Time for a new computer

Post by **MA_Hat** » 02 Dec 2006 00:10

The thing is.. I'm an loyal customer type... all they gotta do is let me become a customer.

And I bet its something stupid like the mouse isnt in stock.. so they delay the whole order because of that. Instead of applying their brain

MA_DanglyBob · Post by **MA_DanglyBob** » 02 Dec 2006 12:46

I've had similiar probs with scan in the past, even one time when they said it had all been delayed, and then it turned up early instead....

I still like using scan though, it's just that their customer support could do with a little TLC at times.

Trig · Post by **Trig** » 02 Dec 2006 13:12

Bit of a PITA chap, you got an ETA yet?

MA_Thorn · Post by **MA_Thorn** » 03 Dec 2006 01:43

Tis happened to me in the past too, though you can also apply it to every shop (not just comp' bits, or net based companies) ...

I don't want to sound old before my time (I'm only 24 for christ sake!) but tbh, it just seems that every business doesn't seem to care about customer service anymore.. if I've done wrong for a client, or anyone, I damned well go right out of my way to get it sorted if need be. I've even done 10's of hours extra work in the past, for free, because of a very small mistake I made on someone's site, I've driven 60+ miles because I forgot to give a mate his tenner back..

Businesses just don't seem to care anymore and will do the absolute minimum to help.

This rant was brought to you by Jenk's recent experience with the cunts at Nildram, who after 3 months STILL have not responded to his complaint. 3 months ffs.

MA_Zak33 · Post by **MA_Zak33** » 03 Dec 2006 02:59

MA_Thorn wrote:This rant was brought to you by Jenk's recent experience with the cunts at Nildram, who after 3 months STILL have not responded to his complaint. 3 months ffs.

I defend Scan.....but you're right mate....you're right..through and through

MA_Clingy · Post by **MA_Clingy** » 03 Dec 2006 13:23

Surprised about Nildram, but what p***** me off is that people complain about service when they go for the cheapest. Good Service and cheap prices are mutually exclusive IMHO. My latest bugbear are the hoards of people complaining about "free" broadband.

MA_Thorn · Post by **MA_Thorn** » 03 Dec 2006 15:22

Aye, but when they take away your static IP without evening asking, a complaint is warranted

MA_Clingy · Post by **MA_Clingy** » 03 Dec 2006 18:46

Aye, and Nildram aint cheap m8. Sad to hear that as I have recommended them to a couple of friends

MA_Dak · Post by **MA_Dak** » 03 Dec 2006 22:36

Well I just had to call nildram and they were top hole as always, 9.30pm on a sunday night, straight through, no holding and a competant techy still get my vote

MA_Thorn · Post by **MA_Thorn** » 04 Dec 2006 10:31

The problem arises when they make a mistake, which is rare. I've been with them for nearly 6 years, and this is the first incident I've had with them.. but it's a biggy. They just refuse to accepted ownership of the problem.

Also, if you want to register a complaint, it HAS to be in writing (electronic or old fashioned,) they will not take complaints over the phone... bizarre.

Post by **MA_Hat** » 08 Dec 2006 13:15

OK... I cracked.... I phoned them.

Midday on Friday.. 8th December - and no sign of man with van, no sign of any emails and no sign of any computer.

And the answer is

They havent delivered it because the mouse isnt in stock, they had sent me emails and were waiting for my reply. Last I heard.. it was the RAM that wasnt in stock last weekend.. no mention of any mouse thing then.

I had no emails.. they had my mobile phone number.. I had no texts.. I had no calls.

I then had to go through the order again letter for letter over the phone.. as they were arguing that the extra delivery that was paid couldnt be refunded.

So.....after a friendly discussion with a nice lady on the customer support desk.... the end result is... It's supposed to be delivered here tomorrow.. minus mouse .. and the extra delivery charge is to be refunded. Normal delivery is to be charged.. and there is no reduction of any sort for hassle

I gotta say.. their service really is totally appalling... It's a thousand quid... and I aint a hormonal teenager fretting about not getting his blue LED fan in time for his birthday - and it's not £14.99 toasters they're flogging.

it's a damn spitfire.. and THERE'S A WAR ON!

