laptopsdirect.ie - what are they like?

GadgetGeek

Sparky2201 wrote: »

I've read the reviews on this post and they would cause concern and I did hesitate before finally pulling the trigger and ordering from Laptopsdirect. I ordered a TH42PZ81B plasma and stand on Monday 12th and it arrived yesterday morning. All I can say is that when their service works it works! I've had no problems, the price was good and I can have no complaints about the entire experience. I would use them again and I would recommend them but with the warning that if you do need to go down the road of refunds and returns, it may be a long and frustrating experience - based on the comments here.

OMG just what I wanted. Any complaints (with the TV I meant).

GadgetGeek

Has anyone got an alternative to LD.ie for the 42 Plasma. I have tried Richersounds.ie and Samsyerman but TH42PZ81B is sold out in NI.

Sparky2201

GadgetGeek wrote: »

OMG just what I wanted. Any complaints (with the TV I meant).

No complaints at all. The TV is great - would recommned it.

Vokes

Has issues there the past week, with their customer service saying a (next day) delivery had been dispatched when it turns it had not been sent due to 'stock issues'. Finally got it yesterday, happy with the purchase but I've found the customer service to be a bit dodgy:

On 22/01/2009 10:08:58
<CUSTOMER SERVICE REP>Wrote:
Hello
I am sorry about that we did not know they were going to do that and im very sorry this has happened
Thank you

On 22/01/2009 00:13:09
Vokes Wrote:
Further on from my email yesterday regarding my missing item. I have now been able to check with the neighbour who had in fact signed and accepted my package. So I am now in possession of my ordered item. I would like to add that I never intimated that the order could be passed to anyone else and I wouldnt expect neighbours to sign for things. There was no sign of my package in the communal hallway and no note to say anybody was holding it so you can understand my concern. I would have much preferred a delivery notice to collect from the parcel depot instead.
your sincerely,
<SOME OTHER DISSATISFIED CUSTOMER>

Yup, the above email is not actually from myself, yet they sent the response to me. Bizarre indeed.

raindog.promo

I made an order for a laptop, paying for the 2 day deliver. When it dfidn't arrive after the 2 days and i'd received nno dispatch note I got in touch asking what was going on. The customer servgice guy, who sounded like he really couldn't be bothered, told me they were expecting it into their warehouse that day and i'd have it monday.

When it didn't arrive monday i rang again and got the same response so cancelled the order. I eventually got the laptop from pixmania and their was no problems at all with the delivery.

Dearg81

I ordered a laptop off these guys at the start of January. It hadnt arrived last Monday so i rang them up and they told me the laptop was out of stock so they cancelled the order there and then and i got the refunded today. Im after losing 100euro tho due to the exhange rates so im really pi$$ed off with them.

I wonder when the would have gotten around to cancelling my order and refunding me if i didn't ring them. They are a very dodgy company in my opinion and not worth the hassle.

Zonda999

Dearg81 wrote: »

I ordered a laptop off these guys at the start of January. It hadnt arrived last Monday so i rang them up and they told me the laptop was out of stock so they cancelled the order there and then and i got the refunded today. Im after losing 100euro tho due to the exhange rates so im really pi$$ed off with them.

I wonder when the would have gotten around to cancelling my order and refunding me if i didn't ring them. They are a very dodgy company in my opinion and not worth the hassle.

Thats disgraceful!! Surely, because you paid in euro, shouldnt you get back exactly the same amount, in euro?? Thats completely unfair. I would have thought that legally they would have the refund you the amount in euro??

docdolittle

I'm in the same situation, I have to ring up the credit card company now to make sure I get a full refund. If not, I'll be taking them to the small claims court.

GadgetGeek

GadgetGeek wrote: »

The latest update was, when they lodged the money back to my credit card with the falling pound (£) I was out of pocket by 40 Euro. Laptopsdirect.ie said this was not there problem and were quite ignorant about it, I must also admit to been quite annoyed which probably didn’t help. I contacted the credit card company who said they were in violation and to apply in writing to the credit card company stating "Due to the merchant processing the transaction in error I have suffered a finance loss as a direct result of the violation of these regulations”
This was a lot of work considering I’ve got nothing to show for it, bar a headache. STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

See above this is what I was advised by me credit card company.

churrusco2

Bought a laptop last Monday.

