WATFORD ELECTRONICS NIGHTMARE
A Warning to the Curious
Mr Peter Hills
Customer Services Manager
Direct Line 0871
666 0140
Direct Fax 0871
666 5140
Switchboard 0870
027 0872
(Paul Newman on the sales aftercare service of one of Britain’s largest computer manufacturers)
By the way, although this page stands as a powerful criticism of Watford Electronics, anyone should take note of the contact details to the left which offer at least a hope of a reasonably prompt solution.
Readers of computer magazines are usually made aware of a thick green swatch of pages advertising Watford Electronics. This company puffs their service, quality and sales aftercare. Their pricing is usually keen and competitive − always a good point − but not necessarily allowing a large enough margin for attending to whatever faults and failures might arise out of the sale of their goods during the initial guarantee period. The emphasis is on selling rather than thorough testing of the product before it is dispatched. This is not unique to them. Hence they should not be criticised unduly for the faults that are endemic to mass assembly lines.
Quality of Service
However, as they are a company
whose adverts smother and saturate the pages of magazines, surely their
products and services deserve a little scrutiny. How good are they? How do
they respond when something goes wrong? Do they take in the points you
have made or are they content with a half-repair job? Or do they need you
to pelt them with endless emails or laboriously queue up and wait at their
call centre, hoping that, after a fruitless hour on the end of a pointless
line, you will be drowned by boredom and futility of it and walk away and
pay another technician to effect the repair?
A New Computer
A year ago, I bought a computer from Watford’s internet site. I was dismayed when it arrived without a keyboard. But I phoned up and asked them to remedy the matter and in a few days time the keyboard arrived. But then I noticed that the CD-Rewriter light was coming on when it should not, but as I had not yet used the device, I thought it might be a temporary fault that could be righted. But then, after I had installed the machine and got it working, there was a blue screen warning and the whole mechanism froze and collapsed. So I had to phone Watford, get a returns number and pay to package the whole thing back to them.
Permanently Blinking CDR
In enumerating the faults, first I listed the problem of the computer itself going dead and secondly I listed the CD-Rewriter fault. The problem with the latter was the ‘busy light’ would come on and then the device would be impossible to open. Furthermore, if the light went out and it did open, when a disc was placed inside, the light would start up happily blinking ad infinitum and refuse to release the disk. Needless to add, it was not possible to make recordings on it, save on one occasion when it behaved as it should.
But I knew that, now the whole thing had collapsed, it would be fatally easy to overlook the CD-Rewriter problem, so not only did I list the faults on both my letter and emails, I also phoned up the switchboard at Watford to make sure that the engineer was contacted and that he should look over this fault. I was dismayed then to have the computer returned with the CD-Rewriter fault overlooked. When I phoned up, I was told that they had only attended to memory problem and not the CD-Rewriter. They did not offer to effect the repair, only suggested that I should contact the maker of the CD-Rewriter. As I suspected, the whole thing had been overlooked and ignored, despite three emails and several phone calls and no one seemed interested in correcting the error..
Reaction to the Problem
I will now describe their reaction to the problem when I tried to put this matter right later. The reason why I left it longer than I should is that, once you have waited a week or more for the return of a computer, you lose the energy to package it up again and immediately send it back. However, months later I tried to use CD-Rewriter out and found that it would not respond at all. If it actually opened it was incapable of recording, and as I had paid around £60 for the fitting of this extra, I thought I will have to begin the same weary battle over again with the same dense sales team, all of who have been trained like automata never to admit to their faults or slackness.
Appalling Ethics
When I put the complaints to Pippa Owens of Customer Care, the first thing she did was offer me to purchase a new CD-Rewriter for only £23. I was naturally wary of this. As I had already paid £60 for one that did not work at all, I dreaded to think what tatty, half-broken product they’d give me for something one third of that price. When I refused, saying that I wanted them to effect the full repair of the product free as they had dispatched it in a faulty state from the outset, Neil Ward of Technical Services bluntly refused, although my yearly guarantee had not yet expired. In other words, Watford did not want to carry out the repair they had incurred by their faulty workmanship, merely sell another of their products which may have turned out to be as defective as the original.
