Problems With Dixons & DHL

[Guest SimonGre]

STILL waiting for mt Advent Vega, ordered last Tuesday.

Because Dixons decided to sit on it for 2 days after telling me it was packed and ready to go (I assume because I didn't pay their extra for postage and opted for the 5 day option), I needed to change my delivery address. Simple you would think.... But not.

Phones DHL on Saturday once it dawned on me that Dixons had purposely stalled, and that there was now going to be nobody in to sign. DHL said because it was a high value item, I had to contact Dixons. Fair enough....

Phones Dixons, spoke to a bloke called Ian, who confirmed that there was plenty of time to change the address to my work address, and it would be delivered to my work on Monday, he said he would email DHL the new address... Job done.....

Monday comes and goes, card through the door when i get home..

Phones DHL, according to them, there is nobody in at the weekend, and emailing them is pointless, all emails are deleted on Monday morning when they come into work (!!!!!!). Need to phone Dixons and get them to resend, but they couldn't actually tell me what safeguards were inplace to stop the same thing happening again...

Phones Dixons, explains the situation, they send another email....

Tuesday comes and goes, card through the door when i get home..

Phones Dixons again, lady confirms they have record of my previous two calls, and the fact people there have emailed DHL. Puts me on hold and speaks to DHL, DHL say they have no record of any previous emails (who is lying????) and can't do anything over the phone, and that she needs to email them the new address....... (like that has helped so far!!!)

Lets see what happens tomorrow, I pretty much resigned myself to it not turning up at work, and having the final card through the door, and which point, they can stuff it, i'll get a full refund under distance selling regs and hang out for a budget Honeycomb tablet.

EDIT: As predicted, they failed to sort this out for a 3rd time, it got sent to the wrong address for the 3rd time, and I have now instructed DHL to return to DSG and I'll get a full refund under distance selling regs (Dixons confirmed this). I don't think I haver ever encountered such incompetence, and I certainly won't be wasting my time with Dixons in the future.

How difficult can it be? Answer: If the usless twats at DSG/DHL are involved, VERY.....

Edited June 4, 2011 by rickywyatt

[Guest rose840]

I'd have collected it from the depot.. I hate waiting for stuff lol

[Guest SimonGre]

I'd have collected it from the depot.. I hate waiting for stuff lol

I would too, but it's a 60mile round trip to my "local" DHL depot.....

I would take a day off work to sign for it, but I can sell a day back to the company for more than the tablet is worth!

Edited April 5, 2011 by SimonGre

[Guest .stu]

I would too, but it's a 60mile round trip to my "local" DHL depot.....

I would take a day off work to sign for it, but I can sell a day back to the company for more than the tablet is worth!

On the other hand I ordered mine last Wednesday and got a card through the door yesterday, so rang the mobile number the driver had written on it. He was very helpful and between us we arranged for him to leave it at a local business who kept it for me until I picked it up. This was so that I didn't have to wait another 2 days or so that it would take for it to go back to the local depot (25 miles away) so that it could be redirected to my work.

[Guest montage]

If your mr I can bill the company more than the tablets worth for a day roth child.... why cheap out on 5 day postage and not expect them to ship it same day.. this is a classic case of the butterfly effect.

[Guest SimonGre]

As sure as night follows day, they have screwed things up for the 3rd day in a row.

Despite promising (again) to contact DHL and change my delivery address, item was still attempted to be delivered to my home.

Phoning them up and rejecting the goods under DSR. Will wait for a budget capacitive honeycomb tablet. It clearly wasn't to be....

[Guest JamJarST]

On the other hand I ordered mine last Wednesday and got a card through the door yesterday, so rang the mobile number the driver had written on it. He was very helpful and between us we arranged for him to leave it at a local business who kept it for me until I picked it up. This was so that I didn't have to wait another 2 days or so that it would take for it to go back to the local depot (25 miles away) so that it could be redirected to my work.

Sounds similar to my experience. Got home last night at 7 and there was the card with Mobile number from DHL, phoned it on the off chance the depot was still open and it turned out to be the the DHL driver who let me pick it up from his house at 7:30 at night, could not be happier.

[Guest .stu]

As sure as night follows day, they have screwed things up for the 3rd day in a row.

Despite promising (again) to contact DHL and change my delivery address, item was still attempted to be delivered to my home.

Phoning them up and rejecting the goods under DSR. Will wait for a budget capacitive honeycomb tablet. It clearly wasn't to be....

I don't know why you keep phoning Dixons to get DHL to redirect your package - once the parcel has left their warehouse there is little Dixons can do about it, apart from call DHL on your behalf. However, it is much easier to phone DHL yourself, either by calling the number printed on the card, or if the driver has left his mobile number, calling the driver directly. Alternatively you can arrange to have the parcel redirected online (just "google DLH redelivery" and enter the details from your card).

