PC World - Cover Plan Insurance - WHAT A JOKE!!

Countryripple

The other half bought a laptop from PC World 3 years ago. He paid an extra E500 for their Premium Coverplan Insurance for 5 years. About 6 weeks ago he turns on the computer, it wont run. Basicly, it needs a new hard-drive.

Grand.

Bring it into PC World. They say they dont take items under that particular insurance into the shop. Gave us a number to phone for some other department that deals with it.

So phone up the number, guy runs through certain tests blah blah. Says it needs a new hard-drive!!! Doh!! So he takes insurance details etc, says a courier phone and will come collect it during the week, take it and it will be returned in a few weeks!!!

Week 1 goes by, week 2, week 3, no phone call, week 4!!!! Go back over to PC World to have it out. Guy get on the phone there to the repairs department. Guy on the other end asks to speak to my other half and tells him that that collection was cancelled on the 21st of February!!! We are well p!ssed!!! No record of who or why it was cancelled!!! So he apologises and takes the details again and says if no one phones us monday, phone him back.

we gave a days grace and waited till yesterday to phone them. Guy again has NO DETAILS of anything on his computer!!!! What the hell do we have to do!!!! He says he'll go check somethin and put us on hold. we said no. have been put on hold too much and gave him our number and he can phone us bak with whatever it is he has to find out.

No returned phone call!!!

What the hell do we have to do? Aparently they dont have a complaints department. We have a broken laptop that has a Premium policy. We also have internet bills that have not one minute of internet access on them because the laptop has not been fixed!!!

Help!!!:mad: :mad:

Metacortex

Countryripple wrote:

The other half bought a laptop from PC World 3 years ago. He paid an extra E500 for their Premium Coverplan Insurance for 5 years. About 6 weeks ago he turns on the computer, it wont run. Basicly, it needs a new hard-drive.

Grand.

Bring it into PC World. They say they dont take items under that particular insurance into the shop. Gave us a number to phone for some other department that deals with it.

So phone up the number, guy runs through certain tests blah blah. Says it needs a new hard-drive!!! Doh!! So he takes insurance details etc, says a courier phone and will come collect it during the week, take it and it will be returned in a few weeks!!!

Week 1 goes by, week 2, week 3, no phone call, week 4!!!! Go back over to PC World to have it out. Guy get on the phone there to the repairs department. Guy on the other end asks to speak to my other half and tells him that that collection was cancelled on the 21st of February!!! We are well p!ssed!!! No record of who or why it was cancelled!!! So he apologises and takes the details again and says if no one phones us monday, phone him back.

we gave a days grace and waited till yesterday to phone them. Guy again has NO DETAILS of anything on his computer!!!! What the hell do we have to do!!!! He says he'll go check somethin and put us on hold. we said no. have been put on hold too much and gave him our number and he can phone us bak with whatever it is he has to find out.

No returned phone call!!!

What the hell do we have to do? Aparently they dont have a complaints department. We have a broken laptop that has a Premium policy. We also have internet bills that have not one minute of internet access on them because the laptop has not been fixed!!!

Help!!!:mad: :mad:

Just out of interest, did you ever at any point lose your temper with the guy who was supposed to call you back?
If so, theres your reason.

Personally i work in customer service and i have no inclination to help anyone who is going to give me a hard time over something thats not my fault.
The only reason my company cancels collections is if we cannot reach the customer after 10 business days to arrange the time. Maybe its the same here?

The best thing you can do, is to call them back, stay calm and polite and treat the person on the other end of the line with a bit of respect instead of treating them like a slave (not talking about you here, just general advice that helps)

pred racer

Metacortex wrote:

Just out of interest, did you ever at any point lose your temper with the guy who was supposed to call you back?
If so, theres your reason.

Personally i work in customer service and i have no inclination to help anyone who is going to give me a hard time over something thats not my fault.
The only reason my company cancels collections is if we cannot reach the customer after 10 business days to arrange the time. Maybe its the same here?

The best thing you can do, is to call them back, stay calm and polite and treat the person on the other end of the line with a bit of respect instead of treating them like a slave (not talking about you here, just general advice that helps)

If I call you 3 different times and a) dont do what you said you would and b)keep losing my details, you are getting the bolliking you rightly deserve.

In general I agree with the poster above that you normally catch more flies with honey than sh1te, but sometimes in the face of sheer incompetence and crappy service I cant help myself.

What I would try to do is talk to a supervisor (etc) next and see if you can get sorted out.

center15

If they have it longer than 6 weeks under the cover plan they have to give you a new machine.

The Roach

I used to work in customer service in PC World, and had to deal with the insurance crowd an awful lot. They can be a pain to deal with sometimes, but they do have some points in the policy to protect you. Firstly, if you've been ringing the PC Services phone number from the start, they should have details of each call, so you can show that you've been trying to get the issue sorted for quite a while. In the Coverplan policy there's a section that states that if the issue is not resolved within 6 weeks, you are automatically entitled to a replacement product. So if your first call was 6 weeks ago or more, then you should be eligible for this. HOWEVER, PC World won't replace the machine in-store for you, you'll be sent vouchers that can be used in PC World, Currys, or Dixons by the insurance company.

