"I ordered all components required to build a system from Scan in November. Everything arrived OK despite being badly packed.

After I assembled the system I noticed there was sound interference coming through the speakers when the contents displyed on the screen changed. I suspected that the problem was either the motherboard or the video card. I sent the two items back to Scan along with the processor. This was just before Christmas. Scan closes for TWO weeks at Christmas! So forget about getting service if you need it in this period.

Anyway, Scan said that they found no fault and would not send back the components to me until I paid £20 for shipping and 'testing fee'. I asked Scan to put this demand for more money in writing. I had to phone them FIVE times to get them to put this in writing to me. I was getting really I mean REALLY annoyed at these unprofessional jokers and was about to sue them when written confirmation finally arrived. The jist of my conversations was always the same and got monotonous after the second time:

-Where is my invoice, I have asked for it x times
-Don't know, it'll be done in the next few days
-Why the next few days, what is preventing you from doing it today?
-Nothing really. I'll email it to you in the next few minutes.

Nothing happens and I have to phone back the next day, two days later etc.

I needed the demand for more money in writing as I am going to sue Scan for the cost of the components which ARE faulty, for loss of earnings and for generally screwing me around.

I finally had to pay the fees to get the components back and be able to have them professionally tested. I got them back 1 MONTH after sending them to Scan.

It looks like when this company was typing out their name for the first time they missed a key; their real name should be SCAM. I had to wait a month with no computer and then pay for the privelige of having faulty goods returned to me!!! They are biggest bunch of unprofessional timewasters I have ever dealt with.

They may have low prices, but pay the extra few quid and deal with professionals."

"I recently ordered an Asus Pundit barebones PC from Scan.
The system once assembled produced no display - not surprising as the box the system arrived in was severely bashed.
I returned the box of DOA goods to scan the day after receiving them - i found out 4 days after the goods had been collected (and only after repeated emails), that they claimed not to have received the goods.
I was told that the returned CPU, memory and barebones system were 'on the back of a truck somewhere'.
I contacted them again 48 hours after finding out the above - they then claimed that they had already received the returned goods, they had tested them and found no fault with the items.
Having read other comments on this site, it appears that this is not an unusual strategy for them....
Working as a fulltime (24x7 oncall) PC and server field engineer, frequently with sole responsibility for the rapid repair of safety critical railway IT systems throughout Scotland and many, many years experience of building PCs both commercially and for friends and family, I'd be absolutely, utterly amazed if the returned equipment was working when they received it.

Apparently they'll be in touch 'in the next few days' with information on what happens next.

So, having had several hundred pounds taken out of my bank account two weeks ago, they'll apparently be telling me in a few days time what'll be happening to the goods I have already paid for.
When I asked for clarification on returns policy, I received an email which was poorly written, extremely threatening in tone and effectively threatening to take 28 days to process my return if I pressed them on the matter.

I'm absolutely disgusted, and I WILL be taking this company through small claims court if necessary....and I get the feeling it will be..."

"i ordered some goods off Scan and found that some were out of stock, Adam [staff] was more than helpful in his approach of getting me what i needed and i definately will be giving them more of my future business. Scan are a first rate company with first rate customer service!!!

Shop with these guys and gals!

Shaun"

"Erm, where do I start? Cheap prices. That's it, really!

I bought a Panasonic 9571 DVD Rewriter which gave me real problems from the start. Thinking it was the type of media I junked a series of ruined DVDR discs, ignored my friends yelling "They don't work!" and carried on using it to the best of it's ability. It was giving a failure rate far higher than I had expected. Then it got worse. It was giving me nice cupmats more times than it gave me discs which wouldn't play right so I decided to send it back to them.

No fault found they said. We'll return it to you for £23.50 they said. Ok I said! Got it back and it ruined three brand new Neo DVDRs in succession. This time I held onto them. Printed the reports from Nero and then had an argument with a gentleman on the phone! I needed a DVD writer because data was beginning to spew out of the sides of my hard drives. Off it went to Scan again. This time with evidence! I bought a Lite-on 811S which was working perfectly on my set-up.

They then took a week to inform me that no fault was found again and the unit could not be replaced or refunded at which point I then spouted off reams of e-mails threatening, encouraging and even sarcastic. They said that incompatibility was not their responsibilty. Well who the heck's is it then? If you get a battery for your car and it is not up to the job in your car you'd EXPECT it to be refunded or exchanged! Scan Computers think otherwise.

