Caseking.de Acquires Overclockers UK

[deadmansclick]

Well I won't buy a thing off them any more. The rma is terrible & not 2 years or more ago as being said. I spoke to a member of staff with in the last year & he was out & out rude.

I have spent plenty of cash with them over the years & the prices jumping about wasn't an issue for me. I alway shop about. But having to deal with a faulty product my first 1 ever with them left a very bad taste in my mouth.

The member of staff coming on here & posting his comments to me just sums up what sort of company they are.

 

[Therion_I]

A couple of months ago I recomended a Logitech G500 gaming mouse to a colleague and told him to buy through OCUK. It was dead on arrival so he RMA'ed it and sent it back to OCUK. They promptly returned it to my colleague, said no fault found and raised a charge on his credit card. The mouse was still DOA but having now paid over £50 for a £35 mouse my colleague was reluctant to send it back to OCUK. I suggested sending it to Logitech who promptly sent him a brand new mouse and an appology because they found the fault but OCUK still refuse to refund the charge raised against my colleagues credit card.

I now shop at www.aria.co.uk who have mostly comparable prices.

 

[qubit]

A couple of months ago I recomended a Logitech G500 gaming mouse to a colleague and told him to buy through OCUK. It was dead on arrival so he RMA'ed it and sent it back to OCUK. They promptly returned it to my colleague, said no fault found and raised a charge on his credit card. The mouse was still DOA but having now paid over £50 for a £35 mouse my colleague was reluctant to send it back to OCUK. I suggested sending it to Logitech who promptly sent him a brand new mouse and an appology because they found the fault but OCUK still refuse to refund the charge raised against my colleagues credit card.

I now shop at www.aria.co.uk who have mostly comparable prices.

Yup, they're just as bad as ever. No change there. 'Getting better.' Sure.

www.novatech.com are pretty good too and have excellent customer service.

 

[Deleted member 24505]

I just hope it will lower OCUK's prices a tad. I have bought a lot of stuff from OCUK and have never had a problem with RMA's or anything else.

 

[vega22]

this is good news for us as ck have saved ocuk and will bring us better prices due to their bigger buying power than anybody else in the uk forcing prices down more. what this means for other retailers mentioned already is another matter :/

hey andy long time mate. losing battle this mate as they will drag you down and beat you with exp.

 

[Andrew Moore]

this is good news for us as ck have saved ocuk and will bring us better prices due to their bigger buying power than anybody else in the uk forcing prices down more. what this means for other retailers mentioned already is another matter :/

hey andy long time mate. losing battle this mate as they will drag you down and beat you with exp.

Haha I've noticed I shall live and learn

 

[btarunr]

this is good news for us as ck have saved ocuk and will bring us better prices due to their bigger buying power than anybody else in the uk forcing prices down more. what this means for other retailers mentioned already is another matter :/

I'd like to look at this a little differently. Caseking basically wants to get into selling hardware components (CPUs, motherboards, graphics cards, etc.,) while OCUK wants the early-access to inventories of cases and cooling products that Caseking manages to secure. OCUK is an established hardware retailer brand, and Caseking is a [more] established casing/cooling/power/modding brand, so each of the two has something the other doesn't, even though this is an acquisition and not a merger. I don't really think Caseking can do much about UK prices. It will leave it to the OCUK guys to price their products according to market conditions in the UK. UK is a whole different economy from mainland Eurozone economies (Germany/France/Spain), and as such you can't expect the German guys to do much about GBP prices, any mismanagement there could tank the company's UK operations.

Also, I don't think OCUK is the only "evil" UK store with "evil" prices out there. Remember Scam.co.uk's 600 GBP price for HD 7970? That one got me in splits.

 

[KoRnMaN]

I go by my experience and i can say i have used ocuk for most of my builds and never ever have a single problem with them.
I also have used scan.co.uk until I purchased some headphones from them that were faulty. Sent them back and after speaking to there rma staff various times they couldnt seem to find a problem with them.
The sent them back to me and claimed they couldnt give me a refund or send me a new set as they couldnt fault them but when i received them the problem still persisted and to make things worse they charged me for reposting them to me. I was furious!

I will never use scam.co.uk again if i can help it.

And that is how it goes. Everyone has there experience so everyone has a diferent opinion.
In my eye ocuk is a great company much better than most of them and dont think they can be much better than what they already are.

 

[qubit]

I go by my experience and i can say i have used ocuk for most of my builds and never ever have a single problem with them.
I also have used scan.co.uk until I purchased some headphones from them that were faulty. Sent them back and after speaking to there rma staff various times they couldnt seem to find a problem with them.
The sent them back to me and claimed they couldnt give me a refund or send me a new set as they couldnt fault them but when i received them the problem still persisted and to make things worse they charged me for reposting them to me. I was furious!

