Mail order, eh? You're always#hearing horror stories from people $about how they ordered something and!didn't get it for ages and ages, %and when it did arrive, it wasn't the 68040 40Mh accelerator for their%A1200 they had asked for, but instead
a small flock of chinchilla $rabbits, a short computer journalist
and twenty cans of whipping
cream.
Then, at the other end of the
scale, you've got the #companies who deliver the very next day after you having ordered at !about midnight the day before and"throw in a free A4000/040 and 1Gb #SCSI hard drive with a note saying:!"Sorry for the delay.", when you %only ordered a mouse mat and a box of
branded disks.! Of course, which one you get is$entirely a case of pot luck, and it $has to be said that the former (That!means the first one, for those of#you who's IQ is a single figure) is"the most common. So, to add to the%reams and reams of people complaining
about mail order, let me tell "you my story. I doubt that many of#you have had it so bad, but if you %think you have had a worse experience than I, then write in with your $story of expensive rabbit breeds and dairy products, and we can have a good old laugh at you instead.
" It all started a long, long time#ago now. The 26th of February '94, $to be precise. I was getting sick of
my old tired, knackered and $generally very much behind the times
Amiga 500. A 7.14Mh 68000 is !hardly fast by anyones standards.#(except perhaps a gameboy owner's, "but that's another story) I wanted"something fast, with more colours !than you can shake a Urban Cookie Collective album at, more than a$pathetic ability to only be upgraded to 1Mb of memory internally and #an out of date Zorro I connector to
which only one device can be #added. ("I hate that!" As Chlarisse the cat (often mistaken for Amy #the Squirrel, for some reason) once"said). You can guess that my first"choice was a A4000. Then I woke up#and decided on a A1200 instead. So
I looked round my latest Amiga%Format, carefully trying to pick out #the cheapest price I could possibly!find. I certainly didn't want to $buy one with an inordinate amount of
incredibly crap software, "(Commodore must be taking the piss"with some of the software they've $supplied with their computers in the
past. I mean, Captain Planet? "Days of Thunder? Push Over? Oscar?#WHY?) so an A1200 with nothing else%except an un-named paint package from
WTS electronics (There, #I've said the name. Strike them off
your "Good companies to #order from" list.) seemed ideal. Or
so I thought... (cue "Twilight %zone" music: again. -ed) What follows is a true story of the nightmare
which can be:
* 26/2/94 ordered Amiga 1200 and$metal workstation thingy (you know, #one of those things you can put all!your drives/modems/contraceptive $devices in to keep them all neat and tidy and not strewn around your
desk.)
%* 1/3/94 Access card debited the full amount (
310), without delivery.
Ouch!
* 12/3/94 Phoned up WTS to be"effectively told to bugger off and
wait $the twenty eight days it says in the
advert to allow for delivery.
* A few days later received a
postcard#(postmarked 11/3/94) confirming the
order. Gosh!, quick
off the mark or what!
* 23/3/94 Still no dream machine#Amiga in sight and last day to pay
Access bill without also paying%interest. WTS had better have a good
excuse!$ That day phoned up WTS to ask what!the delay was. Was told that the #workstation had been dispatched and
the Amiga would be another #fourteen days and would include
56"of software from Commodore as they$were at fault. What?, a sudden world
wide shortage in A1200's that $only seems to be affecting WTS? Pull
the other one!
* 6/4/94 Still no delivery of!anything, despite having waited a
rather$huge thirty-nine days. Sent a letter!to WTS asking them what the hell "they thought they were doing. Also
sent a copy to Access.
!* Several days later, were sent a!letter by Access saying they had %credited the credit card account with
310, and would enquire why the
goods hadn't been delivered.!I notice it doesn't gain the same
interest as a debt, though!
#* 15/4/94 Sent a letter telling WTS"that they could stick their order $where the sun don't shine. Also told
them that the money had %been returned to our account. Sent it
by recorded delivery so that
they couldn't claim they hadn't
received it and carry on and "complete the order anyway. (Chance
would be a fine thing!)
!* Around about 18/4/94 phoned the number on the recorded delivery
counterfoil to ask when it was
delivered. It hadn't been.
#* Soon transpired that the delivery of our recorded delivery letter had not been recorded. Huge(ish)$search mounted by the royal mail to find who signed for it in a huge#quantity of postpeoples note books.
$* WTS delivered the workstation part!of the order, but with no A1200. $ARRGG!! The whole reason for sending
the sodding letter by !recorded in delivery in the first
place was to avoid this!
