Factory Choice . . . Too good to be true???

iggyigauna89

Well folks, as a long time stalker of this forum I know that Hardwarersand is the go to supplier for all your PC needs, however I had a quick look at http://www.factorychoice.ie/ after it was mentioned in this thread(http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056891443).

If true, there is some serious value to be had, i.e. 3570K for €173 and a sapphire 7950 for €220!?! So my question is has anyone had any dealings with these and if so how were they?

All going well my planned build can hopefully jump forward a few months!:D

MiskyBoyy

Unfortunately them prices are without VAT. I was very intrigued at the prices myself until I investigated a little further.

Like I said in that last thread, they wrongly state tax incl. on the prices, but once you log in or enter an address at the end the appropriate tax is added.

The 3570k goes up to €207.80 & €7.99 delivery.

Still interested to see if anyone has used them before. They're based in Wexford btw.

Factorychoice

Hello,

Sorry guys for the problem we decided to run a stock update today, (we usually do it at night to prevent these problems)

However, we will only now run update's during the night as to prevent any further issues, please reply with any problems you have from now on guys!

Thanks and remember we have the best prices!

Serephucus

I'm actually quite impressed that a Wexford-based shop can stock a 690 at a reasonable price. They're actually cheaper than Dabs on a few of the main items guys. Might be worth adding to the basket script.

Gadgetman496

Factorychoice wrote: »

Hello,

Sorry guys for the problem we decided to run a stock update today, (we usually do it at night to prevent these problems)

However, we will only now run update's during the night as to prevent any further issues, please reply with any problems you have from now on guys!

Thanks and remember we have the best prices!

So which is it, are the site prices with or without VAT?

N64

Are the products dispatched from Ireland? I see UPS listed as a delivery agent and expected delivery times are between 3-5 days.

twinsen

Its weird that they wouldn't put their address on the site.
And as for contact there is only email address.

Gadgetman496

Yep, it doesn't mention where they are in the "About" section but does mention Wexford in the "Contact" section

The site appears to be registered to a building contractor from Kilmuckridge.

A search of their 'about us' text ("is the web's ultimate destination for computers") turns up tonnes of generic sales sites with identical text.

No contact details and the 'paypal' link on the site does not redirect to the correct page. I would not be putting my CC details anywhere near there but each to his own.

Gadgetman496

Deleted User wrote: »

The site appears to be registered to a building contractor from Kilmuckridge.

A search of their 'about us' text ("is the web's ultimate destination for computers") turns up tonnes of generic sales sites with identical text.

No contact details and the 'paypal' link on the site does not redirect to the correct page. I would not be putting my CC details anywhere near there but each to his own.

If you were to believe all the bumf in the "About" section you'd think they were leasing a franchise to PCWorld lol Their customers & people are soooo important to them.

peter71

Just checking these out. company reg number shows company as national pen, who are a good big company but not sure if they own or reg number in site is error why not promote other company.
www.cro.ie
reg number 474116
national pen , dundalk

robdsherlock

strange indeed, be interesting to see if they could come back and explain these findings..

good catch!!

Axwell

peter71 wrote: »

Just checking these out. company reg number shows company as national pen, who are a good big company but not sure if they own or reg number in site is error why not promote other company.
www.cro.ie
reg number 474116
national pen , dundalk

That number is the registered number for a company called National Pen, if you look up a registered business name with that number you get Factory Choice. The two types of business are independent so there is no error or promotion of an other company.

tuxy

robdsherlock wrote: »

strange indeed, be interesting to see if they could come back and explain these findings..

good catch!!

I'm intrigued too. No address on the site but we know the person that registered the domain is from Wexford. About section is a copy and paste template.
Very peculiar

Varoh

Ok. I'm new posting but had to row in as I only started looking up factorychoice.ie after placing an order for a sound system. As it didn't ship by Wednesday after been ordered on Monday I began to get a sinking feeling. Fortunately unlike what's been said above their paypal link is the right one and I used the resolution centre to contact them. They answered the email and sent me the shipping number. I've attached it.