I made the payment using my Laser card because in their website said that there was an extra charge of 12 euros (except Laser) Mastercard. Anyways, I got charged the 12 euros.

Despite of this, it looks like there is some kind of limit in my laser card because the transaction was not accepted. So, since last monday I've been trying to contact them through their email service ( I do not want to call them ) without any success to fix this problem and either repay or cancel and rebuy, but it looks like these guys do not like to sell....

phill106

god bless the internet. was going to buy a laptop off this crowd, but they seem shockingly bad. going to buy off cheaplaptops.ie, ok its like 80 euro more for same laptop, but its irish company, with irish numbers.

speedy1999

GadgetGeek wrote: »

The latest update was, when they lodged the money back to my credit card with the falling pound (£) I was out of pocket by 40 Euro. Laptopsdirect.ie said this was not there problem and were quite ignorant about it, I must also admit to been quite annoyed which probably didn’t help. I contacted the credit card company how said they were in violation and to apply in writing to the credit card company stating "Due to the merchant processing the transaction in error I have suffered a finance loss as a direct result of the violation of these regulations”
This was a lot of work considering I’ve got nothing to show for it, bar a headache. STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

Ive had a similiar problem, I ordered a laptop back in October it lasted three weeks and stoped working, Laptop direct told me to get onto the manufacturers which I did, they got it collected all well.. When it came to a refund thats were I've had the problem, I had made numerous phone calls to LD, as regards refunding the money, it finally went through on the 30th Dec, I paid 520e for the laptop including delivery and charges. I only got back 407e.. The tell me over the phone its down to the currency change over. I've argued till I was blue in the face that what I paid is what I want returned that the currency changeover is not my problem, I ordered from laptopdirect.ie website, the prices were in Euro and thats what went out of the credit card. (which was my fathers so its a nightmare all round. I have also spent 50e on phonecalls ringing them. I found them very ignorant and not abit helpful. I told them I had been onto consumers here but got no joy from them. It's left me very angry and frustrated...:mad::mad:

docdolittle

speedy1999 wrote: »

Ive had a similiar problem, I ordered a laptop back in October it lasted three weeks and stoped working, Laptop direct told me to get onto the manufacturers which I did, they got it collected all well.. When it came to a refund thats were I've had the problem, I had made numerous phone calls to LD, as regards refunding the money, it finally went through on the 30th Dec, I paid 520e for the laptop including delivery and charges. I only got back 407e.. The tell me over the phone its down to the currency change over. I've argued till I was blue in the face that what I paid is what I want returned that the currency changeover is not my problem, I ordered from laptopdirect.ie website, the prices were in Euro and thats what went out of the credit card. (which was my fathers so its a nightmare all round. I have also spent 50e on phonecalls ringing them. I found them very ignorant and not abit helpful. I told them I had been onto consumers here but got no joy from them. It's left me very angry and frustrated...:mad::mad:

Exact same here man, I ordered of my dads credit card too. I'm just going to go with what GadgetGeek said and go with the creditcard company to sort it out. A month for them to finally arrange a collection and another month waiting on a refund.


@phill106: be glad you did It's been hell going through LD!

Dearg81

Zonda999 wrote: »

Thats disgraceful!! Surely, because you paid in euro, shouldnt you get back exactly the same amount, in euro?? Thats completely unfair. I would have thought that legally they would have the refund you the amount in euro??

They charged me in Sterling and refunded me in Sterling, it was just unlucky that the Sterling got stronger in the few weeks since i purchased it. I'm very dubious that it got so strong that it cost me €100 in difference but theres not much i can do about it i dont think.

Nea

phill106 wrote: »

god bless the internet. was going to buy a laptop off this crowd, but they seem shockingly bad. going to buy off cheaplaptops.ie, ok its like 80 euro more for same laptop, but its irish company, with irish numbers.