[Guest SimonGre]

I don't know why you keep phoning Dixons to get DHL to redirect your package - once the parcel has left their warehouse there is little Dixons can do about it, apart from call DHL on your behalf. However, it is much easier to phone DHL yourself, either by calling the number printed on the card, or if the driver has left his mobile number, calling the driver directly. Alternatively you can arrange to have the parcel redirected online (just "google DLH redelivery" and enter the details from your card).

You would have hoped. But DHL refused to change the address. Dixons marked it as non-changable due it being a high-value item.

I'm not an idiot, phoning DHL (both the central number and the "local" 60 mile away depot) was my very first thing I tried....

Either way, with Honeycomb tablets now coming at at £100 more, and likely a better display, I think I made the correct decision.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Bluetooth-Wir...6634&sr=8-1

Worth mentioning, I confirmed with Dixons, if I contact DHL and return to sender, I would get the full £199 refund, so nothing lost but my time....

Edited April 6, 2011 by SimonGre

[Guest GabbaGabbaHey]

Either way, with Honeycomb tablets now coming at at £100 more, and likely a better display, I think I made the correct decision.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Acer-Bluetooth-Wir...6634&sr=8-1

That's a 7 inch tablet, not a 10 inch, so not really a realistic comparison.

[Guest SimonGre]

That's a 7 inch tablet, not a 10 inch, so not really a realistic comparison.

They do a 10.1 as well, but it's obviously more expensive. However it was more apoint as to how the prices of Android tablets will plummet with every man and his dog making them.

The Vega needed to be £199 six months ago.

[Guest warriorscot]

Because of the increase in manufacturing of tablets the parts are cheaper now than they were last year so charging £199 would have been pushing it back then. They cost like £14-70 to manufacture so charging £200 last year would have really cut into the profit margins. Not to mention you pay extra for being an early adopter. I have had a tablet since the end of November whereas the alternatives are only recently being sold and cost more.

[Guest .stu]

They do a 10.1 as well, but it's obviously more expensive. However it was more apoint as to how the prices of Android tablets will plummet with every man and his dog making them.

The Vega needed to be £199 six months ago.

Why not link to the 10.1 tablet then? Or does the fact that it is twice the price spoil your argument? Thing is when your playing angry birds it makes no difference if your on GB or HC. Ok the screen could be better on the Vega but you can't say its not great value for money. Personally I think it will be a while before the prices drop like you think and then there will be quad core tablets out...

[Guest SimonGre]

Why not link to the 10.1 tablet then? Or does the fact that it is twice the price spoil your argument? Thing is when your playing angry birds it makes no difference if your on GB or HC. Ok the screen could be better on the Vega but you can't say its not great value for money. Personally I think it will be a while before the prices drop like you think and then there will be quad core tablets out...

I'm guessing there will be budget 10.1 Honeycomb Tegra2 tablets, with proper market, a decent display wifi-only for £299 by then end of the year.

[Guest .stu]

I'm guessing there will be budget 10.1 Honeycomb Tegra2 tablets, with proper market, a decent display wifi-only for £299 by then end of the year.

That's a long time to wait tho and the Vega will easily have HC by then.

[Guest SimonGre]

Thankfully, I know where I WON'T be ordering one from. DSG can go take a hike. I don't care if it's DHL's fault, Dixons should have taken responsibility to sort it out.

I'll shop online with more reputable sites like Amazon in future..

[Guest ViPaSoft]

I'm sure they will be cheap tablets in a few months. But I don't speak chinese and have no interest in buying direct from chinese companies. They've always been available anyway, [look on ebay £70 ish for tablets, ok not High spec or HC/GB]. But if something goes wrong, 'who ya gonna call', [might as well be Ghostbusters].

I am happy at paying a reasonable price to buy, [ok a Chinese manufactured], tablet from a retailer whom I can refer back too if I have problems.

I used to have an Archos, A70HT bought direct from Archos, [customer service lousy]. and an Archos A70IT, bought from Dixons. Customer service, excellent.

[Guest warriorscot]

I'll shop online with more reputable sites like Amazon in future..

You think the carrier they use will be any better? Every time with Amazon for me has been DHL or parcelforce which is even worse than DHL. Really you were stuck by the fact that it's a high value item the added security makes things more complicated. And carriers are either like DHL that is so automated its difficult to make changes once something goes through or like parcelforce with so much red tape nothing can get done.

Shipping is just a mugs game, if you don't get it right the first time its impossible to fix things mid way it almost never works on seller or carrier end. Lesson here is you should have canceled the order and made another to the different address. Or don't be a skinflint and pay for the faster shipping, the 5 day shipping is actually different as it gets picked up differently and handled differently than an express package which is why it sat for two days(actually luck of the draw on that).

