Kobalt Computers - www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk

They gone bust and are still owing me £1443.

If you are in a similar situation get in touch with me via my website: nerdess.net and let's try to get our money back together!

Thanks

sissi

Where to start?

They are the worst company I have ever had the misfortune to have dealings with! I will never order from them again and will do everything in my power to prevent other people being ripped off by them!

Initially when I looked at their products and website I was impressed by the customisation options, the price and the look of the company as a whole. Parts of the website seemed a little buggy and didn't work but they said they were going through an overhaul so I looked over this. I ordered the laptop on 01/8/11.

My first couple of e-mails to confirm the order I got a fairly prompt and friendly response. So far so good.

It then got the the delivery time stated on their site which was 3-4 weeks. At this point (22/8/11) I was a little apprehensive and decided to ask them about it. Getting a response at this point was like getting blood from a stone. I was friendly an calm at this point and the response I got when asking if I could get it by the 3rd was:

"Ok leave it with me. I'll see how production gets on this week. If we are able to push it in for to get it to you for the end of next week we'll do our best and I'll let you know." - Andrew Richards (CEO)

I then sent 4 more polite e-mails to check on this with no response. On 5/9/11 I e-mailed a 4th time and finally got a response:

"I am very sorry you did not get a reply to any of your messages posted on the previous ticket. because it was one that originated early last month I'm afraid that quite simply I did not see it.

The order status options are being worked on and the only reason they are not showing up correct on your order is because it was created manually by me. The bug only effects manual orders. I really hope that it will be sorted out this week.

In terms of the status of your order, it is in the build queue and it is scheduled to go into production this week. I cannot guarantee you delivery this week but I can guarantee it will not go beyond early next week.

Since you placed your order we put into place a new Customer Promise, which includes part 3 which offers some items to make up for a delay. You can view this here: http://www.kobaltcomputers.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?3918-New!!-Kobalt-Customer-Promise and if you wish to continue with you order, let me know which option you would like to choose and I will have it added to your order." - Andrew Richards

Since they offered a gesture of good will I was reluctantly acceptant of this. I simply then asked them to provide me a maximum time-scale which I was given:

"In terms of delivery as per my message from Monday we will deliver to you next week and no later. It is currently scheduled to go into production on Friday this week so it should be dispatched on Wednesday/ Thursday next week." - Andrew Richards

Then on 13/9/11 which is the Tuesday of the next week I asked for an update with this response:

"You should have had an update today to confirm your machine is now in testing. This is scheduled to complete Friday and we will confirm with you as soon as it has finished." - Andrew Richards

On the Monday (19/9/11) I again chased this up and got no response so again on the 21st I e-mailed and made a threat to cancel my order and got this in the response:

"I can personally confirm to you that your machine will be complete and ready to ship on or before Tuesday next week. That is a genuine and honest delivery timescale and I would not offer it if I were not 100% confident we could make it." - Andrew Richards

Guess what? Today is Tuesday (27/9/11) and I e-mailed again to ask if my laptop had been dispatched and surprise surprise, it wasn't! I have now cancelled my order and I've been told up to 30 days to get my money back which they were quick to take and have had for 2 months!

My apology? Well this is what Andrew had to say:

"I am very sorry we have been unable to supply your order in an orderly fashion. I can assure you that it was not through lack of effort and it has been a case of bad timing since we had some major website issues in early August which has pushed back a lot of orders. We have tried to catch up but unfortunately we have not been able to get as up to date as quickly as we hoped."

No reference to his guaranteed time-scale eh? Absolutely pathetic if you ask me!

What should have been a brilliant experience of getting a brand new laptop has turned into a nightmare... To top it off they have no phone services which I have been told is since Christmas AND have been told they're working on getting them back up and running on several occasions!

I await my refund with bated breath!

STAY AWAY FROM KOBALT!

If someone goes and spends £1400 pounds on a laptop five days ago with a company, do you think this is acceptable to not send any confirmation or receipt of any correspondence to the customer at all!?

Well I made the online order last Sunday with Kobalt, it is Friday afternoon and I have yet to receive NOTHING from Kobalt about my order.

Despite and two emails to support and a post on the Order Forum!

I know this is small company, but this level of neglect for a customer who has just spent a thousand pounds is BS!

Is this the expected level of support from this company?!

I bought a computer in April 2011 from Kobalt Computers and I was quoted a timescale of 2-3 weeks for building and shipping. The computer I bought was a Kobalt G150 15inch Notebook. I've repeatedly had my order date pushed back, had my requests for information ignored, been given deliberately false information about when my order will arrive and was given deliberately false information when I placed the order.

I ended up waiting 6 weeks with the false believe that they would actually get to my order which they never did, so I cancelled it in May 2011. I believe its fraud to provide people with delivery estimates they know they cant meet and they are still quoting the same timescale to other customers. I know this as a fact because its on their website and there are so many customer complaints about their company regarding excuses, delays, ETAs and a lack of communication you only need to google them.

Under DSR (Distance Selling Regulations) they have 30 days to give me my money back but their refund process is well documented and notorious for delays. A bank transfer should take no more than a week but on average people have being waiting well over a month which is in breach of this contract. You should not have to do a Visa Chargeback with your bank to get your money back but unfortunately Kobalt computers are just too unreliable and cant be trusted.

I needed this computer for work and thanks to them I have wasted 6 weeks at home doing nothing and all they have are