Marv\'s Blog

Windows Migration pt 12:the saga of the faulty laptops from Novatech is nearly over

I get the feeling Elaine Giles doesn’t like me.

So eventually, after having to wait a month to get the laptop in the first place, and having to wait nearly a month for anyone from Novatech to get back to me, it appears that even thought I desperately need a laptop for Uni, Novatech have decided to metaphorically prise it from my hands, forcing me to hand it over to them just so I can get a refund; to paraphrase:

It’s a company decision that if we wait until you’re finished using the laptop to collect it for a refund (December 16th btw), we will not give you a refund. Ever.

– basically, it seems that the emails I sent yesterday and today either pissed someone off or embarrassed someone enough

Your emails were quite sharp.

.

I was sick and tired (sick as in annoyed and ill btw) of having no contact from Novatech whatsoever, that I wrote an email on the smaller side of normal by my ranting standards, and CC’d everybody in the company who’s names I could find through Google and their own website. Funnily enough, several hours later I received two phone calls- one each from the members of staff I’ve been dealing with over this saga. Judging by the contents of the calls (the specific details I cannot remember because of those medical thingies), they’d just checked their emails and hadn’t spoke to each other as they had both covered information either had covered. With a few differences. They did however, by making these unrequested and unexpected calls make me later for an appointment, meaning I had to sit on a metal seat in the freezing cold bus stop. Which by the way, can apparently cause piles.

To summarise, if it were not for the helpfulness of my friend over at The Fragile, I would be without a laptop until I had spent ages finding just the right laptop, which i need effectively as a lifeline for Uni.

My experience of Novatech has been that while their ability to act as a components supplier is okay, their ability to act as a computer supplier (or at the very least, a laptop supplier), sucks to an abysmal level. Their after sales service also sucks to an abysmal level, as I found out that the woman I was in contact with was apparently the very person in charge of making sure it works. Hilarious when you consider the phone bill I rang up trying to get a hold of someone when their email system failed.

The behaviour of the employees Elaine Giles and Gavin Bridges, was in my opinion, designed to annoy me to the point of requesting a full and total refund of my order. This opinion gained more weight when Elaine Giles specifically asked if I was going to send my ethernet card & Cat5e cable back. Bear in mind I never mentioned any problems with those, and that the only problems I’ve had so far is just caused by the WinXP OS being dumb.

Right now I’m in the process of preparing the laptop to be wiped, as it appears that Novatech doesn’t share my view on data privacy & protection (or consumer rights for that matter). They also seem to like to sell second hand goods as new if possible, although they do have a clearence section.

To summarise, I would not recommend buying anything from Novatech should you plan on contacting the after sales at some point. If you do end up needing to phone Novatech’s after sales team, I’d suggest using their Google or Scoot to find their cheaper, local rate number instead of the one they give out.