Poor After-Sales Service
From
Dixons in Ireland.
By Paul Mulvenna
Good to see I'm not the only one that's had trouble with this lot!
I bought a CDR separate (Philips CDR 770) in Dixon's Dublin (Jervis Centre) on 8th April last year which was ex-display. (I knew this as it was on display on the shelf and was the last one!) The accessories were missing (remote, phone leads, optical cable) and were to be "sent out to me". Waited a couple of weeks and rang up - "They haven't arrived yet". A month later "We'll have to re-order them - they haven't come in" Called in a few more times - story was always the same.
I asked for a refund but they said it wouldn't be possible.
Around the end of November the machine started playing up, never recording whole discs without freezing up or leaving blank tracks all over the place. I left it in for repair at the start of January, knowing they'd 4 weeks to fix it or I was entitled to a new one. 4 weeks passed - no repaired CDR machine. I told them I wanted a replacement - "The only one we do now is 399. Yours was 250 so you can have it but you'd have to pay the 150" I don't think so - if I'd want a product at that price that's what I would have bought in the first place!!
Spent a further 2 weeks arguing with managers and stuff till one day I decided I'd had enough. Phoned up and asked to speak to the overall manager. I made ELEVEN calls before I got put through without getting cut off. Told him the goods were unfot for sale as they were incomplete and hadn't been repaired within the timescales and so on. Again I was told about the replacement costing me more. I said I wanted a refund. I told him I'd keep ringing till I got one. He told me the product was almost a year old and blah blah blah we can't go giving refunds and so on. Eventually when I mentioned my solicitor theings changed. "We'll see what we can do"
Three days later the money was refunded to my credit card. Nevertheless, I will never do business with any part of the group again - it's not worth the hassle!
On a different story, I went in to the same store one day looking to buy a hifi for my girlfriend's birthday. I was willing to spend around 400 quid and had simple requirements - good system with good sound that included a minidisc. I went round 5 different models and in turn each of them was out of stock, damaged, or otherwise unsuitable (eg. "We don't have a box for it") On that occasion I walked across the mall to Argos where I got an excellent system no problems that has never had any problems.
The bit I found unbelievable was the total lack of staff intelligence. While I was browsing different models I was asking questions such as "Can you tell me a bit about this one?". The replies were as useful as "Oh that one's really good. It has a really neat feature - see just here - it's got an adjustable volume level. Also it uses standard mains electricity.".............