Now, as the company appears to be fat and flourishing, not everybody’s experience with them could be the same as mine. I suppose in most cases a working machine is sent to the buyer that does its job reasonably effectively. But the acid test of a good computer company is how much they extend help when things go wrong - when, for some reason, they fail to supply a properly working product. And all one can say for Watford is that, in my experience, they do not listen to what is being said, fail to competently effect repair instructions and, when asked to make good their oversight, try to foist another of their dubious products on you at reduced cost. This may be good salesmanship but it is appalling ethics.
After writing that, I felt a little better. But was I the only dissatisfied customer? How many more were out there? I tapped in 'Watford Electronics Nightmare' into my search engine and, after a little light research, a cornucopia of complaints was revealed - a selection of which I will now present for light reading:
MORE TRIBUTES
TO WATFORD ELECTRONICS
Liam, December 2002
My first impressions of Watford
were good: easy to use website, cheap prices and a lot of choice. The
motherboard kits (which I needed in order to build my friend a cheap, no frills
computer) were outstanding value. They were, in fact, the reason I chose Watford
over the other retailers I had been looking at (Dabs and Simply). Ordering was easy, and once the confirm button was clicked, I
waited for the confirmation email to arrive...and waited...and waited...
Eventually, after around two days, about three emails came from Watford.
The first informed me that unfortunately the hard disk I ordered was not
in stock. The second informed me that all the items were on their way to
me, and the third said something similar, but with an incomplete list of
items!
So I was forced to telephone Watford to clear up the mess and try and find
out exactly was in stock and what was on its way. Getting through
was a nightmare: waits of, on average, twenty minutes, with terrible hold
music. Half the time the staff were very unhelpful. Another time there was
a power cut and lines mysteriously diverted to a school of economics in
Luton! By this stage I was really wishing I had gone with Dabs (in fact I
cancelled two of their items and got them with Dabs instead - they arrived
two days later - but that's another story!).
I was even phoning my credit card company to see where I stood. However, my fears were put to rest. A couple of days later, all but one of the items arrived, in perfect condition. The remaining item arrived a few days later. Again it (a PC case) arrived in good condition but with a Japanese plug attached to the power supply. Given my previous difficulties in getting through, I did not even bother to get this changed (I was fortunate to have a spare plug).
Despite the atrocious after sales service, the computer I put together with the ordered parts worked perfectly and my friend was very satisfied it. The parts were bought at a price that could not be matched anywhere else. So my advice is, if you're looking for a bargain and your budget is very tight, risk using Watford. However, if you want reliability, go elsewhere. I won't be using Watford again.
Apricorn, December 2002
I've
been a customer of Watford Electronics since they were operating from a
trade counter down a back street in Watford in the eighties, so I was not
pleasantly surprised by the following:
I bought a graphics card from this Completely Useless Company last year. I
returned it the same day (after phoning them to arrange this) to buy the
next model up because it didn't work with some of my software. I found out
later that this was a known problem.
They charged me for the new card but completely failed to credit my
account the hundred quid odd for the old one and then gave me MONTHS of
lip service and excuses before I got my money back. No interest or
compensation of course, so I'll take my business elsewhere.
I only got my money back by arranging COURT ACTION and counting down the
days, day by day by email.
TAKE NO CHANCES WITH THESE PEOPLE. BUY SOMEWHERE ELSE IF POSSIBLE! OR GET
A GOOD SOLICITOR AND PREPARE TO FIGHT!
Jeff
Ellis, March 2003
It
looks like Watford Electronics are much the same as they were back in the
days of the BBC computer. Back then, if you bought a disk drive from them,
you had to buy a cable at additional cost, if you actually wanted to be
able to use your drive. This was despite the fact that the drives came
from the factory with cables fitted. Watford would open every drive and
remove the pre-fitted cable before selling each bit separately.
