It’s not often that we find a technology company with such terrible service that we feel the need to advertise it to our reader-base, but on this occasion, we saw a serious need to expose the terrible practises that are at bay.

This personal story below is printed as-is from a personal blog and is not the opinion of Sporkings.com. No, our opinion of Overclockers is much lower than this;

It all started with a ~£300 graphics card. Me being me, I had to get hold of a GeForce 9800 GX2, back in April ’08 – when they were the first graphics cards to offer 1gb of memory. The card promised ridiculous speeds.

Unfortunately what I was not to know at the time, was that this graphics card suffers over-heating problems. Of course it’s well documented now but that’s the price we pay for being early adopters.

The graphics card has always been a bit iffy, when used for long periods of time. Recently it got so bad, that after 20 minutes of heavy-load usage, the card would simply cut out altogether – forcing me to restart the system in order to get the display back.

After checking when I purchased the card and finding out it was still within the two-year warranty, I sent the card off for repair via an RMA at the retailer: Overclockers. This was my first mistake. If you learn anything from this post, know that you should always send products for repair directly to the manufacturer, that way you skip the man-in-the-middle.

Overclockers informed me that they had checked the graphics card and had indeed found it to be faulty. They mention that they had returned the card to the manufacturer on my behalf “for repair or replacement” and that I should receive it within 28 days. Well over a month went by, so I contacted Overclockers for an update on the status. Their reply was utterly shocking;

At first I assumed this was a mistake, how on Earth can a £279.99 graphics card incur a £12.00 refund? So I called Overclockers to find out – after all, there was no explanation with this e-mail.

Overclockers informed me that the manufacturer couldn’t repair the card and didn’t supply a replacement, so Overclockers have refunded me the cost of one month’s warranty, which is all that was remaining on the product. Now I may be wrong, but it was my understanding that if a product is within warranty, it should be either repaired or replaced with a similar product of equal value. The graphics card is still being advertised on Overclocker’s website, at £211.49. The customer support personal refused to budge and passed me to his manager ‘Chris’, who offered the same sentiment “The refund has been issued now, there’s nothing more we can do”.

I requested the cheapest graphics card that Overclockers offer, one that retails at £34.99, as a good will gesture to a disgruntled customer. Chris informed me that he has followed policy, and it’s of no interest to him whether the customers are happy and that he has no interest in good gestures or even positive PR for that matter. Unhappy with this resolution I reminded Chris that my PC is useless without a graphics card, and could he at least return my broken graphics card – I would earn more from the parts than this measly £12 refund. Chris refused to return the product to myself – at least the card worked for daily use, even if it meant I couldn’t play games or use any apps with a heavy/3D load, that’s a better compromise than no card at all. The only compromise Chris would agree to, was that he would ask his manager about the good will gesture, to offer me a graphics card at a value of less than £35 (double the silly refund offer), although he made it clear “I wouldn’t bother, personally, if it was up to me. We’ve stuck to our policy”.

Chris got back to me with this response: “I’ve spoken to my manager and basically he said he feels after what we’ve already done he doesn’t think he should be giving somefing[sic] for nothing”. That’s it then. No repair or replacement (as promised in the original e-mail), not even a refurb. Just about enough cash for travel card to a decent PC/Tech store.

Our main problems with this story are;

• Overclockers original e-mail promised a repair or replacement, at no point was a refund offered.
• When refund was initiated, there was no explanation from Overclockers – consumer had to contact them directly.
• Customer Support ‘Managers’ had no regard for customers.
• A goodwill gesture would have cost OCUK maybe an extra £10, yet they refuse to care about customers who have spent literally thousands of pounds on their website.
• The informal tone of Customer Support ‘Managers’ and lack of professionalism is disgusting.

And the moral is… stay well clear of Overclockers and always send your faulty goods directly to the manufacturers for repair or replacement. Most manufacturers offer free upgrades on products they no longer service.

UPDATE: We’ve just got word from Trading Standards:

Under the Sales of Goods act 1979, the goods were not fit for purpose (as verified by OCUK themselves). If they cannot be repaired, the item must be replaced like-for-like.

The buyer has refused the refund, and has written a letter to OCUK stating the above. Overclockers now have 14 days to replace the item. If they fail to do so, the buyer and Trading Standards will take matters further.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress.