Esquire - poor service

[Dade Murphy]

Just my opinion on Esquire here: I made my first purchase from Esquire today. Ordered several parts from Esquire in Midrand, one which was a PSU which was only in stock in Durban with only 1 unit left. I spoke to a very polite sales rep Fathima from the Durban branch who organised the part to be shipped to the Midrand branch at no extra cost to me. Great service so far.

 

[Joe_M]

Just my opinion on Esquire here: I made my first purchase from Esquire today. Ordered several parts from Esquire in Midrand, one which was a PSU which was only in stock in Durban with only 1 unit left. I spoke to a very polite sales rep Fathima from the Durban branch who organised the part to be shipped to the Midrand branch at no extra cost to me. Great service so far.

I have been dealing with Esquire in Midrand and Milnerton branch for over 12 years and had nothing but great service from them , sure there will be issues but I think that we as the clients also need to be reasonable as from what I just read from Richard Watters comments they did try and find a solution by contacting the suppliers and looks like they have found a solution , Sahara, Rectron and even Mustek would have just given you a credit without making any effort and shrug it off as an incompatibility issue and btw good luck with IC let's see if you come right with them as I seriously doubt it .

 

[Fudzy]

Richard, why was there no mention on your website that the RAM may not be compatible with certain laptops using the same specs?

Have you ever come across a dealer website that states what RAM modules are compatible with which models? Usually that information is available from the manufacturers website. Seeing as Esquire now have this information on hand, it would be good if they updated it but they needn't go on the unrealistic and expensive effort of checking the compatibility of all their products.

 

[akescpt]

I think esquire has come to the party here. They offered the client a solution. Can't make him take it I'm afraid. Good to know about this nonetheless.

 

[House]

What did Google tell you about the compatibility or did you not check before buying?

I did check and should have been compatible.

how exactly are esquire at fault here?
its not their fault you live 80km away
did you specify the extra memory is for the laptop and ask if it is compatible, no you just ordered online.
why didnt you check the memory while you were there the first time when you collected?

Wasn't necessary, as the RAM did match the specs of the laptop.

That is quite crazy. Lets see if the esquire guy responds in this thread. Wouldnt it be better if they delivered it to you overnught if it is that far?

I live more than 50km away, so delivery would have been R300. R150 petrol is better.

I think esquire has come to the party here. They offered the client a solution. Can't make him take it I'm afraid. Good to know about this nonetheless.

They probably did, but not with me. My client was with me at Esquire. He was on his way back to Pietermaritzburg, but after about almost 3 hours (with no answer or proper assistance) we had to leave.

My client was willing to take the loss on the useless RAM.

Besides at the end of the day, I only recently decided to make use of Esquire. I helped a few of my clients and spent only about 20K at Esquire.

I had great experience before, but after this incident I am no longer willing to deal with them anymore. I have started a project for a client in replacing 70 desktop PC's. I am glad this happened, I cannot imagine the s**t I would have had to go through Esquire had this not happened.

Decided to take the business elsewhere. The client will pay thousands more, but explained the situation and they are willing to pay more in order to prevent future problems. I am all for this.

 

[House]

Have you ever come across a dealer website that states what RAM modules are compatible with which models? Usually that information is available from the manufacturers website. Seeing as Esquire now have this information on hand, it would be good if they updated it but they needn't go on the unrealistic and expensive effort of checking the compatibility of all their products.

I agree.

However, the only thing that pi**ed me off about Esquire where I feel they have scammed me, is the fact that the technicians already knew about the compatibility issues.

The technician told me this even before he checked it. In fact, he told me that the 'people above' wouldn't believe him. This was clear when he was told to get 2 more ram units and check them as well.

So, Esquire had a number of returns and complaints about the specific ram units. They knew about this, but did not listen to their tech staff. They kept selling the units.

 

[HavocXphere]

They sell components. They don't sell components guaranteed to work with other hardware.

That being said, getting a faulty HDD replaced also took quite a bit of petrol money. In fairness Esquire did offer to courier it after the 2nd trip - I decided to decline because I don't like other people transporting my HDDs if possible. (Every seen a courier drop-kick a package? - check youtube).