Christopher
Slater-Walker, March 2003
Exasperated,
suspicious and angry. An Aries computer was ordered for my son on January
23rd. It arrived on February 10th - after we were assured of an arrival in
about 5 days. It arrived faulty and would not boot, and, moreover, had
inferior specifications to that advertised and promised on the phone.
Collection took 8 days. As of March 12, a working computer has not been
returned. Getting through to an unapologetic customer service is an
expensive nightmare (charged at national rates and with on-holds of up to
90 minutes) and registered letters receive no reply. We hope to receive a
refund on the grounds of Breach of Contract, but who knows with this
company...
Philip
Popescu, March 2003
I
ordered a new CDRW drive from these people. when it arrived it was
damaged. I have requested and received a returns authorization but two
weeks later I have not had it picked up or returned - or even had any
correspondence answered. I've got a feeling I'm wasting my time but any
suggestions or advice would be welcome.
Carl,
January 2003
What a
waste of time this company is. I recently ordered a new hard drive from
them (online for speed and convenience !) and was still waiting over a
month later. The first drive that I received was a reconditioned drive
(even though I had paid for new) and it was not even the correct model!
Despite numerous fobbed off telephone calls I could not make any headway.
They offered to deliver another drive once I had returned the second wrong
drive. I said that I was concerned that it would be the same wrong drive.
The girl checked the web description with what I was been sent i.e. their
stock description and found out that the web model was different to the
stock code model.
During the month all this took (and two days waiting around the house
specially) the price for this model had gone down nearly £10 at Dabs.
I therefore got a refund, bought from Dabs where I saved £10 and got the
correct drive in less than 4 days. Draw your own conclusions.
Ian,
December 2002
Oh
well, I cannot believe the madness of this damn awful company. After
purchasing a graphics cards from these people in October, I found that on
delivery this item would neither work correctly or work with software that
is made for the specific card so after a week or more of emails and
"online enquiries" filled out I still had no word from them.
Tried to call but could not wait after an hour to get through to someone
so called their tech dept, which only took 30 minutes to get through to.
The guy on the end of the phone sorted it out and gave me a return number
and the courier arrived the next day to collect the said item (this was on
16/10/2002) after all this i just wanted a refund as I did not want to
wait for a year or whatever their standard wait time was for another item.
and as their T's and C's state allow 4 - 10 working days for the refund to
be back on my card. Well now it is 50 days after I had sent this item back
and still not a word from them at all. Called them the day before
yesterday after loads of unanswered emails waited for an hour and finally
got through to someone who then tells me that their engineers found
nothing wrong as someone should have called, but she could see that no one
had bothered. She could not put me through to the right dept so said she
would get someone to call me. I am still waiting
Lee’s,
December 2002
After
ordering what was advertised as a laptop from their website, I was
somewhat surprised when a rather large desktop PC came to my door. I
attempted to contact the company by phone for 2 days and after no reply I
tried using the website. According to their website if you dont report
incorrect delivery within 48 hours you cannot return the product. I
emailed them explaining what had happened (5 times) and received no reply.
After phoning the customer service department 8 times and not getting
through, I phoned the sales department who answered immediately. I managed
to get transferred to customer services who after 10 mins. managed to log
the return in the system and informed me I would have to pay for the
return. After asking for the MDs name and address, which she refused to
give me, she went away to look into the problem. She came back and
informed me that the product would be picked up in 48 hours with no cost
to me. I never got my laptop or the MDs contact details.
John Lilley, August 2003
I bought my first 8086 machine from Watford Electronics many years ago. About five years ago their service was still quite good and competitive. Recently I have had some very bad experiences with their on-line store. I have had to exchange 3 monitors and a CD writer. The writer took 6 months of concerted effort. They treat on-line customers very badly. Their customer service people lie all the time. I would only consider buying from them from their new store in Luton. At least then you can just take the stuff back and get an immediate refund. However, after our recent experiences I have vowed never to shop with them again. Nothing is worth that amount of hassle. Keep up the good work with this website and let's hope we can put them out of business.
