Old Micro Direct Comments

My 1st Review :) - www.microdirect.co.uk

This is my first review for PCReview.co.uk, and it focuses on the first site I purchased computer components from :)

I had the site recommended by my old DT Teacher, who once built around 20 PCs for the school IT Department. I mentioned that I needed to upgrade my own PC, and he recommended MicroDirect.

So, what makes Micro Direct special?

A) Pricing - The prices are updated daily, and the site now has 'Click the Clock' specials, which are a Daily [or 'Weekendly' :)] set of offers. These offers are as far as I am concerned the best prices you can find for the items, and good news is that at the Weekends they almost always involve CPUs, HardDrives and RAM on offer at the same time :) Apart from the Click the Clock offers, the prices are comparable to DABs, although sometimes a little cheaper.

B) Customer Service - Firstly, they take SOLO!! Thank god, or I'd have to borrow dads Visa card again. This makes it a good site for younger people to buy components from without a risk of going Overdrawn. Also, I have sent a couple of Emails to them, asking questions on compatibilty, and have always had a prompt, and informed reply! Unfortunately, I have not had to return anything to them yet, as I understand [and you can feel free to challenge this!!] I understand that DABs can become absolute F**KERS when it comes to dealing with customers returning hardware. Stories along the line of 'Its not out problem, contact Compaq', and even, in one case, dropping a customers DABS bought 28" TV [which was being collected for repair], and then expecting them to foot the bill!!

C) Ease of Purchase - A Clearly laid out website, with Secure On-Line ordering from Bank of Scotland. Loading times are not amazing, but are good for a page which contains animated gifs and product photos - I like the fact that a regularly updated text pricelist can be downloaded, containing all items from the site, with contact details. I Believe there is also a Text Only version of the website for you <56kers :) Select a Category from the left hand frame, then click on the refined options available. The Website has easy to see Stock Levels [basically a YES or NO lol :D] Online ordering is easy :) Set up an account, visit the site and login. Find the product you want, and click the Buy Now! button. This adds the item to your Basket, of which the Total Cost [-VAT -DELIVERY] is displayed at all times on the site at the top right corner. Click Check Basket to see items in the basket, their prices and the Total cost, and when ready to pay, click CheckOut. Enter a few simple details [address, card details] and it will calculate the final cost, and delivery type. Delivery costs are meant to vary according to weight..My first order [CPU, MOBO, HDD, ADSL MODEM e.t.c] weighed in at about 4kg, and came to £8.50 - My next order - 17" CRT Flatscreen, Acryllic case, ANOTHER mobo lol, e.t.c came to about 25kg...and still £8.50! [Thats for 3 working day delivery, by AmTrak - See Below!]


I only have a few bad points....
1) My first delivery.. I was the only one in the house, all lights off, empty driveway e.t.c, I am upstairs in my room on the net. I hear what I believe to be a single knock on the door, I run downstairs, and find a slip of paper, a [we couldnt deliver because..]...I was gutted as you can imagine! Didnt even knock, I mean, my room is the back of the house, so from the front the house looked empty..but thats no reason to not bother knocking, not at £8.50 delivery!!
Having said that, that was AmTraks fault..I understand that they are a reasonable company, although it was my local depot to blame! When my dad drove 60 miles to get the computer, they forgot to mention the 2nd parcel...luckily he noticed, when he was loading the car, the Parcel 1 of 2 sticker!!

Well, I guess that makes one bad point :D
If anybody has had problems with them I'd love to know, as at the moment they seem too good to be true!!

Peace out readers,
Ben Guy
 
Micro Direct

They website look's good. and prices aint bad. But the customer service is dead shoddy.

a friend of mine bought some pcs from them for his company and two of em died within days. onsite warranty company took three weeks to eventually ot even sort it. Me mate eventually took em all back cos he was sick of waiting.

I use a pretty new company (couple years) called Space computers and theyre in Manchester.

The website www.space-computers.com is not the best of sites, but you can tell they are working on that. Prices are getting better too.

I call them on the phone now, once I found the products i want on the website, cos they happy to give new customers a good discount and they pretty friendly too.

what i do order, always gets to me next day, even if i order at 5.30pm. try em on 0870 757 0808 or goto www.space-computers.com

Let me know what you think
 
I now live about 1 min away from MicroDirect, and I've bought a few things over the counter from them, even taking one item back for a friend when a motherboard wouldn't fit in his case.

Excellent Prices, Good service, knowledgeable staff!
 
Re: Micro Direct

I have spent thousands at this company, since they began trading in the pre pentium days. Good service, can't comment on delivery as I always pick up parts, but have had no problems with them at all
 
Re: Micro Direct

These guys are cowboys, cheap prices but non-existent customer service.Tried to purchase a graphics card (advertised as in-stock but at different prices depending on which section of the website you visited!), paid for priority next day delivery and guess what, almost a week later and still no card! Have since sent at least a half a dozen e-mails and rang on numerous occasions but no response whatsoever.
Do yourself a favour and avoid these jokers at all costs!
 
Re: Micro Direct

I think Ben Guy must work for Microdirect. A little too detailed and a little too rosy (even the "one bad point" was Amtrak's fault).

There aren't enough words to describe how bad these people are. I made an order 4 weeks ago. The items have been in stock all the time, but still "awaiting despatch" according to their website. It takes at least 10 mins everytime to get through to customer services. I've had people hang up on me (I wasn't being rude at all). People have told me "it's on the pallet and going out this evening" and a week later it's still "awaiting despatch". I've just been given this story again, so we'll see what happens.

All in all, these are the kind of people that give internet retailing a bad name. I blame myself for not checking out their ratings on a site such as this one and also for going for the cheapest retailer without a hint of scepticism.
Chalk this one up as a learning experience and hope I haven't just p*ssed 50 quid down the toilet.
 
Re: Micro Direct

The only reason I used MicroDirect was due to my normal supplier being ut of stock.
It was the worst move I ever made.

I made an order before Christmas (23rd) for next day delivery (£12 extra) and it failed to arrive.
I called them to cancel the order but they refused to do so because my item was ready for despatch.
This is where it sat until the 6th January.
It was then despatched and I received it the following day.

Fair enough that it was over the festive period but all they had to do was tell me when my item would arrive and I would have been happy.
The fact that they kept on talking a lod of rubbish and refusing to refund the delivery that I paid for was bang out of order.

Poor show Microdirect! Won't be using you again.
 
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