Play.com customer service

[Brausch]

Anyone else having problems with Play.com? I spent £130 on a box set which was packaged in a half sheet of bubble wrap and a plastic bag. Unsuprisingly the Royal Mail bashed it to hell. I've been waiting five days for an authorisation return email that should be sent out within 24 hours. Phoning just gets the constant "I'm sorry all our agents are busy". Bloody useless.

[endian675]

I've never had a problem in many years of using them. Had to do some returns a couple of Christmases ago, which went as smoothly as can be.

[girliedrinker]

I've used Play since 2000, albeit not as much as some here, I'm sure. I've never had a problem... until just now. At the beginning of October I ordered a 4GB SD card for my camera as I was going on holiday in November. It was despatched on 17th Oct, come 7th Nov, the day I go on holiday for a month. The eagle eyed members of this forum will notice that I left 21 days after despatch. Play have a policy of only investigating failed deliveries after 21 days.

So I get back last week expecting to finally see it on my doormat... nope. Just called them but according to the girl I spoke to "because you didn't report it after 21 days and 56 days have passed now there's nothing we can do apart from assume you've received the order". As I'm a non-argumentative type (that and the SD card only cost £17), is this right? If it's now 56 days, what's the cut off? What if I'd ordered something of significant value that I couldn't write off? If memory serves, the despatch date was around the time of the postal strikes, so don't Play want to hold Royal Mail accountable? I guess they've had my money so they don't care.

Is there anything I can do that doesn't involve getting angry at their innocent customer service operatives?

[FF99]

Have just had a 37" Samsung TV delivered today which has the rather flimsy outside packaging intact but a chunk knocked out of the casing around the screen.

Have requested an RMA and will be interested to see how they deal with this.

Has anyone else had this sort of fairly major issue with them ?

I suppose that there is always the CC company if Play won't play ball !

[Clemo7023]

FF99 watch out mate. Recently had a similar problem with a Samsung 37" which was delivered with a faulty stand. Called Customer Services and they sorted a courier to come and collect for it to be returned and to 'test' the fault. Courier came as agreed but wasn't Parcelforce (who delivered it) but some white van man. Was concerned so called Play 2 days later to check it had been returned and that the courier was 'kosher'. Was informed it had been received back and that they don't use Parcelforce for returns larger than 32". Have been waiting for the delivery of the replacement for over a week (admittedly it was temporarily out of stock) but after contacting them yesterday my account has been suspended and there is currently a 'high level investigation' as they opened the box to find that there was a plank of wood in there instead of the faulty TV!!! When they'd checked to see if it had been received back (as per my phonecall) they had only confirmed the barcode on the box rather than the contents. Can't believe it took them 8 days to check what was inside.

Currently in contact with their Customer Services to try and rectify this as the TV was in the box when it left my house.

My advice would be to ensure you reseal the box securely, maybe even use some kind of security seal to ensure it doesn't get tampered with is transit. Probably best to check the couriers details and make a note as looks like he's the guilty party in my dispute (I've still only got my battered 28").

Also a bit annoyed with Play.com for their lack of contact and their procedures. I have been using them for the last 4 years with no problems but this is the first item over £50 I've bought off them. Will let you know how the investigation goes. Keep on expecting Jeremy Beadle (showing my age) to jump out and tell me it's all a wind up.

Hope this helps.

[nwgarratt]

I have spent thousands with them since 1999 but now rarely use them. I haven't used them for anything apart from DVD's and small items. What I don't like is they expect us to pay for postage to return stuff back to them. They then refund the postage but only up to a certain amount. If the postage is anymore, the difference is not refunded.

[Slave.Of.Tommy]

I know this is an old thread, and hate to drag back to life, but can anyone tell me which courier play uses for large TV's? I have ordered a 52" Samsung, and there is no tracking number, yet it is apparently being sent special delivery. I immediately thought of Royal Mail, yet they don't take anything near as large or heavy. Any idea who it is?

[Davy]

I ordered Season 6 of 24 back in January - it never arrived. They resent it (according to the web site) automatically on 8th Feb, (over a week ago), without giving me the option to cancel or reorder. This one has still not arrived.

What's this about, if you don't tell them after 21 days they assume you've received it and there's nothing they will do about it?

Can you email them - I can't find an address, only a telephone number.

I reckon they haven't even sent it, but just keep trying to fob me off 3 weeks at a time. Anyone else ordered Season 6 of 24 from them and actually received it?

[bosque]

Play com have been exemplary whenever I've had to return anything and have always replied on the same day to any email queries.

[eternaldark]

I ordered season 6 of 24 as soon as the £17.99 offer showed, and received it a couple days later.

Only ever had 1 disc not turn up (out of literally hundreds and play were fantastic about resending)

[reevesy]

...had a portable dvd player for 8 months before it went pete tong.....play gave a full refund as it was no longer stock so i was happy enough with them.

[lp/mk]

I have over £70 in my playtrade account at the moment, but can't touch it!
I called them to find out why, I was told that I had entered 10 digits not 8 in my account details, and to send them a message to service@play, and they would activate it within an hour, did as asked, waited 3 hours and nothing, So I called again, this time I was told it would take 24 hrs.
The following day still nothing, called again, only to be told that I would have to wait 21 days becouse I had changed my details!!! WHAT the details were the same and have been for well over a year, if anything the extra digits would help confirm my account info surley. I cant beleive that I was blatently lied to twice, the goods have all been delivered, yet I have to wait almost a month to be able to use my funds. I wouldn't mind so much but I was going to use them at PLAY, screw them will transfer and close my account.

Rant over!!!!

[Davy]

Well I finally did get my long awaited disc. After a lengthy phone call, where I wasn't getting anywhere - the guy just kept repeating himself saying I had to wait 21 days. Damn 21 days, I 've been waiting 31 days, I kept trying to tell him. Eventually I insisted on speaking to a manager. Well done Johnny at Play.com YOU actually realised that I hadn't received the discs and re-ordered it for me - it turned up 4 days later.

A word of warning. Only on the third time of 'ordering' did I actually get the automated email from them re the order. So if you don't get the email, odds are you wont get your discs - no matter what the web site is telling you.

[thelastboarder]

Just had to return a couple of things to them today. I find its quickest to phone them as nothing seems to happen if you log the return via the website.

I have found them to be pretty quick on both delivery and returns as long as you phone them

[y2k]

Its not play who have the 21 day policy its royal mail, as with anything that has been sent in the post royal mail say that you have to wait a certain amount of time before they will investigate or give a refund, I had to wait 30 days a few months ago to get a refund from another online retailer because royal mail said it could be lost in their system.