Are they allowed to do this?

C

CeRRaNo

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It's a bit of a double post but I'd like some opinions on this.

I bought an LCD 2032GW from PC Zone (www.zones.co.za). Now apart from their service generally being paltry, I was unamused that it comes with a UK POWER SUPPLY

When I called to ask them about this "mistake", the salesman informed me that this is how they come shipped....what the heck! I told him well the least you could have done is informed the customers, to which he responded with the same quip, that is how they come shipped (it seems this is now a get out of jail card to them). When I asked for a swapout he refused. Then he told me to cut the firggen cord and buy a 3 prong and put it together myself.

Is it just me or is this unacceptable? The bare minimum is to inform the customer of that, surely we cannot be expecting an adapter that you cannot use without an international converted or diy! I'm unimpressed! What do you guys think?
 
Well...no laws are forcing them to put "some assembly required" on boxes or what power adaptors are provided...guess its down to levels of service
 
Eish, standards seem to be dropping there of late .... I got a USB printer at Xmas and there was no USB cable in the box .... phoned and they told me the same thing about how "it's shipped like that". Not amused. See if there is some sort of false advertising route somehow.
 
Mephisto_Helix said:
Eish, standards seem to be dropping there of late .... I got a USB printer at Xmas and there was no USB cable in the box .... phoned and they told me the same thing about how "it's shipped like that". Not amused. See if there is some sort of false advertising route somehow.
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First printer I've got was an Epson LX300

No data cable, only power cable.

It is all part of a cost-cutting excercise. Why supply the customer with a data cable if the customer already have his own?

Remember, a thousand data cables add up to some extra overheads.
 
Mephisto_Helix said:
Eish, standards seem to be dropping there of late .... I got a USB printer at Xmas and there was no USB cable in the box .... phoned and they told me the same thing about how "it's shipped like that". Not amused. See if there is some sort of false advertising route somehow.
Click to expand...

Lexmark and HP boxes have a clear indication on the Box ( no cable included )
 
Mephisto_Helix said:
Eish, standards seem to be dropping there of late .... I got a USB printer at Xmas and there was no USB cable in the box .... phoned and they told me the same thing about how "it's shipped like that". Not amused. See if there is some sort of false advertising route somehow.
Click to expand...

So I'm not the only one... Did you give them a mouthful M_H? To be honest, the price was quite good and if I was informed I would not have been too phased, but this is pathetic. It's like an underhanded backalley tactic to save a few bucks.

The power cable has plastic coverings on the connectors, so when I looked at it in store I couldnt even tell. Only once I opened it at home. Service levels are going down there. Not to mention some serious racism by some staff, but not all.
 
Well rectron at one stage was doing the same and never informed their customers either.

Very poor but asking for a refund is a tad over the top, you can go to your local hardware find a plug or just put a 3 prong on, it's not very hard.

I have yet to see a printer come with a usb cable.
 
Happens to me with tons of components and units I buy. I keep a steady stock of three prong plugs at home to replace them. Just a fact of life. As long as they don't get snotty about me replacing the plugs.
 
The USB cable thing started when GREEN first started, most companies have spans and spans of usb cables lying around, so they stopped including them cos it is a waste.
 
killadoob said:
Well rectron at one stage was doing the same and never informed their customers either.

Very poor but asking for a refund is a tad over the top, you can go to your local hardware find a plug or just put a 3 prong on, it's not very hard.

I have yet to see a printer come with a usb cable.
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I have plugs, plenty of them, I have other power cables that fit, that is not the issue.

I didn't ask for a refund, I asked to swap the cable for an S.A cable that's all. That's quite reasonable if you ask me. Why should the customer suffer.

We will never get first world service levels if we keep assuming the position and taking it from retailers.
 
stoke said:
If they force you to purchase UK -> RSA power adapters with the product, will you be happy.

I suspect you'll just be happy if they had warned you.
Click to expand...

Happier yes, but happy if they mod the cable themselves. They're not pushing thousands a day to make that prohibitive. It's good service. Or if you wanna have crap service at least offer the guys who are peeved swapouts...
 
CeRRaNo said:
I have plugs, plenty of them, I have other power cables that fit, that is not the issue.

I didn't ask for a refund, I asked to swap the cable for an S.A cable that's all. That's quite reasonable if you ask me. Why should the customer suffer.

We will never get first world service levels if we keep assuming the position and taking it from retailers.
Click to expand...

Actually, it happens in other countries as well... so we are not unique in this. I've even had it happen to me in the USA. India and the Far East is the worst... you get all kinds of weird plugs there. I normally don't worry about it if I am getting a good deal on the item. To me if that is what it took to bring that item into South Africa at that price, then so be it.

Buy a bunch of plugs in bulk from your hardware... and ask yourself... "five minutes after death will I still be worrying about this?"
 
Garyvdh said:
Actually, it happens in other countries as well... so we are not unique in this. I've even had it happen to me in the USA. India and the Far East is the worst... you get all kinds of weird plugs there. I normally don't worry about it if I am getting a good deal on the item. To me if that is what it took to bring that item into South Africa at that price, then so be it.

Buy a bunch of plugs in bulk from your hardware... and ask yourself... "five minutes after death will I still be worrying about this?"
Click to expand...

The issue is not the plug mate, I thought we been through that.

Anyway, your comments on other parts of the world, I tend not to agree I've worked abroad as well, UK , Dubai etc and I have never had that happen to me. In fact I've never heard of it happening to anybody overseas.

I agree with the price, but at least inform the masses. Not everybody like us have cable stashes. It's the inconvenience it could potentially cause.
 
In principle they really shouldn’t be doing that. Other than annoying the Cr@P out of the customer it just looks shoddy. We are in SA not the UK, so don't sell UK compliant products. But yeah, just go and get a 3 prong and stick it on. Pain in @ss but what can you do. :rolleyes:
 
Look they bring in the monitor's with these plugs, the makers of said model use one plug world wide, imagine the costs involved of worrying about South africa and packaging 3 prongs just for us or africa. Makes no sense. I understand your issue but just feel that 5 minutes and a 3 prong plug and your sorted. They have such good pricing that 5 minutes putting on a plug is not that long.
 
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