Mail order scams Watford Electronics

[GNEP]

True, true.

[ayoub_ibrahim]

most folk don't seem to make the distinction between the "built by ATI" & "powered by ATI" logo on the box!

[The PIT]

Well Watford backed down.

Watford: "it's the same product sir except that it's powered by ATI rather than built by ATI"
The PIT: "Yes but it's not the product I ordered"
Watford: "I'll talk to my supervisor" Few seconds go by. "Okay we'll do you a refund and you'll have to make arrangements to send it back"
The PIT: "No you should pay for it and arrange collection as the web advertisment is misleading"
Watford: "I'll talk to my Supervisor" Tick Tick "Yes we'll pay for the collection"

So round one to me. Round two consists of making sure they credit the credit card.
Next question should I alert the trading standards to the poor advertising???

[GNEP]

Threaten it, angling for a money-off voucher (no way that they will give you cash unfortunately in compensation).

[ayoub_ibrahim]

The PIT, I don't think you'll actually be able to get a genuine 'built by ATI' card from any retailers over here unless they make personal arrangements get some shipped from the US.

[The PIT]

Maybe at the moment but I'm sure ATI will ship some over here. Anyway it was advertised as an ATI built card and thats what I bought. I don't want an iffy Saphire one.

[The PIT]

Guess what the parcel hasn't been collected. Give em tomorrow and then I'll check the web site too see if it's changed and it's off to the trading standards if not.

[RedRed]

PIT
I heard that ATI wont be selling the new boards directly in europe land this year at least - maybe never... Retail boxes are to be sold through third party packages....

I think you might have to import one yourself.

I have used watford myself, and never had any problems before. They have always been pretty efficient with me. Even RMA's

Regards
RedRed

[The PIT]

The point is it's not what they advertised. Doesn't matter if ATI are selling here or not. The web page leads to belive it's a genuine ATI card. If it said Saphire I wouldn't have bothered ordering after reading one or two dodgy comments about them over at the forums at rage3d.

[SitFlyer]

A friend of mine encountered this Sapphire/ATI thing the other day.
According to ATI's website:

http://mirror.ati.com/support/index.html

If the part# on the retail package starts with 100
and/or
the part# on the PC board starts with 102
then
it was built by ATI

[RichL]

They've still got the same picture up - no mention of it being a Sapphire card or anything. Very misleading.

Anyway, its cheaper elsewhere. £283 ex delivery at
Overclockers UK , and theirs is quite obviously sold as a Sapphire. They even have a note about potential problems with some Abit mobos.

[The PIT]

Still haven't collected the parcel. Damn thing is I've got to wait 48hrs for them to ignore the email that they recieved. Still no go tomorrow I'll email them telling them to correct the web page and give them to Friday to collect the parcel. Then they'll have to collect it from my house either during the evening or the weekend.
Then it'll be off to the trading standards and I'll contact ATI as well.

[The PIT]

Still haven't collected the parcel or refunded my credit card. Barclaycard seem interested as it's clearly misleading advertising. so I've given watford to this friday to refund my card.
I've also contated the trading standards, however ATI themselfs are a bit harder as they've only a online web form for customer services.

[The PIT]

Just noticed from a Watford news letter that they finally changed the website to show the correct box. Wonder what forced them to do that. The number of returns??

[uberlad]

Watford are (IMO) a bunch of cowboys - last time I tried to buy anything from them (an 8500 in fact) they managed to display all my details to someone else when they logged into their account.

I got a phone call from this guy at 7pm, order was cancelled at 7.05pm.

I'm just happy that they blank out your credit card details on the page and that the guy was honest.

Hope that what is turning into a crusade eventually pays off.

Uberlad