Wouldnt recommend buying a refurbished laptop from them. If you do run a hard drive test first to check for failure

SAVE_ME.222

I was just about to order a laptop from laptopsdirect.ie, thank god I found this thread first. Gonna avoid them now.

raindog.promo

In regards the exchange rate losing you money with the refunds. I don't know if this will help, but maybe someone can expand it further:

In the European Consumer Charter, it states that a customer "shall not be liable for any costs insurred in the replacement or repair of a defective product, ot or a product that is not fit for the purpose..." see
http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/1999/l_171/l_17119990707en00120016.pdf

..................If there has been no resolution however,
I will contact my credit card company to initiate a chargeback procedure, and will also contact national press and the European Consumer Centre to highlight this disregard of consumer protection laws.

I used this in a letter to another internet company saying i had to pay shipping costs to return a faulty item. Maybe the law there protects the exchange rate?

Poncherello

I am really torn whether to buy from these guys or not. Looking for a Sony FW21M which is 950 on LD. Went to a few stores over weekend and its 1300 pretty much everywhere. I would be willing to pay a 100 euro premium for the peace of mind buying from a store but 350 is a lot. As it is being replaced with the 31M in 3 weeks time the stores may put it on their clearance list but no gaurantee.

Alanstrainor

Why not compare Laptopsdirect to the likes of dabs.ie and elara.ie, no point in comparing the prices to bricks and morter shops in Ireland. You'll be ripped off there 99% of the time.
It really is up to you who you buy from, but read through this thread and know what you're getting yourself into.

speedy1999

GadgetGeek wrote: »

The latest update was, when they lodged the money back to my credit card with the falling pound (£) I was out of pocket by 40 Euro. Laptopsdirect.ie said this was not there problem and were quite ignorant about it, I must also admit to been quite annoyed which probably didn’t help. I contacted the credit card company how said they were in violation and to apply in writing to the credit card company stating "Due to the merchant processing the transaction in error I have suffered a finance loss as a direct result of the violation of these regulations”
This was a lot of work considering I’ve got nothing to show for it, bar a headache. STAY AWAY FROM THEM.

Did you have any luck getting anything back from the credit card company... I am thinking of going into the bank and filling in the form to try claim back my money.... I don't know how laptopdirect are getting away with this.... Something needs to be done about this... Irish people should not be taking a loss if something they order goes wrong...:mad:

GadgetGeek

Dropped the letter in the post this morning (I had to wait for the bill). Will let you know how I get on.

Ari Gold

churrusco2 wrote: »

Bought a laptop last Monday.

I made the payment using my Laser card because in their website said that there was an extra charge of 12 euros (except Laser) Mastercard. Anyways, I got charged the 12 euros.

Despite of this, it looks like there is some kind of limit in my laser card because the transaction was not accepted. So, since last monday I've been trying to contact them through their email service ( I do not want to call them ) without any success to fix this problem and either repay or cancel and rebuy, but it looks like these guys do not like to sell....

i too tried to pay with my laser. it looked like the order went through but then i got an email saying 'we are still awaiting your payment' so i rang them up to see what the story was. first of all it took an age to get through to the correct section them i was informed by some guy that they dont accept laser. he disnt sound in the least bit interested an told me someone from the payments section would ring me 2mo. think i might cancel after reading this thread:mad:

raindog.promo

I ordered a laptop from them and paid for the 2 day delivery. After 2 days, no sign of it (Thursday) and rang customer services where i was told it would be with me on Monday. On Monday, no sign so got back in touch and got the same story. Told them I needed it by Friday and said I want the order cancelled.

They cancelled it but after refund there was 20 euro taken off the account due to exchange rates.

1) If the company website ends in .ie and the prices are in Euro, why am I getting charged for changing it to sterling?

2) 20 euro isn't overly much cash, but I'm sure this is happening to many people (one guy on this thread got charged 100euro) so who is all that cash going to?

Webmonkey

People are having awful problems lately - they'd want to sort out their service quick or they'll be gone soon enough.

ks44

Hi,
Just to keep it balanced, I just bought my 2nd laptop off them last week. No problems. Ordered on Sat and it arrived on Tuesday. I know i am probably one of the lucky ones and they do seem to have a lot of problems but there does seem to be a lot of good transactions compared to a few bad ones. However i know this is still not good enough

docdolittle

I actually got the following email off them :P I Kinda feel sorry for the person who has to read my lil' rant I went on in it :P

Did you enjoy shopping with us?



