{"id":1308,"date":"2005-10-12T14:07:47","date_gmt":"2005-10-12T18:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=1308"},"modified":"2005-10-12T14:07:47","modified_gmt":"2005-10-12T18:07:47","slug":"a-cautionary-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/?p=1308","title":{"rendered":"A cautionary tale"},"content":{"rendered":"

Three names to avoid – Internet Buyer Direct,<\/a> Student computers,<\/a> Communication4.<\/a> They all seem to be the same firm<\/del> man, operating from somewhere1<\/a><\/sup> in the West Country. They sell refurbished notebooks and other computers, also a wide range of laptop batteries, which is how I came in contact with them.<\/p>\n\n

I ordered a thinkpad battery on September 22 2005, paying, like an idiot, by direct debit. The web site promises that everything will be shipped within five days, or else customers will be told.<\/p>\n\n

A fortnight later, on October 6th, I had heard nothing and had no battery. I looked on the web site for a contact number; found a form, but no telephone. Filled out the form. I have still heard nothing from that. I rang the sales line, and got an answerphone. At this stage I was certain I had been conned. After four more calls to the sales line answerphone, I got someone called Stewart, who sounded helpful, but harassed. “This is our busiest time of year”, he said: “there’s a bit of a backlog.” He took my number and promised to get back to me. Later that afternoon, someone did get back to me, and said that the goods would be dispatched within the next three or four days. I said this wasn’t good enough, since the promise was to dispatch within five days, or to tell me. He said they would do what they could.<\/p>\n\n

Later that afternoon, I had an email claiming the goods had been dispatched. They still haven’t arrived, six days later. They are supposed to have been sent by recorded delivery. So I rang Stewart on the sales line again, who said he would get in touch with the battery department. I asked him for a phone line to speak to them direct. He said, no, I had to fill out a form on the web site. He took my number, though, and promised to ring back. I said I wanted the tracking number when he did. He said this could be impossible. Obviously, I suspect that this will show the package, if posted at all, was posted yesterday.<\/p>\n\n

There matters rest. But because I was unable to find more than one reference in Google to the phrase “Studentcomputers.co.uk sucks” I thought I would write this for posterity.<\/p>\n\n

UPDATE.<\/span> The battery was actually delivered on Thursday 13th, posted 1st class on the 12th, six days after I had the email claiming that it had been sent. On the back there is a sticker identifying the sender as “S Carpenter” of Trevithick Manor Farm. I can’t help wondering if this is the “Stewart” who answers the sales line when the answerphone is switched off. If he is one man pretending to be three companies — “I’ll have to refer that to our battery division” — as seems likely, then he needs to learn about the importance of telling customers the truth and dealing quickly and straghtforwardly with their queries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n

1<\/sup> From their invoice: Internet Buyer Direct (www.studentcomputers.co.uk), Communication4 Trading as Internet Buyer Direct, 24 KINGSWOOD PARK AVENUE, PLYMOUTH, DEVON, PL3<\/span> 4NQ, UNITED KINGDOM VAT<\/span> No : 841 2340 62 <\/span><\/p>\n\n

But see also Internet Buyer Direct (www.studentcomputers.co.uk), Communication4 Trading as Internet Buyer Direct, Trevithick Manor Farm, Trevemper, Cornwall, TR8<\/span> 4QD, UNITED KINGDOM VAT<\/span> No : 841 2340 62 <\/span> from the delivery note.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three names to avoid – Internet Buyer Direct, Student computers, Communication4. They all seem to be the same firm man, operating from somewhere1 in the West Country. They sell refurbished notebooks and other computers, also a wide range of laptop … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1308\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thewormbook.com\/hlog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}