From Mat Key, September 2003
Brought a set of surround speakers for £240 in Jan.....Dead on Arrival. 3 months later I managed to get them to return them. New set sent out. Died again last week......and struggling to talk to an actual person on the phone. Seriously considering driving from Oxford to Luton to hand them over !
From Ruth Hughes, March 2004
I am in the midst of a watford nightmare! I bought my computer from them in mid-november 2003, by 29th december it had died! after 3 days trying to get through to get an onsite engineer, rude staff and even ruder supervisors they collected it and returned it by 23rd January 2004. Within a few days it died again, another 3 days later they arranged a collection for 30th Jan, it is now 17th Feb and no sign of my computer! so much for it being repaired and sent back within 5 working days! I have contacted the finance company who are trying to get me my money back. Next time I will go to PC world and pay extra, I can at least take it to the shop and refuse to move until the problem is sorted! I would never buy from them again or recommend them to anyone!
From Big I - February 2004
Here's a good one. My order was £400 plus p+p. I bought a DVD writer, graphics card, sound card, and motherboard kit with fan. Over the years I have had several mother board kits in the past, all well- packed from them, but not this time. All this was packed into a city link plastic bag with the motherboard loose (wrapped only in the foil static bag). Needless to say the mother board didn't work, took about a week to get a reply to my e-mails (phone permanently engaged). I was told that I had to post at own expense but when e-mailed about this, they u-turned and said they would pick it up (after I had sent it!). I have had good service in the past but I am now trying very hard to get a refund.
- From: "Alison Nutley"
<alinutley@btinternet.com>
- The Nightmare Continues!!!
- Date: Tue, 16 Mar 2004 09:39:51 -0000
I also made the grave mistake of purchasing a system from Watford Electronics 3 years ago. This was a present for my sons and as such was utilised mainly for games and internet/email. Therefore we had little problem in the early days until the memory became an issue and after a discussion with their technical support I was advised to take the
system into the Luton shop for a PC board upgrade. The technical desk assured me that whilst this was a slightly dearer option it would add huge benefit as my
memory, sound and graphics capability would all be upgraded. They advised me of the relevant mother board etc and so I booked in for the work to be done.
At the store I was advised that it would take approx 5 days so on day 4 I rang to see when my pc would be available for collection to be told that they had not had time to work on it. Week 2 began with a phone call telling me that the casing was too small for the new motherboard and this would be changed foc - quite right to. Two days later I received a further phone call advising me that I needed to upgrade my graphics card at substantial cost - I advised the caller that this was included in the quoted price. After lengthy emails to the MD and customer service they finally relented and agreed to foc install.
- After three weeks I finally collected my PC - plugged it in only to discover that everything was wiped and not even Windows had been reinstalled. I immediately took the system back to the shop and after a heated debate left it with them to install the relevant programs. I was assured this would be done the following day. I week later after numerous phone calls and emails I received the call to collect the pc. On arrival at the store I was advised that the dvd drivers were not compatible and would need to be ordered. Expected delivery date was 2 weeks - this was back in summer 2003 and to date I still have not had a letter, email or phone call advising me to collect the drivers. I ran out of patience and enthusiasm to keep treading the door of Watford electronics because I know this will create a further catalogue of disasters.
My recommendation to anyone who is considering purchasing a PC is to contact Dell! That is where I will be going next time!!!
A very frustrated Ali of Luton!
