You don't need to just shout at one person. In fact, shouting at multiple people has a far higher chance of actually working. In your case, I'd shout at Play.com, for delivery issues and not fit for purpose (the DVD playback alone puts it in this category, and "SCART video in" would imply to me the I would be able to see stuff that was coming in on a SCART lead.) I'd also shout more loudly at FS for being frankly hopeless, not knowing that your box wasn't broken, not collecting it in the way they said they would, etc. Also point out the utter uselessness of their repair company needing your vista disks etc.
If all else fails, try using the RF. If it does work, all well and good. If not, think very very hard about your next move. What do you actually /need/ out of this box? No, not what would be the ideal, what do you need? You have a DVD player, so you don't need one of them. You have a computer, so you don't need one of them, either. This was to replace a video recorder, right? So, er, have you considered buying a video recorder? Or a DVD recorder? Either of these would Just Work. And would cost much much less.
So the question is, do you have the thing back now and does it work?
I ordered a coolermaster external hdd caddy (the coolermaster 360 one - never buy it) from pixmania. Turns out it works only intermittently under windows, not at all on a mac or on linux and is basically an all round shame. Pixmania refunded the money for that long after their 14 day return policy though it took an awful lot of shouting. I'm waiting for them to refund the hdd I bought to go inside it too since its sod all use without the case. But they've sent it to the manufacturer for testing. More shouting will be needed.
Big companies are stupid and disjointed and dont communicate with themselves well. Take down the name of every single person you speak to, if they dont give you what you want ask to speak to their manager, keep doing this until you get someone who values their time at more than the item you (reasonably) want refunded. Point out that this is not the quality of product that you expect from this company. They will never lose money - they will refund it straight back from the masnufacturer themselves- they just want to offload the hassle on to you.
I think ideally you want to send this thing back and never look upon its face again right? And you've had it for how long?
I suggest you try the following course of action
1) ring play to request a refund, take the name o fhte person you are speaking to
2) tell them the item is not fit for purpose and if they tell you it matches the desc on the website, point out that that description was both misleading and incomplete
3) they will refuse to help you, ask to speak to their manager, reiterate points 1 to 2
4) the manager may refuse to help you also, ask to speak to their manager, lather rinse repeat
5) at some point you run out of managers, you may at this stage get what you want, but more likely you wont. When you have reached the highest level of manager you can get, ask for the person you need to contact in writing to make a formal complaint. Explain that your next course of action will be to take them to court, should you not recieve satisfaction. Explain at all stages of the process that you have been a loyal customer and expected nothing other than their usual fantastic service. Explain in great detail to each person that you speak to how poor the service has been to date. If they complain that it is well outsite the 28 days then tell them that you yourself are unhappy about thisand the whole process has dragged on far too long. Point out that you will be complaining to various consumer bodies (this is only really useful if you're at a high-ish level of manager but is worth researching into beforehand anyway).
At all time remember your aim in this - you want play to pick up the damn thing and give you your money back. The absolute least you will settle for is to find out the next stage you hav eto go through in their dispute resolution process - whether this is the person you write to or the place you post the mecia centre to or whatnot.
Remain cool and calm and polite. Waste their time. They arenot allowed to put the phone down on you. Explain at all stages that you do not blame the person you are talking to for your unhappiness but that their compnay has porvided substandard service and you expect to see it resolved. Do not give up - because eventually, they will. You have hundreds of pounds to lose by giving up - the person on the other end off the phone on a personal level, has nothing to lose by giving you what you want.
Disclaimer - the above will make you miserable. It will also work. It is fair to say that you have not acted perfectly in accordance with their returns policy - we are ignoring this and focusing on the fact that they do quite legitimately owe you a refund for miselling you a product that was not fit for purpose. Utter the magic words 'I cant imagine I'm the only person who has complained about this' and measure the length of the pause you get. Because I bet you aren't the only person who's complained.
Er, sorry if this has been a rant - but there you go, my 3-step guide to dealing with arsy internet phone sales people.
