Dishonest Smith Electronics (DSE.com.au) - Are We All Fed up?

Ok. My first forum post. I need to get off my chest my 'experience' with DSE in the past few days and weeks, but first my last two days.

Here is the sequence of dodgy events:

  1. Mon 29 Sept 2014, tried to buy a $10 gift card for $5 with the 10FOR5 code. Code worked well, plenty of 'stock'. Now I say 'stock' because its a gift card, which is a token for credit, the same way paper money which has limited physical production value, as opposed to gold or silver.
  2. Ordered processed via credit card with my account, same as previous order the day before for a different product. Note my credit cards are never over credit or bad rating etc.
  3. Emailed received showing purchase and general details etc.
  4. Got second email rejecting my purchase dut to 'Unverified Credit Card details' stating that a refund will be in progress but that I am able to call and do direct debit if i like.
  5. I call for the direct debit option. Got through straight away Tuesday morning around 9am and the last started to refuse my option for paying over the phone but eventually agreed to the direct debit option, as offered in the email. She said an email will be sent out with the direct debit details immediately.
  6. Four hours later and no email, i called back. Different lady told me that Maggie, the original lady, forgot to send the email and they were sorry. She will send it now immediately.
  7. An hour late and no email so I tried calling back. Was hung up by the system phone 5 times in a space of 20 min or redials.
  8. Feed up, I sent an email to DSE online contact us telling them I was filing a complaint with the ACCC over their actions based on the ACCC information of misleading customers to deals and promotions.
  9. Within 5 minutes of submitting my online complaint I received three phone calls from DSE outbound only phone number (i.e. you can't call them back on that number). I missed the first two calls but on answering the third call I was told that my order was ORIGINALLY cancelled due to lack of stock. A gift card, lack of stock. I then asked why I was given all these excuses about 'unverified' credit card details if lack of stock was the real reason (even though i purchased almost immediately when gift card token was available. She had no response other than the usual 'We are sorry we cannot fulfil your order'.
  10. This morning, Wed Oct 1, another sale for the gift cards came online. But if there is no stock then how can you sell them?
  11. Post this on OzBargain.

Two weeks ago same thing happen to me with two other deals on DSE where there was stock when advertised then later rejected by various excuses(id like to call them lies but gut feeling isn't enough to go on).

Im hearing a lot of similar things happening on here from a lot of different people. Please post your experiences below.

EDIT: Here is their direct number 02 9642 9100. Call and give them some feedback. I think its worth it while.

EDIT: Another number that may help 1300366644

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Comments

        • Do you even know what a petition is? It won't force anyone to do anything.

        • A legislation / law that would force under penalty / fines, the supplier to deliver their part of the contract. Simple as.

      • +2

        If you think petitions don't do anything than you are deluded. They create awareness about issues at hand and lots of time it actually stops something from going ahead.

        On another note, you seem pretty pro dicksmith, do you work for them? You have to be pretty blind or ignorant to not see the false practises that is occurring here with their online store. I had my iTunes cards cancelled AFTER full payment the other day with no reason whatsoever. What excuse do you have for that? I'd love to hear it.

        • -1

          If you think that petitioning a company to up their game is realistic then you are deluded.

          I'm not pro DSE nor do I work for them. Where have I ever defended them? I've said they're incompetent and "It's simply that they are badly organised and often don't handle mass purchases very well."

          A number of people here think it's some kind of conspiracy and DSE management are working on ways to defraud customers. They're not. They're just badly run/organised.

          I don't need to excuse your particular case but obviously they screwed up your order. It would appear they cannot fulfil the order. IANAL but technically you have a contract of sale and they shouldn't be able to just reverse like they have. Again it's their incompetence rather than an organised conspiracy.

        • @Shonky: You were saying something about petitions don't do anything? - http://laughingsquid.com/toys-r-us-pulls-breaking-bad-toys-i…

        • @clarky:
          Wow. They pulled few products that shouldn't have been there in the first place - no brainer really. So that's one petition that did something (albeit very small) and really didn't need a petition in the first place in my mind.

          Now read what I actually said about petitioning a company to up their game.

          Have you started the petition yet?

        • +1

          @Shonky: I haven't started one, its a good idea though! Those breaking bad toys would never have been removed if it wasn't for the petition though, so many companies get away with a lot.

        • @clarky:
          They would/could have been removed easily without a petition.