They said that they ship from France and a Bank Holiday Monday delayed the shipping. I asked them about how come there is so little information about them available and how that affect the trust.

"Yes we are a relatively new site so there will always be doubt with trust but a site that uses PayPal is always a site that can be trusted. We only use PayPal as they keep both us and the buyer safe from fraud. "

I asked how come they have no contact beyond the email.

"Yes, we have no contact number as Lo-Call numbers are actually expensive when called by on a mobile so we use a interactive chat module called "zopim" much like that on Facebook so we can quickly chat with customers and save our customers money."

Anyway it appears to be on the way now. Will post again when I receive it.

tuxy

France you say?
Many of their products are the exact same price as pixmania. However they have some products listed a few times at different prices. So maybe a re seller for a few different websites.
Even if you do get your item their is still something very dodgy about them.

Varoh

Yep. Came through Belgium in the end which is just like Pixmania. Aside from the two pronged European plug it works fine though. Relieved. So despite their oddness that's been pointed out by other posters they are legit.

NATLOR

Anyone else used or had experiences with this site?,Am tempted by a couple of things but am reluctant to take the plunge with so little feedback available

Axwell

NATLOR wrote: »

Anyone else used or had experiences with this site?,Am tempted by a couple of things but am reluctant to take the plunge with so little feedback available

Go with Hardwareversand.de - if you post what you are looking for in a thread on here people will spec one out for you based on parts from there. Got a build from there a few weeks back myself with no issues, put it togehter myself and the delivery from germany was about 20 quid. Took about a week from order to delivery. See some of the other build threads.

onemanshow1974

did you recieve youritems from factory choice??

seanwindle22

Factorychoice wrote: »

Hello,

Sorry guys for the problem we decided to run a stock update today, (we usually do it at night to prevent these problems)

However, we will only now run update's during the night as to prevent any further issues, please reply with any problems you have from now on guys!

Thanks and remember we have the best prices!

Wats the story with trying to contact ye. I placed an order a week ago with express delivery and I can't get a reply from anyone as to what's the status of my order. VERY BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. WILL BE TAKING MY BUSINESS ELSEWHERE IN FUTURE.

game4it70

seanwindle22 wrote: »

Wats the story with trying to contact ye. I placed an order a week ago with express delivery and I can't get a reply from anyone as to what's the status of my order. VERY BAD CUSTOMER SERVICE. WILL BE TAKING MY BUSINESS ELSEWHERE IN FUTURE.

Factorychoice
Last Activity: 11-03-2013 16:38
Your not going to get a reply on here i'd say.

I'd contact your credit card company or try Payal dispute if you used either.

Hopefully you will get somewhere as they seem to be a right cowboy outfit.

seanwindle22

Thanks for the info. Ya I think I'll try a dispute on PayPal. Have u had any experience with this company in the past? Seemingly they are based in Wexford, I don't know how true that is.

game4it70

seanwindle22 wrote: »

Thanks for the info. Ya I think I'll try a dispute on PayPal. Have u had any experience with this company in the past? Seemingly they are based in Wexford, I don't know how true that is.

Thankfully no i haven't but any time i've read about them its been all bad.

seanwindle22

Obviously if the prices seem too good to be true they prob are. Should have been more aware I suppose. Funny tho it was Shopmania.ie that advertises for factorychoice.ie they forward you to them from there website, must be a group operation or something

seanwindle22

I lodged a dispute with paypal 15 mins ago and since then I have received 2 emails from factorychoice stating the item has been shipped and the 2nd email even gave me a tracking number. Just goes to show putting a bit of pressure on them but a simply reply to my emails would have saved a lot of bother

game4it70

Lol thats good for you but also shows they do read mails but are just selective which ones they care about.

seanwindle22

Exactly obviously don't care too much about customer service and customer satisfaction

ShadowHearth

Keep in mind if you will sign the delivery and there will be a plastic turd instead off parts you ordered, then you have feck all come back with Paypal. Paypal will see items as delivered and they wount refund it.

I am not sure about this crowd, but there are a lot of scams like that using paypal. One of the awesome scams when dealing with lego, you order sets for good price for couple of hundred of someone. You get a delivery, which is just an envelope or a card. You sign for it and it is counted as delivered. Paypal then takes side of seller.

BloodBath

Why would you sign for an envelope when you're expecting a package of something?

ShadowHearth

BloodBath wrote: »

Why would you sign for an envelope when you're expecting a package of something?

Because you dont know whats in it and you just sign it. When you open it, you ****ed.

BloodBath

If you're expecting a package though and you read who the sender of the envelope is surely it would click that something isn't right. Granted I've never checked inside a box before signing but an envelope is a different story.

Solitaire

I'm pretty sure that when dealing with dodgy PayPal-powered companies you can open the parcel at point of delivery to verify receipt of goods prior to signing for it?

yannakis

Does anyone have a phone number for them?

yannakis

they managed to reply to my 4th email. it might have been a coincide that I gave them a 24 hour notice until I make a claim with PayPal

apparently they had dispatched the item but we're too busy to send a notice on time.

Terroriser

I ordered a water cooler for my PC about 8 days ago and was told it was a 3-5 day waiting period and no sign or contact made by the company to me from my emails to them. I am worried at this point as I have never dealt with an online company with such poor contact with customers and also no status update. Really not a good way to grow a business.

Any help would be appreciated!

redser7

Just stumbled on this thread after seeing an amazing price on a TV I'm looking at. Seems to me you'd be wise to get straight on to paypal and let the know something is amiss. Get your money back or else maybe it will make them move faster and send your item.
I wont be going anywhere near them!

TheDoc

It's a typical web based front for a number of similar types of Irish companies, sprawled accross multiple markets and industry. I helped set up a few for people before, and even worked in a company where we created one ourselves as it looked like a decent business model.

In essence you setup a website that is for all intensive purposes an Irish company, but acts as an "arm" for a large distributor, or larger company.

You never hold any stock yourself, and when you receive an order, that order routes to the central distributor. From there, the item is shipped direct to the customer. You receive a percentage of the sale price.

The benefit of this is you don't need a shop, or any storage fees, as you hold no stock. You just need a computer essentially, and a few other bits and legal pieces.

It's not exactly anything dodgy or fishy, but from experience its run by people with sometimes poor experience and knowledge of the sort of business model, and sometimes the products, and is just a method to make some handy income, or an alternative revenue stream.

Nollog

BloodBath wrote: »

Why would you sign for an envelope when you're expecting a package of something?

The trick is to sign for it, but if it's one of those digital signature thingies they all have now you just put in brackets next your signature that you haven't checked it.
I always do this went taking packages which amount to most of my builds.

So long as there's a record stating you didn't confirm the contents are what you expected you have a leg to stand on.
That's the theory at least, thankfully never had to prove anything.

slegs

It's called dropshipping

You create a wholesale account with the wholesaler in this case Pixmania Pro

They give you a daily feed of products and prices and images. You load these into your shopping cart software and add your margin.

When you make a sale you just go to pixmania pro and order the product with your customers shipping details

Anyone with Vat registration a web domain and a modicum of it knowledge could do it

All the products are shipped from pixmania so unless you are saving lots of money just buy from pixmania.ie as the returns policies will be more reliable.

Calmsurrender

I saw this site come up the listings of price spy.
Was looking at some stuff but like others was disappointed about the vat and shipping costs. The stuff I wanted still working out cheaper tho.
Shame to see its looking shady

Dub_Jim_Royle

Even apart from the Terroriser warning, and like a couple of people mentioned, if this is like a pixmania setup, you have to watch out for the SMART TVs which is how I came across them.

SMART TVs are region dependant also so apps like rte and BBC won't work as the TV originates in Europe.

BanjoKelly

I found Factory Choice on pricespy too and ordered a phone last week. The price shown on Pricespy didn't include the tax I had to pay on checkout, but it was still good enough to proceed. After hearing nothing back for 3 days after the order confirmation email I sent an email asking for information about delivery times but didn't get any reply. Then I did a search and found this thread. I also found they don't show a full physical address in their "about us" section and their company number quoted doesn't match their company name. I got worried but I knew I'd get the money back through PayPal if all else failed.

