Have your say & ask the experts

Well finally got through to them and asked for a refund; they 1st tried to sell me the more expensive Partington stands at a £250 deal which i said not a chance; why would i give them £100 more just to mess me about more?!?! Doesnt make sense...


Anyways; spoke to Gary at Audio Analogue (Chord shop on eBay) and paid for my stands and theyll be with me tomorrow!!!

Good move. Audio Analogue are brilliant.

I actually almost placed an order with them yesterday eventually got through to them on the phone then spoke to someone who was just incredibly rude, i dont like to knock places but i was a little suprised.

I have finally received my order and it's actually correct too......I will not be using Audio Affair again though. The guy I spoke to was unhelpful and interrupted almost evrything I tried to say. Awful customer service! Hope they see this.

In this climate, with prices going up considerably across the CE industry, dealers should be going the extra mile, not giving customer's short shrift. Very disappointing. If Audio Affair have any sense they'll tighten up their service.

Hi

Thank you for your comments. A customer just mentioned they were surprised to see this thread, so we wanted to take the opportunity to reply. Firstly, apologies for any rare past instances when service has not been exceptional. We have grown incredibly quickly over the last year and while we are now one of the largest hi-fi and home cinema specialists, we have been working hard to ensure service is as exceptional as we would expect ourselves.

Of the thousands of customers who bought from us over this last year, we received many excellent testimonials and e-mails from customers delighted with our service, but we appreciate there have been these few occasions where an item has not been delivered or delayed. We have taken steps to rectify this, including a change in courier and new e-mail systems to ensure you always receive a quick reply and your order is dispatched as quickly as possible. We now also send an e-mail to confirm tracking details when courier items ship so you can see up to the minute when courier items are due to arrive. Furthermore, several new members of staff are joining our team and we will soon have a dedicated aftersales contact number specifically for any service related issues.

We appreciate that it takes a level of trust to order over the internet and it can be like "buying blind" unless you've visited us or spoken to us before. We're hi-fi and home cinema enthusiasts ourselves so be assured that we always work hard to find the system that's right for you and offer a level of service that we expect ourselves of any other good retailer.

If you have any questions in future before placing an order or you have a query regarding a past order, please feel free to call us or e-mail us.

Kindest regards

Alex
Director

Thanks for the response, Alex.

This is a sad pitfall of buying from a business via internet, hence why I always do transactions face-to-face. It's good for a rep to explain the situation. Only time will reveal whether they major on integrity.

I thought I should update on the situation with my cable order. I have still not received anything.

I spent a lot of yesterday trying to get hold of someone at Audio Affair on the telephone. 40+ calls during the day were answered by a machine. Leaving a message asking for a call-back at lunchtime had not raised a response by close of business yesterday. When I have spent in excess of £400 (which has been debited from my account) I consider this poor customer service and, to be honest, I was fuming. I sent an email last night requesting a full refund and cancelling my order.

The email did get a response. To be fair, I have not emailed before so have no idea whether an email simply asking for an update would have got a response but I have my doubts given others' experiences. Alex telephoned me this morning and said that a refund was not possible as part of the order has shipped already. The courier is Royal Mail so no shipment number is available meaning I am unable to confirm whether this is true. The rest of the order is apparently awaited from the supplier and I have been given a contact number to confirm this with them on Monday which I shall do. I have been offered a 10% discount on the outstanding part of the order to compensate me for my inconvenience.

I accept that Nordost has just changed its UK distributer and that there may, as a result, be delays to orders from the new supplier. With that in mind though, making promises to deliver within a few working days stands a reasonable chance of creating unhappy customers. That, coupled with the fact that putting 'Audio Affair' into your favourite search engine returns this thread and a similar one on another site told me that my experience is far from unique. There don't seem to be queues of people leaping to the defence of the company in question on either thread. It was for that reason that I pointed Alex in this direction so he could provide an explanation.

I will of course give further updates when I have more news. In the meantime I remain sceptical and keep my fingers crossed. Not a very satisfactory situation with a transaction of this value!

drtom:

The courier is Royal Mail so no shipment number is available meaning I am unable to confirm whether this is true.

Hmmm, according to their website:

All large packages are sent by DPD
(Interlink Express) or Parcelforce by a fully insured, next day service
and smaller items ship by Royal Mail recorded or special delivery.

So I assume they messed up on that, too?  

 

 

It's sad that Audio Affair saw fit to respond in this forum but was unwilling to respond personally to my emails or phone messages. Like others in this thread I was becoming frustrated and angry at my inability to make any meaningful contact with this company.

If they have become a victim of their own success as the correspondent seems to imply then they should be going against the current tide and actually employing people to cope with the extra demand which they appear to have. I remain unconvinced by their response and will not be using them again. I will also not be recommending them to anyone either.

My credit card was also debited more than 2 weeks before the item actually shipped which I find unacceptable.

If Alex from Audio Affair would care to comment on my case specifically i would be more than interested to hear what he has to say?

ElectroMan:

drtom:

The courier is Royal Mail so no shipment number is available meaning I am unable to confirm whether this is true.

Hmmm, according to their website:

All large packages are sent by DPD (Interlink Express) or Parcelforce by a fully insured, next day service and smaller items ship by Royal Mail recorded or special delivery.

So I assume they messed up on that, too?  

 

 

I found it slightly surprising that a business would send something with a value in excess of £100 via normal Royal Mail post when the maximum amount recoverable if it goes missing is £30. Especially given the above quote from the website. If it was sent as stated then it should arrive tomorrow. If not then I expect to spend most of Tuesday on the phone again

Hi

Apologies for the delay you experienced with your order - most Mission items ship within 24 hours so its rare for a delay to be that long. We have upgraded our method of shipping orders to ensure these sort of delays don't happen in future.

Kind regards

Alex

Director

Hi

Apologies for the delay with this order. We are one of the UK's top dealers for these stands and they usually ship within 24 hours so it's rare for them to be delayed and briefly out of stock. We did offer the Ultimas (£299) for £250 as these were in stock but as these were not preferred we cancelled the order in full immediately as requested. Sorry again for any inconvenience.

If there is any other item of interest in future, give us a call and we can offer a good deal 

Thanks,

Alex

Director

Thanks for your comments. Hope everything is still sounding good with the Roksan Kandy set up - £780 was one of the lowest offers we had for this system. Are you looking to upgrade your speakers? We recently started stocking the new Acoustic Energy Radiance range which are worth a look for a good match with the Kandy

Kind regards

Alex

Director