SCAN.co.uk charges

[Papillion]

thought I would let fellow AVForum members aware of the horrendous charges that Scan.co.uk charge for returns (RMAs) that they find to be not faulty.

i recently sent a HDD drive back which I found to be faulty, they (Scan.co.uk) tested it and found it not faulty, I have just phoned to see about getting it returned and they are wanting a payment of £35!!! This evidently covers p&p and engineers time! I found this figure extra surprising with all the ranting they do about customer service, so beware of this if you are going to buy anything from them, like the guy said it's all in their terms and conditions so should have come as no surprise. Who reads through T&Cs b4 buying from a site.

A further example of their customer service was in their email asking me to contact them, it had no contact number in the email and they also put in a hyperlink to view my RMA real time status which only gave page not found. Well done Scan!

I have to say that my previous dealings with scan have been good but I won't be buying anything else from them not with such hidden extras.

update: it's actually £35 + VAT (extract from email below)

"The drive is subject to a testing and returns charge of £35 + VAT, this charge covers collection, testing and return of the drive."

 

[lead]

Oh dear! I'm just about to send something back. For the first time, I might add. Fingers crossed.

 

[Icm76]

yeah they are awful, I am owed £8.65 for return postage on faulty goods. They ignored the correspondence, I really need to file a money claim through the small claims website

 

[MrCarbo]

On the flip side, I once bought (collected) a load of components from Scan, and one of the items was a dvd rom. I thought it was quite loud and rough sounding but it seemed to work ok and as I lived around 35 miles away I couldn't be bothered just taking it back so I put up with it.

Around 7 or 8 months later I needed to put a new PC together so I planned to go to Scan... by pure chance that very day the DVD rom stopped working and was making all kinds of strange and wonderful noises. So I took it back with me, along with original invoice, on the off chance... and they swapped it for me no problem. I was surprised... but perhaps lucky?

 

[CALLMENUJAK]

I bought an XFX 8400GS PCIE Graphics Card and tried it in 2 PC's and it didn't work so I returned it myself as faulty after seeing what charges Scan would add on if found to be not faulty. When they received it they found it not faulty then some muppet on another forum is telling me I should have returned it under DSR. Anyway I was refunded in full.

 

[Accylad]

I have returned several items both in person and via post and found Scan's returns team to be helpful, honest and prompt in dealing with all my problems.

 

[CALLMENUJAK]

I do still use Scan but being told I should have returned the graphics card under DSR is not good. One of the PC's I tried it in had already had an 8400GS in it that worked so I was very surprised to hear that the returned card was good.

 

[ElGuido]

I've not really had problems over returns with them - I remember about 5 yrs ago I had some 25GBP g card which was DOA, they arranged for a courier to collect the broken card from the offices I was contracting in at the time and then couriered a replacement to me

I did find them less helpful recently (last 12 months) though when it came to a bug in the site, whereby if you omit a detail on the order page it defaulted to adding that installation insurance.
In the end they secretly refunded me having categorically denied they could do a refund despite the T&C of the insurance saying it activates on receipt of the parts by the purchaser...

Hope that adds some useful background

G

 

[Iccz]

Currently going through a return with Scan myself, purchased a new router but it didn't work so well with O2. Raised a RMA, no questions asked. The support team even went through the hassle of finding me a router that has the broadcom chipset I require. Quick and helpful communications, yet another smooth return (thus far) with them for me

 

[wah27]

That does sound pretty bad, never had to return anything there but friends have usually never had any problems as far as I'm aware.

 

[mattclarkie]

It's the old issue of proving it didn't work before you sent it back. It is a problem if the defective item has a lose connection causing the fault the mere act of returning it could cause enough agitation for the item to start working (even if only for a brief period).

 

[KuroKitten]

I've never had any issues when returning items to scan. But then again, I might just be a lucky one.

 

[iand123]

All this is a bit worrying to me. I have just joined this forum so that I can get free delivery on items bought from Scan. Might be careful now in what items I purchase from them.

I had trouble with ebuyer once, sending out to me a motherboard that was faulty. The static bag seal was broken when it arrived, arousing my suspisions that the motherboard might not work, which after 20 minutes building the pc, I found that the motherboard was dead. I thanked ebuyer for letting me do the returns testing for them when I returned the board for a refund.

 

[Toilet-Duck]

Can't say I've had any issues either with scan, although I had only had to return 1 item and it was replaced quickly.

 

[dreadi]

I'm just thinking about ordering from scan, might think again now..

 

[iand123]

I'm just thinking about ordering from scan, might think again now..

Suppose it depends on what you are ordering. I wouldn't be afraid to order say a hard drive as these can be sent directly to the manufacturer for repair. Scan may be ok, otherwise they would be loads and loads of complaints and I would think that the people running this site would stop their association with them if Scan wasn't ok.

 

[bearcrsw]

I've had no problems returning items to Scan - but they've always been faulty. I can understand Scan charging something to cover their time, and I suspect most other retailers charge a similar amount.

Is £35 reasonable - I'm not sure I would be happy to pay it , but I doubt it even covers their costs.

 

[amstel78]

You have 7 working days to use Distance Regulation Selling Act but you paid for return package.
If something goes wrong you have to fill up online form (Small Claims Court).

 

[TheAdmiralCS]

Ive just sent a mobo and CPU back to scan (well its being collected today) as the machine freezes when the CPU hits 100% (or thereabouts). interesting to see what they come back with now. Looks like a graphics corruption (parts of the screen go fuzzy and the PC locks up). Did a RAM test which came out fine (not purchased RAM through SCAN) and also tried it in a nother machine which was fine.
Fingers crossed!