DVD HELL! (May 2004)
FRONT PANEL PROBLEMS
From Claire Pollard (August 2004)
Read you website and wish I had done so before purchasing my PC from them, I bought it back in April 2003, it was delivered (only 2 weeks late) and I proceeded to set it up and switch it on and everything was fine. Two months later I wanted to use the USB ports at the front of the computer, they didn't work, so I phoned up and listened to that awful sound of "you are 29th in the queue blah blah blah" after an hour on hold I finally got through, they tried to tell me it just hadn't been setup properly and I had to enable the USB (although I already knew I couldn't as they weren't even there according to the computer) several phone calls later they said open it up and check the connection isn't loose! I opened up the PC to find none of the front panel had ever been connected at all all the wires were tied together and stuck on the case! I ended up fixing it myself despite numerous attempts for them to honour their onsite warranty. This year just after my warranty expired (1 day later to be precise) the whole system froze and I was pretty sure it was graphics card or motherboard, I phoned up technical who didn't even understand the problem let alone suggest a solution other than sending the whole system back so I could pay for any new parts it required. Nobody in technical even seems to understand basic computer workings (I am not an expert but I know more than them) nor can they ever solve a problem it is always send it back or open it up yourself. Having tried out a spare graphics card myself I now know it is the motherboard at fault, when I phoned them once more they decided to repair the computer (excluding labour) would cost a huge £280. Looks like I'll be doing that myself too then.ANOTHER NIGHTMARE
From Paul Moore (August 2004)
October 2004
I JUST WANTED A BEIGE MONITOR - from Dawn
QUICK-FADING KEYS
From Michael Fishberg - October 2004
Hello.
All went well after set up, and I took advantage of their 10 month free use period prior to commencing the deal with Cetelem (part of Halifax) financing deal: the idea being to actually pay prior to the kick-in payment period.
After about 4 months, a couple of the key faces started to fade. About a month before the end of my free-use period, there were 12 keys without any letters on them!
IN NICK OF TIME
From Paul Wright - December 2004
There should be more sites like yours on the web!
December 12th 2004
A MIRACLE OF NON-COMMUNICATION!
Just wish I had seen this first !!!!!
January 17th 2005THE NIGHTMARE THICKENS - from Simon Trott Watford Electronics now owns a brand name called CARRERA and their service is just as terrible. CARRERA claimed to be own by Digital Network plc,
I BOUGHT A DVD RECORDER...
- I bought a DVD
Recorder with integrated Hard-drive in December 2004. As it
was a Xmas present, I didn't check if all was working, but
merely had a look if all was looking ok and undamaged.After
Xmas we tried all the different features it should have and
discovered quite a few faults, like colour and sound shifts,
write fails, timer not working etc. Thought I check out with
WE what to do and looked at the papers that
came with the recorder. I then noticed (silly me, should have checked that earlier) that there was only a dispatch note, no invoice and I had never received email or other confirmation or invoices or anything.
- Called them, and was
told, ok, I can get an invoice by mail and email sent out now
and about the faults should speak to the PC helpline. Getting
through to them was a nightmare, and then I was told by a
voicemail, that they are unable to deal with anything other
than Aries-PC problems. Great!
I wrote an email stating the issues and sent that to customer services and technical support at WE. Now, nearly 2 weeks and 2 follow on email later, I still haven't got ANY reaction to that at all. Got trading standards involved now and if I don't get a reply within the next week, will go to county court, as that company is a F...ING joke! Wish, I'd seen this website before buying!!!!
Regards,
Alex
eisbaer@macnews.de
My Problems Seemed Minor - 20th April
O5
Take warning from their phone numbers by the way, 0870 numbers are a scam. Daytime callers pay 5p a minute over the standard BT rate of which 4.5 to 6p goes to W/E.
|
|
So I ring Watford. Hallo, after 20 minutes, Watford, yes? What is the nature of your call? Well, I bought some stuff off you that is all shagged and would like to talk to somebody about it. Internet or over the phone sir??? \Well, I bought it on the internet. Aha, sorry we cant talk to you, sir, you must fill in a email enquiry and await instructions as we are two separate companies. Clock - hangs up.
So I mail and await a reply, get a reply, 2 days later and the email states: I have made an error on my order, blah blah blah, not helpful. So I get in my car, drive to Luton furious, about a 2- hour run. A nice chap on the counter says that the board and card can be replaced but the drive has to be sent to plextor even though it turned up shagged. What a bunch of losers! And now they have the cheek to install 0870 numbers, so they can fleece potential customers by charging them up and making them wait on premium number calls . Never again
Appalled by Customer Service - 23 March O5
Dear Sir,
I first would like to thank you for your website. I have been
appalled by the way I have been treated by Watford Electronics,
and have felt powerless to act until i found your website.
