Microdirect never again after taking 8-9 months for a refund on a hard disk and although I never had any issues my self with OCUK, I will no longer touch them incase I need to return something because alot of my friedns who have had to return something basicly got the finger.
Lol, orderd most of my water cooling from them never again, took so long for them to get the stuff in stock and send it. Not to mentioned them forgeting to set the delivery out for the next day. Think i must have rang them up 5 times in one day to make sure they sent the ******* in end. Finlay got the basted to pack the stuff by rining them 10 mis beffore they closed.
I've got some kit from them, I've rma'd them twicend I muist have fluked a good day. I got my ram replaced within a week. I alsp got a B grade thrmaltake armour Wc system. That was a piss take, stickers all over it and the water kit had been set up by a monkey with mole grips, no way had it been checked. But once again I got my RMA sorted with in a week. But at the mo the prices are steep, avoided for that reason alone.
Its update time! We got trading standards involved, the argument with OcUK's staff was going nowhere. Trading standards had a look at the terms and conditions and it wasn't mentioned that we couldnt return them. it states the terms apply only to consumers. but doesnt provide alternative terms for business customers. so we had every right to cancel. After another email stating what the trading standards guy said, we were told again that we couldnt return it. So we contacted TS again and they gave OcUK a call themselves. We got a call later that day from one of the managers. he apologised for the service, gave an RMA there and then and gave a link & promo code for a free copy of Terminator salvation. The card was returned friday, and they confirmed reciept of it yesterday. Just waiting to see what happens now.
They still managed to screw up one final time. they've refunded instead of exchanged the card. morons. Doesnt matter, will buy from scan instead. And yeah, Terminator seems fairly awful tbh. not impressed at all
i know OCuk constumer service sucks, but if you look at the pic you can see that its a tri slot cooler even top down, look at the little tabs on the PCI slot cover thingy. I think the problem here is a 50/50 thing, there was nothing wrong with the card just an error in ordering, but OCuk should have been a little better at helping you out.
Yeah you can see that if you really look for it. but from first glance, there would appear to be nothing unusual about it. Anyway. I got the refund. i bought a card from scan and the damn thing went pop as soon as i turned it on. cue email to scan on friday night requesting an RMA. I got a reply saturday morning asking when it would be best for them to collect it. Its being collected monday and will be sorted. Absolutely awesome service.
I've just been reading these posts with interest, and am certainly quite suprised at this. I've ordered items from OCUK quite a few times and have been lucky to get everything fast, correct and with no issues. It just goes to show that the only time you can get a full understanding of a company is by trying it from all angles, in this case contacting them and trying to return things. (A view that I especially put towards Car Insurance companies!) The other retailers I use on a regular basis are: Aria, Ebuyer, Scan & Novatech. I assume these are all ok? I've been very fortunate in never having to return anything to any of them yet!
The only company that I've had RMA dealings with is Aria when I got a faulty monitor. I found them helpful and friendly when I phoned them, even a little after the time when the support phone lines are supposedly closed. They sorted out all the return process quickly and I got a replacement monitor very quickly (within a week I think) although the replacement screen was an open box everything was there and in good condition. Just my experiences...
Recently ordered the wrong router on Ebuyer (my fault) left it about 5 days and I still got a refund and the router I actually wanted Ill stick to Ebuyer thank you!
My story with Overclockers - When there was a problem with my card on my very first order *they rang me* and it was sorted out with no delay to the order, I was very impressed. This was 2005 or so mind you, before the rot set in. Then ordered a CPU the following Xmas, also problem free. Summer 2008, I order the Akasa Neo Vortexx GPU cooler, because they had no stock of it following the CPC review, they were deliberately passing off the old model that didn't fit the most modern Radeons of the time, as the Blue LED Vortexx. So they sent me completely the wrong cooler, something I couldn't tell from the packaging so I'd opened the box. I ring up and explain that it's completely wrong, they say yes you can have a refund and here's the RMA, I post it and order the right thing from Scan. Only once they get it back do they say "you opened it, tough luck you can't even pay a restocking fee which we'll take out of your refund so here's an exchange". Leaving me with a redundant spare cooler that I just flogged myself to save getting any more lies on the phone. Problem was, no phone call this time, I would have been left with a Radeon card in bits and no working PC at all for a week had I not ordered from Scan. So I've had both sides of OcUK's service, seen the decline and now I couldn't give a toss if the company went under - give bad service, and you deserve to go out of business in a recession. Compare this with eBuyer sending its own couriers back out to pick up a dead PSU, and delivering the ordered replacement the next day without my paying extra postage. That's why I've stuck with them for all my systems going on 4 years.
Before the rot? If anyone else remembers way back in the mists of time in the fledgling online enthusiast shopping arena, there were two big players before just about anyone else had any size or rep. They were: The Overclocking Store Overclockers There were frequent horror stories dating back to 2000 on the old overclocking store forums about OcUK. There were probably some the other way round too. My point is not that the "rot set in", more that just like with every company there will ALWAYS be bad stories, its more a case of how many you get to read and your perspective on it Personally I don't recommend OcUK to people but not because of personal experience. I have made one or two purchases there over the years, which have been fine, no need to RMA. I recommend other shops mainly because I have had RMA experience with them, and often, the product is available elsewhere, cheaper and/or free postage. The times I've bought from OcUK are when they are the ONLY one stocking or in stock with something I needed urgently.
I have to say that I've never dealt with OCUK, but as others have already mentioned you can get a bad experience with any retailer. Though it seems to me that this is something OCUK excel at. What's more surprising to me at the moment is how badly people here are rating Microdirect. I've used them for a couple of years now, ever since I found my monitor about £20 cheaper there than anywhere else (the correct model was shipped, I'd done a lot of homework on this monitor). I recently built a new PC (spec below) and ordered all of my parts from them - I was a little pissed when I discovered that the graphics card wasn't in with my box of goodies nor on the invoice included with the box, yet I had actually paid for it. When I got through to them they advised they had a bit of a screw up on their site: the card wasn't actually in stock in the warehouse when I bought it, so they'd see if they can get stock anywhere else and send it to me. I got a phonecall later on advising that they'd managed to get stock from one of their stores and it'd be shipped later that day free of charge (apparently it was waiting to go into an incomplete PC build; as other parts were still on back order they plucked the card to fulfil my order). Sure enough, the card turned up the next day by courier, sealed, unopened and still in in the lovely shrinkwrap. Mostly I deal with Novatech now; their prices are pretty good and they've got a store on the other side of Cardiff. I can reserve online and pick up my shiny toys on the same day. I much prefer face to face service - it makes returns so much easier and it gets a little harder for staff to B-S you when they have to do it to your face. Probably a little biased towards shops though, as I used to work for a parts & systems retailer in Newport & Pontypridd...
