12-Oct-2007 Bad companies need sorting - and good companies need praising...
THE ACCUSED: Rock Direct PROBLEM: Missing laptop. Back in October last year, reader David Reilly decided to buy a laptop. Rather than go for one of the big names like Dell, he instead chose a company called Rock Direct. A few months after receiving his laptop, he started to experience that most dreaded of PC screens upon start-up... the blue screen of death. Having figured that he could get round it for the moment and with his college year only halfway through, he decided not to send it back straight away.
When summer rolled round, David informed Rock Direct and they arranged to pick up the laptop. But when the laptop came back, the problem was still apparent, so David arranged another collection. Rock Direct repaired the machine and returned it but it never arrived at the other end.
David's now spent over £60 calling the Rock Direct office without so much as a call back and he's left wondering just where his machine has disappeared to.
PC ZONE INVESTIGATION: Sympathising with David's PC woes, we got onto Rock Direct to see what they had to say. They responded by saying "the customer in question is being dealt with in a very timely and polite manner. If our courier loses a delivery, we must allow them seven days to conduct an investigation as part of our contract. Customers are always informed about this.
This incident sounds like a case of frustration; it's very unfortunate that the customer experienced a hardware failure, and more so that our courier lost the unit. However, we always do our upmost to help our customers and always give honest feedback. Rock prides itself in a very high standard of after-sales support."
Very soon after their initial response, they got in contact to inform me that David had just received a refund.
FINAL VERDICT: Laptop still missing but money refunded
THE ACCUSED: hermalTake PROBLEM: Dead power supply. Back in October 2004, Steve Shellard bought a ThermalTake power supply for his PC. It happily supplied power until the beginning of August when it decided it had enough and promptly stopped working.
Steve submitted a form on ThermalTake's website but didn't get a reply. So he got back in contact with the company he'd bought the power supply from, Novatech. They informed him that the power supply had a five-year warranty with the manufacturer and that if he filled out a tech support form on ThermalTake's site, then they should supply him with an RMA (Return Merchandise Authorisation) to send it back and have it replaced.
However, upon trying to submit the form to ThermalTake, he didn't exactly have much luck. In Firefox, the submit button didn't do anything while Internet Explorer just brought back an error message, which has left Steve a bit perplexed as to how to go about using that five-year warranty.
PC ZONE INVESTIGATION: I submitted my own form on ThermalTake's website but after six days and with no response and no contact number or email available, I tried Novatech instead. They helpfully offered to check with their supplier if they could offer the warranty. Unfortunately, when they phoned me back, they explained that their supplier could only offer a one-year warranty. In order to get the full five-year warranty, we'd have to contact ThermalTake. But thankfully, Novatech supplied me with a contact email address for them.
Later that day they replied stating that they were sorry Steve had been having problems and that they'd get in contact with him straight away, in order to send him out a replacement power supply.
FINAL VERDICT: Power supply winging its way to Steve. Everybody happy
Saints Not Sinners In a world of telephone menu systems and being put through to wrong departments, reader Alan Schofield felt obliged to write in and tell us about the great experience he had with Freecom.
About 14 months ago, Alan bought a Freecom USB Freeview adaptor. Recently, it decided to give up the ghost but knowing it was out of warranty, Alan didn't even bother to contact the vendor. Instead he got on the phone to Freecom, wondering if they might be able to offer some advice on how to fix it. The person he spoke to was "polite, helpful and didn't read from a script" and once Alan had explained he worked in IT, didn't bother with making him go through the usual 'turn the PC off and on again'. Getting straight down to the nitty gritty, they swiftly came to the conclusion that the stick was dead and Alan prepared to end the call.
But then those lovely chaps at Freecom pointed out that all their gear comes with a two-year warranty and arranged an RMA. A week after returning the faulty one, Alan received his new adaptor through the post.
He sums it up: "Freecom: great value for money, two-year warranty and refreshingly personal support. I'd like to thank Lee Burrage (the support guy) and the rest at Freecom."
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