[Guest SimonGre]

I'm now pretty convinced the fault lies almost totally with my "local" (60mile away) DHL branch - Yeovil - Somerset. Every time they were involved, it went wrong.

Contacted DHL to return the parcel to sender, and the DHL automated system directed me to a phone that just sat their rining for 10 minutes before someone picked it up and then put it straight back down again.

Repeated the automated DHL thing again and got through to (persumably) the same number, rang for a couple of minutes and then answered by someone clearly fromt he Yeovil branch of DHL, I requested the parcel be sent back to sender and he asked for the tracking number.

Parcel tracking was still showing awaiting my instruction this morning, so i'm guessing actually doing something about it was not his job..... Contacted DHL again today via a different number and repeated the procedure, lets see what happens tommorrow, i'm guessing the returning of the Vega I will be dealing with a similar level of gross incompetence that the outward journey encountered...

I would like to get a full refund before my creditcard statement comes out....

Strangely, I got the best response all week from DSG today, now it's far too late..... They actually SEEMED to care that between them and DHL they have right royally screwed things up, and were genuinely concerned that DHL emails on weekends were falling into a bottomless never answered hole....

If it means they sort these problems out in future, it may mean someone else gets to benefit, but as mentioned, it's way too much grief for me to ever consider shopping with DSG online again.

[Guest dragon2611]

How difficult can it be? Answer: If the usless twats at DSG/DHL are involved, VERY.....

I think that's a little Harsh on DSG, presuming of course the C/S reps had indeed done what they said they'd done and contacted DHL as requested

If DHL really do make themselves that difficult to contact and then on top of that just ignore the request anyway I'd say it's them who are the useless twats.

Sorry if that seems like a rant, but it's unfair to be calling the person who just happened to get your call to be labeled as a useless twat when it sounds like they did as much as they could with the tools available to them to assist you.

[Guest SimonGre]

I think that's a little Harsh on DSG, presuming of course the C/S reps had indeed done what they said they'd done and contacted DHL as requested

If DHL really do make themselves that difficult to contact and then on top of that just ignore the request anyway I'd say it's them who are the useless twats.

Sorry if that seems like a rant, but it's unfair to be calling the person who just happened to get your call to be labeled as a useless twat when it sounds like they did as much as they could with the tools available to them to assist you.

Well no, Dixons should have known that DHL throw weekend emails in the bin on Monday morning, after it all going wrong the first time, they should have done something different to ensure it worked correctly the 2nd and 3rd times, rather than just repeating and hoping for the best.

It's about owning the problem, and at no point did Dixons actually OWN the problem...

[Guest dragon2611]

Suppose it depends how info the csr had available to them at the time and if they are actually given sufficient autonomy to make a desision for themselves or are just firced to follow a script.

Also depends if they actually gave a crap.

[Guest montage]

Do you think they care about you or your 199.. go rant on a consumer information forum.. not on the vega forum on how your tablet will be much better in 8 months time.. big deal I've got mine now!

[Guest SimonGre]

Do you think they care about you or your 199.. go rant on a consumer information forum.. not on the vega forum on how your tablet will be much better in 8 months time.. big deal I've got mine now!

Wasn't actually 8 months. I'm now sporting a Asus Transformer Honeycomb 3.1, and it's fantastic, as either a tablet or a netbook configuration. Thanks to Dixon's utter incompetence, I saved £199 on the Vega, so I sold my existing netbook and bought the transformer, actual cost to me: £50.

Thank you Dixons, A lucky escape, as without your utter incompetence, I would have been stuck with a Vega, which whilst being a bargain at £199 is really a legacy Android tablet.

Needless to say, I didn't buy the Asus Transformer from Dixons...

[Guest ViPaSoft]

Wasn't actually 8 months. I'm now sporting a Asus Transformer Honeycomb 3.1, and it's fantastic, as either a tablet or a netbook configuration. Thanks to Dixon's utter incompetence, I saved £199 on the Vega, so I sold my existing netbook and bought the transformer, actual cost to me: £50.

Thank you Dixons, A lucky escape, as without your utter incompetence, I would have been stuck with a Vega, which whilst being a bargain at £199 is really a legacy Android tablet.

Needless to say, I didn't buy the Asus Transformer from Dixons...

That's a real bargain at £430ish. So much cheaper than the Vega! Ok slightly better specs, but £230 better.....?

Actual cost to you £50. Hmm, you didn't buy the netbook originally then, and probably made a slight loss selling it. Oh, and you didn't save £199 on the Vega, you actually didn't buy it.

So cost to you £249+netbook sale.....real bargain...