ASA slaps Ebuyer AGAIN - this time for ignoring regulator

The snag with this next day free delivery is that

The snag with this next day free delivery is that the courier they use for it is Yodel (or at least it has been every time I've tried it; like Amazon, they seem remarkably reluctant to tell you up front who will be used for shipping any given order).

And even if you understandably don't ever want to use Yodel again (I'm one of many who don't), last time I shopped at eBuyer I couldn't find a way of stopping my order being "upgraded" to next day delivery via Yodel. Even though I was willing to pay for proper next day delivery.

What's the next level below Toothless Tiger?

Initially I thought this was the next version of Ubuntu, but the ASA is beyond even that and could thus be described as Utterly Useless.

I used to spend a decent amount of money with Ebuyer until a few years ago when I tried to return a faulty HDD. After spending significant time providing evidence that the drive was faulty and less than 6 months old I was refused a replacement.

No reason was given and a refund was forced on me despite asking for a replacement item. HDD prices had increased since I purchased the drive and despite them being able to get a replacement from the manufacturer they were unwilling to entertain just replacing the faulty goods. All legal apparently, but poor customer service from my perspective.

I've not purchased from them since, will not again and try to dissuade friends and colleagues.

Woeful customer service

Ebuyer is a nightmare to deal with, they don't bother getting back to you and when they do they invariably tell you porkie pies (e.g. refunds cannot be given until an item lost by the courier is returned to them) or just fob you off. I try to avoid dealing with them wherever possible and when I have to (sometimes they are the only place that still has an item in stock), I make sure that I have brushed up on consumer law. Novatech on the other hand have excellent customer service and have therefore become my first port of call.

Another unhappy Ebuyer customer here.

It's their business model.

I believe the customer service address for ebuyer is....

https://www.moneyclaim.gov.uk/web/mcol/welcome

At least it turned out to be that the last two times I had a faulty product from them.

Won both cases - won't be buying from them again.

"staff wearing Xmas jumpers... stood in front of a board rating those that had managed to prevent the most customer returns."

I was pleased to see that photo as evidence that I'd done my end of the customer experience inititive well. They sent my parcel out, it arrived on time and had in it an extra item. A nice little 8 port powered USB hub. I tried to email them to arrange a return but they didn't want to know. So I kept it.

And another...

I stopped using eBuyer after they charged me about £10 for "next day delivery" and took 4 days to deliver. They refused to offer a refund of the delivery so have lost me as a customer for ever.

Oh blast them

Hello Charles, Edgar here, hope you and the good lady are well, sorry to bother you but one of those quango come lunch clubs I am involved with is having a bit of bother, seems one of their crew they look after is being a bit recalcitrant, not standing to attention questioning orders and such, I wondered if you knew anyone in their local lodge? Could all be a bit messy if the hoi polloi get hold of this and start asking questions like “who gets paid as part of this Standards Authority? if they have none of the later and minimal of the former”, if you see what I mean. I think this Rebuyer or whatever must have shareholders and they must have planning needs, legal and tax advice etc, I'm sure there must be some way we can come to an arrangement what?

Never had a problem with Ebuyer and am happy to recommend them

When DABS were bought (and immediately ruined) by BT in 2006, I turned to Ebuyer as an alternative supplier. I've had a huge number of orders of varying values and had no problem at all with their returns service or customer service department.

The problem I feel is that people only notice service when it's bad and there will have been problems for some customers. But the "majority" of service from Ebuyer is good or at least satisfactory, at least in my experience. The margins for IT tech suppliers are so lean (and we all benefit from lower prices) so you can't really knock them for trying to limit their returns to the genuine problems.

I recommend Ebuyer to everyone I know. And no I don't work for them or anything related to that. I just like Ebuyer as a supplier and wanted to balance all the other posters who have had problems...

PS. DABS have improved of late, which can only be a good thing.

Ebuyer: bunch of numpties.

Last year, as a test, I ordered a couple of video cards from Ebuyer on economy delivery.

5 days after taking my money the order hadn't been dispatched (parts were listed as in stock the entire period), so I cancelled it.

It took them another 28 days to actually refund.

First, last and only order. I don't deal with companies which operate like that.

Ebuyer - Probably the worst online retailer I've dealt with

I've used ebuyer before... quite a few times. But out of the 6 times I've purchased from them and with each order normally being in excess of the £100 mark... 50% of those orders have encountered issues... and 100% of the customer service staff have been ignorant, unhelpful and/or downright rude.

1: The graphics card that turned up was not the one ordered and delivery (which was 2 days late) was refused. Had to fight for a refund which took a further three weeks.

2: Hard drive that failed after 10 days and which they denied they were responsible for, even had a member of their staff suggest I was trying to fob off an old on them until I offered to send him a pic of the serial numbers that proved it was manufactured just a couple of months earlier (according to the manufacturers website). Tried to tell me I had to go to them for a replacement... until I started quoting the exact parts of the sale and supply of goods act to them and making sure that they knew I was aware of the law and in fact obviously knew more than them.

3: Monitor that they claimed had been sent and was delayed due to problems with their courier... had not in fact been sent at all and their staff couldn't even get their stories straight giving me three different versions of events in an order that would have been impossible to happen in real life.

They deactivate peoples accounts out of spite if they complain, they try and report people on forums if they say things against them... So I fully expect their down votes on this comment.

The true measure of any company is what they do when things go wrong... and ebuyer have failed entirely in that regard. As such I have never spent another penny with them... even if they were cheaper. I would rather spend more with a company I know for a fact gives much better customer service... Like aria, scan... hell even amazon have a top notch customer service dept in my book. ebuyer are a joke outfit and I will gladly point people to their competitors and inform them not to trust ebuyer at all.

A simple guide of a good company is the ease of contact. If you have to jump through hoops to locate a regular phone number (not premium) then shop elsewhere.

I have bought from Ebuyer for over 10 years but they lost me as a customer two months ago when they charged me a restocking fee for returning an item that was misdescribed on their website even though I returned it within 7 days. They said I was a business customer and so not covered by Distance Selling Regs. Possibly true but it's not the way to treat a long-term customer.

Instead I use Dabs whose service has always been good and are usually cheaper too.

Quite amazed...

...to see so many negative posts about ebuyer, though admittedly I've never had cause to look for any before now.

I've used them for probably 90 % of my orders (freelance IT support) over the past 10 years and I can' remember a problem with the company. I think I've had a couple of returns but no problem dealing with them either. In fact I've just had a look and find the last problem was only 1 of 2 items ordered arriving. This was sorted within a week with them apologising and sending out the missing one. That was in Feb 2009...

As for DABS... My only recent experience (haven't used them for years) was a client ordering 4 4TB WD Enterprise class drives from them. They arrived not terribly well packed with one drive packed quite differently from the others. Within a week 1 failed, within another 2 weeks another failed. Trying to get them replaced has proved a nightmare. I considered the first failure to effectively be DOA but they refused to accept this.