Dabs
John Hunt
I bought a HD form Dabs, believing it to be a IDE UDMA drive as I'd used the
refine search buttons on their website, it was about the price I expected
but when it arrived, it was a Serial ATA drive. I've tried to return it but
they pointed out the specs (not on the main page) show it to be serial ATA
despite my invoice saying type of HDIDE. They refuse to accept the disc back
for a refund or swap because I bought it through a business account.
Am I stuffed? May be selling a 200Gb HD Serial ATA (unopened) if I am!
Anthony Cunningham
Do the Distance Selling regs apply to business accounts? If they do
then you can return in 14 days for any reason. If not, then you may
well be stuffed. This is Dabs we're talking about here and it's hard to
find a more useless bunch of clueless wanchors in business today. You
might try uk.comp.vendors for a second opinion and many stories
illustrating why you should avoid Dabs at all costs.
John Hunt
"Anthony Cunningham" <anthony.j....@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:1129906279.2...@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Do the Distance Selling regs apply to business accounts? If they do
> then you can return in 14 days for any reason. If not, then you may
> well be stuffed. This is Dabs we're talking about here and it's hard to
> find a more useless bunch of clueless wanchors in business today. You
> might try uk.comp.vendors for a second opinion and many stories
> illustrating why you should avoid Dabs at all costs.
>
Distance Selling doesn't apply to businesses so I may well be stuffed! I
tried to claim it was mis-advertised but they say it wasn't and the drive
ahs moved to the correct area. I've used them before a few times and they've
been fine, just this time a simple mistake and they pull this crap. The
drive is 100% sealed, I can see the words serial ATA through the bag. I
already have 2x250Gb SATA drives in the machine striped to give 500Gb (lots
of music in lossless fortmat to stream to a Squeezebox over the wi-fi), I
need this as my main IDE drive is failing and I can't add any more SATA
without buying some kind of PCI adaptor.
Graeme Wood
The fact that they expected you to go searching to another web page to
find out that the detailed spec didn't match what the order page said is
a pretty lame excuse on their part. Given that they have even invoiced
you for something which is other than they supplied is ample evidence
that they are on dubious ground.
Robert Sneddon
<johnmhunt@nospam.?.com.invalid> writes
> I
>need this as my main IDE drive is failing and I can't add any more SATA
>without buying some kind of PCI adaptor.
The adaptors are cheap enough -- I've got one in my main machine for
about the same reason as you've outlined although I was doped up with
cough medicine when I clicked "buy" and didn't notice the drive was a
SATA until it was too late.
I decided to make lemonade with the lemon and bought a PCI 2-channel
SATA card for about ten quid inc. postage. Works fine -- indeed I've got
a regular IDE drive with an SATA adaptor plugged into the same
controller since I'm maxed out on motherboard IDE ports.
Try www.ebuyer.com quickfind code 60614. UKP 4.41 inc. VAT.
--
My gmail account is nojay1 Robert Sneddon
Ian Johnston
<johnmhunt@nospam@johnmhunt.com> wrote:
> I've tried to return it but
> they pointed out the specs (not on the main page) show it to be serial ATA
> despite my invoice saying type of HDIDE.
If you have an invoice saying that it's IDE I see no reason for you to
accept an ATA drive. In my experinece they will fight like hell to
avoid anything like customer service, but bak down in the end. Keep at
the bastards.
Ian
Gordon Hudson
"John Hunt" <johnmhunt@nospam@johnmhunt.com> wrote in message
news:QY66f.159397$RW.1...@fe2.news.blueyonder.co.uk...
Dabs are a disaster.
I used them a couple of times and both times nothing arrived.
Both times I had real trouble getting a refund.
I have failed to find anywhere that is reliable and provides good quality
parts.
Maplin is the only one I have used recently. At least everything has arrived
on time and worked, although it tends to be slightly above average price.
Now that I have found that free edinburgh mailing list I can stop throwing
stuff in skips and hopefully find people who can use them.
Our turnover of hardware is frightening and only due to apparent
obsolescence (P4 1.5's are consiered too slow by customers now...)
Robert Sneddon
<gor...@usenet3.hostroute.co.uk> writes
>I have failed to find anywhere that is reliable and provides good quality
>parts.
