Scan International Computers

Scan International Computers claim to be one of the biggest and best online computer suppliers. This is my experience of dealing with them.

I ordered an AKASA Infinity Tower case from them costing £79.21 inc vat and postage -not a cheap case. When it arrived it was obvious it was not new as parts were missing (including the instructions about how to assemble the case) and it was also badly damaged. I rang Scan and expected an apology for sending out goods in this condition, what I got was an accusation that I was trying to claim for goods I had damaged myself. I asked for a replacement case and was told that I first had to return the case to Scan who would decide if the case was damaged in transit and then decide if it could be replaced. This is a long way short of the way my regular supplier works (CCL Computers, Bradford) who would have sent a replacement and picked up the damaged case in one operation.

I did send the case back and after a few days Scan's website informed me that the case had been examined and was found to be faulty. However there was nothing on the site that said that a refund or replacement was on the way. After 7 days I rang the company and was told that the refund would be processed that day. To confirm this I emailed the company and received an email telling me that the repayment would be updated.

One week later with no refund received I rang the company to be told that they had by law 28 days to action a refund and it would take several working days for accounts to process the payment. When I asked why it had taken this long to process the payment I was again told they had 28 days to process the repayment.

I would strongly suggest that anyone reading this blog should think twice and then think again about dealing with this company. Any company dealing with a lot of orders can make a mistake - this is quite normal. It is also normal business practice for the company to try to put the mistake right as quickly as possible to keep the customer's good will. What isn't normal is for the customer to be made to feel responsible for the mistake and then to be punished for asking for their money back.