  • +2

    Online shopping Dick Smith style …

    Jun 20th – order placed
    Jun 23rd – order shipped.
    Jul 8th – order not received.
    Jul 8th – email to customer care – reply "we have inform relevant dept."
    Jul 15th – phonecall to customer care 1300 660 054 disconnected on hold.
    Jul 23rd – phonecall to customer care 1300 660 054 transferred to courier company. Confirmed the online tracking information that parcel had disappeared between Perth and regional depot, advised to contact Dick Smith for a refund.
    Jul 25th – email to customer care – reply "we have inform relevant department to prioritise this matter".
    Aug 4th – email to customer care – no response.
    Aug 6th – phonecall to customer care 1300 660 054 disconnected on hold.
    Aug 25th – Complaint lodged with ACCC.
    Sep 24th – email to customer care – reply "we have inform relevant department to prioritise this matter".
    Oct 1st – Response from ACCC – try your local consumer protection. (ACCC is a waste of time.)
    Oct 1st – Complaint lodged with local Consumer Protection.
    Oct 15th – Call received from Consumer Protection – unable to contact DSE manager … will keep case open.
    Oct 22nd – phonecall to sales team 1300 366 644 – Overseas call centre – promised refund in 3 – 5 days.
    Oct 30th – phonecall to sales team 1300 366 644 – Overseas call centre – promised refund in 1 – 2 days.
    Nov 5th – phonecall to sales team 1300 366 644 – Overseas call centre – informed that I had received and signed for the delivery (wrong) then informed that a refund was issued on Oct 22nd (wrong)
    then informed I would receive a refund in 24 hours. Asked for a contact number in Australia to speak with a manager and given … 1300 366 644 sigh.
    Nov 5th – phonecall to local Consumer Protection. Officer stated she would attempt to contact again.

    As you can imagine this 5 month saga has left me with a furious frustration that has me wanting to put a brick through a shop window. Lesson learnt … will do CC chargeback at first sign of trouble / or perhaps use the paypal option.

    • +1

      Pretty pathetic company. I don't think anyone is even given any authority to issue refunds. They just refer your requests to their imaginary departments or say anything to get you off the phone.

      How much was the order worth?

      • Yep that sums it up accurately …. "refer your requests to their imaginary departments or say anything to get you off the phone" The lies keep flowing till you give up or die.

        Fortunately the amount in dollar value is not great … a heavily discounted item. I can understand why many people would just let it slide, but I guess I am driven by anger now to see it through to resolution.

    • Just do the chargeback now. Forget stuffing around any more. There might be a limit (6 months?).

      • 90 days for a CC transaction.

        • Looks to be more like 30-60 days actually.

  • But they have such good deals like the Last of Us + PS4 bundle for $999

    http://www.dicksmith.com.au/playstation-4/sony-ps4-console-d…

  • First post but a has been a daily browse for a while now for me.

    So I purchased the Sony 50inch TV that was posted on here a couple of weeks ago. To preface this I will state that I live in an apartment complex. My dealings with them are as follows:

    28/10 - Order placed
    29/10 - Unsuccessful delivery. (Was waiting in my apartment all day, they did not check to see if I was in)
    29/10 - Go online prior to end of business day and ask for redelivery on the 30th.
    30/10 - Package is on hold. Sitting at warehouse. Call them and they state that the delivery will be the next business day.
    31/10 - Unsuccessful delivery. (Me and my roommate are in the lounge and I think to check the status of delivery. It was said to be delivered 20 minutes ago. One again they didn't check if I was there.
    31/10 - Call them as soon as I find out. They place specific instruction for the driver to check if I'm home (What kind of delivery service has to tell their drivers that?). They inform me that they will deliver on Monday.
    3/11 - Package is on hold. Sitting at the warehouse. I call and ask when it will be delivered and they tell me they will call me back when they know. They call me back and tell me they will not be delivering until Wednesday. I call Dicksmith and ask for a change of address, pick up in store or cancellation to then order click and collect. Every possible permutation is denied.
    4/11 - Melbourne Cup day
    5/11 - Package is on hold. Sitting at the warehouse.
    6/11 - Package is on hold. Sitting at the warehouse. I call and ask when it will be delivered. They said they won't be able to get it out today and it will be tomorrow.
    7/11 - Call to confirm it will be delivered today. They reinforce that it will de delivered today. They couldn't give me a ETA or give my number to the driver to call when he gets to my apartment.
    4:50pm - Call and get told that they won't deliver til Monday. Ask why it is taking so long. Excuses given are address label error and unable to get into my apartment. Both reasons are BS, as they still managed to deliver the notices to my mailbox and even has it written on one of them. Being unable to get into my apartment shouldn't be an issue. They have no reason to be inside my apartment building they only need to press the button to call my apartment on the intercom.

    Apologies for it being long and a major rant. I just am beyond fed up with Dicksmith and Startrack. I will never do business with Startrack again and nor will I do business with DSE either.

    • Most of your gripe is with Startrack not DSE.

      • You're right but that doesn't mean DSE is in anyway good. Not being helpful in allowing their customer to change their address or pick it up in store when presented with delivery difficulties isn't something I would think of as good.

        They chose Startrack to deliver their goods.

        • It doesn't in anyway mean they are bad apart from choosing Startrack who the majority of the time are fine.

          Changing a delivery address after it's been handed over to the courier is not really something DSE can help with. All they'll do is contact the courier. Better contacting them directly.

        • @Shonky:
          Was actually told by Startrack that to change my address and told I would need to call DSE who then told me that I can't do it.

          It is really just a stupid situation. All I can do is hope they deliver on Monday.

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