OT: DABS, gone for a sack

[Tim Watts]

Not happy - ordered some bits mrked "in stock" 6 days ago from DABS.

We form showed allocated - but "processing" even today.

Rang up - after about 45 minutes on the line, eventually lady answered.

In short - stock check foiund an item out of stock. Couldn't email me as their order-email system is (so they say) "up in the air".

So I cancelled the order - was warned that might not even work - so may have to RMA.

Pathetic. They used to be fairly OK - but in th time I was waiting on the phone, I typed up an Ebuyer order for the same - hope they are still OK.

So my advice, stay away from DABS - they seem to be having "issues".

[Adrian]

Tim Watts gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Then BT bought them.

there, it was all downhill.

[John Rumm]

Yup, moved most of our business for incidental stuff to ebuyer some years back. (probably about the time BT bought dabs!)

[Tim Watts]

I suppose the rot must have started then, but my phone call today and the fact their website seems to have been unstable in the account section recently IME suggests the rot has undermined the structure...

anyone else had problems recently?

[Peter Scott]

I gave up on Dabs some time back. They delivered a dead-on-arrival CPU and refused to replace it. Said they had to sent it back to Intel. Six weeks. Got the credit card company to reverse the payment.

Ebuyer is generally excellent. I buy lots from them and can't think of a problem off-hand. Mind you sometimes you can get a better price from Amazon.

[Jeff Gaines]

Try and make sure somebody is in and refuse delivery, it will save you a lot of hassle.

[Jethro]

+1

had 2 issues in 5 years with eBuyer. Both resolved as soon as possible. First was a PSU for a media player stopped working after 2 days - used their eNote system to report, and had another within 2 days. Then a next-day-delivery wasn't (parcelfarce's fault actually). Again a quick eNote and had postage refunded immediately.

[Tim Watts]

I forgot it was as recent as 2006. It always takes time for bad management to start showing through to the customer facing part of the operation.

I noticed last year that their stock levels were pathetic online (not to mention having wrong data like today).

They seem to be better for big buyers like Uni's in their guise as "BT Business Direct" so they might as well close up their public facing service if they don't give a fig.

[Tim Watts]

Sadly not practical - the guard will probably sign for it. I will RMA it through immediately.

[Andrew May]

Lots of recommendations for eBuyer here. Tried them some years ago and they wouldn't ship the first order to my work address. It would have meant no one at home to sign for it (nor when they tried to redeliver) so anything up to a 70mile round trip to the depot to collect it.

Most places are happy to ship to work so I never got started using eBuyer. Has this attitude changed? If so I may give them a try.

[Tim Watts]

Silly sods at CPC did that to me (despite having ordered from Farnell before).

Ebuyer (which is a first order, lost my old login details) seem to be doing a "pick" to a work address on a 1st order.

We'll see.

[The Other Mike]

Ditto, they refused to refund on a DOA bit of kit claiming they didn't guarantee any system compatibility, they wouldn't even accept it back for the manufacturer to deal with it (the manufacturers support line couldn't fix the issue when approached direct)

I didn't piss about with the credit card company but a few weeks later used a much more creative, if slightly illegal way to get my refund. It cost Dabs a bit more than 100% of the cost to me and they also lost a few thousand quids worth of future business into the bargain.

[John Rumm]

Lots of suppliers won't do a first order to an address that is not the cardholders, so I would not single them out on that. I have no idea if their policy has changed.

[Skipweasel]

I just tried it - at the checkout page you get the option to choose a different address.

[Tim Watts]

And mine's been dispatched...

[John Rumm]

You may find that if you do a first order like that they will either phone you to confirm, or take an extra day to check before sending stuff out.

I found the same thing with Staples direct recently - Did a first order and the web site took an order for delivery to my home address but on my company credit card. They phoned the next day and went through various "security questions" to verify I was not scamming.

[<me9]

Isn't it determined by their agreement with the credit card companies? Most won't allow supply to a different address than that of the credit card if not already an established customer.

[tony sayer]

Yes use them, e-buyer, from time to time and all fine:)..

[Mike Tomlinson]

In article , Tim Watts writes

Make sure you send it via some form of signed-for service.

[Skipweasel]

Talking of which, I thought most CC agreements prevented the vendor from imposing a minimum spend - or is that just in the States?