I will never use scam.co.uk again if i can help it.

And that is how it goes. Everyone has there experience so everyone has a diferent opinion.
In my eye ocuk is a great company much better than most of them and dont think they can be much better than what they already are.

So what was wrong with the headphones?

 

[Frick]

LOL @ the above by A Moore. i may live in a different country (Canada) but at my local parts store, the prices are almost ALWAYS the same day in, day out. After a quick check, the prices are the same give or take $10 on 7970s as they were on the first day my store had them http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=43_557_558&sort=0&brand=0&price=2&location=0

So in my opinion, the supply and demand doesn't float here. OcUK is infinitely bigger than Canada Computers, yet OcUK cannot have a stable pricing on a new product.

How do they do that? Prices here fluctuate. It's how things work. And offers that lasts only a week or a day or so is very very VERY common. VERY VERY VERY etc and I don't see how that is a bad thing at all.

 

[KoRnMaN]

So what was wrong with the headphones?

The were razer(so not cheap) 5.1 headset. At the time i think they cost me something like £80. The problem was the front speakers of the 5.1 headset flickered and went off and on and was very anoying. I tried it on varios computers that i have at home and was confirmed as a problem with wiring/volume controler. When you moved it seemed to make it flicker on and off.

When i spoke to someone at scan i explained all of various times and basically they wouldnt confirm if they were testing with 5.1 or 2.1 but as far i I know they ony tested it on 2.1 therefore only 2 speakers on either side of the headset would be used instead of the 3 on either side for the 5.1 effect.

Made me angry knowing they were faulty and kinda put me off both scan and razer products

 

[Halk]

I fail to see why OcUK have to justify their pricing policies and price changes.

I've found OcUK to be a bit expensive, and they don't do a price match, or at least not when I've asked.

Their customer service was horrific several years ago, but improved when they put web notes in.

As to them deliberately putting the price of something up so that they can later decrease it and advertise it as a huge discount... I don't know to be honest, maybe they do. Prices do fluctuate though. Components will be done on a JIT inventory and without exception are imported. You can't compare it to many other forms of retail.

It never fails to surprise me though when people are so utterly economically naive. Companies exist to make money, that's the long and the short of it. They operate within the law as it is enforced. But for some reason people think companies owe them a living.

Perhaps Caseking will be looking to shift more product than OcUK, I generally browse there but end up buying elsewhere. If Caseking want to make sure I go back to shopping at OcUK (I first shopped there in 2002, but generally haven't since 2010), then they need to put some kind of price match, or discount policy in place so that it's not worth my time looking elsewhere.

 

[AlienIsGOD]

How do they do that? Prices here fluctuate.

don't ask me, all i know is that when im pricing stuff out, the price is either the same as when i first looked at it or lower. I visit that site every single day, so im pretty good on remembering pricing. i know the fine print says prices mat change without notice, but i have shopped there now for over 10 years and all i know is i don't see prices increase after a product comes out (id even be willing to go down there and talk to the manager about pricing in relation to some of these UK and US sites RAISING their prices after a product comes out)

 

[Frick]

don't ask me, all i know is that when im pricing stuff out, the price is either the same as when i first looked at it or lower. I visit that site every single day, so im pretty good on remembering pricing. i know the fine print says prices mat change without notice, but i have shopped there now for over 10 years and all i know is i don't see prices increase after a product comes out (id even be willing to go down there and talk to the manager about pricing in relation to some of these UK and US sites RAISING their prices after a product comes out)

That can happen here as well. It all depends on what product it is, demand and supply and all that jazz.

How are other stores people frequent? Say some big ones in the US and in Europe? It would be interesting to have more info on the subject.

 

[qubit]

The were razer(so not cheap) 5.1 headset. At the time i think they cost me something like £80. The problem was the front speakers of the 5.1 headset flickered and went off and on and was very anoying. I tried it on varios computers that i have at home and was confirmed as a problem with wiring/volume controler. When you moved it seemed to make it flicker on and off.

When i spoke to someone at scan i explained all of various times and basically they wouldnt confirm if they were testing with 5.1 or 2.1 but as far i I know they ony tested it on 2.1 therefore only 2 speakers on either side of the headset would be used instead of the 3 on either side for the 5.1 effect.

Made me angry knowing they were faulty and kinda put me off both scan and razer products

Oh yeah, I'm not surprised. Faults are usually intermittent like that and sometimes don't show up for ages. On top of that, they never show up when a technician is looking at the item.

This is all the excuse they need to deny you warranty. They either pretend they didn't see the fault, or know about a design fault that "they all do this" and there's a recall on it, but keep quite about it, hoping the customer doesn't know about the recall. I've come a cropper in such situations, too and I was livid.