>Maplin is the only one I have used recently. At least everything has arrived
>on time and worked,
I've bought a few things from Maplins (I live only a few hundred yards
from the Edinburgh branch). The main advantage for me is that if
something goes wrong with the purchase I can go back to the shop and get
it sorted out there and then, no hold music or unanswered emails and
weeks of back-and-forth. Always keep the receipts.
>
> although it tends to be slightly above average price.
You're paying for the retail premises and the personal service at
Maplins. Places like Dabs save on those costs and can skim the prices a
little lower because of that. Swings and roundabouts.
The cheapest places on-line I know are Ebuyer and Komplett. Sometimes
orders go wrong but I've always been able to sort them out. Record
everything about the order and you can unwind it if you need to.
>Now that I have found that free edinburgh mailing list I can stop throwing
>stuff in skips and hopefully find people who can use them.
>Our turnover of hardware is frightening and only due to apparent
>obsolescence (P4 1.5's are consiered too slow by customers now...)
Got any AMD XP CPUs you're tossing in the skip? I could use one just
now (1600XP -- 2200XP, one of the older Athlon models).
Ian Johnston
<gor...@usenet3.hostroute.co.uk> wrote:
> I have failed to find anywhere that is reliable and provides good quality
> parts.
> Maplin is the only one I have used recently. At least everything has arrived
> on time and worked, although it tends to be slightly above average price.
I sometimes use Maplin, but they have a rather small range of stuff,
and the three shops I can get to - Edinburgh, Glasgow St Enoch and
Glasgow Great Western Road - always seem to be out of things I want.
I normally use Rapid Electronics, with whom I have a friendly
relationship because I also spend 2k a year with them for work. Very
friendly people to deal with, and the one time I had problems - a PIC
programmer which wouldn't program a particular PIC - their technical
support was excellent.
Radiospares are also very, very good. Stuff arrives very fast and
their website has every spec sheet you could want.
Dabs is OK if you know /exactly/ what you want in advance, but
absolutely hopeless if you are trying to make a decision or if things
go wrong. A couple of years ago I bought a Toshiba laptop and docking
station for work through them. Although the docking station was for
exactly the same model and number as the laptop, it turned out to be
for an older and physically different version with the same details.
Would you, dear reader, suspect that the right docking station for a
Toshiba xxx model yyy was not the one saying "For a Toshiba xxx model
yyy" but the one saying "Toshiba ppp model qqq"? It took a hell of a
lot of searching on the Toshiba website to find out what was going on,
and that was after I knew there was a problem.
I had to threaten dabs with legal action and trading standards before
they grudgingly agreed to take it back.
Ian
Jim Mason
ian.g...@btinternet.com says...
> On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 10:06:28 UTC, "Gordon Hudson"
> <gor...@usenet3.hostroute.co.uk> wrote:
>
> > I have failed to find anywhere that is reliable and provides good quality
> > parts.
> > Maplin is the only one I have used recently. At least everything has arrived
> > on time and worked, although it tends to be slightly above average price.
>
> I sometimes use Maplin, but they have a rather small range of stuff,
> and the three shops I can get to - Edinburgh, Glasgow St Enoch and
> Glasgow Great Western Road - always seem to be out of things I want.
The Falkirk branch is well stocked and haven't they opened in Livingston
as well?
Jim
Ian Johnston
<jim....@spamtrappedukonline.co.uk> wrote:
> > I sometimes use Maplin, but they have a rather small range of stuff,
> > and the three shops I can get to - Edinburgh, Glasgow St Enoch and
> > Glasgow Great Western Road - always seem to be out of things I want.
>
> The Falkirk branch is well stocked and haven't they opened in Livingston
> as well?
The basic problem - for the sort of stuff I normally want - is that
their range of electronic components is pretty titchy.
Ian
--
Gordon Hudson
"Jim Mason" <jim....@spamtrappedukonline.co.uk> wrote in message
news:MPG.1dc448c42...@News.Individual.NET...
Yes, but I am lazy....
Jim Mason
gor...@usenet3.hostroute.co.uk says...
Can't be that lazy if you are visiting both the Glasgow and Edinburgh
stores ;-)
Jim
angus_...@hotmail.com
> The fact that they expected you to go searching to another web page to
> find out that the detailed spec didn't match what the order page said is
> a pretty lame excuse on their part. Given that they have even invoiced
> you for something which is other than they supplied is ample evidence
> that they are on dubious ground.