I had to go through all this for a PDA I bought which stopped working. The day after the 6 weeks was up I rang PC Services, asked to speak to a supervisor, and had my vouchers 4 days later.

And also, as Metacortex mentioned, the poor Joe behind the counter in the store isn't responsible for your laptop dying, or for the failings of the insurance/phone support, so do try to be nice! And if you are in the store anytime soon, ask to see the customer service manager, and get him/her to follow up on your issue, making a point to write down their name so you'll know who to contact next time. This is usually enough to get them to do all the chasing up for you.

Good luck, hope you get sorted soon.

Metacortex

pred racer wrote:

If I call you 3 different times and a) dont do what you said you would and b)keep losing my details, you are getting the bolliking you rightly deserve.

So you think its ok to give a torrent of abuse to someone who picks up the third call and has never even seen or dealt with this issue before?
Well its not and the person on the other end does not deserve it, ever, because you see theres a such thing as common human decency.
But i guess this a different topic altogether.

You'll have to excuse me, i get so angry when i see or hear people treating call centre / retail / customer service staff like slaves or idiots. 99.9% of the time its not the fault of the customer service rep and we're the ones who get torn apart 10 times a day, every day.

Kinetic^

There's such thing as good customer service too!!! :rolleyes:

MarkR

pred racer wrote:

If I call you 3 different times and a) dont do what you said you would and b)keep losing my details, you are getting the bolliking you rightly deserve.

No, the company deserves the bolliking. Not the person you spoke to. Assuming this is your habit, and you've done this three or more times, then from now on all call centre workers should be entitled to give youa bolliking by your logic. So be nice.

GreeBo

MarkR wrote:

No, the company deserves the bolliking. Not the person you spoke to.

How do you give a company a bolicking if you are not allowed to give any of its employees a bolicking?:rolleyes:

pred racer

Metacortex wrote:

So you think its ok to give a torrent of abuse to someone who picks up the third call and has never even seen or dealt with this issue before?
Well its not and the person on the other end does not deserve it, ever, because you see theres a such thing as common human decency.
But i guess this a different topic altogether.

You'll have to excuse me, i get so angry when i see or hear people treating call centre / retail / customer service staff like slaves or idiots. 99.9% of the time its not the fault of the customer service rep and we're the ones who get torn apart 10 times a day, every day.

Did I say a torrent of abuse?...No, I said a bolliking, which in my world is different thing. I never said anything about slaves or idiots either, but you are there to do a job, which in this case is take the guys details, see what the story is and give them a shout back with the details.....my 11 year old daughter could do that. Now to re-iterate to MarkR and Metacortex if you read my original post you would see that I agree with you that call centre staff etc should be treated with respect, but that can only continue for so long. If u fcuk it up thats fine, we all make mistakes and sure we'll try again, if you continue to fcuk it up thats not fine and you cant expect people to put up with it. Alot of customer service people dont seem to realise that in some cases at least Ive paid for this service and I would like some help.

sorry for getting off the topic OP, but the not calling me back thing is one of my pet hates. most of the time I dont mind if there is going to be a delay once I know and can plan accordingly.

What the Roach says sound like good sensible advice.

In this case nobody would have had to deal with me anyway coz I would have lost the reciept and the insurance details:o and would have just changed the hard drive myself.

Metacortex

pred racer wrote:

Did I say a torrent of abuse?...No, I said a bolliking, which in my world is different thing. I never said anything about slaves or idiots either,

I just wanted to claify, that wasn't about you i know you didn't say that , that was just my own rant.
Despite common belief this is a very hard job. Sometimes i don't get back to calling people, but there is a good reason for it. After you get off the phone, i may get 60 more calls that day, and thats 60 more people with the same issues. And at the end of the day, you work as hard as you can but you still can't help everyone. Sadly, thats just the way it is.

*edit* another thing people should remember if you don't get a callback. Alot of inbound call centres have a limit on the amount of outbound calls the employees can make. I take about 60 - 70 calls a day. Our call centre has a limit of 5 outbound calls an employee can make a day, do the math.
It may not be the fult of the person on the end of the line you didn't get a callback. I find alot of teh time, its company policy that creates the most displeasure amoung customers

layke

Coverplan is a joke and always has been. It's not PC Worlds fault that the machine can't be found because quite simply from experience the communication between the store and the repair company is dismal with 20 minute wait times and the like. I haved been that rep many a time and have been left standing there looking like an idiot while a customer demanded answers. (yes back 7 years ago or so I used to work for DSG).

What I would suggest is you go up there with a solicitors letter and ask for the manager. Present him the letter and I guarentee he will 'look into it personally'.

