Techtronics www.techtronics.com Review

Overall Rating

* Fast Delivery
* Good value for money (too good?)

* Utterly shambolic, uncooperative and arrogant customer services.

I've just successfully taken Techtronics to the small claims court to get my money back. I bought a Sony DAVS-880 multiregion Home Cinema system a year ago. Very good price, and it arrived promptly. 3 months later, intermittent faults started appearing and increased in frequency. After 5 months, it failed catastrophically - the player would not play anything. I tried to contact them, but their customer service line (or any other line for that matter) just never picked up. Eventually I got them via their website notification service, and the player was returned to them (they charged me courier fees: for information, any company that does this under warranty is in breach of the Sale of Goods Act & subsequent amendments). I heard nothing for weeks, and they still did not answer the phones. Eventually I got them via email and then phone, and it transpired they could not fix the machine until January (now Novemeber). I asked for a replacement machine. They refused.

January came around, the usual communication hassles, they eventually returned the player on the 18th, guess what? It played some - but not all - DVDs. I was furious. Another delay whilst I tried to get in touch (oh how I came to hate the muzak Bee-Gees covers they play whilst on hold). I was then informed that the product should have been recalled because Sony had a hardware upgrade that would "fix the problem". I said: not good enough, please refund. They said no. I said "I'll sue". They said go on, then. I returned the whole system via their courier (they did not charge me this time - generous, huh?)

Then I got an email claiming that the player was damaged in transit, that it was "packed inadequately" and that "cosmetic damage" occurred to the speakers. So they couldn't give me my money back, and they couldn't find a fault. So I sent them one of my DVDs, but I also started the small claims procedure. After that, there was no communication from them until I got their defence papers - they kept my player, my DVD AND my money!

The court awarded me a 100% refund, court costs, the courier fees and interest from Novemeber 2003. Had they done the sensible thing in January and offered me a partial refund (seeing as I had 3 months use out of it) I could well have accepted, and I had pointed this out to them at the time. Not only are their customer "services" arrogant and unhelpful, they seem not too bright as well.

There are two classes of Techtronics customer: those who buy a system at a good price which arrives promptly and works... and those who encounter a problem. The former give glowing reviews, the latter damn them. It's two-chamber russian roulette when you buy from them. So punk, do you feel lucky?