 

[Fudzy]

I agree.

However, the only thing that pi**ed me off about Esquire where I feel they have scammed me, is the fact that the technicians already knew about the compatibility issues.

The technician told me this even before he checked it. In fact, he told me that the 'people above' wouldn't believe him. This was clear when he was told to get 2 more ram units and check them as well.

So, Esquire had a number of returns and complaints about the specific ram units. They knew about this, but did not listen to their tech staff. They kept selling the units.

This wasn't raised by the Esquire Purchasing Manager, does this mean the tech was lying to you or to him? Or do you think he was omitting this?

 

[House]

They sell components. They don't sell components guaranteed to work with other hardware.

That being said, getting a faulty HDD replaced also took quite a bit of petrol money. In fairness Esquire did offer to courier it after the 2nd trip - I decided to decline because I don't like other people transporting my HDDs if possible. (Every seen a courier drop-kick a package? - check youtube).

I am with you and have no problem with that. Also had to return a Mede8er at one time, which also cost money, but I have no problem.

But, selling a product a company knows have problems with is a problem for me and a dangerous company to deal with.

 

[House]

This wasn't raised by the Esquire Purchasing Manager, does this mean the tech was lying to you or to him? Or do you think he was omitting this?

Fudzy, when the lady called the Tech guy from behind, I handed him the RAM slot. He had a look at it and told us immediately that this is a compatibility problem - in front of the reception lady. He said he had many returns and complaints and he reported it upstairs as a compatibility issue. He also said they did not believe him.

He then took the ram and went to the back.

I did not think it was a compatibility issue, as the ram did not work in 3 different laptops the first time. I thought it was faulty.

They then replaced it and I asked them if I could check it. I entered the replacement and that did not work either.

The tech guy again called the manager and told him again that it was a compatibility issue. The manager (Richard) on the phone did not believe him and told him to get 2 more ram units from the store, which the tech guy then did.

Again, neither worked.

The manager (Richard) was not at the office. We asked to see him but they said he was out. At some point in time they could not get hold of him and we waited for more than 40 minutes to get some feedback.

In this time the tech guy told us again that he suspects compatibility issues.

 

[House]

I just want to mention that I would not have posted this here on MyBB if it had been a simple compatibility issue or even a simple non-functioning RAM unit. The reason I have posted this here is the fact that Esquire is not honest in their business practices. Point.

I have no problem losing the odd R400 for the RAM and the petrol having to go back. This is not money to me.

But, if there is someone who cares about R600 or R700 they should know what to expect when dealing with Esquire. This is what pisses me off.

 

[Joe_M]

Is Kingston manufactured by Esquire:wtf:, and do they only sell one brand or one model of notebook ,IMHO your complain is getting a bit tedious now, what are you trying to justify I am sure many other notebooks work with that ram maybe not yours or that model as Richard pointed out in his response and they have offered you a solution what more do you want, I deal with Graham and Treslin almost every week and never had an issue with them

 

[HavocXphere]

I am with you and have no problem with that. Also had to return a Mede8er at one time, which also cost money, but I have no problem.

But, selling a product a company knows have problems with is a problem for me and a dangerous company to deal with.

Fair enough - one should distinguish between faulty & incompatible though. Which it is I'll leave up to you to decide. Sounds like a bit of both from your description, but I can't really tell based on the limited info.

Is Kingston manufactured by Esquire:wtf:,

No

 

[House]

Is Kingston manufactured by Esquire:wtf:, and do they only sell one brand or one model of notebook ,IMHO your complain is getting a bit tedious now, what are you trying to justify I am sure many other notebooks work with that ram maybe not yours or that model as Richard pointed out in his response and they have offered you a solution what more do you want, I deal with Graham and Treslin almost every week and never had an issue with them

Again, like I said before, there was no solution made to me. The woman at the reception told us that we can buy another compatible ram unit, but would cost us R400 more. That was apparently the only unit they had in stock.

At this time we still waited for the tech guy to get hold of Richard to hear what should happen. This was almost 3 hours since we have arrived there.

