Overclockers UK (customer care - any experiences? [computing people])

[Jack!]

Was hoping I could get some help with a little issue and some diagnosis approval.

I bought an AOC 29" Ultra-Wide monitor from OCUK, it was listed as B-Stock, which they define as: "B Grade items may have been used, have damaged packaging, missing accessories or a combination of these. Some items may have scuff marks or slight scratches but should otherwise be an operable product."

I was fine with this. It arrived arrived today, and this is the state of the screen:

I'm pretty annoyed obviously. I've sent them an email and will await response.

They're a very well regarded company, what I wanted to get an idea for is what I should expect? To me it doesn't look like courier damage, it came packaged in the proper polystyrene stuff, so was well wrapped, and it looks to me like pressure has been placed on the screen. What it looks like to me is someone has sent it back to them as "unwanted" when it's in fact broken, and it's been sold on to me before being checked.

I've paid for next day delivery, had the inconvenience of waiting around for delivery, and will now have to pay to send it back to them, and have the inconvenience of waiting for pick-up. Should I expect to be compensated? Ideally they'd send me a new one rather than B-Stock to compensate, does that seem reasonable?

Thanks, Jack.

 

[Nickson]

Ouch, looks nasty!

Always had faultless service with OcUK.

They'll ask you to send it back (with them covering the costs obviously) and will issue you a full refund I'd imagine!

 

[Jack!]

They'll ask you to send it back (with them covering the costs obviously) and will issue you a full refund I'd imagine!

I thought this would be the case, but now I'm gonna end up with the inconvenience and the amount I paid for delivery, and I will have missed out on what would of been a good deal had the product been as described, so I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to get back any more (preferably some kind of replacement for another 29" monitor that works) as I'm pretty disappointed, because the damage is ridiculous.

 

[Wilkeh]

Post over 100 times on their forum and you get free next day delivery

 

[Nickson]

Post over 100 times on their forum and you get free next day delivery

Thought it was more than that now?

When I got it, it was like 250 posts or 6 months.

 

[Addicted]

Not sure how it stands with B-grade, but they should under the DSR allow you to return it within 7 days (they honor 14) for free, and they pay postage.

Regardless of this, they should reimburse your postage, the costs, and pay for it to be picked up. Looks like their packaging was poor and it's got cracked in transit. There's no way they'd sell it with the crack xD

 

[Jack!]

Regardless of this, they should reimburse your postage, the costs, and pay for it to be picked up. Looks like their packaging was poor and it's got cracked in transit. There's no way they'd sell it with the crack xD

Hmm, still a shame because I'd of been so happy with it had it not broken, I got it for a really good price, going to have to pay at least £90 more to get the same one new, and then it's tempting to just get something better anyway, and I'm getting near amounts I didn't want to spend.

 

[Addicted]

Be cheeky and ask if they will cut you a deal on a new one to make up for the bad product!

 

[Jack!]

Be cheeky and ask if they will cut you a deal on a new one to make up for the bad product!

That's what I'd like, I don't mind paying a bit more, but don't really want to end up paying full price for a new one - I'll see what I can do, they come highly regarded, so fingers crossed.

 

[Cliotoby]

Shocking when I used to use them!

 

[Jack!]

They've given me an RMA to send it back, but I have to organise the courier, and I've got no response other than an automated response, can't say I'm overly pleased.

 

[Addicted]

They've given me an RMA to send it back, but I have to organise the courier, and I've got no response other than an automated response, can't say I'm overly pleased.

Well they have to by law reimburse you for that postage though, so that's not too bad, just a pain on your end sadly.

I found the best way to get customer service is to post in their custom service forum - had everything resolved within the hour regardless of what it was! The guy called 5UB who works for OcUK is a top bloke. I'd post about your disappointment of receiving the item, a poor response, and then having to fork out more money to then be reimbursed - you will get somewhere with it if you push!

 

[Amos91]

Well they have to by law reimburse you for that postage though, so that's not too bad, just a pain on your end sadly.

