I like to consider myself to be a fair individual, often adopting the policy of forgive and forget. However, there is only so far you can push somebody before they can take no more. Dabs.com have pushed me over the limit, so this is where I shall outline the details of their wrong doings, and hopefully persuade anybody who would previously have purchased goods from them to go elsewhere. If anybody else has had a bad experience with Dabs, send me the details, and I will add them this page. If you would rather not read all of the details, you can skip to the summary, or the list of alternative sites. I have also compiled a list of other disgruntled customers.

As is traditionally done, I will start at the beginning, with the first incident.

Summer 2000

I decided that I would purchase and build a PC with some money that I had saved. I shopped around the Internet for the best prices for the parts I wanted. The majority of the parts I decided on would come from Dabs.com. Among these was a copy of Windows Millennium Edition. Being a student, I opted for the cheaper student upgrade edition.

Upon receiving my copy of Windows ME, I removed the shrink-wrap packaging, opened the box and removed the licence agreement. After reading the licence agreement, I realised that I was unable to abide by the terms and conditions stated within it. I decided that what I needed was the standard edition of Windows ME. I sent an email to Dabs customer services explaining that I was unable to commit to the licence agreement, and that I would like return my student upgrade copy, and purchase the higher priced standard edition.

Customer services informed me that by breaking the seal on the box, I agreed to be bound by the terms and conditions of the licence agreement, and so could not return it. Confused by this, I searched the exterior of the packaging for any indication of this, but found none. I replied to customer services stating that there was no mention of this on the box, and that in order to read the licence agreement, and therefore agree to it, I had to first unwrap the box, then open it (I suffer from a birth defect of which dabs were unaware, whereby my eyes are incapable of x-ray vision). After many emails, and telephone conversations, Dabs still insisted that by opening the box, I agreed to the terms and conditions, so they would not accept the return.

I threatened legal action.

Dabs gave up and accepted the return.

I decided not to let this little incident get in the way of what had otherwise been very convenient trading, and continued to purchase the occasional item from them.

December 2002

Again, I am ordering the parts for a computer. This time, however not for myself, but for a friend of the family. One of the parts I required was a power cable, your standard 3-pin euro (kettle) lead that you use to connect your PC tower to the mains outlet. A search on Dabs.com produced several results, of which one was labelled "AC Adaptor Power Cable". Clicking the link for more information produced a page like the following:

AC Adaptor Power Cable

Power cable

Connector(s)                1 x power
Connector(s) (Other Side)   1 x power
Package Type                Retail
Product Description         Power cable

This looked like what I wanted so I ordered 2. When they arrived, I unpacked them, only to find that they were laptop cables! I emailed dabs and told them about their misleading product info, and requested a return. Dabs policy states that if the product is not faulty, you must pay for the return, and their preferred method costs £7.95 + VAT, which is a total of £9.34. This is almost as much as the cables themselves cost. I chose not to return the cables, as they may come in use sometime in the future, however as of writing this page, Dabs have not changed the ambiguous description, which can be found by performing a quicklinx search for RNSWS on dabs.com, and looking at the features tab.

January 2003

I had finished building the computer, and delivered it to its new owners. After about a week I received an email telling me that the clock kept resetting every time the computer was switched off. I went to look at the computer armed with a working CMOS battery, suspecting that this was the problem. The battery was swapped, but the problem remained. I got in contact with the manufacturers, and they gave me a few tests to perform. I carried out these tests, and they declared the motherboard faulty, and said I should return it to the supplier.

I emailed dabs, and informed them that the motherboard was faulty, and the BIOS reset to factory defaults after being disconnected from the mains power supply for a short amount of time. Dabs policy states that even though the product is faulty, and within the warranty period, as it had been more than 28 days since the order was placed, I would have to pay for the return. As above, Dabs' preferred method costs £9.34. Warranty return takes 4-6 weeks.

