Car Audio Centre www.caraudiocentre.co.uk Review

Overall Rating

First off where do I start with this order???

I placed the order some time ago and gave all the details including a phone number and email address if anything was wrong (Which was never used as I did 95% of the calling). I was then given a delivery date and I thought I would just wait in for it - Big Mistake. First off by 3 o'clock the order still hadn't arrived so I checked the net. All it said was "processing" which could mean anything??? I then rang Car Audio Centre up and asked where it was. I was told the delivery company do not have GPS and so there is no way of tracking the order and then also told that none of the delivery drivers had mobile phones so they couldn't be contacted directly?? I'm sorry, but first off what type of basic delivery firm does Car Audio Centre use?

Then after all that mess I rang back later in the day only to be told that my order wasn't complete or dispatched as the amp I chose was no longer stocked. However if this was just the problem it could be overlooked but it DID get worse. I was told that Car Audio Centre was sorry and I would get an email with a couple of suitable suggestions as a replacement amp. When I received this email I was astonished to find that even with my basic knowledge of car audio I could see that one amp suggested would be seriously under-powered for the sub and the other one suggested that 'happened' to be about £50 more that the one I wanted would have blown up the speaker the moment it was connected. Surely someone working in a car audio store would have known this? In response to this I just asked that I not be sent the amp as I didn't want it then and could EASILY buy it elsewhere. The rest of my order was then dispatched without the amp. However, to further finish off my day I checked my bank account to find I had been billed for my full order including a £110 amp that I didn't have or was going to have. After some angry emails (which were quite tame for how I was feeling) I was later told that Car Audio Centre now DO have the amp I originally wanted as it has been sourced to fill my order. Great I thought! But it still manages gets worse...

After being asked on Friday when I wanted it delivered (as Car Audio Centre were covering the delivery costs of this extra item) I just said the next day which would have been be a Saturday. I got told that "we can't really do Saturday delivery as it cost £29.99" (apparently too much of a cost for a large company to pay to get an order quickly to a customer who had been messed about!!). I was then also told in a joking way that "you don't want the Saturday delivery anyway" this was because the person on the phone said "I know from experience that the drivers just go back to the depot by midday anyway". Now I had to think about that for a minute. Car Audio Centre uses a delivery company that even if they have consignments left to post on a Saturday after 12am they just give up and go home regardless! A very poor delivery service in my books!

Nevertheless, overlooking this also I asked for Monday delivery and chose to wait in then for it. But by 3 o'clock the same old story happened and I rang up to ask where my order was. I was apologised to and told they would look into it and call me back before 4.30. At 5pm I rang them back with no sign of a call only to be made to believe that if it didn't arrive today (Monday) it WOULD be there tomorrow (Tuesday). Ok just to get over all this poor service, grab my amp and run, I was almost willing to wait in a final day. But to my surprise and amazement, no sign of a delivery by 4pm the next day (Tuesday). Now I can be patient, but up to this point, to complete my order I had sacrificed 3 full days to wait for nothing! And so I was fuming. After speaking to a manager nothing seemed to change apart from him mentioning that my order might have been delivered already. Well amazingly I live at the delivery address and it hadn't gone there so where was it? Luckily I was running late the day after (Wednesday) and the order arrived when I was in (if I would have been on time the order wouldn't have got to me on that day either). I have since accepted the order and checked it over as it is one of the worst cases of packaging I have ever seen. I had looked like the main box my item's box had came in had been opened several times as all of the tape was cut and snapped and the "do not accept delivery if tampered with tape" had been torn, cut, snapped and worn off the box. Once I checked over the amp and finally had my complete order (a good week and a bit after I was meant to have) I did not receive an email checking if I had got it or even a concerned telephone call. It has been 2 days since my order arrived at my house and I have still had no check from C.A.C to see if it had arrived ok.

The final cherry on the top is that the amp that caused this problem (that isn't any longer stocked by C.A.C) is still available to buy on their website to cause even more confusion and trouble for other customers if they choose to buy it. This ordeal has been THE worst service/delivery/anything I have ever had with a company, there has been no sign of any offer of compensation to make up for my numerous times waiting in for nothing to arrive, being £110 down for a week and a half with no amp to make up for it, for the fact that I had to do most of the calling and the appalling state the item arrived in. I hope to warn as many people as possible of the horrors of ordering from C.A.C and to never do it - EVER!

Members' Comments onGuest's Review

• promethian on 20th Oct 2009

  I found this review very helpful because... I had the same problems

• gazttr on 27th Oct 2009

  I found this review not helpful because... Becuase i had a very good experiance and have wrote 2 reviews and they do not get posted