusively these days, and I have recommended them to friends and family. I've even defended them before on forums, but if they are editing their section of the forum to alter the truth then that is simply unacceptable! And they need to STOP DOING IT NOW!

No excuse will fly, none. Unless the person is swearing like a trooper or posting sensitive information (email,address ect) there is no reason for it. If a thread has blatant lies or falsehoods in it, you say so and lock it. If they continue, you contact the forum mods about it.

If it has uncomfortable truths in it, you feel uncomfortable and work to change yourselves for the better.

 

I still rate Scan, I just think they need to shut down their bit-tech forum. It does not appear to be run well, questions are often answered only after days, and they committed the big internet no-no of deleting posts. None of which reflects well on them - they actually have excellent customer service over the telephone.

Surprisingly I don't screenshot every post I make :/

 

I Was just about to say that...

 

bit of ignorant post, afterall why would the op have any need to open a thread and lie about something

 

+Why would he find it necessary to print screen unless he anticipated it being deleted

 

As the other participant in the thread with ChrisP, I want to say thanks for everyone who's reassured me that I wasn't the only one thinking Chris wasn't doing a great job at customer service.

I also noticed at least one post go missing from the scan forum (possibly the one by Bede. I didn't see the one Zinfandel was talking about so probably that's at least 2 gone). The one I saw had no swearing/personal details etc.

I just find the whole thing really rather weird. I asked a simple couple of questions, which were neither meant to be offensive, nor do I think they were after looking back on it, and yet a Scan representative makes me wonder if I'm really that bad a communication. Certainly not the way to gain and keep customers even if it's true! I've also noticed a similar attitude to some others postings in the Scan forum - a general sense of defensiveness when it isn't needed. Strange that something that should be a great advert for the company (listening to the community, showing that you respond well to suggestions, resolving the odd 'slipped through the net' errors etc) turns into an advert for why to go elsewhere.

 

Yeah I agree it is a dick move by Scan, they have done it several times before here and over at Hexus. They are getting nearly as bad as OCUK.

 

Real shame. Censoring serves nothing as it will come out such as places like this. People make mistakes, I value places that are not afraid to admit they've done wrong.

 

I would also like to regoster my objection to Scan doing this. Deleting posts on bit-tech is something that does not happen as far as I am aware, unless the material posted is extremely offensive and needs to be gone. Threads are often locked to stop the discussion but deleting posts... no way, not acceptable.

Kinda reminds me of the stock shortages and order delays thread that I posted, where the Scan staff would simply not admit that their stock control system had flaws or gaps in it, despite numerous people posting in support of my opinion that it was happening far too often. The thread is called "No... Seriously" and was OP by me if you'd like a read.

 

That continuously annoys me, it's clear their stock system doesn't auto update or there A, wouldn't be so many threads about ordering a product that was in stock then wasn't when the order had been placed and B. When I bought a fractal core 1000 the other week he wouldn't have had to "Go and check the stock room because there's only 1 left but it might have been sold".

The absolute worst thing about Scan though is card payments in store. They don't have chip and pin and you don't sign, essentially they put it through as if you were paying by internet yourself at home.

Effectively if I found a debit/credit card on the floor I could take it to scan and buy whatever I wanted. And if you don't have the additional password security stuff for online payments then that's woo!

I'm not even sure that's legal. (The way they process the payments that is! Not finding a debit card and using it which is definitely illegal ).

But yeah, I still love Scan, but they're getting slightly worse.

 

I'm going to play devils advocate and take the other end of the situation: Did you have anything to do with that thread before you jumped in on it? If no, then he's within his right to remove what is perceived as troll posts by parties not directly connected to the situation. How he treats his customers and how they feel is their business, not yours to comment on. (this is the same way bit-tech runs the trading forums here)

It's their forum after all and if that's how they want to run it, then you can personally accept or not accept it. Telling people and reporting through other channels to raise concern is more acceptable than adding direct conflict to the issue.


/throws on an oil barrel into the flames.

 

I agree with you to an extent on the censorship which is why I've tried to play it down but overall the situation was poorly handled. I think the reason for the upset is that we've all seen companies trying to cover up their mistakes before and given that so many of us recommend people use Scan and of course, use them ourselves, to see them potentially start down a slippery slope is slightly disconcerting.

I know if ChrisP had have dealt with me like he did anotherusername, who was genuinely just trying to figure out what was going on I'd have been none to happy about it.

Back to the point about if it's our business or not... I think it couldn't be more our business. As I say me and a lot of people spend hours a day/week on forums suggesting people buy from Scan because of a collective excellent experience with them. If they stop providing that experience then it really is our business as a tech community to discuss that at length. Granted, maybe not within other people's threads on the Scan forum (although I personally see no issue with offering support to someone who isn't receiving a good service), but it's still to be discussed. Just as if a hardware manufacturer suddenly had a plummet in product quality it would be our business to discuss that.

 

The concern is valid. You have to be able to back up your accusations. If OP does not even link to the thread in question, we don't even know the context in which it occurred. I'm sure he is not lying, but people can be remarkably subjective in their interpretation of events. As Bindi points out, there are other takes on this situation.

So before we join into another pub game of: "Oi, Scan! NOOOO!!!" let's get our facts straight, shall we?

 

This is the thread in question.

Nothing particularly dramatic. And I've certainly seen a whole lot worse from other companies.

I guess Scan are just victims of their own success! They're still a damn sight better than most everyone else.

They do always seem to get tetchy when their stock management system is mentioned though

EDIT: Also I'd just like to point out it actually started out as an excellent piece of information. To go into a five day old thread and say "We've just got one of these in" is pretty good. It's the reply to the OPs post that was a bit shoddy.

 

Thank you for the link. Most enlightening. It looks like anotherusername misunderstood ChrisP's explanation and generally behaved (in my opinion) in a churlish manner. And you jumped in and called Scan a "Scumbag". Very constructive (yes, Zin, I can read deleted posts. I'm a Mod, remember?).

This already paints a drastically different picture, and one in which neither you or anotherusername come off very well.