But I'm still looking forward to this PC!

Can I ask any of you guys... if you're placing a PC bit/part order anytime.. could you grab hold of a black/silver usb microsft 5 button wheel intelli mouse thing.. and piggy back it on to your orders?

Product number / details further up in this thread somewhere

MA_Zak33 · Post by **MA_Zak33** » 08 Dec 2006 17:43

Can I suggest something here, please.

For future:

ALWAYS ring Scan for an order...and never do it online

And dont tell anyone I told you.

MA_Thorn · Post by **MA_Thorn** » 08 Dec 2006 18:22

I don't think he'll need to Zak, given you have just posted it on a public forum

MA_Zak33 · Post by **MA_Zak33** » 08 Dec 2006 19:03

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

you're right....

hmmm.....................

/walks out

Post by **MA_Hat** » 09 Dec 2006 13:50

Guess what.

Midday.. no pc.

Just phoned them again to see what's going on cos their "dedicated and proactive support" hasn't quite got round to letting me know just yet.

Apparently the picking staff only told the support team late last night that their "was a problem with the hard drive"

Well.. at elast the picking team told them.... the chance of Scan telling me are a lot bloody less.

Obviously, this explanation was not quite good enough for me.. so I am now waiting for a phone call to explain further.

Also.. information on my web tracking page says....

Invoice Date 30 Nov 2006 00:14:48
Estimated Despatch Date 01 Dec 2006

1. Invoice Printed 30 Nov 2006 10:15:00
2. Payment Authorised 08 Dec 2006 14:48:00
3. Picked X
4. Despatched X

Your Estimated Despatch Date is 01 December 2006 and you will receive emails to confirm each stage of your order as it progresses through our system.

Bearing in mind it's the 9th December today....

Seriously guys.. how on earth do you justify buying anything from them? There is a chance I will through a telephone order only ( as a result of Zak's comments), yet there's no way i would buy in a commercial/business situation. Are you just used to such levels of service from every shop/business/restaraunt you visit.. and this is what you expect and accept - as it is the norm?

Trig · Post by **Trig** » 09 Dec 2006 14:47

Bad isnt it, I was thinking of moving our work stuff from ebuyer to scan....

MA_Thorn · Post by **MA_Thorn** » 09 Dec 2006 16:01

Cancel the order. If they give you any crap, phone your bank and cancel it there.

If they have already taken your money, threaten them with small claims court - it's illegal for a shop to take money for a purchase before the client receives the goods.

Post by **MA_Hat** » 09 Dec 2006 16:58

Yep.. knew that about the money thing. ( well.. sort of.. wasn't sure about twhether it was linked to postal date or delivery date etc. - but knew that it definitely wasnt before they had actually filled the order). and they had taken the cash from the card - which I am actually a tad pissd off about to say the least.

Yet due to Zaks efforts - we now have a situation of above PC.. with mouse back on the list - .. the hard drives upped to 2 lots of 250gig for same price as 2x200gigs .. and promised delivery Tue am before 12.

Zak,,, thank you... and Scan should thank you aswell mate. If it werent for your efforts I would have cancelled and bought elsewhere by now

Ah well... it's still gonna blow me socks off when I get it -- roll on TUesday!

MA_Clingy · Post by **MA_Clingy** » 09 Dec 2006 20:07

The Mail Order business is built upon the principle that you take money on order. It could well be in industry guidelines, but I didn't think it was law yet.

We take 100,000's of orders every year over the web, via telephone and mail order. We take the money for all orders immediately even though some of the goods are not for despatch for months. And all our "Reader Offer" business is payment with order, goods within 28days.

MA_Zak33 · Post by **MA_Zak33** » 10 Dec 2006 11:39

Well, I think we sorted it, so here's praying.

PM coming your way Hat

Post by **MA_Hat** » 12 Dec 2006 16:31

2 Large boxes delivered today at 3.21pm

See you in a bit when I've put it all together!