Dixons, Currys and PC world would be far far better if they didn't have to deal with those cowboys in the UK which is where all your returns go. They should have an unhouse repair team imo. I mean all that shipping charges just to swap a HDD is nonsense. Mind you in the eyes of the UK head office were small chips over here.

Sorry for your troubles mate but when you get the lappy back check it thoroughly, i've gotten more then enough damaged goods back from them after they've 'fixed it'.

catch--22

In regards to the OP there is a customer complaints department. Dial 1890 700 001. Sadly you'll get through to one of those automated machines that askes you to speak out the option you want! one of those options all you have to do is say "complaint".

Hope you get sorted soon!

whippet

Metacortex wrote:

*edit* another thing people should remember if you don't get a callback. Alot of inbound call centres have a limit on the amount of outbound calls the employees can make. I take about 60 - 70 calls a day. Our call centre has a limit of 5 outbound calls an employee can make a day, do the math.
It may not be the fult of the person on the end of the line you didn't get a callback. I find alot of teh time, its company policy that creates the most displeasure amoung customers

If you know you won't be able to call back .. don't tell someone you will call back !!! be honest !!!

I have had my share of calling customer care centers and the whole 'The computer says no' syndrome is so frustrating ... I always try to get to speak to a manager (not a supervisor - they only say 'no' in a more confident manner) .. but over all you are dealing with people who are fending off annoyed customers all day and to behonest you are just another statistic on their call sheet !!

Countryripple

No one was abused on the phone whatsoever. Only the one phone call was made initally and that was to clarify the problems and then they took the details to come and collect it. Then we waited weeks to hear about the collection and instead of phoning the call centre again we just took it to PC World with the idea of speaking to a manager and just getting them to take it out of our hands. Typically, all the managers were on lunch!! It was only then while in the shop that the call centre was contacted again.

Got contact there this evening that the laptop shll be collected tomorrow.

In terms of what you are saying about this 6 week replacement, do you receive vouchers for the ammount you paid for the item?

We have a reference number from the original call placed in February. If the 6 week policy stands from this date, then it probably will run over the 6 week period.

At the end of the day, the hard drive is screwed so anything that was not backed up from it is lost anyway. So an entire new machine would be sweet!!

Archeron

Sorry to continue the off topic part of this, but just to add my 2c on the whole blolicking of customer service reps. I have worked many moons in customer service too, and have had my ear chewed many times. Sometimes deservedly, sometimes not. At the end of the day, you are working in customer service and you represent your company, so what is being said to you is being said to the company. Its not a personal reflection on you as a person. As long as you act maturely, deal with the problem as best you can and take it all with a pinch of salt, then the customer will go away with an improved view of the company as a whole, and that is why you work in customer service after all.
Bad language and threats are a no go, and result in a warning, followed by a cut off line, but other than that, swallow your personal pride, have a bit of empathy for the customer and do your best.
I have experienced some atrocious customer service in certain companies (we all know the ones) and in fairness, if you are part of those thoroughly incompetant teams of people who seemingly do nothing to improve people's perception of the company, and frankly dont give a damn either way, then you rightly deserve to have your ear chewed off.

catch--22

Start a new post to rant about call centers et al ..... please stick to what the OP was talking about!

With regard to the vouchers.....you will receive vouchers to replace the machine you already have....NOT the full value you spent! But don't panic yet....this often works in your favour!!

Lets say for example you bought a Sony laptop, 15.4" screen, 256 Ram, 20 Gb Harddrive, DVD ROM drive, and a sony memory stick reader. Well that's what they have to give you vouchers to replace. The make and specs! Now this was 3 years ago and Sony laptops have come on a long way since....they don't make those specs any more! In fact....no laptop on the market will have specs that low! But you bought Sony...so thats what you have to get back! Also your laptop has a sony card reader which only the top end have (for example) and your replacement must have one of these too! You might end up getting a very high end laptop to replace the one exactly as you bought 3 years ago!!!! i have seen this work before. And if they issue the vouchers and you're not ahppy you can appeal it and they might re-issue!

Hope it all works out well!

Countryripple

So got home today to a note from UPS saying 'We Called'. Told us the pervious day it would be picked up sometime between 9 and 5. Now, we both cant take the day off and sit waiting for them so we asked could the courier phone the other half 30 mins before they call because he would be in a better position to run home and be there. We have all the details, refs and stuff of where its going and that. Tried to phone UPS but to no avail. Will be ringing them in the morning to see if we can just bring it to the depot.

I counted back the weeks and found out that the initial call into PC World and the subsequent phone call to the coverplan folk was made on the 28th of Jan. Which is pretty much up to the 6 week mark already but the thing has not been collected yet. May be making the call to PC Services soon!!