In your case, it sounds like there's a broken solder joint there, a simple little fault and quite irritatingly common. Of course they "didn't notice it". If it had happened to me, given my past experience, I would have made sure that the fault stops being intermittent, but stone cold solid, so they can't BS their way out of giving me warranty. That's what I did when I was initially denied warranty and it worked. I recommend you do the same, or repair the broken solder joint yourself, but certainly don't put up with it.

 

[chaotic_uk]

great another uk company in foreign hands

 

[KoRnMaN]

great another uk company in foreign hands

thats exactly what i think. wonder why that subject hasnt come up yet

 

[qubit]

great another uk company in foreign hands

thats exactly what i think. wonder why that subject hasnt come up yet

I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It all depends on how well the new owners run it. I'd love them to reform it. I would then be able to stop boycotting it and my choice of suppliers would widen. Let's face it, there aren't all that many of these specialist computer retailers in the UK.

 

[Halk]

deny you warranty.

Going off on a little bit of a tangent, but since this is a UK thread.... we do have the Sale of Goods Act, and in many cases you are best using that rather than the warranty.

Warranties are optional for retailers/manufacturers and they can put any terms and conditions they like on them.

However the warranty cannot replace the Sale of Goods Act, and if a product is faulty then it's the retailers duty to fix it. I find it helpful to start off by saying I'm not claiming under the warranty, and that I don't want them to mention the warranty, I'm claiming under the Sale of Goods Act.

Anyone reading this thread who does ever run into warranty problems (especially if they claim the warranty is voided by something or other) should have a look at the Sale of Goods Act to see if it can be used.

 

[qubit]

Going off on a little bit of a tangent, but since this is a UK thread.... we do have the Sale of Goods Act, and in many cases you are best using that rather than the warranty.

Warranties are optional for retailers/manufacturers and they can put any terms and conditions they like on them.

However the warranty cannot replace the Sale of Goods Act, and if a product is faulty then it's the retailers duty to fix it. I find it helpful to start off by saying I'm not claiming under the warranty, and that I don't want them to mention the warranty, I'm claiming under the Sale of Goods Act.

Anyone reading this thread who does ever run into warranty problems (especially if they claim the warranty is voided by something or other) should have a look at the Sale of Goods Act to see if it can be used.

That's some good points there and I'll keep them in mind, but remember my point wasn't that they won't honour a warranty as such, but that they pretend that the product isn't faulty, thereby pretending that there's no warranty claim to be made. A sharp practice, if ever I saw one.

 

[chaotic_uk]

I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. It all depends on how well the new owners run it. I'd love them to reform it. I would then be able to stop boycotting it and my choice of suppliers would widen. Let's face it, there aren't all that many of these specialist computer retailers in the UK.

of course it's a bad thing look at other firms that are owned outside of the uk , it's just like the elec prices keep going up and nothing you can do either because they are owned out side of the uk

 

[Halk]

That's some good points there and I'll keep them in mind, but remember my point wasn't that they won't honour a warranty as such, but that they pretend that the product isn't faulty, thereby pretending that there's no warranty claim to be made. A sharp practice, if ever I saw one.

That's much harder to deal with, sadly. That's where you'd have to get someone independent to verify the fault and then chase after the retailer, possibly through court. Still worth it to mention the sale of goods act, because that's what you'd take them to court to pursue. However they'd get away with it in the majority of cases. I once went to trading standards about OcUK because they were hiding behind a warranty on a Xerox monitor. I was left dealing with a third party appointed by Xerox to handle warranty replacements and I'd spent weeks without a monitor, sadly Trading Standards weren't really able to do much, and I had received the replacement monitor before they'd gone anywhere with the case. They were aware of Overclockers, so I wasn't the only person to have gone to Trading Standards about them. That was however at least 5 years ago.

 

[Shovinus]

I will say as a staff member myself of OcUK that deals with RMAs, I am very sorry if you have had a genuine problem in the past that due to it having been our policies I have not been allowed to give help on, CKs views and policies are far far better for the customer than Marks were.

The new policies already put in place give us far more power to help customers than before, there have been times I have been almost crying for a customer because of not being in a position to help, but this will all change.

It used to be the worst job I had had, now it is awesome, I am not here to give PR, my main purpose is actually to reach out to any of those that have had bad experiences and ask you to talk to me and I will try and fix them where I can. No-one has asked me to do this, I might even get told off, but I am finally free to help instead of hinder, so I want to use that power for good.

Don't go thinking we wanted to be bastards to you in returns, we really really didn't, hell it only made us depressed, but now its a completely new ethic as the new rules are past down from a company that has made its name in Germany and even all the way over to here for offering some of the best customer service and value around.

If any of you want to contact me please feel free to message me on here and I will try and get back to you as fast as I can (My colleague is on holiday for 2 weeks mind so I will be a bit overloaded but I will try to catch up after work)

Have a good day everyone