They make no mention of my evidence, call me the wrong name despite me telling them who I am and they send e-mails which do not answer any of my direct questions. I have never had so much trouble with a retailer or company in my life and I used to work for Amstrad!!!

Short - if the bits work you are Ok and you will save money. For that extra quality of service avoid these people like the plague.

BTW I mailed Watchdog about them - anyone else do the same. And they may YET see me in the small claims court!"

"Again an excellent Transaction, with updates all the way- even by phone as promised i was called at work for an update on this order. Maybe this firm has changed much in the last few years, through my experience of internet shopping Scan Computers have been superb. I have spent a large amount with this firm and am happy to continue to do so. The customer support is amazing for a DOT COM. Every purchase has been Fluid with updates all the way. Well Done Scan
and a special thankyou to Roxane (customer support Manager) for making buying online a joy"

"I spent a large amount of money with SCAN International last year in order to build a high performance system. When I received the parts I found that the serial ATA connection on the motherboard, an Abit AT7 MAX 2, did not work and I was unable to get the machine to start up. After many long conversations Scan accepted to take all the parts back and build the system themselves, as they did not believe that there was a problem.

They then had the system for 1 and 1/2 months and were unable to get it working. Eventually they said that they had contacted Abit and found that Abit was aware of the problem but would not be able to fix it. Scan then said that they could get the system working using a Parallel IDE but that they would not refund the motherboard.

I eventually gave in and accepted the Parallel IDE system although this was not the system I had wanted. When I received the system I found that although this time it booted up 6 of the 10 USB ports did not work and again I complained to Scan. I never received a reply to this day so I gave up.

Two weeks ago the system mysteriously crashed during boot up and would not start again. When I contacted Scan a technician talked me through a basic test of the motherboard with no components only the power connected - this showed that there was a fault with the motherboard. I was asked to return the board, CPU and memory to Scan. When Scan received the components they tested them and said that there was no problem with any of the parts.

I stated that due to all the problems with this Motherboard I did not want the board back again and wanted a refund for the money I had spent originally. At this point Scan are saying that they will not offer a refund as they say there is no problem with the system.

I will never buy anything again from scan and although they are very cheep I would advise people not to buy from Scan in the future. I have found they're representatives to be rude, arrogant and in most cases ignorant. Since I bought the system at the end of Sept 2002 I have had a total of 2 months use out of it. During this time the system has spent more time at Scan supposedly being fixed than it has actually spent working as it was supposed to.


Bottom line – they should be called SCAM International not SCAN International.

If you want make a complaint contact the local trading standard agency in Bolton which actually has a dedicated team purely for Scan International. The number is 01204 336586."

"Hmm, after some talking to tech support, i have to admit, they were quite helpful.
I was very suprised, i now have an RMA to send my faulty dimm back. I will update as this progresses.
Overall, however, i am still not very impressed with the experience, especially 7 pounds for delivery, which took 4 days to arrive (no pickups saturdays, no deliveries sundays, whats the point of that in todays 24/7 world?, although thats more a fault with choice of courrier). In comparison, it cost me 7 pounds to ship half a kilo of paperwork by express airmail to Japan.."

"Very poor after sales service. Had a faulty chaintech mobo delivered and discovered that it had a problem with memory slots 1&2 so contacted them to see if there was a known problem or if they knew a solution. Eventually after tardy responses to my emails I was told to return it for a replacement/refund. I did so and luckily I sent it via Citylink who have online tracking so I knew they received it on the 13th and who signed for it.After chasing progress I find that 4 days later it is still "not received" and that if it had been it would take 18-21 days to test it before they will isssue a refund or replacement.
Basically if you want cheap prices and a pathetic response if goods are faulty buy from them , if you like to have some security of purchasing items don't.
I have been buying from themn for a few years now and this is the first time I have had a faulty item. This is also the last time I will be buying from them. It looks like I will now have to get my credit card company involved as I will be expected to pay interest on an item that I have not received in a satisfactory condition (i.e. working).
"

"I purchased a monitor/ps2 switchbox from Scan.co.uk only to find that one of the ports was faulty and the other one produced ghosting on the screen.

