Customer is king, yeah right!!!!!

Over the last few weeks I have had to suffer what can only be seen as a complete and utter annoyance, shock and dismay at what some companies call customer service.

The first of them is the top of the list at pathetic non existent customer service, the old annoyance – Pixmania, this company know how to take the piss, really badly. This company said that they would repair a camera that was under warranty, a 2 year warranty that they clearly state on their website and all their literature requires the original invoice, which we have. They in their amazing wisdom, held onto the camera for 7 weeks, now pushing the warranty close to expiry and they did nothing with the camera and just sent it back with a French letter explaining the situation, after a lot of work and translation, don’t they know when it is delivered back to London I am high unlikely to speak French, they said that I shouldn’t used rechargeable batteries…. You what, I asked for it to be fixed because the camera is taking a handful of pictures before it says it needs new batteries. We made that clear when handing it in and even now they are managing to try and deflect the attention away from a piss poor customer service, and blame the manufacturers, when it has nothing to do with them, and all to do with Pixmania, who have after 8 weeks finally responded to a pushing from the IMRG, and their response will leave you laughing

Dear x,
I'm sorry to hear that Canon have failed to repair your product. Please accept our apologies on their behalf for the terrible inconvenience.

I have been told that you are sending your camera directly to Canon.
This is by no means normal procedure since Pixmania are providing the second year of the warranty, not Canon, and Pixmania deal with Canon France, not Canon UK. However, it will be quicker and easier to do it this way. They should issue you with an estimate for repairs.
As soon as you have it, please scan it and email it me, or fax it to me.

Please accept our apologies for the delay and for the incurred inconvenience.

Best regards,

Mr Yann STEVENS
After Sales & Returns - UK & Scandinavia

This person hasn’t even bothered to try and ensure that they are making sure that they know about the situation involved. Not once did we say that Canon was the issue, the issue is with Pixmania not bothering to fix the camera, and not bothering to ensure that their staff communicate with each other if nothing else, and can this Mr.Stevens even be bothered to give a direct phone number, not a chance.

So Pixmania, you haven’t a clue with your customers, and I will never ever use your sorry store and website ever again, all I want is the camera working properly, so either fix it, refund the money or replace the camera with a new one, which ever way I don’t care, but this isn’t to carry on, and why do you constantly refuse to communicate with your customers, unless they bring in the IMRG, trading standards, et al.

This sadly isn’t the only company that feels it is should be closing its ears to it customers, another one is a company called BangCd. This company has a very poor customer service. A cd was ordered from them, that was to be released on the 25th October, and still two weeks on, nothing, I have had to send a number of emails, and all I got from them was, we are awaiting to get the cd, yet they have had the money for the disc now for a few weeks, and they are also refusing to respond to emails sent as to what the status is of the cd and when I will actually receive the cd, all of which ensures I will never recommend the company to anyone and will also ensure my money never goes to them again.

This list goes on, MFI is another one. This company I ordered from had a delivery date set and lo and behold the delivery day comes and goes and no delivery is made. Their excuse, the system screwed up, so now I have to wait another 6 weeks before the delivery might turn up, and I stress the word might. So this company will have had my money for 3 months before I get the order I paid for back in September, expecting a delivery 2 weeks ago, and the most they could say was sorry, well not good enough, these things are not acceptable, and how is it you can take the money but can’t produce the goods, mmmm, shoddy accounting, shoddy systems, and no compensation, no nothing for time taken off work for awaiting a delivery, no nothing. Again another company whom should treat its customers better.

Another big name, Tesco, this company has been of late really causing me aggravation. Just to cite one example, I unfortunately have a very poor quality Tesco locally to where I live, all the talk of them being something good, I seriously disagree with. I use biological washing liquid to clean my clothes and use Bold 2 in 1 woodland variety. Well my local Tesco stopped stocking it, so wondering where it was, I asked staff as to the situation, only to be told it wasn’t made anymore, having access to the internet and thinking that is odd, contacted Proctor and Gamble direct via the Bold 2 in 1 website and found that Tesco had decided to tell a few fibs, great news. As far as Proctor and Gamble knew they were still sending the stuff to Tesco and so couldn’t explain why the local one couldn’t and weren’t stocking it. Sadly Proctor and Gamble don’t sell directly, but if they did I would be purchasing it so, instead of relying on an increasing useless local Tesco store.

Lastly, though I wouldn’t say sadly after all the hassle this company has caused me in the last few months – Abbey. Ever since they have been taken over by Santander, things have been going wrong, very wrong. Like everyone who lives in the UK, one has to pay council tax, and so I have now filled in a couple of direct debit forms which the council have got correct, as I doubled check the information they have, and yet Abbey in their wisdom have repeatedly not set the dd up. Why, I don’t know, all they keep saying it is the council’s fault, and of course the council say it the bank’s fault. Given I have sent a couple of direct debit forms, you have got to say the blame has to rest at the door of the bank now, because how many times do I need to send in a form for them to get it right. This is the same bank whom when I wanted to open a savings account, demanded to know how much money I was earning despite the fact it has nothing to do with opening a savings account, and they do have my wages going in there anyway, so joined up thinking. I told them flat no, and they weren’t happy, though they claim it is to do with the new laws, that is false, as the new laws don’t ask to know how much money one earns, they don’t need that for security checks. Again another case of Santander bringing in rules that are not needed and being over zealous.


When I was young, I was brought up with the notion that the customer is king, and if the customer wants something then you give the customer that if you can supply it. These days, most companies it seems can’t be bothered, and don’t care if you disappear or don’t get what you want.

Now I can’t finish an entry like this without giving the names of companies who actually provide a brilliant customer service and who I would recommend any time to get goods from. One is a company called CD Wow , these people are very quick to respond to queries, and they also ensure that when they say it will be delivered in a set period it turns up, very good.

Another is a company called Advanced MP3 Players , I got my iRiver from them, and they were nothing but 100% professional, these people are the bee’s knees as far as I am concerned. They matched their site in terms of delivery being when they said it would, they have provided very good after sales customer service, a company always worth a visit if buying gadgets.

Two internet related companies which have given nothing but great service are Eclipse Internet , my ISP, always quick to respond and fix anything that goes wrong and the other is Giganews , a newsgroups provider. They have ensured every time my queries are answered within 24 hours, that is serious service and why I have stayed with them now for over 5 years, always been happy with their service.

The last is a company called CD-RMedia , the place I always get my blank DVDs from, quick service, if not in stock they can 9 times out of 10 tell you when it will be in stock and they are a good price too.

So it can be done, those are just five that show it can be done, there are more of course, but why is it that companies of the like of Pixmania, manage not to be shut down I don’t know.