Rant @ Evesham technology: Home of the CrapTop
So I wanted to treat my fiancee to a new laptop for an early christmas present, I shopped around but was then wowed by an offer on Evesham Technology’s eBay shop. A great spec, far superior to anything else I could get for that price. So me being me, I bought it.
Next day, it arrived. Nice quick delivery. I had a play, when I first got it it had a blue screen, but then seemed fine. Then I tried to play a game… o dear. The system went boiling hot until locking up, every time, whatever game.
It had to go back, it had a 7 day returns policy, it was however Friday night, and no-one was in office until Monday. So i kept my laptop for the weekend, and mailed them just in time for Monday morning. Then the fun really began…
First response on Monday, very polite, did not think anything fowl afoot:
Thank you for your message
Sorry to hear about the ongoing faults with your item. Please ring our Customer Care Team on ***** *** *** who will issue you with an RMA number and an address to send it back to
Thanks,
Evesham Technology
So I did, I did not have to wait very long and the customer guy told me to reinstall windows just in case it was not a hardware fault. I did (even though secretly I knew it would not work), and the error persisted.
Round 2, I rang again, but strangely this time they passed me on to another number. This new number was hell, and after waiting 45 mins on hold to their stupid tribal music, I hung up.
Round 3, undeterred I tried again next day, no reply yet again, waited 50 minutes this time.
Round 4, I was getting nervous now, it was the day before my 7 days were up. I mailed the seller again, trying to get a return address, he fobbed me off with this:
To arrange for a replacement for this item, or to return it, you must speak to our Technical Support Team or our Customer Care Team. We regret we cannot raise a return via email
Why on earth not? Dammit, frustrated by this point.
Round 5, rang again, more waiting on hold. Rang again again, this time I got through. This was the worse call; the guy did not really know what he was doing, then told me i cannot have a refund without writing to the administrators because they are going in administration! But the item was sold after they went under, so how was this fair? More angry emails went to the seller.
Round 6, fed up totally, on the 7th day. I raised a paypal dispute… urika! Like by magic I finally got a return address. I sent it thinking everything would be ok.
Was I right? No! 4 days past; no refund. I had the delivery receipt, more mail to the seller. Eventually, I got this poor reply:
You have placed a dispute against the funds, on 18/09 (This was the day before we recieved the notebook back)therefore we are unable to refund.
Your negative feedback for us state your refund has taken too long, yet it has only been delayed by your dispute.
As soon as you end this dispute, we will issue the refund.
Since when has a dispute made them unable to click the refund button in paypal? Total BS. After a lot of arguing I gave it and closed the dispute. Eventually I got the refund, and some negative feedback! The cheek of it!
Feedback on the eBay platform is subjective. Your feedback claims we intentionally delayed your refund, which is not true – as we’ve stated numerous times, we could not refund whilst the funds were on hold.
Conclusion
I’ve racked up a big phone bill, paid £20 shipping to return the item, been messed about and fobbed off with lame excuses, so for heavens sake Never buy from Evesham Technology (unless you enjoy talking to gits and having high stress levels).
Dear jolley_small,
This matter is now closed.
- eveshamtechnology
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beth says:
What a nightmare!
Comment made on September 26, 2007 at 7:10 pm
Ali says:
Lame!
I learned to think twice before buying “a good bargin”. And learned the hardway too.
Comment made on September 27, 2007 at 1:30 am
WIll says:
yeah i had a firend who thought evsham were god. I told him to get a Dell or something… oh he should have taken my advice.
Comment made on September 28, 2007 at 4:57 pm
John Davies says:
I worked for Evesham once (a temporary contract like most of their staff) and can confirm that their pay was as low as they can get away with paying, they have staff from the Worcester, Birmingham, Stratford, Coventry area, most of whom get tired of travelling 25 miles each way to work for low pay, so leave as soon as they get a better job. Worst part of it was expecting staff to be on the phone nearly every minute of every day, often not getting a break (ridiculous break-card system that doesn’t work). Charging customers just 10p per minute is MORE expensive than it would be if they charged 25p per minute and managed their support service properly. Reasons: better pay for more committed longer-serving staff. Shorter telephone waiting times for customers costing less by getting results more efficiently. I’d rather be on the phone for half an hour at 25p/minute than 2 hours at 10p per minute, provided that the 25p per minute started from the time I started speaking to a support assistant (and not charged whilst I am waiting in a queue). As you can guess I wouldn’t recommend their service or working for them because they are just a back-street computer shop that grew too quickly into a company that is still not managed as it needs to be. I put them in the same dire league as Tiny (Opus), Time, Amstrad, amongst others who have either struggled or left the scene, thanks to Dell, HP and the like.
Comment made on November 8, 2007 at 1:59 pm
Anthony Brewitt says:
I also had a dreadful experience with Evesham that dragged on for months. I bought a top of the range PC and within a couple of months it just stopped working – I had to go through all the same horros you did Mike – its a shame!
Comment made on November 23, 2007 at 9:19 pm