Trig · Post by **Trig** » 12 Dec 2006 17:01

Hope it all works

Post by **MA_Hat** » 15 Dec 2006 02:57

OK... up and running...

Still rigging it up how I like it... as for IL2, i just stacked everything on max and it stays at 60fps max and average. Havent looked into tweaking or drivers etc yet.. I just installed the ones that came with the card.

No mouse in the boxes, but everything else there in one piece.

It's lovely and quiet, nice and fast.. and it looks great.

I would probably choose a different case/mobo/ powersupply combo next time. The cables on the modulay Tagan and about as flexible as coat hangers..and totally massive. The power cable for the gfx card means that it would be impossible to put HDD in 2 out of 4 of the positions available.

Thanks for your help everybody.. I'm now a chuffed Hat.

Now to get all my apps that i need transferred over.. and all those ftp details / passwords/ email inboxes blah blah blah. This bit is gonna be the pain!

SmoothNuts · Post by **SmoothNuts** » 15 Dec 2006 10:04

Not to mention PHP scripts/demo websites.

MA_Zak33 · Post by **MA_Zak33** » 15 Dec 2006 10:15

MA_Hat wrote:OK... up and running...

Still rigging it up how I like it... as for IL2, i just stacked everything on max and it stays at 60fps max and average.

thats fine, and it's because you have V Sync on (thats the setting in the graphics card properties that stops the frame rate going above the LCD screens natural refresh rate)
If you were to turn VSYNC off, the fram rate would climb way above that, in the easy-to-render sections of the game, and that wouls take your Average up. However, VSYNC is there to stop the image from "tearing" (as in ripping, not crying

) which is where there is a noticable difference in the top oand bottm of the screen when you whip ya head round in-game.

Is that 2nd Hard drive in and formatted now?

Install all your apps, games and installed programs on the C drive, and put EVERYHTHING else on your other drive. This makes C drive waaay easier to defrag every month.

Whatever music player you use (Media player or whatever), change the options to save music to the spare drive. Make a music file in there, and then if you reinstall XP on the C drive one day (6-9 months is a good reinstall time) you get to keep all your data on the other drive, and just show the media player where the files are.

Also, you should create a DATA file on your spare drive, where you actively place all the drivers (motherboard, graphics card, sound card) and all your usefull apps (IL-2 updates, Teamspeak, Winzip, Adobe Acrobate reader etc) in one file, which you keep upto date.

Then once every month just burn that file to a CD-R disk. Then if you need to install again, all the drivers and stuff you need are not just on the spare Hard drive, but on a CD for convenience and back up. Ypu only need keep one disk, chuck last months out every time you do a new one.

When I installed your Dad's PC I used a CD that carries all my nForce/DX9/Adobe Reader/Winzip/WinRar etc on it.

It all sound painfully organised but ....it is. And it's dead dead easy to do.

Post by **MA_Hat** » 16 Dec 2006 15:31

now tweaked... stupid graphics equaliser thing removed.... latest chipset and gfx drivers installed...

running IL2 at 1280 x 1024 at 75fps (my choice.. set to max my monitor supprts) with everything set on max... seems to maintain that even on the pacific maps... not experienced intense carrier flak yet though.... or parafrags on Berlin.

But diggity damn it looks good to me!

First online mission, took up an early IL2 in Airwars,, bafgged a couple of 109s and some ground targets.. nice to actually see what I'm suposed to be shooting and healthy chunks splintering off the enemy

SmoothNuts · Post by **SmoothNuts** » 16 Dec 2006 15:35

Do a screenshot

Post by **MA_Hat** » 16 Dec 2006 16:12

it'll be the same as all your guys stuff.. its just all new to me

SmoothNuts · Post by **SmoothNuts** » 16 Dec 2006 17:10

You can force anti aliasing on in control panel>nvidia control panel then switch to advanced settings and choose 3d settings>manage 3d settings, look for antialiasing settings in the list and choose the level to apply, i reckon start with 4x and then go higher or lower depending on any performance hit.