Will keep you updated.

dingding

How did you get on, I am currently having a similar experience.

chump

that 6 weeks thing sounds bloody impressive... im impressed

looksee

My daughter got a new camera (vouchers) when repairs ran over the 6 weeks, and by all accounts the main reason it was delayed was because it hadn't been sent off immediately by PCWorld. they gave her a good bit of run-around but she persisted and got the new camera.

Caroline666

Hi,
We bought a lap top from PC World in Swords last November, at the time we were going to take out finance on it but opted to purchase out right the same night instead, over the course of the transaction he gave bank details to the guy serving us, when the transaction was complete he asked us did we want insurance, as wed just handed over nearly a grand I said no, he said we had a month to decide anyway (thought the product would have been cover for the first year). At the end of the month we decided not to take out the insurnance.

Checked bank statement in Jan and noticed payments being taken out, once in nov once in dec and twice in the first week in jan, phoned bank to see who was taking out the money and it turned out to be DSG Ireland the parent company of PC Work and Dixons. PC World had passed our bank details onto them (without permission) and they automatically started taking money out, after a number of phone calls and to cut a long story short they agreed that they shouldnt have been taking the money out without bank account holder permission ( i asked them where the direct debit letter/standing order mand ate was, they said it must have gotten lost in the post )and advised us to write to our bank and have them contact DSG Ireland for reimbursment.
Still havent heard back from the bank.

If you took out an insurnace policy with PC World they should be able to tell you who the insurnance company is my guess is its DSG Ireland, not sure how you paid for the insurnace cover, maybe you could go back to your bank and see if you can trace where the payment went to.

catch--22

Caroline666 wrote:

If you took out an insurnace policy with PC World they should be able to tell you who the insurnance company is my guess is its DSG Ireland, not sure how you paid for the insurnace cover, maybe you could go back to your bank and see if you can trace where the payment went to.

A company called Mastercare looks after it all for them.

Caroline666

Have you contacted Mastercare?

dingding

Coverplan passed my call on to Mastercare as they have now agreed my laptop was lost. they are going to write of my laptop and give me vouchers to replace it. the laptop is 5 years old and they will give me vouchers to an equivalent spec according to the docummentation.

As the original laptop was a pentium, the cheapest pentium with them is almost 800 euros, also the lost laptop had a smartcard reader and a floppy drive that modern laptops do not have. I am going to raise this with them tomorrow and I will let you know how I got on. Sorry to hear that they have removed money form your account without permission. Is this fraud and can you contact the Garda. I am sure if you went into Currys and removed 40 euro worth of stuff every month it would not be long before you were called to answer.

antoinolachtnai

Caroline666 wrote:

Still havent heard back from the bank.

If you make a complaint to a bank and they don't reply, you could contact the financial ombudsman.

Antoin.

dingding

Latest update, Cover Plan have discovered that the courier lost the laptop, even though the laptop was not fixed within the six weeks. Will not process replacing the laptop till the courier who lost it pays them for the loss.

Going on 10 weeks now, I have raised the issue with the manager of the currys store where i purchased the laptop and cover.

I am thinking of taking the shop, as they are ultimatly responsible to the small claims court to recover the cost of the laptop. Would anyone have an opinion as to whether this course of action would be successfull.

I get the feeling that they work on the basis that they make things so hard that you give up.

Any advice or other peoples experience welcome.

dingding

catch--22 wrote:

In regards to the OP there is a customer complaints department. Dial 1890 700 001. Sadly you'll get through to one of those automated machines that askes you to speak out the option you want! one of those options all you have to do is say "complaint".

Hope you get sorted soon!

Any one get any joy by making a complaint.

catch--22

dingding wrote:

I am thinking of taking the shop, as they are ultimatly responsible to the small claims court to recover the cost of the laptop. Would anyone have an opinion as to whether this course of action would be successfull.

Any advice or other peoples experience welcome.

Consumer law protects you very well....my guess would be as soon as you lodged the claim you'll get a letter from them apologising and with a refund in full!

brightspark

paid an extra E500 for their Premium Coverplan Insurance for 5 years. About 6 weeks ago he turns on the computer, it wont run. Basicly, it needs a new hard-drive.

Isn't this another example why these insurance / extended warranties should be avoided. You could have bought a new hard-drive (and even got someone to install it) for a lot less than E500 and it wouldn't take 10 weeks either.

I've started a poll

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055088428

Mike...

Metacortex wrote:

So you think its ok to give a torrent of abuse to someone who picks up the third call and has never even seen or dealt with this issue before?

Of course it is....The 2nd & 3rd person wouldn't ever have to be involved if call centre's hired proper staff....instead of the muppets they usually have

antoinolachtnai

dingding wrote:

Latest update, Cover Plan have discovered that the courier lost the laptop, even though the laptop was not fixed within the six weeks. Will not process replacing the laptop till the courier who lost it pays them for the loss.

Going on 10 weeks now, I have raised the issue with the manager of the currys store where i purchased the laptop and cover.

