Buy4Now.ie a joke?

Our man in Havana

I used buy4now.ie last week to buy a modem from Galaxy computers. Free delivery if you use laser. Great I thinks and orders. Ordered on a Sunday. 2 days later the order enters "picking" and has stayed there ever since. What a joke.

Anyone had any experiences of this shower?

Ruu_Old

I used to buy a few books through there from Eason and found them terribly slow and when I called asking where the book was they told me that they were waiting for me to call to make sure I still wanted it (was never informed that it was on backorder). I would never touch Galaxy Computers, the prices are ridiculous.
They are the only ones I can think of, other times I was never told an item was in stock. Silly little things that could have been easily sorted if they would have let me know.

Our man in Havana

I was between a road and a hard place as I could not find the modem I wanted anywhere else at a reasonable price.

mcaul

You can't blame Buy4Now - they are just the front window for the stores inside - similar you can't blame Liffey Valley if you had a problem with a store in the centre.

You can e-mail them and if there are suffucient complaints they could take action.

markpb

I ordered a keyboard from Galaxy Computers and _then_ found this thread (timing is everything). I mailed them asking for a delivery date and was told yesterday so I was quite happy.

Unfortunately it didn't turn up so I mailed them this morning. No reply to email, their 1850 number isn't working and their 045 number is saying Inbox full. Buy4Now said they're supposed to be moving office but they haven't been able to get in touch with them for a week. I just noticed their website is gone apart from a contact page with the two (broken) phone numbers.

Have to say, things aren't looking good

A.C. 1966

Sorry mate you wont get anywhere with them, I was stupid enough to buy a PDA from them. I could have bought the same PDA with a mates Credit card and save myself a couple of quid on the dollar conversion, but I decided to "buy irish" and thought the item would be sent to me within 2-3 working days, usual business times within ireland. It didnt arrive, and after ringing and emailing and shouting matches on the phone with galaxy. My argument was the only reason I bought from them was quicker delivery times therefore I paid more, but no indication of stock level was on their site. Well after 2 weeks it arrives, same delivery time as with a US store. So i urge people, DO NOT buy from Galaxy, prices are sky high, and service is way south.

Our man in Havana

Well the modem I ordered from them stayed in picking for 3.5 weeks before the allegedly shipped it. The modem took a further week and a half to arrive and when it arrived it turned out that it had only been posted the day before.
Muppets! :mad: So much for supporting Irish businesses, I will buy foreign in future. At least they deliver in a reasonable time frame and have the decency to tell you if an item is not in stock.

PaddyAnglican

mcaul wrote:

You can't blame Buy4Now - they are just the front window for the stores inside - similar you can't blame Liffey Valley if you had a problem with a store in the centre.

You can e-mail them and if there are suffucient complaints they could take action.

I think you may be wrong there - if buy4now handle the payment they are the 'point of sale' and therefore the contract is with buy4now. I am also caught having ordered a fax machine from Galaxy last week and they have my money whicle I have been told by B4n that I will never see the machine and that they are in the process of getting the funds returned. While I have also emailed Galaxy (no phone contact possible) I am pretty sure that the liabilty here is with B4N. They (BFN) admitted that the problem has been apparent for a few weeks and yet the Galaxy Shop remained on their website (gone today).

Our man in Havana

hey (BFN) admitted that the problem has been apparent for a few weeks and yet the Galaxy Shop remained on their website (gone today).

Good riddance.