$* Not long afterwards The Royal Mail
sent us a letter saying they #could find no trace of the delivery"of our letter, either from its bar code or from manual searching of%signatures. Gave us four first class "stamps as way of compensation. Got#charged for the attempted murder of!the post mistress in Eaglescliffe
Post office.
!* About the 4/5/94 asked for help$from Access in finding out what WTS !were doing. They said they'd look
into it.
* 17/5/94 (yesterday, as I write$this) received a letter from Access %saying we could either get in contact
with WTS ourselves or wait for #the results of their investigation.
We wait for the results of the investigation. The account still%remains credited with
310 but still
refuses to gain interest!
And it's still going to this present day! Companies like this
really%give mail order companies a bad name.
If you want to choose a good %mail order company, I suggest you use
Silica. They have next day
delivery as standard.# To think this could all have been!avoided if I hadn't gone to such %lengths to avoid high prices and crap
software, when in fact it's
costed us much more. Oh well.." Also, the Royal Mails failure to!carry out even a simple job like
have a recorded delivery letter&recorded is a bit much. I've recently
(two days ago, in fact) sent a!recorded delivery letter to Mark Gladding, the author of Magnetic%Pages, who lives in New Zealand, not surprisingly the purpose of this$letter is to register as a user and
get the full version (which can%actually save the index link thingy) $I've sent cash, and all I can say is!if they loose this, I'll get her
this time. (It's all just a lie%really, I never really tried to kill %the postmistress) hopefully you'll be reading this on magnetic pages, $if not, you can assume they lost it.
I suppose I'll phone in a few %days to enquire on its progress (it's logged on leaving this country,
on arriving in the destination&country and finally at the recipients "address.) Please, let it have been
recorded...
UPDATE
$25/7/94 This article appeared in the%Sunday Sun yesterday, and shows that,#as I expected, I'm not the only one who's been having a bit (sic) of
trouble with WTS. Read on...
CHIPS ARE DOWN
#HI-TECH HASSLE IN MAIN ORDER MIX-UP
Customers of a mail order firm"specialising in computer equipment
are as sick as chips.
They complained about WTS%Electronics after posting orders for
expensive hi-tech machines. They asked me to programme the
company into action (one more
computer pun and I'll kill you.$Besides, you spell it "program" when
you refer to computers, idiot.%-P.V.F.C.) to bring their disputes to
an end.$ Among disgruntled readers was Gary
Patterson, 25, of Billingham, $Cleveland, who got a refund of
329." He said: "I ordered a hard-drive#but got sick of waiting after seven
weeks."% "I cancelled the order and was told they would refund the cash so I %ordered the same product from another
firm."
"But all I got from WTS was a
credit note I have no use for."
I spoke to WTS at their!headquarters in Luton, Beds. They
quickly sorted Gary's problem." They told me a refund cheque had
gone missing but sent him a
replacement.
And they were big enough to"apologise for the inconvenience he was put to while the dispute was
sorted out.# I have also passed on a complaint#from Simon Brown, of Hebburn, South#Tyneside, who said his computer did
not arrive after 28 days.% He said: "I cancelled the order and!was told I would get a refund for
444.$ "Instead I got a credit note which!is totally unacceptable because I
have bought another machine."
I have been told that Simon's$problem will be dealt with when key
staff return from holiday.
And I also want to know what$happened to an
85 order for a disc #drive (wrong spelling again. "disk""-P.V.F.C.) ordered by Anne Walker,
of West Moor, Newcastle. Bedfordshire trading standards"officers tell me they are looking
into similar complaints.# So what has gone wrong? WTS blame
events outside their control, $including the Los Angeles earthquake
in January.
They say suppliers in nearby"Silicon Valley, a major source of %electronic components, were badly hit
by the disaster. But it's WTS who are causing a$rumble on my Richter scale... which
measures consumer complaints.
"P.V.F.C.: What a load of bollocks!!I've heared some pretty damn lame#excuses in my time, ("I couldn't do"any work for the magazine, Phil, I
was kidnapped by aliens.") but$blaming their lazy "take their money
and don't send them anything"!attitude on an earthquake nowhere
near to where Amigas are made
(anywhere from Hong Kong to the#Philippines) is frankly pushing the#realms of reality somewhat into the%realms of fantasy, then further still#into it gets into "piss taking" and%"insult to intelligence" status. That!is just such a damn stupid excuse$that it's laughable. It also doesn't$apply to my workstation shelf thingy%which took ages to arrive and doesn't
have a molecule of silicon or a$single component anywhere. I noticed!that Currys and other high street!computer retailers had no trouble$getting hold of Amigas. Go away WTS,%we have no time for you or your shite attitude.
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