And Trading Standards:
http://www.tradingstandards.gov.uk/
I'd look at The Office of Fair Trading
Secondly, I'd just insist on getting referred to someone more senior --
in my experience, the 'customer-facing' staff at customer support often
don't have the authority or impetus to actually resolve anything.
Asking to speak to their manager often cuts out the crap. I did this
once with a well-known Internet book company, after getting pissed
around by their outsourced customer support for 8 weeks: the matter was
then amicably settled in /minutes/.
Angus
Ian Johnston
<jim....@spamtrappedukonline.co.uk> wrote:
> In article <435a42e2$0$38038$5a6a...@news.aaisp.net.uk>,
> gor...@usenet3.hostroute.co.uk says...
>
> > Yes, but I am lazy....
>
> Can't be that lazy if you are visiting both the Glasgow and Edinburgh
> stores ;-)
No, that's me!
Ian
Dave
<no...@nospam.demon.co.uk> somehow managed to impart:
Having lurked in this thread since it started, this is the only
stress-free, pragmatic solution I've seen.
I've bought loads of stuff from Dabs over a few years for personal use
and on the one occasion I had to return something a (2.5 inch HDD) it
was replaced promptly.
Dave.
2500 hi-resolution photos especially Edinburgh
* No advertisements * http://www.henniker.org.uk
* délété david to use email address *
Iain Rae
and dispute the transaction, otherwise I'd go down the trading standards
route.
Ironically enough about the time you were posting your original message
I was returning a 300Gb IDE drive to Ebuyer.co.uk which they'd sent in
place of a 300Gb SATA drive.
Iain Rae
I've tried Ebuyer and they've generally been good
, they have one problem with their returns policy though.
The full Ebuyer returns procedure is given below - please follow these
instructions carefully:
...
We recommend you use a traceable and insured delivery agent to return
the items to us. ie:
Recorded Delivery or Special Delivery via Royal Mail. Postage up to a
maximum of £5.00 will
be refunded for any Damaged/Faulty or mis-shipped items. Please ensure
the postage receipt is sent
with your return.
Jim Mason
ian.g...@btinternet.com says...
Apologies - night-shift addling the brain.
Jim
Gordon Hudson
My office is within walking distance of the Livingston shop and I still buy
online and have it posted to me from Essex.
I doubt you will find a better example of laziness in theis news group.
John Hunt
"> How did you pay, if by credit card you may be able to contact your card
> and dispute the transaction, otherwise I'd go down the trading standards
> route.
>
> Ironically enough about the time you were posting your original message
> I was returning a 300Gb IDE drive to Ebuyer.co.uk which they'd sent in
> place of a 300Gb SATA drive.
I bought a PCI adaptor from Ideal for GBP20 and after some hassle where I
had to fiddle with the BIOS to get it to boot from the new SATA drive, it
eventually worked then I realised that because the BIOS used the built in
RAID at one point to try and boot unsuccessfully, it created a boot
partition on my 2x250Gb striped drive(s) and I couldn't see any data....I
knew Partition Magic would fix it but my download was on that drive along
with my backup.... In the end, I booted from the failing drive (6.5 hours of
chkdsk and bad CRC errors later) and copied over most of what I needed and
fortunately PM was one of the few programs still working and fixed the 500Gb
drive! Just reinstalling everything....
Ebuyer was cheaper than Ideal but after the previous fiasco with Dabs I
popped down the road and bought the controller and had it within 30 mins of
leaving the house.
I did tell Dabs I just wanted to exchnage the drive, not get a refund but
they didn't give a flying.... That's them on my blacklist!
John Hunt
>
> I did tell Dabs I just wanted to exchnage the drive, not get a refund but
> they didn't give a flying.... That's them on my blacklist!
just found this from Dabs after I finished restoring mailwasher pro....
Thank you for your enquiry.
As a gesture of goodwill in this instance we will accept your returns
request, subject to a £36.00 (+vat) re-stocking charge, which is necessary
to cover our admin fees. Note that the return must also be in A1
re-stockable condition. Please confirm that this is to your satisfaction
and we'll proceed.
Thank you and regards,
dabs.com customer services team
www.dabs.com
I take back nothing I said about them! The drive was only GBP55 or so!