Thank you for your recent order with one of the buyitdirect brands. We hope everything arrived as expected and that you are enjoying the use of your new product.
In order to improve the service that we provide our customers, we would be grateful if you could complete a short survey about your shopping experience.
Everyone who completes the survey will be entered into our monthly prize draw for an iPod Nano!

GadgetGeek

speedy1999 wrote: »

Did you have any luck getting anything back from the credit card company... I am thinking of going into the bank and filling in the form to try claim back my money.... I don't know how laptopdirect are getting away with this.... Something needs to be done about this... Irish people should not be taking a loss if something they order goes wrong...:mad:

For some reason which I have to get clarified (they rang and talked to my wife). The credit card company has agreed to return half the money I was left short. I will call them and pursue the final balance.

sexpot

Just having a few problems with laptopsdirect now. I've got a stuck pixel unfortunately and this is after getting the pre delivery inspection. So I rang them up and they said I have to send the laptop over first for an inspection then they'll send me one out which just doesn't make sense. All my **** is on here now. But I have come across this;

http://www.eccireland.ie/topics/buyinggoodsandservices/163.html

It mentions this;

When a consumer reports the lack of conformity to the seller, they may be entitled to expect:

* that the goods be repaired or replaced free of charge within a reasonable period and without major inconvenience to the consumer;

Of course, going without a laptop for a week is a major inconvenience.

So, I'm gonna abuse their horrible customer service staff tomorrow and if they don't do anything they'll get a nice phone call from the legal team at ECC.

Hope this can help others as well.

AlmightyCushion

sexpot wrote: »

Just having a few problems with laptopsdirect now. I've got a stuck pixel unfortunately and this is after getting the pre delivery inspection. So I rang them up and they said I have to send the laptop over first for an inspection then they'll send me one out which just doesn't make sense. All my **** is on here now. But I have come across this;

http://www.eccireland.ie/topics/buyinggoodsandservices/163.html

It mentions this;

When a consumer reports the lack of conformity to the seller, they may be entitled to expect:

* that the goods be repaired or replaced free of charge within a reasonable period and without major inconvenience to the consumer;

Of course, going without a laptop for a week is a major inconvenience.

So, I'm gonna abuse their horrible customer service staff tomorrow and if they don't do anything they'll get a nice phone call from the legal team at ECC.

Hope this can help others as well.

Try the following on your screen before sending it back. It might work which will save you a load of hassle.

http://www.jscreenfix.com/basic.php

sexpot

Just got my laptop back after more than 2 weeks waiting from laptopsdirect. By far the worst customer service in the world, rudest people ever. I would advise anyone thinking of ordering with not to, its just not worth the hassle if something goes wrong.

If you really want the saving go up North and buy it, at least its only a few hours up the road.

Never ever will i buy off laptops direct again. I just really hope that nothing more goes wrong (fingers crossed).

sirspamalot

I ordered a hi-spec Acer three weeks ago. They persuaded me to take a "final inspection" (at extra cost) which ultimately left me without a key component.

Final piece arrived today.

Terrible customer response, they sent the missing item off to wrong address TWICE and then tried to blame me. The women in Huddersfield must REALLY hate their jobs.

Although the "list" price is very competitive, if ANYTHING at all goes wrong you are looking at a frustrating and ultimately expensive attempt to get satisfaction.

They are worse then Ryanair. I will NOT use them ever again.
CAVEAT EMPTOR!!

Regards,

S.

Alanstrainor

Threads Merged.
As you can see you're not the only one!

L.R. Weizel

I'm looking to get an EEE PC off laptopsdirect.ie. I normally use 3V cards to order online, but I'll go over my limit and I don't feel comfortable putting €300 into one anyway.

Is there any way to do a bank transfer or something similar.

If there's any similar site that will have the 901 for a similar price.

sexpot

Don't order off them, its not worth it. The customer service team are the most unhelpful arseholes ever.
Try Pixmania or dabs or elara maybe? or just go up north

raindog.promo

DO NOT try pix mania. Check other posts for reasons why.

Shulgin

Dabs or Elara

Trust me, pixmania or Laptopsdirect are both nightmares to deal with when things go wrong.

Mmcd

Is it just pixmania's afetr sales that is difficult to deal with or is there other reasons as they have my perfect laptop and am now not sure what to do!