After returning the goods to scan, they declared them 100% working, which I knew was complete bull as I had spent 3 hours messing with them, and lets face it a switch works or it doesnt.

So after viewing their bull on my online returns status, I located the manufacturer of the switch's website and it has a huge warning on the site stating that at resolutions above 640*480 ghosting will occur. Scan didnt state this on their site though!

So I called customer services, and said I wasnt happy with their report etc. They told me a load of bull about top engineers and it had been tested and found operational. To cut a long story short, Id returned it within 14 days so I got a refund, not for the £15 next day delivery or the £7 it cost to send it back though, of course!

Scan will not be getting another single penny of my money - I'd recommend everyone to stay clear"

"This is without a doubt the worst company we have dealt with. We placed a simple small order with them, 7 sticks of memory and a hard drive. We were told that it was in stock and we would receive delivery Monday 3rd.
On Monday we checked their online tracking and found it had not yet been picked. Our enquiry was answered with 'you will receive it tomorrow'.
This was repeated a couple of days.
Finally a 'Customer Service' (I laugh now) assistant said that it would be despatched as soon as the stock arrived at their warehouse. They expected it that day.
The next day gave the same grim news, however this helpful lady suggested that we could use an alternative memory. Desperate for the delivery by now to complete the job for our own customer we agreed, she promised to put the order directly through to the warehouse, to make sure it went out that night, and to even check on its progress before she went home.
Great!! That’s service...
The next morning the online tracker told us that our order was still unpicked.
So - onto the phone again, After being put on hold trying to reach my chosen contact I found myself through to Sales. Despairingly I relayed my story, low and behold the other memory type was out of stock. We chose an alternative, I asked that each lines stock status be checked. I then asked if I should in anyway expect this tomorrow.
YES I was told.
The next day the online tracking once again read unpicked.
Now a little angry, I am back on the phone. The replacement memory for the 1st type to be replaced was out of stock. Oh but if we wanted we could have the origional order because that was now in...
At this point we embarked down a strong line approach. We wanted the stock by 10:30 the next morning, or the order was to be cancelled.
They agreed.
We asked for confirmation in writing.
No problem.
Three hours later we asked again for the written confirmation of guaranteed pre 10:30 delivery.
Again we are told, ok no problem.
Half an hour later we asked again, the email not forthcoming, this time for a fax.
The fax was worded as an AM Delivery.
We phoned again. WE ASKED CLEARLY, is it booked on a pre 10:30 delivery or not?
They very clearly stated that it was, but that they could not guarantee a parcel once it was out of their control.
After explaining that I wasn't asking for them to guarantee against act of god or an alien abduction of our parcel they agreed to send through confirmation in writing that they had indeed booked it on a pre 10:30.
We duly received this.
The next day - 11:25 the order arrived, we have written confirmation from the carrier that this was on a pre 12. In fact, they don't offer a pre 10:30 in our postcode.
Now we find that the one type of memory does not work, so I have the pleasure of exploring Scans returns policy.
We have been repeatedly lied to, direct lies to direct questions. No ambiguity. They even had the audacity to back it up in writing. Each person sounded great, helpful and co-operative. But their actions were always to the contrary.
Do not do business with these people.
"

"Ordered an IBM Deskstar 60GXP from their todayonly.co.uk site. Arrived quickly, no problems.

Granted, it's just failed catastrophically, but it's A) outside warranty, and B) it's an IBM deskstar, so it was going to fail anyway.

Sigh...

Will probably order from them again, but not for anything expensive."

"Well what can i say that other people haven't already. These people are pure conartists. I think the website should be renamed scam.co.uk. Well my brother bought a graphic card from them and low and behold it didn't work properly. When it came to games it just froze the computer and failed. We updated the graphic cards BIOS and drivers. We even tested it in another machine. Well we sent it back to Scan and guess what, they said it was fine. I swear they have a chimp doing the testing on the equipment there, and not even a trained one. Well tomorrow i will be taking a more hardline approach in gaining our money back. I will keep you up to date but i would strongly advise to never use this company as there nothing more than conartists."

"My last comments weren't posted. dunno why. Anyway: products were delayed, motherboard was broken, they currently owe me approximately £60 in expenses. Said they fixed the motherboard and then posted it back to me broken. Main dealer repaired it for me. CPU and mobo are faulty again and are now back at scan. Not happy."