PaddyAnglican

Just called the bank who are going to chase up the issue - will let you all know if any joy - told it could take a few weeks to sort out.

joolsdeb

I work for Buy4now, and we do not process payment for the stores, just as mccaul pointed out. If you place an order on the Galaxy site, the contract is actually with them. We have been let down by Galaxy as well, the only option we had was to turn off the site last week to prevent more orders being placed.

rowr

Its great when something goes wrong how the people wanting your business start blame everyone but themselves. I ordered through buy4now.ie and had my order being picked for the last 2 weeks. All they told me was they cant contact Galaxy, and said they couldnt tell me anymore as they were having a 'meeting' later in the day to discuss it, and was told they have nothing to do with refunds!! So is buy4now a charity or when do they take their commission

PaddyAnglican

joolsdeb wrote:

I work for Buy4now, and we do not process payment for the stores, just as mccaul pointed out. If you place an order on the Galaxy site, the contract is actually with them. We have been let down by Galaxy as well, the only option we had was to turn off the site last week to prevent more orders being placed.

So what is the relationship betwen BFN and Galaxy? The payment system is operated by BFN as it is a common interface for all the shops behind BFN - Therefore you are de facto the point of sale. I would imagine in any action that may be taken by customers to recover their funds both BFN and Galaxy would be named. Anyway consumer law will ultimately judge on this one - Thank God for the small claims court!

englander

Had one experience with buy4now and wont be repeating.
No confidence at all in the process of buying from the website.

Ordered phone from eircom shop via buy4now.
Two weeks later I emailed buy4now to ask where the phone was as no communication at all.

They said it was in process of being shipped.

Then I get a phone call a few days later from them saying that they were out of stock and advise that I cancel. So I did cancel as I was annoyed at the delay/lack of communication etc.

The very next day the phones are delivered.

Gran Hermano

I'd rather pop my cojones on the luas tracks and watch a tram run over
them than use the buy4now site. Colleges should use it to demonstrate
to students on how not to run an e b2c site. Someone should remind
the shops on there that they are actually pretending to have an online
store. Like other posters mentioned, my last order was cancelled after 2
weeks and all I received an e-mail saying "sorry item not in stock".

sysconp1

I have been chasing Galaxy computers for the last week to obtain a refund for a 22" widescreen monitor and a mouse. The monitor had been picked for a week and no sign of the mouse being picked. I cancelled the order and asked for a refund to my Laser card. I was promised the refund and advised that it had been processed. Now a week later I checked on the site only to find that Buy4Now has closed their website over concerns over trading difficulties.

So it appears that is another company that has gone to the wall and I am out of pocket to the tune of €370. So off to the Garda today to report them as well as a call to Buy4Now to attempt to get them to refund my money or point me in a direction that will get my money back.

Has anyone else been stung by this company?:mad:

Hopefully, as I bought the stuff with my Laser I should be able to get the bank to honour the debt... well I can but try :-(

Our man in Havana

Don't waste your time with B4N they will do nothing. Contact the bank and ask them to chargeback the amount also report it to the fraud squad as taking your money without suppling your stuff is theft and fraud. Good Luck with it.

sysconp1

Well it appears that if you paid for your transaction by Laser card there is little or no possibility of receiving a refund for services or goods you did not receive! So basically if you were dealing with Galaxy Computers you are screwed. Guess I will have to revert to time honoured way of recovering money... now where did I leave that baseball bat!

Our man in Havana

Are they in receivership or liquidation? Have you tried asking the Gardaí if they can investigate if they were trading recklessly?

Here are some details from the CRO:

GALAXY COMPUTERS LIMITED
Key Company Details
Registered Company Number 346072
Incorporated Date 30/07/2001
Registered Address 7 Moat Mall
naas
Kildare

Company Type PRIVATE LIMITED BY SHARES
Current Status NORMAL
Principal Company Activity OTHER RETAIL SALE IN SPECIALIZED STORES

Their status is still normal but they have not filed a return with the CRO since 30/09/2005 and their return of 30/09/2006 is not filed and is overdue. The last full accounts they filed covers up to 31/12/2004. A normal healthy company should not be in such a state.

I would in view of what the bank said now call in the Gardaí.

markpb

Bond-007 wrote:

I would in view of what the bank said now call in the Gardaí.

I just filled in a Small Claims court form, going to post it to Nass Courthouse tonight but I'm not sure how far that'll get.

