xtravision and ps3

James Bong 79

this may sound like a rant but anyway....had a problem there with my ps3 last week as it just stopped reading discs(which i found out is a common occurrence) so i rang sony and they said bring it straight back to where i bought it which is xtravision and they gave me a number to quote them. they said it would be no problem and i should be given a brand new ps3 back-no hassles!
so off i go and when i got there the guy said that he thought there was no way i would get a straight swap as i bought it in december and it was passed its 2 week returns date. so he told me to come back in an hour when the manager was on. fair enough i said and i came back later and met the manager. guy turned out to be a total a**h*le! first he asked if i rang sony, fully expecting me to not have. when i said i did he looked disgusted and then went through the box to see if i had everything in the box. problem was i had forgotten to include the scart lead as ive been using a hdmi lead sice i got it.
so he says arrogantly that i was to not bother coming back in with it until i had all the pieces. grand! i eventually find the scart lead and i bring it in to him, he doesnt even check the box and justs goes off into the back to get me a new ps3. arrives out 5mins later and tells me that he doesnt have any left and that i was to call back in thursday, ask for him and he'd have it then.
so my brother goes in on wednesday and just asks them if they have any in stock and they tell him they have loads. so i go in on thursday fully expecting to get my new ps3 and they wont give me it as the manager wasnt even scheduled to be on that day and they were afraid of getting into trouble. so i was really pi**ed off at this stage, they told me he was in the next day but his hours were the same as mine at work so i sent my bro in. manager says again he has no ps3s and has no idea when he will get them. my brother asks if he is going to ring sony and see when the next delivery is due and he said he couldnt as they would be at lunch (it was 14:15!) so my brother tells him he is in no rush and he would wait until he rang them. so the guy wasnt happy at this and just went into the back of the shop for 10 mins and hey presto arrives back out with a brand new ps3. like what the hell????? is this what usually happens at xtravision???? rant over......

Ourlad

Madness, you would swear the manager had to give you his own ps3

Rb

They work in a video shop for a living, what are you expecting?

Helix

strongly worded letter to head office

prodigal_son

Yeah, you should write a letter of complaint.

I mean they are just doing the swap on behalf of sony, if they dont like it, dont stock sony products.

They make a killing out of selling them and games, they shouldnt have a problem with this kinda thing.

Helix

yeah its a nonsense

they accept the swap, sony reimburse them

they lose absolutely nothing, except potentially customers by acting the pricks

311

It's probably just this paticular branch ,some nasty manager making it akward for everyone.

I'd write a letter myself aswell.

ShaneU

Helix wrote: »

yeah its a nonsense

they accept the swap, sony reimburse them

they lose absolutely nothing, except potentially customers by acting the pricks

Similar thing happened to me in a local xtravision, their managers must all be trained in the same place, probably "The business school for pricks"

DonkeyStyle \o/

That sounds like a headwreck alright... by contrast, I had my PS3 replaced in PowerCity for the very same issue, they replaced it on the spot without any guff what-so-ever... in and out in 10 minutes, everyone's happy.

+1 for the complaint to head office btw.

Super Sidious

Yea you should deffo complain, peeps in Ireland tend not to complain anymore... customer service wont improve otherwise!

TelePaul

Small claims court. Threaten them with it in a letter, they'll give you a new PS3 before you can say Guns of the Patriots.

tvnutz

Well actually you weren't legally entitled to a replacement since it was outside 28 days. They were obligated to fix the situation for you and that means they should have sent if off for repair. If the manager actually had any idea what he was doing he wouldn't have given you a new one,so count yourself lucky on that side of it.

As for his behaviour,that is unacceptable,especially for a manager and you shoudl ring the head office customer complaints line and tell them exactly what you have written out here. But don't go threatening small claims court etc,that is the worst thing you can do right off the bat. Just explain in a calm manner how the manager treated you and that it was terrible customer service. Don't rant about the part time staff not being able to anything for you because they are told not to take back electronics without a manager present,so no point blaming them,and its a policy they will never change so no point bitching about that either,it will just take you off point.

You would probably get more help and suggestions at the Consumer Issues forum.

Helix

tvnutz wrote: »

Well actually you weren't legally entitled to a replacement since it was outside 28 days. They were obligated to fix the situation for you and that means they should have sent if off for repair. If the manager actually had any idea what he was doing he wouldn't have given you a new one,so count yourself lucky on that side of it.

pretty sure thats not true

the item wasnt in saleable condition, so the vendor was entitled to replace it

byte

A retailer can, at his or her own discretion, choose to repair, refund or replace. Usually, within a month, items are replaced unless a refund is requested, after that, it's repairs.