Oh and ring them from skype - else your phone bill will be horrendous. Better yet ring them in your lunchbreak if your workplace are kind about such things.
I'd also shout more loudly at FS for being frankly hopeless, not knowing that your box wasn't broken, not collecting it in the way they said they would, etc. Also point out the utter uselessness of their repair company needing your vista disks etc.
If all else fails, try using the RF. If it does work, all well and good. If not, think very very hard about your next move. What do you actually /need/ out of this box? No, not what would be the ideal, what do you need? You have a DVD player, so you don't need one of them. You have a computer, so you don't need one of them, either. This was to replace a video recorder, right? So, er, have you considered buying a video recorder? Or a DVD recorder? Either of these would Just Work. And would cost much much less.
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I ordered a coolermaster external hdd caddy (the coolermaster 360 one - never buy it) from pixmania. Turns out it works only intermittently under windows, not at all on a mac or on linux and is basically an all round shame. Pixmania refunded the money for that long after their 14 day return policy though it took an awful lot of shouting. I'm waiting for them to refund the hdd I bought to go inside it too since its sod all use without the case. But they've sent it to the manufacturer for testing. More shouting will be needed.
Big companies are stupid and disjointed and dont communicate with themselves well. Take down the name of every single person you speak to, if they dont give you what you want ask to speak to their manager, keep doing this until you get someone who values their time at more than the item you (reasonably) want refunded. Point out that this is not the quality of product that you expect from this company. They will never lose money - they will refund it straight back from the masnufacturer themselves- they just want to offload the hassle on to you.
Reply
I think ideally you want to send this thing back and never look upon its face again right? And you've had it for how long?
I suggest you try the following course of action
1) ring play to request a refund, take the name o fhte person you are speaking to
2) tell them the item is not fit for purpose and if they tell you it matches the desc on the website, point out that that description was both misleading and incomplete
3) they will refuse to help you, ask to speak to their manager, reiterate points 1 to 2
4) the manager may refuse to help you also, ask to speak to their manager, lather rinse repeat
5) at some point you run out of managers, you may at this stage get what you want, but more likely you wont. When you have reached the highest level of manager you can get, ask for the person you need to contact in writing to make a formal complaint. Explain that your next course of action will be to take them to court, should you not recieve satisfaction. Explain at all stages of the process that you have been a loyal customer and expected nothing other than their usual fantastic service. Explain in great detail to each person that you speak to how poor the service has been to date. If they complain that it is well outsite the 28 days then tell them that you yourself are unhappy about thisand the whole process has dragged on far too long. Point out that you will be complaining to various consumer bodies (this is only really useful if you're at a high-ish level of manager but is worth researching into beforehand anyway).
At all time remember your aim in this - you want play to pick up the damn thing and give you your money back. The absolute least you will settle for is to find out the next stage you hav eto go through in their dispute resolution process - whether this is the person you write to or the place you post the mecia centre to or whatnot.
Remain cool and calm and polite. Waste their time. They arenot allowed to put the phone down on you. Explain at all stages that you do not blame the person you are talking to for your unhappiness but that their compnay has porvided substandard service and you expect to see it resolved. Do not give up - because eventually, they will. You have hundreds of pounds to lose by giving up - the person on the other end off the phone on a personal level, has nothing to lose by giving you what you want.
Disclaimer - the above will make you miserable. It will also work. It is fair to say that you have not acted perfectly in accordance with their returns policy - we are ignoring this and focusing on the fact that they do quite legitimately owe you a refund for miselling you a product that was not fit for purpose. Utter the magic words 'I cant imagine I'm the only person who has complained about this' and measure the length of the pause you get. Because I bet you aren't the only person who's complained.
Er, sorry if this has been a rant - but there you go, my 3-step guide to dealing with arsy internet phone sales people.
Oh and ring them from skype - else your phone bill will be horrendous. Better yet ring them in your lunchbreak if your workplace are kind about such things.
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