Does anyone know how to go about getting the Gardai to investigate, I presume Naas station might be the best place? Might help if we all log complaints at the same station.

Our man in Havana

I just filled in a Small Claims court form, going to post it to Nass Courthouse tonight but I'm not sure how far that'll get.

If the company has any assets you can have the sheriff seize them once you get a positive judgement in the small claims court. They may just refund the money once they get the court paperwork.

Do Galaxy Computers actually have a physical shop in Naas? Are they still trading?

rowr

I am still waiting on a number of items as well, still being picked and B4N are as useful as an answering machine. They claim to have no update even though i was told yesterday by a manager that things would be getting dealt with yesterday, and a refund should not be a problem. I think B4N are only worried are future order and dont really care about past order as they claim its not their fault. Cant imagine that any goods or refunds are forthcoming.
Need to bring it to the national airwaves or something and at worst show up B4N for how useless they are.

markpb

In more wierdnes.... my delivery turned up this morning. I'm not quite sure what happened there.

PaddyAnglican

Bizarre :eek: - My fax machine just arrived! - the same one that buy4now told me would not come but in the meantime I bought one over the counter!
Stephen

PaddyAnglican

BFN tell me to send it back to Galaxy for a refund - dooooooooh! Somehow I don't think that's going to work - I will wait till my laser charge is refunded and then tell them where they can come and get it!

markpb

I had to ring AIB and the small claims court and tell them to disregard my complaint, got some funny questions about that

So eh.... happy as I am to have got my stuff, wtf just happened? Their phone number still isn't working and I just got another mail from B4N basically saying they haven't a clue what's going on.

rowr

Still nothing on my order, has anybody else not recieved anything yet.

sysconp1

I received my refund this morning into my bank account. Now it took a lot of pestering and what they perceived to be threats, but it was worth it in the end.

If anyone else has items outstanding I would suggest that you get on the phone or email barrage the sales email until you get satisfaction.

PaddyAnglican

Finally got my refund for unwanted returned goods. All refunds seem to being administered by a former employee doing it 'in his spare time' - quite bizarre but a decent fellow who was very obliging in bringing closure to the hassle.

magnumlady

I think Buy4Now is a joke, there is a place on there selling cameras. The Fuji one I was looking at is 279 in PC World and a whopping 549 on Buy4Now, or if you go directly to the site and not through Buy4Now its 449, they'll never sell anything with rip off prices like that.

ow2h7nft1me9i4

you should have a look at pixmania.ie for nearly all kinds of electronics. I got a fantastic camera for over 150euro cheaper than argos. And they accept laser, and ship by ups for extremly reasonable rates (less than 15 i think) and you have your item in 2 days. As for BFN, no way I would buy from them, most stuff is very highly overpriced.Their website also leaves much to be desired.

magnumlady

Sean Steep Suburbanite wrote:

you should have a look at pixmania.ie for nearly all kinds of electronics. I got a fantastic camera for over 150euro cheaper than argos. And they accept laser, and ship by ups for extremly reasonable rates (less than 15 i think) and you have your item in 2 days. As for BFN, no way I would buy from them, most stuff is very highly overpriced.Their website also leaves much to be desired.

I have seen the camera I want on pixmania, its 30 euro then PC World, just a bit put off using them again, after having to wait 3 weeks for a printer to come that I ordered from them.

rowr

zzzz

SMERSH

I suspect he is lying his ass off. If he didn't work for them why does he still have access to work email?

Down to Naas courthouse and file a small claims action to recover the money. The time for diplomacy has ended it's time to get tough with them.

ejmaztec

I've never bought anything through the BFN website as I've never seen anything on sale that is anywhere near reasonably priced or worth the effort. The newsletter that I subscribe to seems to be dedicated to people who don't mind paying over the odds for something.

All I can say is -thank God for the internet and a competitive EU marketplace (excluding Ireland and the UK, of course).