March 2003

When you return a product for warranty repair, you are supposed to return the product and all accessories. In the case of this motherboard, the accessories were two IDE cables, one floppy cable, and one internal two-port USB hub. Six weeks after sending off the motherboard, it was returned to me, along with piece of paper containing the model number, and the word "Repaired". I opened the box, removed the motherboard, and placed it inside the PC. I went to connect up the hard disc and CDROM drive, but remembered that I had sent off the cables. I returned to the box that the motherboard was returned in, and removed all of the packaging, but could not find the cables or the USB hub! I emailed dabs and informed them of the mistake. Fortunately I had spare cables, so was able to connect up computer anyway. After connecting up the computer, I configured the BIOS and powered down. The computer was disconnected. When I reconnected the computer, I was appalled to find that the problem had not been fixed!

Yet another email was sent to Dabs, this time requesting a replacement to be sent out promptly, as I could not afford to be without the motherboard any longer. After a few more emails back and forth, Dabs told me to send the motherboard back, and if it were faulty, they would refund me, they would not issue a replacement. However they still wanted me to pay another £9.34 to send it back again. Realising that they had sent out the standard letter, I asked Dabs if they wanted me to pay for the return, and would refund that cost if the product was faulty, or if they were going to pay for the return. A reply came, saying that they would pay for the return. Another reply came, saying that I was to pay, and it would be refunded if the board were found to be faulty. I was forced to email dabs again in order to find out which they meant, and for once I was pleased by what they had to say, as they said they would pay for the return.

April 2003

Two weeks after the motherboard had been returned, I had still heard nothing more from Dabs, no confirmation of receipt, no notice of action taken. I emailed Dabs yet again, and asked what was happening. The reply was simply, "A refund has been issued". Not, "Sorry that you have not yet been informed, a refund has been issued.". Not, "We appologise for the inconvenience that we have caused you. You were correct when you said the motherboard was faulty, we will take steps to ensure that this type of mistake does not occur agian.". No, not even a hint of an appology.

I did eventually receive the refund. I am still awaiting an appology, but am not holding my breath.

To be fair to the technician that looked at the motherboard, I can see how it would be easy to miss a problem of this nature (the power had to be completely disconnected for a prolonged period of time), if it were not properly described, or understood. However, under no circumstances should the board have been labled as repaired, when it is so obvious, that no repair has been made. To say "No fault found", is not a problem, but the motherboard was in mint condition, strongly implying that no repair had been made. If a fault had been detected, and a repair made, so perfectly that it could not be seen, then the board could not have been thouroughly tested afterwards, as the problem still remained

Summary

In conclusion, here is a brief list of reasons why I wish to boycott Dabs:

• Dabs refused to accept the return of a copy of Windows ME, on the grounds that by opening the product I agree to the terms of the licence agreement, despite having to open the product in order to read the agreement. This was resolved after threats of legal action.
• Dabs wished to charge £9.34 for the return of a product wrongly purchased due to an ambiguous product description. Note: the description has not been changed.
• Dabs charged me to return a faulty motherboard.
• Dabs failed to return the entire product to me.
• Dabs returned the motherboard after six weeks, stating that it was repaired. It was not repaired.
• Dabs customer services are structred so poorly, that the last twelve emails from them have come from ten different people. This resulted in contradicting instructions.
• I had to chase Dabs up, to find out if a refund had been issued.
• Dabs have made no attempt to appologise for any of their actions.

I would like to point out that I in no way blame dabs for selling me a faulty product, I also don't blame the manufacturers. When you make so many of a product, you are bound to get a few that don't work. However, Dabs handled the situation very poorly. My suggestion to Dabs would be: When a customer emails customer services, assign them to a member of staff. Never have more than one member of staff dealing with an enquiry, unless the person responsible for the enquiry requests it. I would much rather wait an extra couple of days, even a week, for the person dealing with my enquiry to reply with an informed response, than get a quick^* response from somebody who only has the contents of the email you just sent to base their reply on.

^* When I say quick, I mean usually a few days, which really isn't that quick. So for that little improvement in response time, by having the first available person reply, there is a dramatic loss in quality of service.

Alternative sites

For those of you who wish to boycott Dabs, but don't know where else you can buy your computer parts from, I have compiled a list of alternative sites. I welcome any additions to this list.

Notice: The list of alternative sites has been integrated with the list on the links page.

Other Disgruntled Customers

Here are some links to other sites giving reasons why you shouldn't shop with Dabs, just in case you need some more convincing.

www.ciao.co.uk/dabs_com_Review_5312412