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Rant WCUK - A Cautionary Tale

Discussion in 'General' started by Unicorn, 2 Aug 2017.

  1. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    I thought I should share this with you all as a caution. My latest experience with WCUK has not been a good one. I’ve ordered from this site before, quite a bit in fact. Unfortunately, the nature of liquid cooling component supply in the UK is that a large custom build usually requires orders from multiple suppliers. WCUK seem to “stock” a large range of products from some of the best liquid cooling brands and they have a well-designed and laid out website which makes it very simple to find what you’re looking for. All of that makes ordering from them quite appealing, but if you have any experience ordering from them, you’ll know that everything which happens after you click “confirm order” on the checkout page is a very different story.

    I placed this order early on Friday afternoon just before 1PM. The payment was only processed on Monday morning. It’s now Wednesday morning and the order still has not despatched. The status is at “warehouse allocation”. I have done some research on the subject since and it seems that WCUK drop ship a lot if not all of the products which they sell on their website. I have no idea whatsoever how this is a profitable business model. They also charged over £20 for delivery to Northern Ireland, despite the fact that this is part of the UK and several couriers will send parcels of this size with a value of up to £300 on a 1-2-day delivery either from NI to the mainland or vice versa for about half that. I wouldn’t have minded the postage cost too much if the order had been dispatched in a timely manner, but at this stage it’s a joke and I have decided that this is the last order that I will be placing with them.
     
  2. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Its a real pain that all the boutique WC market has sort of dried up (if you'll pardon the pun).

    I miss just ordering from Coolercases, and then jumping on here and PM'ing Coolmiester.
     
  3. legoman

    legoman breaker of things

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    Theres a couple of companies I have used that do this, you place an order with items in stock, they fail to mention that "in stock" refers to being in the suppliers warehouse not actually in the warehouse of the company you placed it.
    Its not efficient and its very very infuriating when you end up waiting three weeks for a tiny item which is crucial to what your working on.
    Gone are the days when you could ring up Specialtech an ask if theres any of item X in stock
     
  4. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    I can think of at least four companies I have bought from over the years who have delayed a multi-item shipment because one item was out of stock.

    It's frustrating as hell, but it is hardly an event unique to WCUK, and normally quite rare.
     
  5. TheMadDutchDude

    TheMadDutchDude The Flying Dutchman

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    I had the same when I ordered my gear from them. Everything was in stock on the site until you magically sent them money and then had to wait for them to source it from EK directly... it's frustrating but I guess we just expect everything to be with us at the next day thanks to modern couriers.
     
  6. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    TBH I think we may be headed back to water. Many have made do with AIOs given the simplicity, but I reckon to get the max out of these new mental CPUs and boards water will become a must.

    I've had the most grief with PCModders (formerly Specialtech). I've had three fittings that passed a Dr Drop but not actual liquid, and three leaks that have cost me time and money and been a real mess to clean up. Sadly most of the water gear you buy now has been sitting around for years, and thus can have dried out Orings etc. Unless of course you buy directly from places like EK etc.

    They weren't very helpful (both times refunding the few pounds I had paid for the fittings but not for the £15 coolant I lost each time ! nor compensated for the ruined towels) and then they promised to send me some gear for a sponsored build and then just went silent.

    Oddly the few orders I've played with WCUK have arrived really quick.
     
  7. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    This is not a one-off though Dave, if you go and look at some customer reviews from WCUK you’ll see that this is very common. It’s the S**n stock system situation all over again, they show items in stock and on hand on the website when in fact it’s not in stock or is only in stock with a wholesaler which causes delays with the order. If something is listed as in stock I expect someone to be able to go to a shelf in a store, lift it off, place it in a package and send that package to me within 1 day of my order being placed. I didn’t order any products which were out of stock and yet my order still has not dispatched.

    From what I’ve read and experienced, they drop ship their orders from wholesalers. It means that you can wait a week or maybe even a couple of weeks before orders are actually dispatched. It’s not the way to run a business, especially in online retail which is so competitive. If they actually had a phone number to call I would be talking to someone at WCUK right now about cancelling this one, because I would have been far better off ordering it from EK directly. Only 1-2 small items were not manufactured by EK and I could have sourced those elsewhere.
     
  8. Big Elf

    Big Elf Oh no! Not another f----ing elf!

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    Look up the address on Google Earth. Either there's a big warehouse out the back or they drop ship. My money's on drop ship. I only use them now if I'm absolutely desperate for something only they have having had too many problems over the years.
     
  9. David

    David μoʍ ɼouმ qᴉq λon ƨbԍuq ϝʁλᴉuმ ϝo ʁԍɑq ϝμᴉƨ

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    Yeah, that is infuriating.

    No, no, no... eff right off - I am not going down that rabbit hole again. :lol:
     
    The_Crapman likes this.
  10. Vault-Tec

    Vault-Tec Green Plastic Watering Can

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    I've been shopping about today for a small loop to cool my Titan XP with, given the ridiculous lack of AIO options. EVGA are sold out everywhere, Arctic's is fugly and I'm sorely temped to build a loop for it. I need a pump/res that mounts to the fan rad. Nightmare finding one tbh.
     
  11. The_Crapman

    The_Crapman World's worst stuntman. Lover of bit-tech

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    In some ways I wish I'd not gone custom. I was looking at upgrading later this year, but would be an extra 80-90 for gpu block, 50-70 for Cpu block, new tubing, coolant, maybe some fittings if I want to change the loop up....

    I've dissuaded 2or3 people from custom loops after I told them how much mine cost. Still, sure looks puuurrdy.
     
  12. RedFlames

    RedFlames ...is not a Belgian football team

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    Oh go I hope not... that's a ballache I can be doing without.
     
  13. Guest-56605

    Guest-56605 Guest

    I think I'm inclined to agree with you on the cooling of CPU's (well the RIGHT CPU anyway) and most likely a decent board (subject to the blocks being available) - I'd never go full loop (including the GPU) owing to my fondness for upgrading GPU's.
     
  14. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    It's not a ball ache if you design your loops well guys. Make them easy to fill, bleed and drain and you'll be fine.
     
  15. Unicorn

    Unicorn Uniform November India

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    I've emailed them a couple of times this week and only received one, useless reply. It's been a full week since I placed this order, so shortly after 9AM today, I sent the following email:

    "If this order is not dispatched or I do not have an email response explaining the unreasonable delay with the dispatch before close of business today, it will be cancelled and a dispute opened with Paypal for recovery of the funds.
    Over one week to dispatch an order of components which your website claimed were in stock with no explanation is completely unacceptable."


    A few minutes ago, I received a shipping confirmation.
     
  16. Maki role

    Maki role Dale you're on a roll... Lover of bit-tech

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    I've not once had what I would call a "good" experience with WCUK, only passable ones. I've always received the things I order, they just take forever for all the reasons stated above. The other issue is that you're not always told when things have shipped. That's really annoying because you can't make any arrangements, so frustrating and you feel like you're being left in limbo.
     
  17. Anfield

    Anfield Multimodder

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    The problem isn't so much with getting a loop up and running but with you inevitably raising your standards for what constitutes normal in PC land and before you know it you are importing fittings from the other side of the planet because they are a slightly different shade of black and other such wise financial decisions.
     
  18. Big Elf

    Big Elf Oh no! Not another f----ing elf!

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    You've been watching me :grin:
     

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