Recommend a company thread

[Tom]

I was wondering, in the hardware forum there are many threads debating the worth of various online organisations for ordering hardware.

Would it be worth having a mod-controlled sticky thread, with recommendations from people? Strictly no discussions, just single posts from users regarding individual companies, positive comments only.

The recommendations might take the form companies that have never, ever, given the poster any problems whatsoever, and where good customer service (ie faulty equipment) has been experienced.. Its not designed to be a negative thing whereby libellous claims might be made, just something for purchasers to read through if they want to know another person's experience of a particular company.

 

[DaGaffer]

Good idea, have a sinking feeling it might be a short list though.

 

[Jonty]

Hi Tom

I wouldn't mind doing that kind of thing but there are two possible problems. Firstly, updating it into some sense of order could take a while, and both Wilier and myself are fairly flatout at the mo (the Drivers and Utilities thread took ages, but admittedly that was a different concept).

Secondly, trying to get a consensus could be hard. For instance, I and various other people I know have never had a spot of trouble with, say, OcUK or eBuyer, but others have had no end of problems and would never use them again.

But, whatever the case, if people want such a thread then I'd be happy to set it up and administer it for you.

Kind Regards

 

[Dr_Weasel]

As Jonty said, one persons recommendation is not necessarily a good thing. For example, IMHO, if all you get delivered from Scam *cough* sorry Scan, is perfectly working goods then they are a fantastic company. Good stock, good delivery times, good prices. But god help you if you want to return stuff to them. In my experience they lie, they cheat and they are down right rude and dirty.

Eg. A friend of mine knelt on a soundcard he ordered and broke it by snapping a capticitor of it. He returned it DOA (Im not here to debate morals about this) and Scan said it didnt have a problem and tried to charge him extra for returning stuff that didnt have issues. They returned a working soundcard to him that had an extra capacitor for an extra charge....

As I said, you personally not having a problem with a company does not mean they are a good company. Any thread that allows recommendations should allow for rebuttles.

I have horror stories for Scan (see above), Dabs (Shite customer service) and Ebuyer (piss poor packaging - stick of RAM in a jiffy bag and no other packaging, not even an anti static bag), but thousands of others use these companies without problems....

 

[dysfunction]

A rating system would be good.
I think negative comments would be required else you end up with a very biased view which is not very helpful.

It would be best to say something like:

I give Company X 1/5 cos they took 6 months to deliver a 10 pack of DVD-R's.

As long as people state the facts and dont become emotional with their comments it could work. Or maybe just give a negative rating and no comments....but it would be nice to know why the negative rating was given.

 

[Chilly]

Seems like a very good diea if implemented properly - and yes, we'd certainly need negative comments too - just to balance things out.
A standard post could be establihed where you copy+paste the generic text and delte as required or rate as required. The generic text would be in the first post obviously and explainsing everything. and every now and then if the mods were bored and up to it, possibly collate all the posts for 1 company?