PC Specialist www.pcspecialist.co.uk Review

PC Specialist www.pcspecialist.co.uk
★★★★★
4.7
98.0% of users recommend this
  • Customer Service

  • Quality of website

  • Value For Money

oloonat's review of PC Specialist www.pcspecialist.co.uk

“My first and possibly only purchase from PC...”

★★★☆☆

written by oloonat on 27/11/2010

My first and possibly only purchase from PC Specialist? I chose to buy a new PC Desktop from PC Specialist because of what they offer ; excellent choice and great value without compromising on quality whatsoever. An excellent website where I was able to custom build my own system. Everything is clearly laid out and all charges, inclusions and exclusions are easy to understand. Delivery time was estimated at 9-13 days and I got mine after 10 days. My new system arrived neatly packaged. So 10 out 10 for the order and delivery process.

Now for some minor but not insignificant problems.

Problem 1 - Windows 7 errors during first start up saying "setup cannot complete". I reboot but same problem. So I have to call for technical support. "Ah, we get that every now and again, you need to reinstall the Operating System". I was then guided through how to recreate disk partitions and reinstall Windows 7. Very helpful person and easy to follow but techy stuff I would have expected to have been done properly in the first place. Windows restarts eventually and everything seems ok. Problem 2 ; wonky heatsink on the CPU. I had opened the side panel so as to slot in my own graphics card and noticed the heatsink and fan were not square onto the CPU at all. I had paid extra for it rather than the stock cooler and wasn't expecting that at all. "That sometimes happens in transit," was the answer which is fair enough but still unexpected. As far as I know there should be full contact between the cooler and the CPU. Luckily the advice was "just straighten it up mate" since the thermal paste was nowhere near dry. Problem 3 ; missing Microsoft Office 2010 Starter Edition. Of course, now that I've reinstalled the system myself there is no preloaded software which is nearly always a good thing. Who needs all that extra junk anyway? However, on this build I had deliberately opted for the free limited version of Word and Excel which were now not to be found. Another quick call to tech support and I got "Sorry, mate, nothing we can do about that, its the rules." I mentioned and expressed my dissatisfaction with problems 1 and 2 and was eventually offered a free game by way of appeasement. Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2 is now going to be sent to me.

So, overall, due to the nature of my problems I cannot recommend PC Specialist to friends and family. My issues were quite fundamental really and the implications huge. PC Specialist sent me a non-working PC which I had to reinstall and fix and without the software I ordered. What happened at the testing stage? What about quality control? What if I had ordered other software applications? The hassle factor could have been immense for anyone else. Luckily I am an experienced PC user and former PC builder so I knew what was going on (mostly).

I am really impressed by the PC Specialist brand and knew a couple of years ago that I would buy my next desktop from them. I suppose they failed to meet my expectations (on a fairly simple system) so I'm not sure if there will be a next time.

  • PC desktop base unit, £416

    Goods purchased & cost

  • On time

    Delivery

  • Customer Service

  • Value For Money

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