Dades

I read this thread before ordering and went ahead last week... just thought I'd give my experiences here...

Timeline:

- Tuesday (5th May) ordered an A1 refurbed Compaq Presario.
- Payment deducted same day
- Thursday get mail saying actual item not in stock - they will contact me.
- Call them myself instead (looong wait!) and speak to some girl in sales. She confirms item not in stock... offered me a similar item which would cost me an extra £8 (wtf?) so I said yes. Was told it would be dispatched that day
- Saturday got sent a mail to say it was dispatched
- Monday I called Irish based courier company (very helpful) who told me they wouldn't get laptop until Tuesday morning. They said they were used to enquiries becuase LTD were so "vague" with their delivery times!
- Tuesday (1 week after first ordered) laptop arrived.

The laptop itself looks brand new except for a scratch on the base.
Vista setup fine (for now), and hooked it up to wireless without issue.

All in all - took a bit of messing - but worth it for the price.

radioactiveman

Ditto for me but second "alternative" laptop not in stock, charged for it anyway, then not refunded the full amount.

maglite

Would touch them with a barge pole



3 weeks trying to get an order they kept on saying there was a problem with the CC. Ring up the CC company to see what the crack was, only to find out the authorization to debit was given 6 times!!!!!


Then the laptop was out of stock and a lesser spec one was going to cost me more. They now refuse to remove me email from their DB and i keep getting emails off them.

slick.153

Hey,
I want to warn you about laptops direct, I have had a very bad experience with them. I will explain

My Purchase:
I bought an acer aspire one from them on the 21-04-09, It took them over a week to deliver it. i.e. their delivery service SUCKS!!!. Dont even waste your money calling customer care as they are as rude and dont care at all (explained later)

Laptop Fails (April - 29th) The Due day for my thesis:
Problem with laptop:
Would not screen on. i.e system starts but no screen.

----Since My laptop had contained the only copy of my thesis ( i was working on it tat night hence & i formated my pens coz of viruses, yes i shld keep a backup i knw n i learnt). I had to get the data out, so din really care about the warranty n opened laptop up n took my HDD out pluged into another machine n got my data.


---- Now tat i had it open n being a tech my self i did the normal troubleshooting,
----1: Reset, by removing ram and battert
----2: Tried power on with no ram, no warning came up
----3: Must be the board of grapic card
----4: After listening carefully it sounded like the HDD was not getting enought power to turn on you could hear it start/stop.
----Note Dont ever open the laptop it voids warranty but i put it back perfect.

Step2: Call Support to report problem

Me: Hi my name is ***** and my acer netbook isnt working i...
Support: Before i could finish she redirected me to acer. [This is normal procedure but my laptop is explicitly covered by laptops direct and i am told not to contact acer]

call 2: same thing

call 3:
Me: Hi there, Could you please hold on a sec n let me finish before you transfer me.
Tech: Sir I dont need this abuse [n was about to hang up. WTF!!!]
Me: Sorry [how i hated saying tat]
Tech: Whats your problem [in a rude tone]
me: explained my situation [finally some1 listening to me, even if it was some rude argh!!!]

The Returns Procedure:
After the call i was told it would need to be approved so i said fine.

It took them 2 days excluding the weekend (acceptable but >24hrs as mentioned)
[call on 29th email return on 1-05-09]

Then parcel picked up from me in 3 working days(6-05-09) again acceptable, but now is where the fun starts.

It took them 7days i.e over a week to recive the parcel (13-05-09), note no communication from them at all

then after they recived it i got a mail sayin Product recived and is being processed (14-05-09). this is the last mail/call i get from them

Every week i would call to get a status, the first time we are processing and i was like okay give them a week to work.

Week 2, i called ie on the 21'st of may. and i was alarmed with what they were telling me. Firts the tech said, we have not yet recived the laptop and was about hang up on me. I quickly said wait i have a confirmation number tat you recived it. (the techs will give u any excuse to shut you up) I gave him all the numbers and details (which i safely kept.) He then said im sorry ill track things coz i cant find any details here on the system. I was told he will call me that evening or mail me.