I am thinking of taking the shop, as they are ultimatly responsible to the small claims court to recover the cost of the laptop. Would anyone have an opinion as to whether this course of action would be successfull.

I get the feeling that they work on the basis that they make things so hard that you give up.

Any advice or other peoples experience welcome.

I think this is a matter for coverplan. The shop are not responsible for the insurance policy. The law around insurance policies and goods are different.

It may be worth talking to the financial ombudsman, who deal with insurance claims.

Whatever option you decide to take, be sure to get a complaint, make sure to get something in writing saying you are unhappy, right away.

This business about waiting for the courier to pay is a load of rubbish. The fact that their courier has cashflow problems is not your problem.

dingding

Got this sorted eventually. An email to their complaints dept and a call to the store and I got a result. Thanks for all the advice here.

Hobbes

Metacortex wrote:

Personally i work in customer service and i have no inclination to help anyone who is going to give me a hard time over something thats not my fault.

If I was your boss I would fire you. You are not helping the issue, your making it worse and making a mockery of what "Customer service" is. So it isn't your problem. So what? Does that magically make the issue go away for the customer because it is not your problem?

You are also damaging your own companies long term business. An upset customer is more likely to tell around 10 people that your service is bad, a pissed off customer tells everyone.

If it ever gets to a point where a customer has to seek legal or 3rd party action to address an issue then your company shouldn't be in business (and probably won't be for long).

Although what you describe is pretty much how most customer support goes on in Ireland. Like they don't give a toss about the customer.

What you should be doing is addressing the customers issue. Yes they are annoyed, agree with them on this (you don't have to agree with their main issue) and then tell them how you plan to make it right for them. You don't even have to promise them their machine back only that you personally will look after the issue even if you have to hand that issue off to someone else, the mere fact of saying this makes the customer feel like someone gives a toss about them.

Back to the OP, reading most of that sounds like the company is just making excuses rather then actually helping you.

Moonbeam

you poor thing,

I was in a similar situation a while ago,it was frustrating and soul destroying.

My laptop stopped working,wouldn't boot etc so brought it back but it needed to be sent off etc so I requested that I could keep the hd soo a couple of weeks later they got back to me and said no problem and all and it would not effect the warranty,a few weeks later I went ot the shop in Blanch where it was purchased asked for the manager I had dealt with previously and was told by a rude man she doesn't work here anymore so it doesn't count,
I made the decision there to just count my losses and send it back with the hd,heard nothing for ages and was aware there was a clause on the insurance stating if it can not be repaired in the given time then they will replace it,all in all it took be about 5 months from the 2nd time sending it off to get my "refund" which was naturally pc world vouchers:( but at least I had finally got something out of them,they also give you coverplan vouchers to the value of your remianing contract(how usefuil)
Due to being told in one of the shops that I could only bring it back to the shop that I bought it from I kept gonig back to Blanch,where there were 2 really nice helpfuil sales assistants who went out of there way to be nice and a manager who was one of the rudest most arrogant ignorant men I have ever come across.
As you can prob understand I really didn't want to deal with them again for anything and spending my vouchers there was not somehting I was going to do in a hurry!

dingding

Hobbes wrote:

If I was your boss I would fire you. You are not helping the issue, your making it worse and making a mockery of what "Customer service" is. So it isn't your problem. So what? Does that magically make the issue go away for the customer because it is not your problem?

You are also damaging your own companies long term business. An upset customer is more likely to tell around 10 people that your service is bad, a pissed off customer tells everyone.

If it ever gets to a point where a customer has to seek legal or 3rd party action to address an issue then your company shouldn't be in business (and probably won't be for long).

Although what you describe is pretty much how most customer support goes on in Ireland. Like they don't give a toss about the customer.

What you should be doing is addressing the customers issue. Yes they are annoyed, agree with them on this (you don't have to agree with their main issue) and then tell them how you plan to make it right for them. You don't even have to promise them their machine back only that you personally will look after the issue even if you have to hand that issue off to someone else, the mere fact of saying this makes the customer feel like someone gives a toss about them.

Back to the OP, reading most of that sounds like the company is just making excuses rather then actually helping you.

Exactly how I feel about this, bad customer service does not do the company any good.

sunnyd

I got a laptop in PC World just before xmas and i got the insurance cover for it for 3yrs. At the start of April the something to do with the hardware broke so i brought it into the store. same thing happened they said i had to ring the company myself when i got home and they'd arrange for a coriour to collect it. As i had an assignment due a few days later and had it half completed on the laptop i was totally dissatisfied that id have to bring it home wait for a courier etc... I couldnt wait that long!!!! So i asked to speak to the manager. I was told he/she was on holidays so i got the assistant manager. He was so polite and helpful. He got one of the technicians in the store to get all the files off the laptop onto a free/complimentary usb stick. He then took me into his office and he called the company himself and it was arranged to be picked up the next morning, he said if i had any problems to get back to him and gave me his number.
So i sat in the next morning and no sign of the bloody couriers i waited until after lunch in case they were just delayed but still no sign so i called him and he said he'd try to sort it out for me. He rang me back within ten mins said he was extremley sorry about the delay but there was a minor mix up and that it would be def picked up the next morning. I sat in the next morning and they came about 10 o'clock... I was told i would have it back within 10 working days and i had it in only 5.
So i dont know if i was just lucky or if you guys were just unlucky.......