I bought my computer about 9 months ago. The mouse they gave me
has never worked, though to get through to someone about this
matter proved fruitless. In the end, when i finally did talk to
someone, they insisted that the mouse should work, and, instead of
being helpful, were simply very patronising. I bought a
replacement mouse and have had no problems since. The effort of
trying to get Watford Elctronics to send me a new one under the
warranty proved to be too much.
More recently, I have required technical help with the system,
because the modem appears faulty. I tried to telephone them on
over thirty occassions, and despite holding on for over one hour,
have yet to get through. I have left a message on Tony Feliciano's
answer phone and talked to numerous other people, all of whom,
claim they cannot help me repair my system or organise a repair.
If you want customer service, then do not buy from Watford
elcetronics.
Yours faithfully,
Brendan
bruban@myway.com
Boy I Wish I'd Found Your Website
-
14th March O5
Boy do I wish I'd found
your website BEFORE I brought two LCD monitors from Watford
Electronics. I think I am now at the begining of a
nightmare to get one of them replaced.
Lee leestringer@gmail.com
Watford &
Cetelem -
13th March O5
Watford
Electronics - 24th February 05
Sean
Not By Any Means the
Worst - 14th February 05
I am all for Consumer Pressure and as such support your articles.
However in the interests of balance, I have bought PCs from
various suppliers over the years and Watford Electronics is far
from being the worst, I would tip PC World for that honour.
In particular I have an Aires PC (Watford's own brand), about two
years old, and I have no idea where the receipt may be. This PC was
not working correctly. After much frustration trying to correct
the issues myself, I took it along to their Luton store where the
service department examined it whilst I waited. The problem turned
out to be a faulty RAM card, which was removed, the software all
reinstalled as per new and its been fine since. Oh and there was
no charge for two hours work. So I'm sure they can have bad days,
but they have good days as well !
They also were good enough on a separate occasion to install a
purchase I had made as I could not get it to work myself, again
for free.
PS I don't work for them, but am fortunate enough to be able to
easily drive over there in person.
Should you decide to post this please remove my address.
Simon.Scott@sainsburys.co.uk
From
the Galahad of Watford Electronics -
Mr
Peter Hills
Customer Services
Manager
Direct
Line 0871 666
0140
Direct Fax
0871 666 5140
Switchboard
0870 027 0872
That was lucky. I was just about to buy from Watford Electronics and looked them up via my search engine and came across your article. Glad I did. Needless to say, I’ve decided to buy elsewhere.
I noticed you had mentioned the numbers of Peter Hills, Customer Services Manager of W.E. together with a list of numbers all beginning with 087. Interestingly, I heard recently that telephone numbers that start with 087 are charged at a much higher rate than ones which start with 01 or 02. I believe the rate is around 8p per minute as opposed to around 3p or 4p per minute and the difference is paid to the organisation whose number it is rather like the arrangements with organisations that advertise premium rate lines. It’s is hardly surprising that customers are kept on hold for so long. W.E. could be earning money for pissing people around.
You’ve got a good idea going with your site. Perhaps you could expand it into different categories to include all sorts of rip-off artists from dodgy used car dealers to unhealthy maggot infested cafes !!!
LAPTOP LAMENTATIONS
JUSTIN VERSUS PETER
A CYBER JOUST
16th May 2005
from <us.elliotts@virgin.net>
Dear
Sir,
In
truth, I am so fed up having sent a dozen letters and emails
(and telephone calls too numerous to mention), that I am
simply unable to sit here and go through the whole sorry
episode again.
I
am hoping therefore that this cut-and-paste effort will
suffice. It is a copy of the sixth letter that I sent to Peter
Hills:
Dear
Peter,
Re:
Order number 05376815.
Please
take the time to read this – you may understand my
frustration.
