Update: This post is getting around 3-4 visits per day or over 100 per month via search engines against the query ‘pc specialist’ or similar. If a small proportion of these have decided not to use PCS as a result, it just goes to shows how short-sighted they have been: they’d rather lose thousands of pounds worth of business than pay out a few pounds under warranty - I’m sure that’s a sensible business strategy on some planet!

Update 2: PC Specialist.co.uk have responded in the comments section (comments were closed due to spam-prevention so we posted an email they sent us). Please read their comments to get their side of the story.

This post is aimed at those considering a purchase from custom PC retailer PCSpecialist.co.uk and should serve as a warning.

A couple years ago we were looking for a high end PC and our natural instinct was to look at Dell and other well known brands/retailers. It quickly became clear that while these brands were very competitive at packaged systems, customization attracted a hefty premium.

We happened to mention this at a client meeting and this immediately triggered a recommendation. You guessed it, PCSpecialist.co.uk.

The recommendation was from someone who could be trusted - he had bought two systems from there himself. And sure enough their pricing was competitive against the better known brands. They even compared favourably to the cost of the underlying components so there didn’t seem to be any real financial benefit in self-building.

The next couple of months were spent deciding on the configuration (in which PCSpecialist.co.uk were helpful) and waiting for the ‘best’ time to buy. We then took the leap and ordered.

That’s when the PCSpecialist.co.uk nightmare started.
Here are some of the key problems:

• Delivery was late by a couple of weeks. They made no effort to tell us when we could expect delivery [PC Specialist disputes this - see their comment here], simply saying (and we paraphrase) ‘expect it when you see it’. Nice, we thought. And to justify the delay they kept talking about how much care and attention they pay to QA. We thought that a small delay was worth it if it arrives in perfect condition
• It eventually arrived broken. This seemed really strange given their QA boasts. Clearly they hadn’t been as thorough as claimed. The broken item was a graphics card which they replaced without fuss. But having waited so long, it was a real disappointment to have to wait a few days longer before being able to use it
• But it didn’t stop there, oh no. There were many other issues, around half a dozen in fact. Most of these have taken much longer to sort out, if at all. One issue took over eight months to resolve during which PCSpecialist.co.uk fobbed us off and suggested we go straight to the item manufacturer (even though the warranty was with them). Another item has taken over a year to replace but we’ve written it off because of their aggressive attitude and unresponsiveness. For example, it often took over 30 minutes to get through to them by phone, only for someone to apologise and agree to send us the required bits. And then you’d wait and wait and wait and nothing would arrive. And if you had the temerity to call back and remind them, you’d get their sharp end. Simply wonderful customer service

Clearly there’s alot more detail we could have included but our experience with PCSpecialist.co.uk should be fairly clear.

Maybe in retrospect we did the wrong thing to dismiss Dell or some of the other well known brands so quickly. After all, with the extra we’ve had to pay out to replace warranty-covered items ourselves, as well as the time and hassle involved in dealing with them, they weren’t nearly as low cost as they first appeared.

Now, no company is perfect. And Dell and the others have their share of customer issues. And this is just one case from PCSpecialist.co.uk. So if you are considering purchasing from them then make your own mind up. At least you can be a bit more informed going in than we were, and maybe ask a few questions. Check out the testimonials on their website - they’re generally impressive but be wary of these: they may have screened out the negative stuff; plus, remember that you have to be logged in to leave comments [PC Specialist disputes this - see their comment here] and so those leaving comments may tone them down to appease the retailer.

Series:MarketingTalk