HungryJoey

sunnyd wrote:

I got a laptop in PC World just before xmas and i got the insurance cover for it for 3yrs. At the start of April the something to do with the hardware broke so i brought it into the store. same thing happened they said i had to ring the company myself when i got home and they'd arrange for a coriour to collect it. As i had an assignment due a few days later and had it half completed on the laptop i was totally dissatisfied that id have to bring it home wait for a courier etc... I couldnt wait that long!!!! So i asked to speak to the manager. I was told he/she was on holidays so i got the assistant manager. He was so polite and helpful. He got one of the technicians in the store to get all the files off the laptop onto a free/complimentary usb stick. He then took me into his office and he called the company himself and it was arranged to be picked up the next morning, he said if i had any problems to get back to him and gave me his number.
So i sat in the next morning and no sign of the bloody couriers i waited until after lunch in case they were just delayed but still no sign so i called him and he said he'd try to sort it out for me. He rang me back within ten mins said he was extremley sorry about the delay but there was a minor mix up and that it would be def picked up the next morning. I sat in the next morning and they came about 10 o'clock... I was told i would have it back within 10 working days and i had it in only 5.
So i dont know if i was just lucky or if you guys were just unlucky.......

A mixture of lucky and being polite. OP this is not directed at you.. but if you keep a cool head the majority of customer service workers will be more then happy to help you the best they can. Unfortunetly there are the boll!x's that some customers get stuck with. Personally I work in customer service and deal with customers all day long. I never be rude, I am polite and very helping. I do more then what I should in my job to help customers and the majority of my customers leave happy. In saying that, If I get a customer that from the start treats me like a boll!x in return unfortunetly I won't be so offering and helpful. We aren't there to be abused. If customers tend to be rude, it gets them no where and its quite evident in some cases. I'm fed up of rude & arrogant people it gets you no where.

I understand in saying all that, unfortunetly dealing with coverplan they are brutal which will make customers blood boil in return bounce back to customer service workers. I do understand that. Unfortunetly PCW cannot repair laptops in their stores so there for coverplan must be contacted. In some cases the laptop can be booked in through the store and then be sent off / collected from the store but in alot of cases it can take a little longer as it isn't dealing directly with the customer.

My last thing to say is;
When a customer gets angry, his/her first intention is to rant on about the company and how sh!t it is and tell as much people as possible therefore giving the store a bad name.
When a customer leaves the store happy thats it. End of, there is no mention of excellent service the customer might have received to anybody. IE nobody recognising good customer service.

I am not saying DSG's customer service is good or the quality of the store in general is great, all I'm saying is the only talk about the store you'll hear is negative.

EDIT: I know I'm going to get some smart arse telling me " Yes, all people do is rant about PCW because there is no such thing as good customer service there " - Well thats false. I work with customers everyday and help them to their satisfactory and see them leave happy. With very few disapointed customers after dealing with customer serice but unfortunetly these few disapointed customers are the only customers we'll hear speak of PCW / DSG and how they were treated. No positive ones.

In relation to issues raised in this thread, Unfortunetly there are the times when things like this go wrong and I agree I would be very very angry at PCW and it is the lowest of low service. Its radicilous waiting 4 weeks for a laptop to be collected let alone to be repaired! I hope you all get your issues resolved as soon as possible!

To clear a few things up raised in this thread I spotted also I wanted to clear up; When you purchase a laptop/desktop it has a standard one year warranty on the machine covering general faults like hardware etc.. At the time of purchase the sales assistant or person on the till may ask you if you would like to take out an extended warranty/guarentee. This is coverplan insurance. It is offered in 3,4 and 5 year policies. It covers general faults, accidental damages and in the first year it covers theft. If you drop your laptop, set it on fire, crack your screen, it doesn't boot, its freezing, overheating or something as simple as virus', it will be repaired under the insurance policy. ( You also receive 1 free healthcheck every year ). This amount for the insurance can be paid all at once at time of purchase of the machine or it can be paid over a 10 month direct-debit policy.

Personally I see the insurance worthwhile on laptops perticularily as they are fragile pieces of equiptment and expensive! I have seen week old laptop costing the guts of 2000euro coming back a week later with cracks on the screen, been dropped and all sorts with no insurance; To see these people break down into tears it would made you think twice. Yes ok, alot of the time coverplan can be a joke but then again the majority of cases systems will be fixed quickly and promptly without any issues.