However, the PS3 might be different, if Sony say to the retailer that any faulty ones should be replaced, and the retailer in turn gets credited for the faulty goods.

311

tvnutz wrote: »

Well actually you weren't legally entitled to a replacement since it was outside 28 days. They were obligated to fix the situation for you and that means they should have sent if off for repair. If the manager actually had any idea what he was doing he wouldn't have given you a new one,so count yourself lucky on that side of it.

Consumer Issues forum.

You're right about the consumer issues forum.

But ,when I brought my ps3 back to hmv in december ,I was given a new ps3 straight away.

I was told that the branch was notified to replace faulty units from their own stock.

I'm sure HMV are no different to any other retailer ,if they are then I won't be buying anything from extravision ever again.

tvnutz

Helix wrote: »

pretty sure thats not true

the item wasnt in saleable condition, so the vendor was entitled to replace it

It is true I am afraid,you are entitled to a repair,replacement or refund by law but it is up to the retailer to decide. Perhaps Sony give credit to retailers on faulty products so the store can replace them right away. Other than that,it would be sent for repair.

if they are then I won't be buying anything from extravision ever again.

Personally I wouldn't buy anything big from them,dvds and games etc are fine but anything expensive,if it's fault,they generally try to d!ck you around.

AtomicHorror

Helix wrote: »

strongly worded letter to head office

Worth a shot for definite. I used to work in Xtravision. The letter will get you placating vouchers but there'll be no change to policy or training whatsoever. Most Xtravision employees are only partially trained, poorly paid and when they aren't being harassed by aggressive customers (not talking about the OP here), they are being harassed by their own district managers and head office staff who are not at all interested in staff loyalty or happiness. They're about as backward a company as one is ever likely to work for.

None of this justifies rude staff, but I used to try my damnedest to be polite and civil to every customer. In many cases I was patronised (a person who works in a video store must be an idiot, right?), in some cases threatened with violence. All of this for trying to stick to head office's many anal policies. As soon as a customer would complain- they'd be given whatever they wanted and head office would apologise for my behavior as if I was somehow defying them.

That became more of a rant than I'd intended.

AtomicHorror

ShaneU wrote: »

Similar thing happened to me in a local xtravision, their managers must all be trained in the same place, probably "The business school for pricks"

The managers tend to be the staff member who's managed to stick it out the longest. They go on a training course but it's only a few days as far as I know. To be fair to them, they're usually taking **** from all sides. The systems required to handle good consumer electronics returns/repairs etc. are simply not present in most stores.

AtomicHorror

rb_ie wrote: »

They work in a video shop for a living, what are you expecting?

On the surface, what makes their lot worse than someone who works in HMV? It's not the job per se, there's a lot of other crap going on there.

tvnutz

AtomicHorror wrote: »

Worth a shot for definite. I used to work in Xtravision. The letter will get you placating vouchers but there'll be no change to policy or training whatsoever. Most Xtravision employees are only partially trained, poorly paid and when they aren't being harassed by aggressive customers (not talking about the OP here), they are being harassed by their own district managers and head office staff who are not at all interested in staff loyalty or happiness. They're about as backward a company as one is ever likely to work for.

None of this justifies rude staff, but I used to try my damnedest to be polite and civil to every customer. In many cases I was patronised (a person who works in a video store must be an idiot, right?), in some cases threatened with violence. All of this for trying to stick to head office's many anal policies. As soon as a customer would complain- they'd be given whatever they wanted and head office would apologise for my behavior as if I was somehow defying them.

That became more of a rant than I'd intended.

Used to work there as well and that pretty much sums it up perfectly.

valleyoftheunos

Within its warranty you are entitled to replacement or repair.

In the case of the PS3 its clearly cheaper, or at least more economically viable to replace rather than repair faulty machines. this is often the case with large or complicated electronics. In order to repair a faulty machine they have to send the product to a workshop, run diagnostics, replace the necessary parts, install them and then run checks to make sure the repair is correct. And then return the product to the customer.

At best that will take days but could be weeks, especially if there is many machines that need repair and limited technicians. Replacing machines eliminates all that and keeps customers satisfied. Sony can then recondition and repair the machines to their own requirements.

Remember that consoles make money from games not hardware, Sony need to keep customers happy so they will continue to buy the software.