Beware Pixmania

podgerodge said:

Again, unhappy customers always post complaints. Happy ones very rarely do. Easy to find complaints. If it was possible to find out how many unhappy customers of Pixmania as a proportion of their total customer base, I would guess it would be a tiny proportion.

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It's impossible to tell what proportion of Pixmania's customers are unhappy. However, there are many consistent stories about them on the web. It's alleged 100s of times that they:-

1. Take money from customers
2. Fail to send out the goods for days and on occasion, weeks
3. Send out defective or the wrong goods
4. Pretend that they've not received goods back from customers
5. Ignore customer complaints
6. Only hand customer's money back after several weeks

I don't see the same level of complaints about Amazon.

This is not good. I am sitting here with a just-delivered-today 160g drive from pixmania and . . . there is not a squeak out of it. Dead as a dodo. I am not impressed.

z

Well
I said that I would post again to be fair to Pixmania regarding the memory stick that never arrived.

About a month ago, I rang their customer services and after holding for 45 minnutes, got to talk to an agent. She told me that they would have the memory sticks in stock in about a week and would send one to me. I also got an email confirming this.

About a week after that I went on holidays, the memory stick hadn't arrived, so I ended up having to buy another one to use on holidays.

3 weeks later, I am back from holidays and no memory stick so I am back to chasing their customer services.

Carmel

Well the memory stick finally arrived today, exactly two months after the payment was taken out my credit card and after a lot of frustrating email exchanges with Pixmania customer services. It took a long time for them to accept that they had sent me the wrong thing.

Carmel.

Further to my earlier post (regarding my non-working HD) I eventually discovered the problem - I hadn't plugged it in. Seems obvious enough, but other external drives I had didn't need external power and the instructions didn't explicitly state that it should have been plugged in. The reason I didn't try it first time was that the power supply came with a european plug on it and so I had to wait a few days and go buy an adapter before I could use it. I have since heard that other people have had stuff shipped to Ireland with european plugs which I understand is in breach of some regulations or other - because it means the user has to go about cutting off plugs and attaching new ones and this carries an inherent risk.

z

I ordered numerous items and never had a problem-if anything i would have sadi that they are v. efficient

zag said:

Further to my earlier post (regarding my non-working HD) I eventually discovered the problem - I hadn't plugged it in. Seems obvious enough, but other external drives I had didn't need external power and the instructions didn't explicitly state that it should have been plugged in. The reason I didn't try it first time was that the power supply came with a european plug on it and so I had to wait a few days and go buy an adapter before I could use it. I have since heard that other people have had stuff shipped to Ireland with european plugs which I understand is in breach of some regulations or other - because it means the user has to go about cutting off plugs and attaching new ones and this carries an inherent risk.

z

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Normally Pixmania supply a 2 pin to 3 pin plug adaptor, in my experience anyway. I have never had a bad experience myself with Pixmania.

I ordered a Canon A430 Digital Camera on Wednesday and it arrived this morning by DHL. All in perfect working order.

I thought the customer service was great. Ordered on Tuesday night shipped Wednesday afternoon and arrived with me this morning. You could see the status of the order at all times.

When it was delivered to work this morning, another girl ordered the same camera and hers was also shipped today and will hopefully be here by the weekend.

I ordered a digital camera from on a Sunday night and it arrived on Wed morning. I was very happy with this.

The downside was the extra they required from me (possibly because I used my home address for purchase and my work address for delivery).... but now they know:
-- my home address, personal phone number, personal mobile, credit card, driving licence number, date of birth, my appearance (via driving licence),
-- my work address, work phone, work mobile, work fax, my job title

I'm not very comfortable about this. I reckon they now know more about me than the Irish Government or anybody else in the world! I can only hope their computer security is never breached, eg, the reg's 200,000 HP staff exposed as laptop loss party continues

Disclaimer: I've posted here before how other companies can use your 'private' information, e.g., google.

sluice44 said:

but now they know:
-- my home address, personal phone number, personal mobile, credit card, driving licence number, date of birth, my appearance (via driving licence),
-- my work address, work phone, work mobile, work fax, my job title

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It's all about trust. If you don't trust someone with this information, don't supply it.

Trust is one of the biggest barriers to "ecommerce" (hey, how come no one uses that term anymore?)

Personally I've been buying online since 1993 or thereabouts. Had a single bad experience in all those years. I've had more than one bad experience with bricks and mortar retailers in that time.

sluice44 said:

now they know:
-- my home address, personal phone number, personal mobile, credit card, driving licence number, date of birth, my appearance (via driving licence),
-- my work address, work phone, work mobile, work fax, my job title

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LOL, ever heard of Identity Theft ? , they have more data than your mother or missus would ??

I think he HAS heard about ID theft, 2pack. In fact I think that's his whole point.

By the way, I'd never give personal mobile numbers or driving license numbers or job titles. Who asked for them?

The camera arrived today for he girl in my company who ordered the same camera as me on Monday.

Both of us had given personal addresses to pay with credit card and delivery address via work. They never asked either of us for fax or job title, etc.

Given that there would be a huge element of fraud in the line of electrical goods, I can understand why they would need to verify additional information. I can understand why people dont want to give it, either, but I suppose if you want to use the service, you supply the information requested.