Just my bit'

Hj

dingding

Hungry Joe,

I would agree with you that the cases that are well handled don't end up in boards like this. The staff in the Galway and Sligo stores were ultimatly key in solving my problems. The cover plan staff were probably very limited in what they were allowed to do to solve the problem. I think at the time when I purchased the laptop this insurance was valuable because of the purchase price. For most of the laptops in the 600 - 700 euro band they are probably to be considered as disposable and not worth getting insured.

Had another experience with Three when I was trying to get my number ported, 8 calls and each time told it would be done in 24 hours, meant you had to wait 24 hours to find they could not port the number etc...

I good agent would have solved the prolem the first time. so they have a huge staff who answer the phone quickly, are very pleasent, but at the end of the day can't solve the problems.

Hungry joe, hope I get you the next time I call a customer support desk.

And take pride in a job well done.

HungryJoey

dingding wrote:

Hungry Joe,

I would agree with you that the cases that are well handled don't end up in boards like this. The staff in the Galway and Sligo stores were ultimatly key in solving my problems. The cover plan staff were probably very limited in what they were allowed to do to solve the problem. I think at the time when I purchased the laptop this insurance was valuable because of the purchase price. For most of the laptops in the 600 - 700 euro band they are probably to be considered as disposable and not worth getting insured.

Had another experience with Three when I was trying to get my number ported, 8 calls and each time told it would be done in 24 hours, meant you had to wait 24 hours to find they could not port the number etc...

I good agent would have solved the prolem the first time. so they have a huge staff who answer the phone quickly, are very pleasent, but at the end of the day can't solve the problems.

Just my point being, sometimes it would be nice to receive gratification for a job well done and im sure many people who work as a customer service representative would feel the same. There are few customers who do thank and tell you how much they appreciated the help and sincerely mean it but not many.

Hungry joe, hope I get you the next time I call a customer support desk.

And take pride in a job well done.

Thanks,

Although I do not work in a call center I work instore. So I spend my time speaking directly to customers & dealing with there issues instore and resolve many issues there and then leaving customers feeling happy.

Hj

Metacortex

Hobbes wrote:

If I was your boss I would fire you. You are not helping the issue, your making it worse and making a mockery of what "Customer service" is. So it isn't your problem. So what? Does that magically make the issue go away for the customer because it is not your problem?

You are also damaging your own companies long term business. An upset customer is more likely to tell around 10 people that your service is bad, a pissed off customer tells everyone.

If it ever gets to a point where a customer has to seek legal or 3rd party action to address an issue then your company shouldn't be in business (and probably won't be for long).

Although what you describe is pretty much how most customer support goes on in Ireland. Like they don't give a toss about the customer.

What you should be doing is addressing the customers issue. Yes they are annoyed, agree with them on this (you don't have to agree with their main issue) and then tell them how you plan to make it right for them. You don't even have to promise them their machine back only that you personally will look after the issue even if you have to hand that issue off to someone else, the mere fact of saying this makes the customer feel like someone gives a toss about them.

Back to the OP, reading most of that sounds like the company is just making excuses rather then actually helping you.

Hobbes, i work in customer service because i genuinely like helping people and usually do go out of my way to do so.

Its only when i have a customer who just will not listen to me when im providing them with a solution/s and constantly calls me every name under the sun, that i get frustrated, i know its not personal but it does wear you down after a while.

I say this with a soft tone and no ire because i KNOW i don't deserve to be fired because i always do my best.

In fairness, most of the time our hands are just tied by company policy.

Once, i was called up by my manager. Why?
I gave a full refund to a customer, i helped someone and did my job and got a written warning.

When i said i had no inclination to help people who abuse me, i meant it. But, i still help them, its what i get paid for every month. I've never once put down the phone on someone and then deleted or thrown away their details, i still do the work.

Sorry to interrupt the thread again, i just wanted to clear up a few things because i do my best to try and help people. Its just stressful when you're being ****ed out it 30 times a day. And just to clarify, i do understand where customers are coming from 95% of the time (im a customer myself!) but again, from personal experience, these problems are mostly down to the particular companies policies

eth0_

Back when I worked in tech support, if a customer gave me abuse or shouted at me, i'd give them one warning to quit it or i'd cut them off. People who think they can get results by shouting at and abusing staff have no right to be acknowledged.

Cabaal

eth0_ wrote:

Back when I worked in tech support, if a customer gave me abuse or shouted at me, i'd give them one warning to quit it or i'd cut them off. People who think they can get results by shouting at and abusing staff have no right to be acknowledged.

Depending on the position, I'd agree with this, three warnings and their disconnected from the call is pretty normal in a call center environment from what I understand.

Again each situation should be judged correctly

Countryripple

Hi guys,

Another problem with coverplan. Well for the first problem in my original post the laptop was eventually collected and hd replaced. The computer was significantly slower after this!!!

