How good is customer service and warrenty representation in Europe?

[Paintface]

I noticed over the years that Americans usually contact the manufacturer for warrenty issues, where as i am used to dealing with the retailshop where i bought the items, the warrenty is usually 1 year for this.

Reason i ask is cause, and i could be wrong of course, Americans seem to be able to send in their broken hardware to the manufacturer without any kind of receipt, and often hardware older than one year.

My only experience with a manufacturer itself for warrenty is when my OCZ ram had a defect, i read on their site that they gave lifetime warrenty and had an address available in the Netherlands, the exchange went flawless besides the fact from the netherlands it was sent to the USA without me knowing so the exchange took 4-5 weeks instead of one week.

Imagine my DFI P35 board which i am extemely happy with breaks down, would i be able to send it to any DFI center in Europe? would they exchange the board even though its over a year old?

Hoping to see read some experiences of fellow TPUers and it might influence what brands of hardware i buy in the future, thanks.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

Service like that is usually down to the manufacturers own disgression. which generally falls into 2 categories:

#1 - How can we help you?

#2 - What can we do to make your 'experience' worse so you stop crying to us about your broken hardware & never buy our products again?

they either want to help or just cant be arsed at all.

same goes with the companies QoS & Customer Satisfaction services. you can release a kick ass product but not having the support behind it will kill it before its even had time to gain marketshare/momentum.

Its like building a state of the art military tank that cost 10million but not offering to train engineers to repair & maintain it.

 

[Paintface]

do you guys have any experience with getting replacement hardware in Europe?

Like the example i gave with my DFI mainboard, does DFI give replacement mainboards when you sent in your broken one? is this true for europeans ? as in do they have a european HQ?

It would also matter for my next videocard purchase, i am likely to have my friend order a 5770 off newegg and sent it over to me, when it breaks down i would like to be able to exchange it somewhere in europe, so knowing the companies who do that would help me pick that brand for my next card.

 

[qubit]

It would also matter for my next videocard purchase, i am likely to have my friend order a 5770 off newegg and sent it over to me, when it breaks down i would like to be able to exchange it somewhere in europe, so knowing the companies who do that would help me pick that brand for my next card.

Why not simply buy it from a European retailer? Surely it's less hassle all round?

 

[DrPepper]

They should exchange the board because there is a EU law that states that any product which is defective within two years of purchase is to be replaced. Although sending it to the manufacturer usually takes longer than to the retailer I purchased it from. Again the customer service depends on the retailer. For example ebuyer.com have excellent customer service whereas ocuk is incredibly bad at best.

 

[qubit]

For example ebuyer.com have excellent customer service whereas ocuk is incredibly bad at best.

I would normally agree about ebuyer and have had good customer service, but not in the particular case I have now.

I bought Vista Ultimate Full Retail and it qualified for the equivalent 7 when it came out. Their website said to just let them know when it's been released and they'll send it to me.

I duly let them know on October 22nd with an eNote and I've since been given the runaround. The web page that supposedly explains how to redeem the offer now only advertises bundled deals and has nothing on this and they pointed me to it in the reply. Now I'm just getting fobbed off with "we're looking into it". Their shop doesn't even sell the version of 7 that they're supposed to be sending me! I really hope that I don't have to go the legal route.

Muppets. I'll think carefully before using them again.

I couldn't agree more about Overclockers, though.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Reason i ask is cause, and i could be wrong of course, Americans seem to be able to send in their broken hardware to the manufacturer without any kind of receipt, and often hardware older than one year.

Not true. Manufacturer will only take it on three conditions:

1) It is no longer within the time frame for the retailer to replace it (almost always 30 days). A few (very few) manufacturers will request direct contact over trying to return it to the retailer at all.

2) It is not outside of the manufacturer warranty period. For example, if you bought it on 10/23/2008 and you contacted them about it failing on 10/24/2009, there's a good chance they'll turn you away.

3) Proof that you are the original purchaser is always required, usually in the form of a receipt or invoice. They won't go as far as asking to send ID (like a copy of your driver's license) but, if they smell something fishy, they may deny the RMA.

 

[DrPepper]

I would normally agree about ebuyer and have had good customer service, but not in the particular case I have now.

I bought Vista Ultimate Full Retail and it qualified for the equivalent 7 when it came out. Their website said to just let them know when it's been released and they'll send it to me.

