alanwilliamson
We recently purchased a couple of new desktops to replace desktops that were between them clocking up 10 years of usage. We purchased one from Dell, and one from the UK computer supplier Mesh Computers.
Now it is fair to say at this point in the game that the reputation of Mesh for their customer service is not great. The machines themselves are great, but god help you, if you need to use their after service support.
Our MESH desktop arrived, and even from the packaging point of view, my heart sank. It was all thrown in, and then sent out. Needless to say it was missing bits that came a week later in the post.
The MESH machine booted it up, and the installation wasn't complete to the same standard as the corresponding Dell had been. No big deal, just a couple of extra confirmation screens to click.
The MESH machine came with a TV Tuner card, that worked beautifully. Except the TV arieal connector on the back of it, physically popped out! So a replacement had to be sought. This is where the Cusomter Service fun began!
I first tried to use their online support system.
There is no way to email support, you have to go through a costly 0871 premium number, or use their online system. The problem with their online system is that it doesn't work!
It throws Javascript errors all over the place when you use FireFox. If you use IE, it gets a little further, then it returns a "404 Not Found error" message.
Confidence lost in their online system. So reluctantly I reach for the phone and call their line. I got through relatively quickly and spoke to someone who said they would arrange for an engineer to come out and replace it. What? It's a £35 TV Tuner card, and we live out in the sticks. Where is the economic sense in that? Either way, its not my money their are spending, its part of the support contract. I was assured someone would call be back in a day or two. Waited a week. Nothing.
Attempted their online support forum again, hoping their earlier problems would have been fixed by now, but nope failed. I then did a Google search and found lots of hapless souls in a similiar position and discovered in response to some really bad coverage on the BBC WatchDog program they had released a MESH Computers Owners Club. Which is basically a phpBB forum.
I hopped along to that, registered, and left a post. That was Friday evening.
This morning, I thought I would check to see if someone had left a reply, only to be faced with this:
Oops! Who has forgotton to pay their domain or update their DNS?
I think this sums up MESH perfectly; there is a complete lack of professionalism when it comes to dealing with after sales care. When you compare it to Dell, MESH have a long way to go.
The machine itself is great, no problems there. Just their after sales care.
This will be the last ever purchase from MESH. The Dell machine was ordered a week after the MESH and arrived before the MESH.
Dell's build quality streets ahead of MESH. To give you an example, we put in an additional HD to the MESH box. This was troublesome because their internal power cables wouldn't reach to the HD bays, and there was no HD cradle to use their case. Dell on the other hand, has HD bays, with cradles and all the power cables already cable-tied and sitting at the empty bay. Adding a new HD to a DELL box is literally a 5 second job!
We'll see how this problem moves along. Fortunately its only a cheap component that we can replace ourselves if need be, but I think its a good example of how their customer service works (or doesn't in this case).
Watch this space.
Update 17th March: Got a call from their support center who advised that sending out an engineer for a card probably wasn't the more efficient way to move forward. So he is sending out a ReturnsLabel/Address so I can return the busted card to them. A result thus far.
Update 19th March: Going very well so far. Received the return label as promised and I rang the number to arrange the pickup. The call was answered fast, and everything arranged for tomorrow morning. Well done MESH; my faith is slowly being restored.
Update 27th March: The replacement card arrived. A phone call was placed the day before letting me know it was coming. Considering the Easter period, very good. Sadly the card broke in exactly the same way, must be a bad batch of cards. This time it didn't completely break off. So its still useable. They called to ask if all was well to which I recounted the above. I stated I was going to stick with it, to save hassle, but if it worses or stops completely, then I will seek a replacement. They said fine, and made a record of that for the next time.
Update 3rd April: So all-in-all the customer service worked. I still don't have that "Dell" comfort level, but I can't fault them in my own dealings. Their customer forum is still down (doesn't resolve to anything now) and their customer support site still throws Javascript errors. So a lot MESH could do to ease the pain of others.
Update 4th April: I take it ALL back. Do NOT buy from MESH Computers. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. We are now trying to get this card replaced, and now they want to have the whole unit returned to them. Even though, we have ONSITE support!!! This machine isn't even 30days old. You get through to an Indian call center, and they ZERO scope to be of any assistance. Nice to see your buying British eh?
Update 11th April: After much wrangling, and eventually a post on their MESH users club website, a chap there managed to get things done. Today we had a very nice engineer come onsite and replace the card again. All as promised. The only reason this seem to happen was our public posting on their forums complaining of service. Going through the official support line we got the "return the base unit back to them" story. Which we weren't prepared to do; especially not over a stupid TV card! It is really a shame a great product is being let down by real poor customer service.
Comments
please note, all comments will be moderated for spam and abuse before being publicly posted.
Article Details
- Published:
4:03 PM GMT, Sunday, 16 March 2008 - Categories:
Technical General - Tags:
mesh computers customer service dell mesh - Comments:
15 left; add comment
Related Articles
Article Archives
Recent Cloud posts
Recent JAVA posts
Latest CFML posts
|
Site Links |
Recommended Sites/Blogs
|
MESH Neo netbook purchased this week. Doesn't connect to wifi. MESH tried to fob me off with their supplier in Holland who, in broken English (email) wanted my to mess about with the BIOS - their helpful advice also pointed out that if something went wrong with my fiddling with the BIOS then they wouldn't be liable! I refused to entertain the idea.