Dear
Mr Swann,
I shall detail the history of my order:
- 06/02/05
– ordered Aries Precision 1855 Review Notebook, order
number 05376815,
on buy-now-pay-12 months later. The machine duly arrived.
I was very pleased with it.
- In
March the machine developed a fault, namely a faulty LAN
port, and I returned it to you on 16/03/05 at a cost of £13.63.
The returns number on this occasion was 133693.
- My
machine was replaced with a totally new one. I was happy
that
- In
August, my replacement machine developed a fault, for
which a second returns number was generated (145654).
The fault happened a t ‘power on’ and my screen would
show nothing (not even POST). After powering down and up
again several times I received the message M9PG713220M/240EReq4431.
This fault is apparently called by the graphics chip
(according to a search I did). As I was packing up the
machine to send it back to you, it started normally and
has only suffered the same problem again twice since then.
As I use the machine every day, I decided I could live
with the fault and cancelled the return.
- In
November my replacement machine developed another fault
with the LAN port which I would not had noticed if I had
not needed to re-configure my wireless router. The machine
was sent back for a second time on 17/11/04 at a cost of
£14.95. The returns number on this occasion was 152645.
- Once
again, your engineers were very efficient. They replaced
the motherboard in my replacement machine and returned it
to me on 02/12/04.
- When
my machine arrived it seemed to be working fine (with the
exception that the keyboard seemed a little loose on the
left hand side) until I started doing a lot of typing. I
am able to touch type; therefore my hands hover above the
keyboard directly over the home keys. When producing long
documents in Word, Excel, web pages or even lengthy
e-mails, the ‘a’ key would often not register and the
cursor would inexplicably move across the page. The touch
pad proved to be equally as un-reliable as the cursor
would return to it’s starting position when my finger
was released from the pad. I desperately needed to finish
building a web-site for a client so I persevered with the
fault. I noticed that the fault was very sporadic but when
it was at it’s worst, if I clicked the button on the
pad, the cursor would temporarily settle again.
- I
tested this fault by disabling all but the most essential
drivers, through a variety of software applications and
even with a clean install of Windows (again!) but the
fault has proven to be persistent when using the keyboard
for long periods. I know this fault may be difficult to
trace, but trust me – it’s there. I requested another
returns number 157535.
- On 22/01/05 I finally finished building the web site and turned on my machine in order to type this very letter (albeit without this last section). My machine failed to boot up or even display POST on six attempts. When the power button is pressed, the machine seeks the CD-rom drive (light flickers) and that’s as far as it gets. I shall be returning the machine today at a cost of around £15.00.
My
concern is this:
Dear
Peter,
I
sent you an e-mail earlier this week and thought that I had
better back it up with a hard-copy:
Peter,
Sorry
to trouble you again but it’s still not right.
Since
being returned to me I have had to use my laptop with a USB
mouse as the pad starts to play up after 20-30 minutes of use
irrespective of the task being performed. The keyboard is
still soft on the left-hand side and ‘A’s still go missing
when typing lengthy documents. If an engineer can test it by
typing out a chapter from a book or even take the machine home
for a few days, they will see what I mean.
Over
the last two weeks I have received the following Windows stop
message twice: ***STOP: 0x0000008E etc etc
I
have run my machine for the past week in the following
condition:
- Clean install of
windows XP fully updated.
- Clean install of
all drivers downloaded from manufacturers website (ecsusa.com).
- Bios version
checked.
- Office xp – the
only other software installed – fully updated.
- Registry checked
and cleaned.
- Disk checked,
cleaned and defragmented.
- No peripherals
attached.
I am not confident that your engineers will spend the required
time and effort to locate the faults; I would attempt to
repair it myself but I don’t see why I should bearing in
mind that the machine has not worked properly for three months
at a time since I’ve had it.
I
am of the opinion that I have been sold a turkey.
Justin Elliott
From:
us.elliotts [mailto:
Sent: 05
February 2005.09:05
To: '
Subject: RE:
Warranty Extended
Many
thanks for your prompt reply.