I duly let them know on October 22nd with an eNote and I've since been given the runaround. The web page that supposedly explains how to redeem the offer now only advertises bundled deals and has nothing on this and they pointed me to it in the reply. Now I'm just getting fobbed off with "we're looking into it". Their shop doesn't even sell the version of 7 that they're supposed to be sending me! I really hope that I don't have to go the legal route.

Muppets. I'll think carefully before using them again.

I couldn't agree more about Overclockers, though.

Yeah sometimes ebuyer do mess up but usually they correct it if you become really persistant.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I orderd loads of stuff from Ebuyer in the past & not had any issues with them what so ever - SCAN however are a different story...

They are awesome in the fact that they stock a huge wide range of hardware which other places may not... but if something does go wrong within the product within shop warranty period (6 or 12 months i think) then its an up hill struggle for the party thats sent the faulty unit back to the shop. & what makes the situation worse is their company policy that their not allowed to give out refunds so they have to send you back a card of equal value or spec.

when I had to RMA my Biostar I45 & 4870 Toxic (R.I.P ~Arizona 1~) they strung me on saying they had my parts in stock so they'l get it out asap - 2 weeks later = no parts, check the website - they still have my items in stock made a phonecall to them. parts were out of stock despite the site telling me they had about 20-30odd units of each. lady who delt with my RMA claim tried to make me pay more money for a 'downgrade' to a standard 4870 since according to her they 'didnt know when stock was due' - the website continued to claim the parts were in stock & I kept making expensive long distance phonecalls to see what was going on.

after almost a month of waiting. I got my parts back. but since it was someone else who contined to help my RMA claim when I asked him about Items being out of stock despite the website saying they had 30 or something, he said they had my items in about upto a week ago....

So Its safe for me to assume that despite the previous member of staff telling me that I was top of the list to get my parts sent out when stock arrives - that they would have kept me waiting until THEY felt ready to send it out. eventually I called them up & orderd them to send the parts out 1 at a time because the other item they didnt have in stock yet despite what the website says.

I know of someone else who also had issues with SCAN aftersales support so its not just a 1 off case of bad luck thats happend to fall on me. I wont buy from scan again unless I really dont have a choice. they still owe me £25 for P&P when i sent the items back. I spoke to 2 ppl, Wrote a letter with a photocopy of the Royal Mail reciept & sent it in, Ive scanned the reciept & sent it into 2 different email accounts upon request of the member of staff & a few more phonecalls - what happend?? nothing happend, nothing at all. In the end I just gave up. really I should seek legal action to claim back my £25 for P&P & £30 for all the phonecalls & time wasted while being lead on.

I will never buy from them again. I dont care if i have to pay MORE for my items at least the other place will offer better aftersales support.

 

[wiak]

i just send it back to etailer, they usely check it and then they return me a new one, only RMA i used for a company was D-Link and it was a good experience

 

[qubit]

I've had less than stellar service off Scan, too. However, perseverance does pay off in the end.

One common trick that all the etailers seem to pull is to never refund the postage back to them for faulty stuff, forcing you to chase them. Scan still owe me for some return shipping that I must chase up sometime. See how it works in their favour?

Another favourite of Scan is to send you stuff that has badly damaged boxes, but the contents are apparently ok. This pisses me off no end and I have insisted on a refund on several occasions.

 

[Deleted member 3]

Dutch law screws over stores in many ways, so when buying from within .nl it's pretty good for the customer. For instance there is a law "buying from a distance" applying to webshops and mail order companies, you can return anything you buy from them within 2 weeks without giving a reason at all, they can't reject this. Of course you do need to keep the accessories and box and all. Warranty is covered by law as well, though is more tricky. There is a law that mentions expected lifetime of a product. For instance, you can expect your new washing machine to work for longer than a year, if a shop says you have 1 year warranty and it breaks after 1.5 years you can utilize this law to get warranty anyway, though the tricky part is to determine a fair expected lifetime, in this example a judge would probably rule in your favor. Most shops probably know this and will not bother to take it to court.
Also, when a stores sells something to you they are required by law to handle any RMA, they cannot tell you to contact the manufacturer, they sold the item so it's their problem.
There are countless other laws that give you the right to say "I don't care, you solve it".