Dad's Editorial - Horrible Customer Service or "Taking Candy from a Baby".

For all you Homeschooling parents out there with budding little Neo's or coders like Theo, we thought we would share our latest IT experience with you.

We are always reviewing (pro-bono, we receive no payment for reviews) those companies that provide us with excellent resources to make our lives and education that bit easier. The wonderful publishers (Usborne, Frances Lincoln, QED, Harper Collins), educational game companies (Brain Box, Orchard), science apparatus manufacturers (apex) and art suppliers (Derwent) that provide so many of the technologies that make our wonderful modern world what it is.

I don't think we've ever written a negative review as (perhaps surprisingly for corporate entities, perhaps not) we are generally so impressed with the quality of product/writing/construction/inventiveness and the altruism of the companies, that it would be impossible to be negative.

So perhaps we were overdue for a not-so-good company or a bad product.

Sure enough, one came along and that company was Laptops Direct.

Theo has as most regular readers will know, been learning some coding - HTML, CSS, PHP et cetera. Only the basics but it's quite annoying when you're trying to work and your 9 year old son keeps harassing you in an attempt to prise your macbook from you.

I had had enough of it anyway, and suggested that with some of his (life's) savings, he could if he was serious about coding buy himself a second hand laptop. He could only afford a couple of hundred pounds, £250 at the most so we found what looked like a few good dealers of refurbished computers on the internet.

I don't know why I went for them, perhaps it was the fairly professional looking website or the very cheap (too good to be true it turns out) prices, but we settled on Laptops Direct despite having had satisfactory experiences with Scan, Amazon, Micro Direct and Amazon in the past.

What we settled on was an A2 grade (their grading system meaning it may have some small cosmetic marks but would be tested and fully working) Samsung 355V5C as it had a little graphics card and could run some of Theo's favourite games on their lowest settings. He's become something of a Minecraft and Warcraft aficionado of late.

It was a little above his budget being £265 plus shipping but I said I'd cover the difference and eventually said I would pay half due to him working so hard at his (home) schoolwork.

He was so excited and last monday when the laptop finally arrived through the post I thought he would explode with joy. It was packaged well in a sturdy cardboard carton with plenty of bubble-wrap inside. It was not in the original (OEM) packaging, but I expected it might not be.

We got it out, switched it on and it whirred to life. Windows 8 is a little eccentric at the best of times and the tiles view was littered with icons from the previous user; this set the first alarm bells ringing as to the quality and thoroughness of their 'refurbishment' and QC process.

'No problem' I thought, 'We'll use the new windows 8 restore function to reinstall the operating system', in theory making it behave like a new machine and at the same time wiping out any sensitive information from the previous user that may be hanging around on there. I was concerned about security even if Laptop Direct were not.

This process takes a couple of hours and the battery was only showing around 15% charge, so we dug out the mains cable, plugged it in and began the restore-to-factory-settings process, and this is where the real problems began…

A small dc connector goes into the laptop from a power transformer, you know the type; a small black brick with a little green light on it. Into this transformer - more commonly know as a Power Supply Unit (PSU) - goes the cord coming from the mains socket.

When this arrangement was plugged into the mains a loud, audible electrical crackling began coming from inside the transformer. At first I though that the mains cable just wasn't a good fit over the pins and gave it a wiggle to try to better make contact. Even the smallest motion of any cables going into the transformer made it fizz and crackle more.

The update process had now begun so the computer needed continuous power or the hard disk may become unreadable. Losing power during an OS install is not a good thing.

With the PSU connected to the laptop the light would stay green (charging) for around 10 minutes then go out. Touching it at this point showed the PSU to be incredibly hot, almost untouchably so. If disconnected from the power it cooled down and would then work for another 10 minutes and in this way, with constant attention for 2-3 hours I was able to see the laptop through it's restore process.

We thought therefore that it could just be the Power Supply that was faulty and wrote to Laptops Direct to request a replacement. They refused to replace it pointing me to a returns link to their website where I was to fill in a returns form. I was concerned that this would not let me return a partial item - i.e. the power unit only. In any event, the link pointed to a login page for an account I have never set up. So there was no way for me to apply for a return without setting up an account - the last thing I wanted to do.

I said I would buy a replacement from amazon and send them the bill. they said they wouldn't do this, I must fill in the form, the form I couldn't get to. They put me in an impossible situation.

I ordered a replacement anyway just to do my own mini diagnostic and ensure it was actually the PSU that was the problem. I told them I was doing it and that I expected them to pay for the solution I had found as they were offering none.

Theo had been managing to use the laptop using the 'PSU cool down' trick we had been employing, letting it cool when it overheated and replugging it. In all other respects the laptop seemed to function fine.

Then on one occasion when Theo was connecting the power supply (me right next to him I might add) to begin charging the laptop, it emitted a loud 'BANG' and a flash of white sparks. It actually tripped out the RCD in the fuse box clearly showing there was something faulty with either the laptop or the PSU regarding how it was drawing power.

We immediately disconnected the PSU from the wall before turning the rest of the house's power back on by resetting the RCD trip switch. We shut the laptop down and have not used it since (save to test prior to returning).

On inspecting the point where the mains cable goes into the transformer, several scorch marks can now be seen on the black plastic resulting from the mini explosion. Although having not checked it before the BANG, I could not definitely say they weren't already there.

Throughout this entire sequence of events (4-5 days worth), I had been in e-message contact with Laptops Direct about trying to return part of the item. They kept pointing me to the same roadblock of a returns page as a stock answer. I can't begin to express how obtuse and unhelpful the customer service was. I've experienced bad customer service before, but not on this magnitude; they were simply indifferent to anything I said.

I threatened them with a County Court Injunction to recover the money from the laptop. Still indifference resulted.

On the verge of issuing the summons, I thought I would have a look at their Facebook page and the penny began to drop. Review after terrible review of people being ripped of, shystered, customers treated with utter contempt. I urge you to go and see for yourself, it reads like an obituary of good customer service.

I realised that even the worst CS I had experienced in the past hadn't really been that bad.

I authored a post on their Facebook page informing them and others of the dangerous product they had sent me which had endangered both Theo and myself. This at least garnered a more interested response from someone called Tom (whom I suspect had had been one of the previously indifferent responders) offering an apology and free collection of the item.

Free collection...

Seriously?

They endanger the life/wellbeing of my son and myself and by way of an apology offer free returns?

Their product had arrived in a box stating it had been QC checked by someone called Shaun. It had little tick boxes prominent among which was 'PSU' with a firm tick in it.

Well, I think Shaun had been asleep that day.

I am now awaiting yet another response from them. They have 'escalated' my return which involves me carting the thing to one of their 'return centers'. My feeling on this is: they dropped it off at my door, they can pick it up from my door.

Readers of this blog will know that recently I dislocated my elbow completely, so in no way could I take a large parcel to a collection point even if I were inclined to do so.

I've left the collection matter with them and started a Paypal Dispute to recover the money (fortunately I paid through Paypal). If that fails I will simply have no option but to take them to court, something I was considering doing anyway for the dangerous state of the QC'd item they sent into my family home.

There is always the chance they will make good. We will keep you informed of the situation.

All opinions and comments are my own.

Paul Clarke 12.05.2014