Went through a complex RMA with CCL a while back for the truly dreadful 4GB Radeon HD5970 cards, since both the original and replacement were DOA. It somewhat dismays me to see this terrible product still listed on the CCL site, but never mind. I'd summarise the experience in two parts as excellent and very mediocre, based on the timescale. From reporting the fault to hearing confirmation of the fault with the second card, the service from CCL was excellent. I even received an email to tell me when to expect the item due to it being a pre-order, and I Was kept relatively well informed through the entirity of the process. Where this changed was after I requested a refund instead of a replacement. Correspondence abruptly ended, and I had to make phone calls to find out what was going on. I was told [falsely] that a refund had been issued, and I had to spend a week chasing CCL and my bank who both told contradicting stories as to why there was no sign of the refund. Through pushing hard enough, I was finally told to speak to the accounts department who told me that the refund was sent off more than a week after the original date, so I was lied to when told a refund had been issued. If an automated system is going to give out incorrect dates, don't have the staff all state it as gospel. Also, whatever I did wrong, I was not refunded postage on the item. £6 on an £850 order is hardly much, but is disheartening that CCL treat the postage cost as their extra profit from items that have to be returned, knowing that the customer would never bother with small claims court over such a petty figure. Point of my post is this: If there's another way of doing things for next time, I'm all ears. I don't anticipate buying a rare product that goes without testing from the manufacturer again, but should anything else I may buy from CCL again be faulty, I'd like to know if there's any way of being given a correct refund issue date, the refund issue taking less than a week and a half, and my postage being refunded. Don't simply treat this as a rant against CCL. Some assurances here could make the difference between shopping at CCL very rarely, and doing so often. Since during my holiday period I live in an area that citylink won't deliver to, my choice of online stores is limited, CCL being one of the shops that uses a competent courier (at least for deliveries) Before the refund process, CCL's service has been good, and the prices/range are competitive. If I'm less uneasy about the returns process, I will be buying from CCL here, instead of having to buy from Scan and make a train journey to the citylink depot two days after to collect the purchase.
Hi Sam, I will apologise again for the nightmare you had with the 4GB Sapphire cards, you had the worst possible luck with faulty parts I have known. However there are people who have gotten on just fine with the part and as there are still a handful of units available at our suppliers we are still listing the item for sale. In my inbox archive I am showing sending 17 emails to yourself in addition to what customer services and our system has sent, most of my emails were from the time when the issues with the cards arose. I will apologise if you didnt think I was keeping you informed well enough as I was honestly making a concious effort to try to make the experience as painless as possible for you. (I have some 50 connected emails sent internally chasing queires up / confirming details relating to the RMAs) I can assure you we do not treat the postage costs as extra profit, I have a feeling that trading standards would not like that for very long before taking some quite severe action! On our website we list our policy of being we collect goods over £70 that are faulty and under this we cover reasonable shipping costs back to us. If the goods are confirmed faulty we would refund the attached shipping charges to the product when a refund is requested. The issue with the payment being sent from us and then not showing in your account was out of my hands, there is a delay between payments being made and them showing in the recipients bank account. I confirmed with the returns team and their manager by email that the refund had been processed through and relayed the information to yourself. Firstly a couple of questions from myself: Has the refund of £6.00 been issued back to you? (I have checked the last couple of emails you sent to myself and I do not see this request, I apologise if I have missed it.) What could have been done to improve your experience with CCL on this order? (other than Sapphire managing to make a card that works!) Feel free to drop me an email or post up on these forums, only way we can improve is by learning from what we have done wrong. If you want to discuss this over the phone I am also more than happy to drop you a call. Regards, Tom.
As I say, the service I had from yourself was exemplary up to the point when I demanded a refund, then it all went quiet. Responding to emails in a timely, friendly manner, and going above and beyond to inform me of the expected pre-order arrival time is first class service. However, as soon as I asked for a refund, not only did the refund take well over a week to be processed, I was lied to about the date it was expected, and thus missed a rent payment, incurring a £35 bank charge. Had I been told the refund would take that long to start with, I could simply have made a transfer to prevent that. The postage refund has not been issued back, I did not make a case about this as it was enough hassle getting the main part of the refund, the effort required for £6 simply wasn't worth it. The cost of the card was simply refunded minus the £6 postage. I'm well aware your role doesn't extend to refund processing, and I have no dispute whatsoever with the service you have offered on CCL's behalf, it's just, after the matter left your hands, I was very underwhelmed by the customer service I received. Order placed: Tuesday 1st June Order dispatched: Thursday 3rd June First faulty card received: Friday 4th June First faulty card collected: Monday 7th June First faulty card arrived at return: Tuesday 8th June Second faulty card dispatched: Tuesday 15th June Second faulty card received, first testing: Wednesday 16th June Second faulty card tests complete, RMA booked: Friday 18th June Second faulty card collected: Monday 21st June Second faulty card received: Tuesday 22nd June Refund processed (as informed): Thursday 24th June Refund processed (Actual date): Wednesday 30th June Refund received: Friday 2nd July
Hi Sam, Thanks for the reply, the dates are quite eye opening when you look at it like that. If you include weekends I see nothing excessively long until the Refund stages. I am going to have a brief word with Simon (IT & Logistics Manager) regarding our refund and return process so I have a greater understanding of what has exactly happened. By my books the refund should have been in your account as useable funds by about the 28th at the latest (#due to the weekend). That is purely based on what service I would have considered reasonable as a consumer. Something has gone wrong in the process, have set some time aside this afternoon to look at this and get to the bottom of it with cold hard facts. Will email you once I have something to report, thanks again for your original order and also thank you for taking the time to assist me in looking into this. Regards, Tom.
Quick update for anyone using the search function.. Issue should now be resolved with Sam being reimbursed due to CCL's error. A couple of amendments have been made on how any refunds with unique circumstances are worded to the customer to ensure they are kept up to date and aware of what is happening during the refund process. The procedure CCL staff follow when dealing with issues from the forums has also been tweaked from this experience to tie in slightly more with our other methods of communication although improvements are still looking to be made. Thanks again for your custom and assistance in hopefully improving our service Sam, it is appreciated.