I found the best way to get customer service is to post in their custom service forum - had everything resolved within the hour regardless of what it was! The guy called 5UB who works for OcUK is a top bloke. I'd post about your disappointment of receiving the item, a poor response, and then having to fork out more money to then be reimbursed - you will get somewhere with it if you push!

Gibbo (Andrew Gibson) also goes the extra mile helping customers. His contact details should be online somewhere...

 

[CrippsCorner]

Shocking when I used to use them!

Same here. Plus the controversy about the owner (maybe ex-owner now) I wouldn't use them again.

 

[Jack!]

Well, they're only going to give me a refund by the looks of things.

Might be a silver lining though, I've managed to get an Acer 29" from Scan - looks a bit more pleasing on the eye, and has a much higher RRP so hopefully is a bit better. One of the criticisms of the AOC was slightly yellow whites, and I've seen a review or two suggesting the Acer is better, so fingers crossed.

EDIT: One thing that has annoyed me about both Scan and OCUK though; when you're spending over £300, is free delivery really that much to ask for? Neither offer it, unless you go down the forum route or whatever.

 

[Steven103]

Well, they're only going to give me a refund by the looks of things.

How do you feel about this? (serious question)

Whilst I appreciate you're upset at not getting the brilliant returned-stock bargain that you thought you were getting, by the sounds of things OCUK have A) acted exactly as they are obliged to do by distance selling regs, and B) Shown a similar level of customer service inline with most other online retailors.

It may have been nice to get a personalised response, but at the end of the day it would still be a "no we're not going to give you £50 off a different product just because a mistake has occurred somewhere in the proccess" and "here's an RMA number, we'll refund your return postage" surely?

Clearly they didn't knowing sell you something that was catastrophically damaged and so clearly going to be rejected (unlike damaged packaging or b-grade stock having visual blemishes which they could wriggle their way out of within reason) as it's cost them money in both processing time & reimbursing your return postage. It would be nice to think they check all returns before allocating stock as resellable - but it may just be one item slipping through the net or may even have been repackaged so well they didn't even think the previous owner had opened the box & didn't check for damage (you tell us on this one)

 

[Jack!]

The box is covered in tape all over, I'd say it was well packaged, it had all the things in to keep it in place, which is why I'm surprised to see it damaged in a way that looks like pressure has been placed on a certain part of the screen.

If I come out if it all not out of pocket then I'll just consider it unfortunate, but I've already sourced a replacement and got on with it.

I imagine they have insurance for this sort of thing with the courier, given the amount of fragile items they sell?

I worked at a Supermarket while I was a student, one that had a click-and-collect service, the way some of the courier guys used to throw parcels around I'm not surprised if the package has been damaged in transit - some of the staff didn't treat items much better once delivered either.

Ideally, I'd not buy a product like this online, but it's pretty much the only place you can seemingly buy a decent monitor anymore.

 

[iain187]

I had to RMA a faulty motherboard once.

I happened to be passing for work so I asked if I could drop it off personally which was fine.

They contacted me to say all the pins in the CPU socket were bent, I must have damaged it and they can't do anything.

I was going to take them to small claims court but that's when they decided to refund me (having photographic evidence of everything probably helped )

I'll never use them again. Clearly sabotaged my items to get out of doing anything. It was a fucked bios, all they had to do was send it to manufacturer and send me something else ffs


I believe if you raise these sorts of issues on their forum you are promptly banned heh


I've not used them for some years and never will again !

 

[BatFastard]

I've heard Overclockers are brilliant until you have to say stuff back (Although in their defence I've heard that about eBuyer and nearly every other component company). I've only bought a keyboard/mouse from them about 5/6 years ago and they're still going strong!

 

[Addicted]

Have many many many orders with OcUK that its scary, but luckily every issue I've had has been 100% fine, as I said before if you go through the forum you get to speak to the people who are useful, and it's all been promptly resolved :]

As for above with the motherboard, that sounds pretty damn nasty, and whoever it was who was working is a wanker for sabotaging it!

 

[Gareth]

I personally haven't had a problem with them, but I tend to only use them if they are the sole supplier of something I'm after. More often than not Scan tend to be cheaper and I get free delivery on orders over a certain amount.