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ebuyer - still have terrible customer service



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 7th 03, 10:19 PM
Andy Bryant
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Default ebuyer - still have terrible customer service

http://www.ciao.co.uk/opinion_view.p...duktId/5107918

http://www.ebuyer.com - Computer hardware supplier

I've bought stuff from ebuyer on a couple of occassions, with some
success, and some failures. Their ability to process orders for items
that are in-stock is fine. Prices are low, which is the only reason I
keep returning. No problems with ebuyer thus far.

Good things about ebuyer are the range of kit on offer, and the
prices. They generally have most of the items I'm looking for, with a
reasonable variety. The website is efficient, and easy to use. Even
the order management system on the website is pretty advanced,
allowing you to see your orders, and modify them after they have been
submitted. Sometimes you also get tracking information directly from
the ebuyer system. When things go well, it is a delight to use.

Delivery charges are low to average for this sort of supplier.

One minor issue is that they ship from different places, and
occassionally drop ship direct from suppliers. This means that they
sometimes ship in multiple consignments. In my area they use initial
city link, which is probably the worst delivery service I've ever had
the pain to use. They never answer the phone, and will NOT deliver to
a neighbour.

The main problem with ebuyer is that when they encounter an item on
your order that is out of stock - they put a halt on the entire order.
I don't believe they put any effort into ordering the out of stock
item specifically for your order... but just wait for it to come back
into stock. When, and if this item comes back into stock they take
another look at the order. If everything is then in stock, they will
ship, however if any of the other items on the order have gone out of
stock in the mean time, then the order goes on hold again. They don't
reserve items for a particular order. I guess this keeps their
inventory costs as low as possible.

This means that it can take forever to get an order out of them if it
contains more than one item that is out of stock.

On my current order I've got a computer case, that is quoted as being
ordered-on-request with an expected lead-time of 10 days. I've already
broken my order into 2 orders, one containing the items that are
in-stock, and the other JUST containing this case (at my cost!) It has
now been over 30 days, and I've asked on many occassions to understand
if the case has actually been ordered from the supplier - but to no
avail. The team that answers the enote system don't appear to have the
ability to find out any information - but just return enotes with
canned standard answers.

I've tried calling them in the past... but it doesn't usually help
much, and you have to wait for ages to get to talk to someone.

Update - They finally answered the phone, and said the case had been
ordered and would arrive within 7-10 days. The guy actually confirmed
that the product manager had actually just discussed this with their
supplier, and their supplier had confirmed that the case was on the
way.

Update2 - The next day I get an eNote from them saying that the case
has been discontinued, and that my order had been cancelled. I just
don't get why they were unable to do this a month ago.

I logged an eNote on the system expressing my disappointment. It was
closed without response. This is why I'm posting this warning here
for all to see.

Incredibly frustrating process, and a complete waste of my time.

The summary is - if your kit is in stock - then they are a good, cheap
supplier. If something goes out of stock - just cancel the order.

A.
  #2  
Old October 7th 03, 11:10 PM
Buggerlugs
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I'd be careful what you say about ebuyer in this newsgroup. If its not
praise you might end up getting a letter from their solicitor.
  #3  
Old October 7th 03, 11:31 PM
Trust No One®
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Buggerlugs wrote:
I'd be careful what you say about ebuyer in this newsgroup. If its not
praise you might end up getting a letter from their solicitor.


I'm neither for or against ebuyer having never used them before but I must
jump to their defense here.

I assume you're referring to the "ebuyerdotcon" episode? If not my
apologies.

If you are referring to ebuyerdotcon, then I think they gave him
considerable lattitude before they took him out. He can certainly have no
complaints.

--
Peter X-Files Fan
Please Note: Emailed replies cc'd / bcc'd , containing HTML or attachments
auto-binned as spam


  #4  
Old October 7th 03, 11:42 PM
Tony Sutton
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"Andy Bryant" wrote in message
om...

Update2 - The next day I get an eNote from them saying that the case
has been discontinued, and that my order had been cancelled. I just
don't get why they were unable to do this a month ago.


One question: Is it Ebuyer fault? No, it's the supplier which let down
ebuyer and their customers.

So, I don't see the point of this rant.

--

- Tony Sutton
- http://www.hyperboard.co.uk - The Biggest Message Board!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Defeat is worse than death because you have to live with defeat.
-------------------------------------------------------------


  #5  
Old October 8th 03, 08:17 AM
Fat Freddy's Cat
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"Andy Bryant" wrote in message
om...

http://www.ciao.co.uk/opinion_view.p...duktId/5107918

http://www.ebuyer.com - Computer hardware supplier

I've bought stuff from ebuyer on a couple of occassions, with some
success, and some failures. Their ability to process orders for items
that are in-stock is fine. Prices are low, which is the only reason I
keep returning. No problems with ebuyer thus far.


Most of us here are astute enough to have realised that splitting an order
up and leaving an out of stock item separate seems to work.

Maybe more expensive postage, but since prices are so low anyway it still
works out fine.

Also, Recently when an item was out of stock in an order I made (not at the
time, but confirmed by email the next day) they sent the remainder of the
order, and split the out of stock item themselves. They also gave me a free
delivery on next order by way of apology.

Advice to you would be to split your orders or go elsewhere for the out of
stock stuff (thats what I do).

g.


  #6  
Old October 8th 03, 05:48 PM
Crossbow
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Default

On Wed, 8 Oct 2003 08:17:30 +0100, "Fat Freddy's Cat"
wrote:


"Andy Bryant" wrote in message
. com...

http://www.ciao.co.uk/opinion_view.p...duktId/5107918

http://www.ebuyer.com - Computer hardware supplier

I've bought stuff from ebuyer on a couple of occassions, with some
success, and some failures. Their ability to process orders for items
that are in-stock is fine. Prices are low, which is the only reason I
keep returning. No problems with ebuyer thus far.


Most of us here are astute enough to have realised that splitting an order
up and leaving an out of stock item separate seems to work.

Maybe more expensive postage, but since prices are so low anyway it still
works out fine.

Also, Recently when an item was out of stock in an order I made (not at the
time, but confirmed by email the next day) they sent the remainder of the
order, and split the out of stock item themselves. They also gave me a free
delivery on next order by way of apology.

Advice to you would be to split your orders or go elsewhere for the out of
stock stuff (thats what I do).

g.

Yay! Welcome back FFC!

Although you haven't posted on this ng for ages, as soon as I saw the
name of this thread, I knew you'd come bounding to Ebuyer's defence.

I never use Ebuyer these days after the experiences I had with what I
considered to be their terrible customer services a few months ago. I
am certainly not surprised that nothing appears to have changed
though.
  #7  
Old October 8th 03, 06:52 PM
Fat Freddy's Cat
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default


Crossbow wrote in message
...

Yay! Welcome back FFC!

Although you haven't posted on this ng for ages, as soon as I saw the
name of this thread, I knew you'd come bounding to Ebuyer's defence.


It was hardly a defence, just advice so the OP might avoid problems in
future.

Nice to see I'm so loved though - thanks for the welcome.

g.


  #8  
Old October 13th 03, 01:18 PM
Andy Bryant
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Posts: n/a
Default

"Tony Sutton" wrote in message t...
"Andy Bryant" wrote in message
om...

Update2 - The next day I get an eNote from them saying that the case
has been discontinued, and that my order had been cancelled. I just
don't get why they were unable to do this a month ago.


One question: Is it Ebuyer fault? No, it's the supplier which let down
ebuyer and their customers.

So, I don't see the point of this rant.


Yes - I believe that it is ebuyer's fault. I split the order, then
expected them to call their supplier to order the item. If they had
done this within a few days of me placing the order, then they would
have discovered the fact that the item had been discontinued.

Given the fact that the expected lead-time was 7-10 days for the whole
of the month, I am making the assumption that they simply loaded the
order onto their system, and waited for the item to be delivered. It
would appear that they only actually called their supplier at the end
of the month after numerours requests from me.

The thing that really annoyed me was that when I spoke to someone at
ebuyer, he assured me that the product manager had just spoken to the
supplier, who had confirmed that the item had been ordered, and would
be with them within 7-10 days. 2 hours later that same day I get an
eNote saying that the supplier had discontinued the product.

So either the ebuyer guy I spoke to was giving me the standard
response, and was lying about checking with the supplier; or it is
possible that their supplier screwed up & called back to recount the
delivery commitment later that day.

I gave ebuyer plenty of opportunities to tell me this. I also sent
them a complaint eNote, which they simply closed without responding.
No redress. No offer of an eVoucher, or an explanation of what
happened.

Andy.
 




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