MESH then said I had to return the goods to the same company in Holland. Oh what a laugh. The goods were purchased from MESH and sent from a UK MESH address. That is where I am sending them back to this Saturday. If I do not get a swift refund I will be reporting the matter to their nearest Trading Standards Office and will start a small claims court action to recover the money (you can do this on line). They appear to have no understanding, or desire to follow, UK consumer law. So, don't get angry, get even. If you have to use the small claims court it costs about £35, if it does go to actual hearing it is an informal process. Needless to say I will never purchase even the very smallest thing from them again.Computer was purchased last Febuary online. The tower was not working when delivered, and an engineer had to come and replace a part initially. The tower was sent away for an issue with the cooling fan, and parts were replaced. Some time later (January '09) a sim ilar issue occurred, and the tower was sent away again. The tower did not arrive at the repair centre for approx 2 weeks following collection by the courier, and when examined, the repairer stated the issue was a software fault, not hardware, and any repairs would be outside thw warranty and chargeable. Repairs were carried out on the tower without our aggreement, and Mesh customer service will not release the tower without payment for these repairs. We did not agree to any repairs on our computer, and it seems that Mesh will not come to a compromise regarding this issue. The customer service team leave voicemail messages 5 minutes before they go home for the day, when calling them back the department is closed, or you are in a queue for 10-30 minutes just to be told the person dealing with our issue is not in/ on lunch/ on another call. I have not experienced such a low level of professionalism and total lack of customer care, and I am disgusted at the complete unwillingness of other staff to help with the issue. I work in customer service, and I would be immediedly fired if I were to treat my customers as i have been treated. Please can anyone advise as to what we can do next? Many thanks, Darren.
A year after this article was written and it appears MESH haven't learnt a thing.
I am yet another victim of this awful service, still waiting for my machine to arrive six weeks after ordering - yet they took my money instantly! I think review websites have got a lot to answer for and need to take a lot of criticism for misleading people into buying from this disgraceful company.Oh dear. I wish I'd read this before placing an order with Mesh. My experience has been similarly diabolical. Has anyone actualy managed to get a refund for their dodgy systems?
Another Mesh victim - DON'T BUY MESH. This was actually our third Mesh computer and it will certainly be our last. The advice to all is - do not buy Mesh! The first two PC's (so far..!) were trouble free but the last one had issues and Mesh's 'support' showed its true colours. The same tale as many have had of the struggles to get any help, struggles to get a warranty on-site visit to replace the duff hard drive a few months after buying the pc, re-visits to sort out the first visit, etc. Now after much grief with the pc we find that the year old replacement hard drive is packing up. Mesh's response - tough s**t. The whole attitude of their 'customer service' personnel in response to a complaint is: we've got your money, now push off. Any point in writing to the CEO? I doubt it, Mr Max Sherafati must get complaints by the bucketload.
I just found out about this website and was giddy with excitement, thank god i googled them first or i would of made a big mistake, i sorry for you guys and glad that you all posted your tales here thank you for saving me.
F**king Mesh...(I wish I had never heard of them...should have gone for a DELL) I am too having problems and they refuse to honor the on site warranty that I paid for and won't come out. They tried to sort out the problem on the phone and made it 10 times worse. DO NOT BUY FROM MESH EVEN IF YOUR LIFE DEPENDS ON IT!!!
Yet another Mesh horror story - their support basically did me over to the tune of £80 quid. They really are the worst out there.
Hi All, I'm sure nobody needs to hear the complete tale of woe but in summary - failed Mesh machine, two weeks of pointless diagnostics with Indian call centre, a week to get machine collected and taken to workshop, two weeks for it to come back DOA, another week of negotiation with "help(!) desk", several more days to collect again, another two weeks in the workshop, returned to me yesterday and guess what....DOA again.