Anyway. In recent weeks. Had minor accident which resulted in the screen cracking. Under the plan its covered for accidental damage so no biggie. Rang them, had it booked in on the 25th of july. It was collected on the 5th of august and only returned today, 25th of september. We phoned them last week to see what the story was and they said it was waiting for parts. At this stage it has been over 8 weeks since the laptop was booked in. Turned it on when it arrived today, and the screen is just blank. The power is all on and everything and if you tilt the screen you can make out some text but only just.

Rang the place and girl said there are no technicians available at this time to talk us through and she will get someone to ohone back by 3pm tomorrow.

Basically, what we want to know now is, can we just say to them we waited 8 weeks for it to be repaired. It has not come back repaired and now want to claim our vouchers? Has anyone had a similar incident? I just have a feeling that they are gonna say 'it has to be booked in again'. This would be a right pain!! We are already thinking of taking them to the small claims for the internet bills that we have got from our server for the time they took to fix it!

Any help greatly apreciated!!

the_syco

Countryripple wrote:

Basically, what we want to know now is, can we just say to them we waited 8 weeks for it to be repaired. It has not come back repaired and now want to claim our vouchers? Has anyone had a similar incident? I just have a feeling that they are gonna say 'it has to be booked in again'. This would be a right pain!! We are already thinking of taking them to the small claims for the internet bills that we have got from our server for the time they took to fix it!

Any help greatly apreciated!!

Most companies will say in their warranty that they must be given a chance to fix the problem. This usually means at least three times of the same problem.

I didn't read the entire thread, but I'd like to know what you mean by the bit I bolded in your post, if possible?

Hellm0

I used to work as a salesman in the blanch PC world, customer complaints were dealt with by pointing swiftly to the customer service desk(which was always swamped by 3 or 4 angry looking folk).

I'm not familiar with the complaints procedures in there anymore but I can tell you that the manager in there these days is not big on manners. Had to deal with him myself once or twice about a crippled printer, got a replacement but only after much guffawing on his part.

I agree that its not the service reps fault that products fail or that the beaurocratic nature of the business intentionally slows down the process in the hopes that the customer will just give up but I do think CSR's are the front line of a business and should have thick skin when it comes to taking abuse(sorry for the long sentance).

Sales people in store in pc world will never help you by the by unless they sold you the product, and even then only begrudgingly. As there is alot of competition for commission, when your tied down helping someone(even if you want to) your loosing money. Just the way it is.

mik_da_man

Have a good look through your coverplan contract.
There should be a clause in there that if the laptop is not fixed within a certain time frame you are entitled to the vouchers/replacement.
I think it's 4 weeks - this worked for me before with a problem lappy I had.
They actually sent out the vouchers twice I didn't complain

Countryripple

There is no bolded bit in my post?

It seems a bit stupid if it took them 8 weeks to repair and it comes back not repaired and I have to give them another 2 chances to get it sorted? Judging by the average length of time they have left me waiting on repairs if i was to give them another chance with a waiting time of 8 weeks, that would total 4 months, 1/3 of the year, waiting!!

On another note. Has anyone gone ahead with the small claims court on any of the matters discussed?

dingding

Countryripple wrote:

On another note. Has anyone gone ahead with the small claims court on any of the matters discussed?

I treathned it, with a week to solve the problem, this was the catyst necessary to solve the problem.

RichieP

I have had numberous issues with pc world. They are overpriced and their after sales service is a joke. They are grand when you are going in to buy something, promising that you will get no end of service if what you happen to buy is faulty(if it happens within 12months) and even promising that, for a few hundred more they will give you a brand new pc if you happen to, say, throw it out the window in a couple of years or so. (slight exaggeration but it's not far off what they say.)

Can't blame this guy for getting wound up. I bought a pc there and wanted to upgrade the ram shortly after. They said I would have to book it in two weeks in advance and it would cost 25euros. I looked up how to do it on the net and it involved undoing one screw and slotting it in. He would have it done in the time he stood there talking to me.

Bought another pc and discovered that the disc drive was faulty after the 28day period. Again, told it would be two weeks before they would look at it and even then they may have to send it two a courier which would take several more weeks. A brand new laptop and I have to be without it for at least 4weeks when I NEED it. What an absolute joke.

BEWARE: DO NOT BUY ANYTHING FROM PC WORLD. You would get a better laptop online, with better specs, and cheaper from say someone like Dell. Also, you can return ANYTHING you buy online within 7 days if you decide you don't like it. As for customer service, it can't be worse than pc world and they still promise to repair it within a year if it goes wrong.

onetwo

Hobbes wrote: »

If I was your boss I would fire you. You are not helping the issue, your making it worse and making a mockery of what "Customer service" is. So it isn't your problem. So what? Does that magically make the issue go away for the customer because it is not your problem?

No it's not my problem. And I empathise with yours. But if you don't act like a civil human being, my empathy goes out the window, and you get exactly what you deserve

Don't like it? Don't really care