 

[TheKLF99]

Wow so many complaints about Scan's RMA service - I've used Scan for years and bought loads from them, apart from a failed PSU previously never had anything to return to them except recently I bought a bad GPU.

I recently bought a 4K TV to use with my RX460 I'd bought from Scan. I put the card into 4K mode and after a few seconds the card was glitching like mad. I lowered it out of 4K mode to 1080p and then shortly after that it was glitching again (like it was overheating or something).

I then turned the computer off and let the card cool down for a while before using it again. I then started just using Google Chrome and Google Play Music together in just 1080p resolution - and it was glitching like mad again.

I thought it seems to be overheating, checked it with GPU-Z and GPU-Z showed no real overheating - it was at a constant 38 deg C (however the fans were reportedly spinning at 0 RPM even though they were turning round), the only thing I did notice was the GPU RAM was at a steady 300Mhz until it glitched and then it rocketed to 2Ghz during the glitch and back down to 300Mhz afterwards

I checked the thermal paste on the card to ensure it had proper thermal paste on there (was surprised to notice a severe absence of thermal paste on the card - there was a tiny smudge of it nowhere near the GPU! - guess that probably didn't help - so I put some Arctic MX-4 on it to ensure that would keep it cool.

No good - same again - shortly after starting to use it in just Google Chrome and Play Music card started glitching like mad.

Swapped it for my old R7 that was in there previously, that thing is fine and amazingly even does 4K (a little slow but no glitches), so I realised the fault must be with the GPU.

Sent the GPU back to Scan and got an e-mail them stating they didn't find any fault?? - Really??? I've tried all sorts to get this card working right and your telling me that you can't find a fault??

Called them up, guy on the phone tried to claim that the card I'd bought wasn't apparently designed for 4K - hmmm if this card isn't 4K compatible then surely the AMD driver would know this and prevent me from using 4K resolution, and even if it wasn't fully compatible at worst all I'd expect is a lower frame rate - not what appears to be severe overheating (especially if I'm using the card at the manufacturers recommended rates (I didn't have overclock turned on)).

The guy said they'll test the card again and see what happens - still waiting to hear back from them. At the end of the day I've worked with computers since 1990, have a HND in Software Engineering and also run my own computer repair service - which I use Scan to get parts from for computers I build and regularly buy from them (plus also before returning stuff that is deemed faulty I always make sure I've done everything I can think of to see where the fault is coming from - hence the reason that this is only the second item I've ever had to return to Scan and I've been shopping with them since 1998 - today I had a PC come in which I could have instantly assumed either the hard drive or PSU had gone on it, but with testing I found out it was actually a lose cable on the SATA power socket so I don't just automatically assume it's the one device without first testing to locate the problem is - clearly with this GPU - I took the GPU out and swapped it and the other card works fine, I swapped it back and too a few times and even checked the simple consumables like the thermal paste to ensure it was definately the card that was faulty.)

 

[ScanJonny]

Hello TheKLF99,

Very sorry for the issues you have had during your RMA experience. I can see the fault you have been experiencing, in order to replicate the issue we tested this on a 4K machine with Unigine Superposition on standard graphical settings and the card worked as expected. Since your phone call with us yesterday we ran Witcher 3 on high settings at 1080p using HDMI for 15 hours overnight and the card was still running fine this morning.

What we are able to do is send the card back to Gigabyte for you and they can do some more in depth testing on the card to try and replicate the fault. They will also check the card for any damage that may have been caused during your removal of the heatsink.

If you would like to go ahead with sending the card to Gigabyte please get in touch with our Livechat team at your earliest opportunity who can arrange this for you.

 

[TheKLF99]

Hi ScanJonny - thanks for the reply and arranging return of the card to me and advising me to try it in a different machine which I will try when I get the card back, and if it carries on with the errors then I'll make a video of it so you can see exactly the problem and see where we go from there. It seems to be very weird as the problem seems to be what I would expect from overheating, and initially it all started when I first ran it in 4K mode and then started happening on all modes, however the temperature sensors show it running at a constant 38 deg C which seems more than fine (my other card an R7 reports temperature at 30 deg C but as it's a much slower card I would expect it to run at a lower temp) and the only thing that was showing as a glitch was the memory speed randomly increasing (I'm wondering whether it's something in the drivers). At first I wasn't too sure whether or not it was either the card or the TV as I'd also recently bought a new 4K TV too, but when the card blanks out the TV carries on running fine with just a message on screen of "no signal" and a timer, and switching to the Xbox One channel it's fine so ultimately I've ruled out the TV, and the card that is in at present which doesn't have any problems is using all the same things - same HDMI cable, same computer, same TV, etc...

Obviously being involved with computers for many years now I can totally understand that sometimes anomalies like this do crop up - especially in the PC market as PC's can have multiple different configurations, and it only takes one thing to not agree with another thing and you have a problem which isn't replicated in any other way. I appreciate very much you testing this card for me and agreeing to return the card at your own expense as this is very much appreciated - hopefully I can get to the bottom of this with further testing to find out what on earth is working together with this card to cause this problem.

 

[ScanJonny]

Hi,

Glad you are happy to have the card back, if you have any further issues with the time please get back in touch with us and we can arrange for some further testing with Gigabyte.

Hopefully the issue is now resolved and I hope the card works as it should!

 

[mjn]

I wonder if a firmware, motherboard or GPU, and /or driver update would fix?

But corrupt pixels usually indicates bad video memory.