Like many another poster, I will not be buying from them again under any circumstances. I'm sure there are better companies for after-sales, but I'm seriously starting to wonder if it's better to buy over-priced machines from a retail store - at least then when it goes wrong, you can stand over the gormless member of staff until they do something for you!Currently dealing with Mesh Computers
They agreed one price with me over the telephone which i was going to pay for later in the day. Soon after three reps called with the same reference asking for more money on a credit card. Situation resolved was quoted the usual time for delivery , Chased after the set delivery time to hear that the cpu's were out of stock. I Was told they would definitely be available next week and my system would be delivered on thurs / fri , day comes , no delivery , now im told they failed quality control and it would be thurs / fri next week GUARANTEED!. Fine , im not an unreasonable guy. Next week comes , No pc ?? . Call up again told no CPU's , Thurs/ Fri next week guaranteed again! Call to find out what the hell is going on , Im promised first a call from my account manager , No call , then a supervisor , No call. I call in to speak to a supervisor only to be asked to hold and transfered to repairs! , After giving my reference for a second time im promised to be sent to customer service , I end up at sales support , again giving my reference?? who then have to pass me to a manager! Phone goes on hold , Voice asks for my reference for the 4th time , Low and behold , its still not the manager. Finally transfered to a manager giving my reference for the 5th time just so i can simply cancel my order! All in all the worst customer service since my dealings with BT (Indian and British call centre), AOL (Indian call centre) , ORANGE (Indian call centre) , SKY (Thieving Geordie employee) and NORWICH DIRECT (Indian Call centre). Please avoid at all costs , its cheaper to buy the parts yourself and pay someone to build it in the first place and a hell of alot easier. WILL NEVER EVER USE AGAIN , PLEASE DONT PASS THIS POST OFF AS A ONE OFF , THERE WILL BE MANY OTHER PEOPLE WHO CANT BE BOTHERED TO DOCUMENT THEIR ANGER . I AM THE LAZIEST GIT EVER BUT THE FACT THEY ARE ALLOWED TO TRADE WITH A SERVICE LIKE THAT IS ENOUGH TO GET ME TO WRITE THIS OUT.Hi
I too had the misfortune of buying a Mesh computer and found the company to be, without doubt, the slowest, rudest and most appalling company I have dealt with in over 30 years. I'm not exaggerating to say over 4 months of legal wrangling with this firm made me ill. Please do not buy from this firm. My machine was dead on arrival, certified so by an independent expert, yet the company took 2 weeks to collect the machine only for somebody to then write to me and tell me it was in perfect working order. Absolutely disgusting. Why on earth would I have sent a working PC back?? Anyway, typing this is bringing back horrid memories and I'm starting to smash the keys harder and harder on my new keyboard (supplied by a wonderful firm) so I will end here. Stay away people, PLEASE!Oh dearie me. Always Google a company before you buy from them.
I posted (a friend's story) about the horror that is MESH on 5th September last year (http://www.blue-witch.co.uk/2007_09.html) and since then have always been in Google's Top 10 (The Power of Blog Buddies :)). Several thousand people have come through my blog from search engines since then, so, I presume, at least a few hundred have been spared what you've found out the hard way... Hope you don't have cause to need support again... but at least you have the satisfaction of knowing you're Googling high on the term now too (that's how I found you, just chcekcing back referrals), so they *will* lose customers as a result. Hurrah!!!I would just like to add to what others have already said, recently my hard drive developed a fault and needed to be replaced, I wasnt to concerned as I have 'Silver - At Home' warranty cover.
I called the help line and got through to India after a 25 minute wait, the person on the other end was completely useless and refused to send out an engineer, they told me they where transferring me to a senior membeer of staff at which point I was cut off I called back (another 25 minutes on hold) to get through to another hapless agent, this time I was advised to take the base unit to London myself (I live in the North West) I obviously refused, their next suggestion was to hang up and re dial the same number (why?) at this point I informed them I was terminating the call. The agent called my mobile back straight away saying we had been 'disconnected' and tried to carry as as if nothing had happened, once again I had to inform them I was terminating the call and they should not call me back. I then faxed a complaint to head office - no response I emailed @meshcomputers - no response I finally got a call back on tuesday asking a series of 'diagnostic' questions, the call ended with that rep going off to 'investigate' The same person called back on Wednesday and asked me the exact same questions again, still refusing to to send out an engineer, I asked them to escalte my call to a senior member of staff and I am still waiting for a response (Friday) They have told me they are currently in dispute with their engineers which isnt my fault, all I want is the service I signed up for (and paid for) I have since written to head office and have had no response I dont see why I should return a PC back to base when I have at home cover, furthermore when my PC was initially delivered they told me one day and delivered on a totally seperate day without telling me, so I have no faith in them collecting my PC to fix this fault, I work and can not simply take days off here there and everywhere in the vain hope Mesh will decide to turn up Their PCs are not generally bad, my Dad has had one for about 6 years without problem (which is why I bough from MEsh this time) but you have been warned, their customer service is shocking to say the least and will leave you infuriated. I will never buy from Mesh ever ever again and I will be advising my freinds and family not to purchase anything from themI have to confess their service is getting better. We received a phone call again yesterday to make sure all is well.
Hi there, just thought I would add a comment regarding Mesh computers... I made the dire mistake of purchasing one of these machines recently and found from the moment I switched it on that it just didnt want to work. After spending several long hours talking to India I finally received authorisation to open the base unit up (without this authorisation the warranty seal is broken, voiding the warranty).
I found that the hard drive hadnt been connected and therefore not formatted...I decided to send it back and claim a refund at this point. Mesh Computers are refusing to honor the sale of goods act (1979) and issue me with the refund to which I am legally entitled. I am now in the process of taking the company to court to claim back my money. If I can save one person from making the mistake of purchasing from this company I'll be a happy man. I'll point out that this would have been my 2nd Mesh computer, the first of which I had no problems with...which may explain something, as soon as you activate their customer service processes you face a never ending battle against telephone agents who either dont care or dont speak english. Please, please dont buy a new computer from this company... there are many alternative options out there that would server you just as well but with a reliable customer service team that will help you out in the event things do go wrong!!