Anyway, long story short the phone arrived this morning through UPS from France. I never got a dispatch confirmation email like the site said they would send but the phone is good, new and sealed properly. It arrived within their 3 - 5 working day promise. In short, awful customer service causing needless anxiety but in this case anyway they delivered. I would not use them again just because of the lack of ability to get a reply from them to a basic query.

cullenswood

Ordered 4 items from this website....3 got delivered yesterday, one was missing. We signed for them, as obviously thought everything was there.

Has anyone else tried phoning these on the numbers in this thread?

Tinder Surprise

Ordered a 3tb WD hard drive after seeing the price on pricespy.

Took over a week to arrive and when I opened up the box I see it's sealed in foil bag with 'WD RECERTIFIED HARD DRIVE' printed on it !?

So I'm guessing it a reconditioned hard drive which has me fuming, as it does not mention this on the item on their website.

Anyone know if I have any comeback via PayPal?
I'm am usually super cautious and if I had if read this thread first would have stayed well clear.

jackdalad23

Just came across this thread. I ordered a tv for my son for Christmas last week. Pretty good deal. No sign of delivery today so I went onto their site and was suprised to see a live support chat. I said hi and waited to ask when I could expect delivery. After 5 mins the "support" chat went offline. Then I came across this thread and am really getting that sh***y feeling. I just tried to get back onto the site to see if the "support" chat was back online but the whole site is down now for "maintenance" !! Will keep ye posted if it gets delivered this week ....... or ever !!!

free_man

Tinder Surprise wrote: »

Ordered a 3tb WD hard drive after seeing the price on pricespy.

Took over a week to arrive and when I opened up the box I see it's sealed in foil bag with 'WD RECERTIFIED HARD DRIVE' printed on it !?

So I'm guessing it a reconditioned hard drive which has me fuming, as it does not mention this on the item on their website.

Anyone know if I have any comeback via PayPal?
I'm am usually super cautious and if I had if read this thread first would have stayed well clear.

All is not lost

Use paypal resolution process. Select 'Item not as described'. Send photo of item send vs item ordered.
That should give you a refund from paypal or atleast another HDD which is not recertified.

free_man

jackdalad23 wrote: »

Just came across this thread. I ordered a tv for my son for Christmas last week. Pretty good deal. No sign of delivery today so I went onto their site and was suprised to see a live support chat. I said hi and waited to ask when I could expect delivery. After 5 mins the "support" chat went offline. Then I came across this thread and am really getting that sh***y feeling. I just tried to get back onto the site to see if the "support" chat was back online but the whole site is down now for "maintenance" !! Will keep ye posted if it gets delivered this week ....... or ever !!!

If you used paypal, dispute resolution is best bet

jackdalad23

I keep ye updated

Connaldinio

Hey like a few others as far as I can see, I was brought to Factory choice by price spy, said canon legria hf25 €629 but after shipping and tax it went up to €770 but still a good bit cheaper than any other site, so I decided to order it how ever the payment option for paypal and credit cards have been removed and now you can only order by bank-wire payment. I clicked on this to see would it give me any more options by it actually confirmed my order and the next page said once I wire the money to <name> my order will be sent..... All sounds a bit dodgy to me. What website asks you to wire them money?? Sounds like something you hear on Facebook when you get a pm from a very attractive looking young girl who just came upon your page and says she finds you very interesting and would like to get to know you... Oh and if you could just send her on all your details including bank acc no#.
I'd be very interested to hear if those last few posters get the items they ordered

jackdalad23

H guys. My TV finally came yesterday after 13 days. I emailed Factory Choice twice during this time about my concerns with my second email mentioning that I will be starting a paypal dispute to which I received no reply. I am happy my tv got here but the lack of customer service here is just shocking. I will be making contact again to let them know what I think of the company and will not be using them again. Dont care how cheap their stuff is , it just aint worth the heartache !!