Have you ever bought anything from CENTRE COM?
I am looking to buy a laptop, but have never seen PayPal surcharges before, so am wondering whether this is a legitimate website? Or is a PayPal surcharge the new norm?
Any experiences, good or bad, would be appreciated.
Thanks so much!!
They have like 10 physical stores you can visit anytime
Yeah if you're in the East, if you're in the West like me no chance unless you wanna take a relaxing four day straight drive there and back…
I am in SA - no local store in the area :)
I'm in northern suburbs of VIC and have been to a couple of their stores. I run an IT business and am in there usually once a week buying SSDs to upgrade clients old HDDs :)
Bought a bit of gear from them over the years, they are pretty good.
Can't be sure. Always wondered every time I've walked around the shop over the last 10 years.
They are almost as old as MSY. MSY is 20+ years, Centrecom has been around 18 years.
Thanks so much everyone! It’s good to know they are similar to MSY.
Would the people who voted ‘Stay away’ or ‘Mixed feelings’ please share their experiences?
Thank you :)
They are definitely different to MSY, MSY has no after sales support and can' t get you out of the store fast enough. Centrecom guys can take time to talk shit with ya and give advice on what components to buy.
MSY is where you go if you know exactly what you want to buy and don't need to ask any questions, more of a trade/wholesaler than a retailer.
On that note I went to CPL Preston to buy a laptop they had listed in stock, their "display area" was "under construction" so the customer area had no products in it and just a bare desk. Spoke to the guy and he went and grabbed the laptop for me no problems, asked him how long they have been at this location and he said just under 3yrs.
I have been to CPL Notting Hill once and they were complete opposite with a lot of floor stock / display area and a lineup system with 'take a number' and a screen displaying which number is being served. I think they do a lot more business over the east side of town :)
Surcharges are and will continue to become more common over the coming years. The RBA rolled out new rules over the last couple of years and as a result, more businesses are recovering their cost of acceptance for different payment methods, in doing so, they can keep their prices lower. Centrecom is fine, ordered from them before a number of times, they are just like msy.
Just to clarify, Paypal never used to let businesses surcharge their Paypal fees to the customer - it was in their T&Cs and any contravention was grounds for account cancellation etc etc. Not to mention the customer-expected standard of 'no surcharging with Paypal'.
Fast-forward to now, Paypal has now conceded to businesses and allowed surcharging. It's not common - as a seller, you're now torn between covering your costs in an itemised form via surcharge, versus losing customer goodwill because if it - but it'll certainly continue to grow in usage as businesses try to reduce expenses.
Anyone know what their warranty's like?
Centrecom have been around for at least 25 years I would say. Bought things from them from time to time over that time frame. Ive never had a problem with then.
I bought from them - centre.com - a long time ago. Twenty five + years? They had the best prices at the time and service over the phone was very good.
If a small business can survive as long as they have, and expand, whilst many competitors have not survived the various economic challenges along the way, tells me that they’re doing something right. Something which the customers like.
Huge thank you to everyone for taking the time to vote and/or respond - I will be placing an order with centre com tonight! :)
I went there to return a Seagate BarraCuda 500GB 2.5" Internal Hard Drive x 2 and a Verbatim 3m PVC HDMI Cable - Black for $78.94, which I purchased on Saturday 7th September 2024. I spoke to Jai who processed the credit note for me but when I rang and spoke to him to question the 15% restocking fee he got extremely abusive with me and he said there is nothing I can do for you so get lost. I will never step foot inside this store again and I would advise others to do the same.
On Saturday 7th September 2024 I purchased a Seagate BarraCuda 500GB 2.5" Internal Hard Drive x 2 and a Verbatim 3m PVC HDMI Cable - Black for $78.94 from the Clayton Store but the Hard Drives didn't come in their packaging only by themselves. On Thursday 12th September 2024 I rang and I spoke to somebody about the 15% restocking fee they were extremely abusive and they said there is nothing I can do for you, you (profanity) bastard so (profanity) off. I will never step foot inside this store again and I would advise others to do the same.
Used to work for them, ages ago, seems to be a standard race to the bottom operation typically seen in the industry.
To be price competitive they typically will pass on any cost associated with doing business/completing a transaction, ie Credit Card fee, transaction fee, shipping etc.
That will also include things like restocking fees to return opened products, support/warranties will typically be the minimum to consumer laws and regs but dont expect much goodwill/leeway.
The hard drive in plastic foil wrap is completely normal, I personally have never seen a hard drive in a retail package.
Not too sure about being abusive, typically most staff will deescalate things, but sometime fire will be met with fire
What was wrong with the hard drive that warranted a return? Did they fail your smart validation / hard disk sentinel full disk check?
If the website is https://www.centrecom.com.au/ then yes, they're legit.
Bought from them more than a few times over the last decade or so, mostly at the store though, only once online, no problems so far.
They're kind of like MSY and CPL.