No mail or call... I magically recived my laptop next day. Which means it is a 4week turnaround time. i.e. from first call till you get it back, if tats acceptable to you fine. to me i wld have been if they communicated more.

Now today the 25th of may. My laptop fails yet again. I personally dont know who to blame is it crappy acer or laptopsdirect. The date of manufacture on my replacement laptop is MM/YY 07/08.

I will update my this post with my experiance on my second return.

Listen guys is it really worth saving that 50€-100€ for all the hassel these companies cause. I disagree with PC world stores rediculus price aswell. but id say buy from dabs or misco. anyother suggestions ?

yuri_werewolf

Should have searched them here before making an order
Ordered a laptop, got an email to send proofs of address (not just one), next day they called me on mobile and confirmed that everything was correct, i did order that laptop etc.
She tried to sell me their inspection, saying that if i get a laptop with dead pixels or other problems i won't be able to return it
At this point i decided to cancel my order.
It's now 7 days since they cancelled my order and still no refund, even after numerous emails. They are def the most unprofessional shop i've dealt with, avoid at all costs!!

dermot01G

Placed an order for a laptop from laptopsdirect online this morning (prior to reading this thread mind). Got a call after Midday from them with the upsell for the pre delivery inspection, which I declined.

The upsell was a little on the agressive side and in short was saying that with out it, laptopsdirect would not be responsible for virtually anything and if there was a problem, I would have to pay for the return shipping costs...as I live 'overseas' (outside of Ireland and UK). Surprisingly (and despite) that I specialise in upselling etc, I would have been tempted for the 'peace of mind factor' had they approached it in another fashion.

Very very tempted to cancel based on this call (and this thread) but just got a mail to say order had been dispatched

Will update how it goes from here....

dermot01G

Arrived home about an hour ago and the courier company had delivered the laptop by leaving it at the front door. (not an unusual occurrence where I live but not something I would encourage)

Just going through the set-up with it at the moment and all seems to be fine...

So, ordered Wednesday, delivered Friday and aside from the mildly irritating attempted upselling, seems to be a good service.

A friend has just ordered from them (today) so if he has any different experience than me I'll post it.

dermot01G

dermot01G

Hmm, as mentioned previously, my friend had a bit of a different experience. Ordered Friday week ago and wasn't delivered till yesterday 4PM. Had sent them a few mails in between. He's happy with the laptop and the price but reckon the service itself could be improved.

robroyman

I ordered a lappy on 28 Oct from laptopsdirect.ie, they are very quick to take payment but take forever to deliver! I waited 5 working days before cancelling my order today - hope I get refunded soon!! The joke is I ordered the exact same thing on dabs.ie today and literally 2 hours later its marked as shipped!!!!

david p

Does anyone have any experience with these guys? I was thinking of ordering this, but I just wanted to get people's advice on whether they were reliable or not. Also, when I add it to my basket, it adds "Pre-delivery inspection" and "Restore and Recovery Disk". Do I really need these, or should I just take them off the order? Help is much appreciated

Edit: I'm an idiot.
Don't think I'll be going near these guys any time soon based on this thread.

Alanstrainor

threads merged.

barry181091

I've ordered a Samsung LE40B650 TV from Directtvs.co.uk and had very few problems. Actually, I have caused them more hassle through all my questions whether I could pay with Laser or maybe with multiple 3V vouchers put together

One thing I would say though is try to do most stuff though the Customer Service people, not Sales. I found the Customer Service people to be really nice but Sales were all over the place..giving me different quotes and forgetting who I was over email :rolleyes: :P

To show how good the Customer Service people were, I found a discount code online where it gave you free delivery of any TV. Now this ofcourse wouldn't work with Ireland as I expected, but I emailed them anyway saying that they cater for UK & IRL equally and didn't specify the code was for either country (Not expecting anything). First reply back was from the Customer Service Manager offering an apology for the confusion and she was looking into it. She also offered me free priority delivery worth 45GBP because of all the 'confusion', I was well pleased

TV came to 649GBP in the end so im happy. Just waiting for delivery on Tuesday as promised. But its Xmas time so I will forgive a day or two :rolleyes:

All I would say is you should be careful who you contact in the company (Not Sales!) and not just the 'Contact Us' on their page.

barry181091

What courier do laptopsdirect use in Ireland ?