Sheenie’s Blog

This time yesterday I was fuming.  Today my mood has swung to one of much relief after I put my blogging skills into practise with a complaint letter addressed to the CEO of a huge electrical retailer.  Dixons to be exact.

About a month ago I purchased a netbook (a mini laptop for the technological challenged) through Dixons’s website.  It was considerably cheaper than in-store plus delivery was included.  Besides, if my saviour John Lewis sold this brand, I’d have not hesitated about going straight to them.

The laptop was delivered quickly, I excitedly plugged it in and started to slowly build up its content with programs and ditching Internet Explorer for Firefox.  One day later and these horrible lines appeared on the screen – like dead pixels.  AFTER ONE DAY!

The only option was to ask for an exchange or a refund except it wasn’t as straight forward.  Dixons do not allow products to be returned to their shops if bought online.  It’s the reason why their online prices are lower in comparison to their store prices.  So I had no choice but to telephone their after sales number to arrange for the item to be returned. Argh!  A pain and half that was.

I was promised DHL would collect the laptop from an address of my choice – either home or work so I chose the latter.  This was arranged to take place 11 days ago.  When I called Dixons to find out when they’d be refunding my money (nearly £300), they couldn’t trace it.  Well, I wasn’t surprised when I found it was still sitting in the collections depot at my work place!   Cue me calling Dixons again and being forced to go through the same, lengthy procedure of arranging a collection again, which they promised to do on the same day.  Of course they didn’t show up again!

So I stormed home, fuming and instead of firing off a letter which would end up on some random person’s desk, I emailed the CEO of Dixons.  It saved me a trip to the post office, queuing up during my lunch hour and paying for a letter to be sent by recorded delivery.

Today I received a grovelling phone call from the head office, and coincidentally, my laptop was finally collected too.  A refund usually takes a few days but 20 minutes later, I received an email confirming my money had been returned to me.  Still, it’s taken almost a month to sort out and put me off buying from Dixons again.  Head office failed to explain why they employ such incompetent staff though.

I am the queen of writing complaint letters but I hate doing them to begin with.  It’s a crutch ache to plan, prepare and write one, and include evidence to back up your argument plus you have to remember not to be rude and aggressive but firm and polite.  If retailers pull up their socks and provide a high quality service, it will save me so much bother complaining about when they bodge things up.

Some don’t have a clue about treating customers well.  I had a bad experience with online clothing site ASOS.com who sold me a duff coat which was cream coloured with red lining.  The label’s instructions said it could be washed in the machine so I did and the coat turned pink.  ASOS requested I return it to them for a refund but it took an eternity to get my money back.  ASOS claimed they never received the coat and yes, I obtained proof of postage.  I wrote several emails to the rude prick representing ASOS and eventually sought advice from Consumer Direct before ASOS turned around and miracuously discovered the coat was with them all along and swiftly gave me my money back.

This was about two years ago and I’ve never bought from them since.