Avoid DABS.COM for online shopping.

[Carol Haynes]

In the past I have enjoyed using DABS.COM for shopping and got products at good prices.

Recently I have had the misfortune of experiencing their 'customer service' first hand!

It all started when I placed an order for 3 items and the parcel was lost by the courier.

I went to the website to try and contact them - the only contact available on the website is by Live Chat (no telephone numbers). The trouble is their 'Live Chat' is so overstretched that over a week I found it impossible to get access to a person - the service was just listed as busy.

OK they are busy and when Live Chat is busy the pop up a webform saying send an email instead. I did that and got an automated response saying we will get back to you within 24 hours and please don't submit another ticket.

I waited 3 days and got no response so I tried again and got no response, and again and got no response.

Eventually I got to 'chat' to someone on Live Chat - and guess what she said 'you need to email'. Having explained that 3 emails have gone unanswered (except for confirmation of reciept) she said theuir system had no record of them.

I emailed to that address and didn't hold out any hope of a reply.

At this point I gave up and decided to try a different tack and go direct to courier who admitted they had delivered the parcel to an address in the wrong town (this was UPS by the way). HAving chatted for a while they promised to call me back when they had investigated. They didn't - I called them back and was then told they couldn't talk to me as the information was confidential between them and DABS.

Eventually I got an email response from DABS "We have received your email and contacted the courier - we will get back to you when we know what has happened" - they didn't and they haven't provided any new information or a refund since.

I then tried to use the automated returns system - but of course they say I have had tha package to long to return it for a refund!

A few days ago I got an email from UPS saying the parcel was lost and how to make a claim. Unfortunatel I can't because I need DABS UPS account information to process that claim so I forwarded their email to DABS - guess what no response.

To cap it all UPS turned up today with the lost package (which had obviously been opened and resealed) and I refused delivery (I had to place a new order because Id eperately needed the parts for a customer).

The saga continues - on Friday I call my credit card company to get a refund.

All in all it has been an extremely frustrating and time consuming series of cock-ups.

The lesson I have learned is DON'T shop online with a company you can only contact by email.

Bye bye DABS.COM - no more for me - and anyone else considering using them just remember they are great when things go right but if you have a problem you have no chance of communicating with anyone.

[rjbull]

In the past I have enjoyed using DABS.COM for shopping and got products at good prices.

-Carol Haynes (October 01, 2008, 08:37 AM)

I've had good experience of Dabs, but only had to return something once, and that was two years ago.  I think I'd have ended up using snail mail with recorded delivery, but then, I didn't need the parts for a customer.  Uhh - that might be a crib from your long-ago post about complaining about things...

The problem is - what online shopping companies can you trust?

[Dormouse]

Well, they all have problems with their couriers. By and large, you are probably best off with one that uses couriers that deliver efficiently in your locality.

And they all have problems with support, from time to time at least. Ebuyer went through a very bad patch but then employed more people, got on back of their backlog and haven't been too bad since. Refunds are pretty automatic too.

Again, only online contacts. But then, phone numbers tend to be expensive 0870 numbers that leave you waiting (ie paying) for ages before answering.

[Carol Haynes]

I don't object to the problem - it is the way it is handled that annoys me.

It strikes me that if a company uses a courier with service guarantees then the least they can do when something goes wrong is to send out a replacement package and ask the courier to return the original package when they find it. The seller has to deal with getting compensation anyway so it does not matter to them at all.

If DABS had said give us a few days to sort it out and then sent out a replacement package I would have said well done DABS. The fact that you cannot speak to anyone, you cannot write to anyone and their online customer service is completely swamped so that it is mostly unavailable is indicative of a company not coping. Add to that emails being ignored and they are basically non-functional in any sense other than as a box shifter.

I find this very sad because I have used DABS a lot in the past and they processed an RMA under warranty very efficiently (including sending a courier to collect it). Now everything is fine unless something goes wrong so ordering from them is a bit of a gamble.