I
may be abroad for a couple of weeks so I'll see how things go.
If my machine develops the boot fault again, I'll send it
straight back without trying to cure the fault - hopefully it
will then be in a non-working state for your engineers to
assess.
I
appreciate your time and realise this is probably a service
beyond your usual remit, therefore I shall not contact you
again until I have a more easily identifiable fault.
Once
again, thank you for your intervention in this matter.
Kind
regards,
Original
Message-----
From:
Sent: 04 February 2005 16:28
To: us.elliotts
Subject: RE: Warranty Extended
Dear
Jason
To
be totally honest, I really don't know what to suggest. The
laptop has been tested by both our repairs team and the
manufacturer and no faults could be found with the keyboard.
I can bring it back again and insist that they replace the
keyboard if you like?
Regards
Customer Services Manager
Direct Line 0871 666 0140
Direct Fax 0871 666 5140
Switchboard 0870 027 0872
Original
Message----
Sent: 04 February 2005 10:25
To: Peter Hills
Subject: RE: Warranty Extended
Dear
Peter,
I
received my machine back yesterday and have this morning
attempted to restore my old files and settings from an
external HDD.
When
I sent my machine to you, I did explain that some of the
faults were sporadic and as such I appreciate that they may be
hard to trace. I know this because I repair pc's too. My
philosophy is that for the first time in my life I have paid
someone else to supply me with a computer rather than build it
myself (I've never done a lptop!), therefore I expect it to be
perfect; at the very least as reliable as one's I've
constructed myself. This is not the case.
As
mentioned before, when my machine was returned from a previous
repair, the keyboard had far more 'give' on the left hand side
than it did before. I assume that this contributes to the
occasional missing 'a' when I type. So far in the course of
this email I can see 2 missing 'a's (I have left them
deliberately).
After
restoring my files' nd settings, taking my boy to school and
re-booting my machine, the same POST problem occurred as
before i.e. detecting the DVD Rom drive then stopping. After 4
attempts the machine then started normally.
I
very much like my laptop; I use it every day for both personal
and business reasons and I do not want to be without it - but
it just isn't right.
I
really, really do appreciate what a crap job it must be for
your engineers to detect and correct intermittent faults and I
can understand that I must appear to be a moaning customer but
I can update drivers, I can run system diagnostic software, I
can run a clean windows install, I can run error codes through
Google to find their meaning - I am a VERY
advanced computer user. It appears that, when my machine
behaved for your engineers, it was merely re-formatted with a
new copy of windows and had the drivers re-installed - I have
already done that! Besides, these faults were not present
before the previous repair.
I
am sorry to be a pain; many people that ask me to repair
faults for them make me feel as though they should be banned
from owning a pc; but I KNOW my machine is not A1. I do not
want to lose it again but I'm still not happy.
What
do you suggest?
Kindest
regards,
Justin
(Elliott)
Original
Message-----
From:
Sent: 01 February 2005 13:56
To:
Subject: Warranty Extended
Our
Ref: O5376814 Date:
01/02/05
Dear
Please keep a copy of the letter that I posted you as
confirmation of your extended warranty. I have also made
a note on your account to confirm the extension of 6 months.
Should you ever have any further problems please don't
hesitate to contact me direct.
Yours Sincerely,
Peter Hills
Watford
Electronics Limited
Peter,
I want you to guarantee the machine for 6 months after this
last repair (provided it is repaired). If it develops a fault
within the next six months I will be demanding my money back.
Regards,
Justin
Elliott
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After reading that, I felt better. But still there must be hundreds more of you out there who have experienced a Watford Nightmare? Please tell us about it. We don't want to name and shame but merely celebrate a company whose poor quality service is so exceptional that you just have to sit back and admire. But maybe you'd like to hear some more glowing testimonial, for so much appreciation has been snowing in recently that a further page has been added, praising the Wonder of Watford.
Come on, roll up. Send your Watford Nightmare to us: