Used products from Specialtech?

[jamesriley94]

Hi,

Made an order from specialtech that came in this week.

The order was for a watercooling set up for the CPU with the waterblock, rad, res and pumps, along with all the alphacool fittings. Also there were 2 bitfenix fans with the order.

Now,

1 of the alphacool fittings has clearly been used. They all came in their packets, but this one had a cut through the plastic, and under close look of the fitting itself, if has the watermarks on the inside which surely shows it has been used.

Also, one of the Bitfenix fans is the same story. Both came in the boxes, one came with the screws and the lighting adapter cable, whilst the other came with no screws, no cable, and from closer examination of the fan itself, the screw holes in the fan have already been threaded, meaning screws have been put in, so it has already been used.

Overall, I'm not particularly happy about this. If it was the case with the waterblock or a big part I'd have sent it back, but 1 fitting and a fan are hardly worth the postage.

Last week also, I got Mushkin RAM from Aria. he story here was the same as with the Alphacool fitting, with the sliced open packet, but obviously with RAM there's no markings to suggest it has been used, but I hardly think anyone would have made the effort to open a pack of RAM just to look at it.

I just dont think it's particularly good of any company to do this to their customers. Maybe list the product as open box and sell it for £1 cheaper or something, but I'm sure there are laws about this? It's not exactly worth the effort to make a complaint to trading standards, but I thought it was worth a small forum rant.

Anyone else had the same experience?

Anyone think I should complain?

Kind of doesnt do themselves any favours as I'm less likely to order from these companies again. All just seems to be short term profits these days and no long term goals.

 

[SieB]

I have ordered from ST a few times and never received a used item. I wouldn't be happy about it if I did though, so I can see where you are coming from. Best thing to do would be contact them and chat to them about it.

 

[Perturabo]

Like you say, probably not worth the postage sending anything back but I would definitely complain. Especially about the fan as you may need those parts...Even if they are in perfect condition you paid for new parts and thats what should be sent. It might have been an error but still, complaining might get you something.

 

[jamesriley94]

As a little update, they did reply to the email saying they'd give me 20% off the products that arrived in the 'used' condition. So I'd get £2 back, which is something I guess...

Also - order from ebuyer for a mate, started his build today. NZXT Hale82 arrived with a mounting screw thread gone, so no screw could go into that, then the fan screws inside the psu half way out, so the fan was not secured properly, and worst of all the warranty void if removed sticker clearly punctured with a screw driver! Seem to have been very unlucky with orders over the last couple of weeks.

 

[Pr3d4t0r]

I can somewhat understand aria even though they do are a good company, but for specialtech to do something like that its really awful, im pretty sure both companies are big enough to care of such matters and you should report them either way, maybe someone within the company is doing some dirty work behind the scenes.

 

[TheOneHalf]

oh wow that is really terrible man =\ you are unlucky

 

[JazmaN]

With aria they could have been Ex display. But god knows with ST, i tend to avoid them mainly because of delivery costs. Bujt i would also be a bit annoyed if that happened to me

 

[jamesriley94]

With aria they could have been Ex display. But god knows with ST, i tend to avoid them mainly because of delivery costs. Bujt i would also be a bit annoyed if that happened to me

Still for any company any 'ex-display' products should not be listed as new.

I just cant understand why small companies would do it. It's not like they have any monopoly powers or anything, if they dont give me a good service then I'll just go elsewhere and they lose business. I cant really imagine the customer base of a company like specialtech is broad, I'm guessing it's only a couple of hundred people that order regularly, and so they should do everything in their power to ensure they come back, as let's face it, half of us buy new stuff every month!

I was going to order a £400 delivery from specialtech a few weeks ago but didnt because I found them unhelpful on the phone, and when trying to ask for advice, their response was more of, put the order in online, and write a note asking us to change it if something's out of stock or if we think something else is better... Didnt really help when I didnt have the first idea what to order :lol:

 

[JazmaN]

Still for any company any 'ex-display' products should not be listed as new.

I just cant understand why small companies would do it. It's not like they have any monopoly powers or anything, if they dont give me a good service then I'll just go elsewhere and they lose business. I cant really imagine the customer base of a company like specialtech is broad, I'm guessing it's only a couple of hundred people that order regularly, and so they should do everything in their power to ensure they come back, as let's face it, half of us buy new stuff every month!

I was going to order a £400 delivery from specialtech a few weeks ago but didnt because I found them unhelpful on the phone, and when trying to ask for advice, their response was more of, put the order in online, and write a note asking us to change it if something's out of stock or if we think something else is better... Didnt really help when I didnt have the first idea what to order :lol:

Agreed about the Ex display part. I had similar issues with ebuyer, i used to love shopping with ebuyer, but i had 2 issues with them in a row when looking for a new GPU and decided to leave it. Scan and Aria it is for me now. I used to use overclockers uk but my grandad bought an MSI laptop a week before kaseking took over them and they sent him a uk model with a US keyboard... they havent responded to his RMA ticket or his phonecall, and that was 3 or 4 months ago...

Its a shame how tiny little things like that can put you off a company I think i only ever ordered one thing off ST, it just not worth it unless you are making a large order.