Thats two of us in the same week very happy with Pixmania

They never asked for driving licence details or photos for either of us either.

thejudge said:

It's impossible to tell what proportion of Pixmania's customers are unhappy. However, there are many consistent stories about them on the web. It's alleged 100s of times that they:-

1. Take money from customers
2. Fail to send out the goods for days and on occasion, weeks
3. Send out defective or the wrong goods
4. Pretend that they've not received goods back from customers
5. Ignore customer complaints
6. Only hand customer's money back after several weeks

I don't see the same level of complaints about Amazon.

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I have used Pixmania a few times and found them great as have many friends who have ordered stuff and had no problem. However I do wonder how easy it would be to solve a problem if I received wrong or faulty goods I hope it's something I don't have to ever worry about.

At the end of the day I personally am prepared to take the small risk of fraud and put up with the lousy personal service due to the considerable savings in comparison to what I would pay on the highstreet. Look at Ryanair I could quote plenty of websites knocking them, they sell exclusively over the web, their customer service reputation is sh*te you never know if the flight will turn up or if they will let you on and you sure as hell wouldn't be getting any money back off them in a hurry but people still use them.

It's all about price. If the price is right customers will forgive nearly anything!

I ordered an ipod 60gb
My order was placed on the 18 of August. On 25/08 after following up with DHL for few das they admitted that there was a problem with the parcel and the start a tracking research.I had called Pixmania on the 25/08 to made that aware that I did not received any parcel and they started and investigation
Finally on 29/08 the DHL tracking office called me. They stated that the parcel was definitely lost and I should call Pixmania to ask a replacement.From then on almost every day I only get all time the same answer: that the investigation is still going on even if DHL has admitted the packet is lost. The same answer when I officially request my money back


I had to raise a complain via Isis, via my bank (to get the money back) and via the European consumer center but at the moment after 3 weeks no sign of my money.

1) The fact that Pixmania advertise 24-48 hours delivery and after 3 weeks I still do not see the chance to understand when I will see my ipod (or at this stage my money ). The European Consumer center made me aware of the following
“Under the Distance Selling Regulations consumers are protected when a contract is entered over a distance i.e. consumer and seller are not in each other's physical presence. If you entered into a contract online both the seller and the consumer are bound by the terms and conditions provided. In your case the website stated up to fourteen days for delivery. The seller is said to be in 'breach of contract' when a term of the contract cannot be fulfilled, that is, he or she cannot supply the goods at the specified time. You are entitled to cancel your contract and expect a full refund. This should be done in writing. So the first step would be to contact the seller by either email or writing stating your case. If you do not receive any satisfactory response from the seller, contact your credit card company. Your credit card company should be able to intervene and possibly approach the seller to try and resolve the situation. If this does not solve your dispute contact the European Consumer Centre for assistance”

2) The fact that Pixmania does not respect not even their own policy publish on their website .
This is what is published on Pixmania website if a parcel is lost
What happens if the courier misplaces my parcel?
If the courier misplaces a parcel during the delivery, we will follow a standard process of opening a search file with the courier. This investigation normally takes 3-5 working days, and if the parcel cannot be found, your order will be re-shipped.


Meanwhile this is the mail received from Pixmania after they started the investigation
Mr. ***,
Further to our previous email, I would like to confirm that an investigation has been opened by DHL.This investigation will end on 2006-09-04. The procedure for this carrier takes 7 to 10 working days to complete. During this period, we will unfortunately not be able to send you another package or refund your order”
I complained but waited until the end date but at this stage Pixmania customer service and management had the courage to answer to every complaint that I could claim the money back only when the investigation was over and that the investigation was still going on. After more than 20 mails and more than 3 weeks since the oder was placed I still receive the same answer

This is a break of Pixmania written and advertised policy and of consumer rights and I raised this issue with Pixmania management with no success. I even wrote to Fotovista chief executive with no answer.


Avoid this shop , I am almost lost the confidence to shop on internet again.

Some advice - learned the hard way:
I bought a Mini iPod over the internet from Amazon .co.uk. Worked fine for a few days then it only held its charge for 2 hours. I returned it to Amazon -at my cost- stating that it was faulty. Several days later my credit card account was credited with the cost of the item. No problem. Amazon are good in this way. I then decided that I would order the same item from Apple direct ( from Cork). It arrived and was faulty straight away. It was a similar problem in that the battery would not hold its charge. I contacted them and went through hell, being referred to technical support in India! I gave up and contacted them again (in Cork), this time I got a very helpful person. Next day a courier arrived at the house and collected the unit. Again, my credit card was reimbursed a week later. Finally I visited Argos and bought a mini iPod again. After a week the screen became corrupted and the unit was getting very hot. Returned it to Argos and got a full refund on the spot. Brilliant service.
A week later, pissed off with Mini iPods, I bought a 30GB proper iPod from Argos. No problems - 10 months later.
Lesson learned? You might pay a bit more in Argos, but they have a great returns policy.
P.S. I have a piece of equipment bought for me from Pixmania. I hope it never goes wrong!

jellyshots said:

I have used Pixmania a few times and found them great as have many friends who have ordered stuff and had no problem.

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If you order something from a company you expect to receive it. If you do receive it then the company has fulfilled its obligation. If you do not receive the goods or there is a problem of some sort, then how they handle the situation is how you should judge the company.

Grifter said:

If you order something from a company you expect to receive it. If you do receive it then the company has fulfilled its obligation. If you do not receive the goods or there is a problem of some sort, then how they handle the situation is how you should judge the company.

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What has that got to do with the positive experiences of jellyshot and his/her associates? They ordered their goods and received them and (presumably) they worked fine. Surely it's fair comment and relevant to mention this just as it is to mention negative experiences with orders not being flufilled or delivered products not working properly?