We left as my client had to return to Pietermaritzburg. By that time noting was said, other than me leaving with the RAM. I also read the post of Richard here for the first time. They did not speak to me nor did anyone call me.

Fair enough - one should distinguish between faulty & incompatible though. Which it is I'll leave up to you to decide. Sounds like a bit of both from your description, but I can't really tell based on the limited info.

I don't know myself. What I do know is that the RAM unit I currently have with me did so far not work on 9 different laptops I could get my hands on. All keep dying with blue screens when booting up. The same happened to the first unit I received on 3 laptops.

So, I have yet to find some laptop on which the RAM could work.

 

[NomNom]

Considering your extensive effort to try it on various laptops I would have to say that I believe the RAM doesn't work and that it's a dud.

There's also the posibility that Esquire received a bad batch

I agree with this.

Based purely on specifications the RAM should work, even RAM that is not listed on the supported/tested list should work if it is DDR3.

 

[sajunky]

Based purely on specifications the RAM should work, even RAM that is not listed on the supported/tested list should work if it is DDR3.

Not true. It was in the past (and probably happens again) that older motherboards did not accept new memory modules. As example: premium chipset i440BX (for PII/PIII CPU's) did not accept memory modules with certain internal configuration. It was typically showing for 255MB modules. It was very difficult to find working 256MB modules for my Asus P2B mobo. From the specification modules were 100% compliant, but internal architecture was different, a new memory chips were used.

I am pretty sure it is the same story here, judging from a fact that:
a) it is a premium memory brand, and
b) laptop is quite old.

 

[House]

Not true. It was in the past (and probably happens again) that older motherboards did not accept new memory modules. As example: premium chipset i440BX (for PII/PIII CPU's) did not accept memory modules with certain internal configuration. It was typically showing for 255MB modules. It was very difficult to find working 256MB modules for my Asus P2B mobo. From the specification modules were 100% compliant, but internal architecture was different, a new memory chips were used.

I am pretty sure it is the same story here, judging from a fact that:
a) it is a premium memory brand, and
b) laptop is quite old.

I remember that from years ago. It was ****ty! I really do not hope this trend has returned. It is going to be a nightmare.

 

[sajunky]

I remember that from years ago. It was ****ty! I really do not hope this trend has returned. It is going to be a nightmare.

Question is whom we should blame for:
a) memory chip manufacturers for new memory chips,
b) memory modules manufacturers for using new and better memory chips,
c) laptop chipset manufacturers,
c) laptop manufacturers,
d) laptop distributors (who are to pickup the problem first),
e) Esquire manager who didn't listen to his technician,
f) VAR's for not checking memory if works at the counter (this is from the end user perspective).

 

[House]

Question is whom we should blame for:
a) memory chip manufacturers for new memory chips,
b) memory modules manufacturers for using new and better memory chips,
c) laptop chipset manufacturers,
c) laptop manufacturers,
d) laptop distributors (who are to pickup the problem first),
e) Esquire manager who didn't listen to his technician,
f) VAR's for not checking memory if works at the counter (this is from the end user perspective).

Still do not know what the real problem is. still can't get the ram to work on a laptop.

Unfortunately, from my point of view its solely Esquire. They knew about the problem but rather ignored it as money kept coming in. In the process many people bought unusable RAM. This is blatant dishonesty.

Good luck for anyone still dealing with them. Hopefully the same will not happen to you.

 

[za1]

Still do not know what the real problem is. still can't get the ram to work on a laptop.

Unfortunately, from my point of view its solely Esquire. They knew about the problem but rather ignored it as money kept coming in. In the process many people bought unusable RAM. This is blatant dishonesty.

Good luck for anyone still dealing with them. Hopefully the same will not happen to you.

Nonsense, you ordered the items online, did you call them and say I want to buy this Acer laptop and can you recommend which memory to buy to upgrade? No you didn't.

As soon as you brought it back the technician informed you they had have compatibility issues, take it up then with Kingston or Acer.

Money kept coming in....yeh Im sure Esquire are raking it in from selling a few memory modules.:erm: