Don't bother reading below, just don't ever buy product from The Computer Shop, I am 3 failed delivery dates and the lack of a refund later. 13/12/2004
John Hodgins
your confirmation number4UO017AF


I attempted to purchase a new computer at the Taunton branch of The Computer Shop on 31 October 2004 where I was told that it would be delivered to my home within 10 working days and of course it was charged to my credit card bill the next day. I was also given a phone number-08701668814- which is allegedly a customer support number. You ought to be aware that it is impossible to ever get through on this number and on the 10th working day I returned to The Computer Shop at Taunton to check on the progress of my purchase where I was told it would definitely be delivered the next week. Well, it certainly wasn't! A further week later I returned to the Taunton branch again and was told again that it would definitely be delivered next week. Surprise, it was not and I was back in the Taunton branch a week later. As you had now failed 3 delivery dates (although your Taunton manager on 12/12/2004 claims you have not!) I asked for a refund and your Taunton manager went to his computer and told me that yes he had organised a refund for 838.99. He also stated that the computer had now left Lancashire and would be delivered on 29/11/2004 and that when?/if? the computer arrived we were to refuse to sign for delivery. Again, hardly surprisingly it did not arrive and certainly no card was left to suggest otherwise and of course no refund has shown up on my credit card statement in the meantime.
Nearly two weeks later, on December 12th I returned to Taunton The Computer Shop and the service was as arrogant as ever. I was informed that your efforts above do not constitute 3 failed deliveries. I was also informed that a delivery docket for the computer was left at our address on 29/11/2004 and that I was either lying or had lost it. The manager then made a phone call, to whom I am not sure but it appeared that I was correct about the lack of this delivery docket but I was not offered any satisfactory information? I was also given a note from the manager stating that I would be given a refund when the computer was received back at Time H/Q and that notes had been entered onto the customers account. These notes ought to have been entered back on November 26th and it is 2 weeks since the computer may have been in this area. You may perhaps like to give me a valid reason why it takes you that long to move a computer from one end of the country to the other! Finally, I would also like to take issue with the other middle aged (and I am one of them) member of staff in Taunton who stated that he knew little about my case and did not want to know but suggested that I leave their store.
It is totally unacceptable and I want an e-mail reply to *********************

by Friday, December 17th at the latest, stating that you have refunded the money to my credit card.

Yours faithfully

John Hodgins

John, The Computer Shop is Time by another name. I've heard this story so many times from them. Don't touch with the proverbial!!! Might be worth asking for names of the people you deal with and writing them down. Nothing scares someone into taking action more than their name. In case they give you a false name ring the store as sson as you get outside and ask to speak to that person. If it's just a corporate phone number ask for a number direct to the store. Ask for names all the time though. That makes a difference.

BTW just bought my kids a second user (although it looks brand new) IBM e-machine on ebay, 2.8 celeron processor, CD RW, DVD rom, 512 memory XP home with disc and product key, restore discs, keyboard. 180 inc delivery. Bargain :-)

hodgins :-(

Do you think it is useful to post your story to the 'Scam and Fraud' thread?

Optimist, thanks.

hodgins

A sorry tale. :-(

See if you can make good use of http://www.grumbletext.co.uk

Does anyone here use and can recommend a (preferably) UK based DDNS service.

Note DDNS not DNS.

Thanks.

S

I don't use one but the following are the defaults on Smoothwall. I don't know where they are based.

dhs.org
dyndns.org
dyns.cx
hn.org
no-ip.com
zonedit.com
easydns.com
ods.org

Thank O, I will check them.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please..........
I have two screens running on my desktop,which has been set up and working fine.

I now appear to have lost the RED colours / shades from both displays.This is affecting everything from TV to documents and web.

Have tried all the display settings and manule colour type settings on the monitors but no change. Every thing else is working fine.

Where should I be looking ?....Could it be graphics card ?
Thanks Graeme.

Take the lid off....

The problem is most likely to do with the connection of the graphics card into the slots in the motherboard and/or a fault in the vga cable. To see if it has an internal fault, you could try waggling the latter.

I would guess its the cable check thats its properly in at both ends (PC and Screen)

Don't know if anyone here uses Zonalarm for anti virus protection, as opposed to its normal firewall use?? but if you do be warned .......

Its rubbish

I am just working on a machine that has dozens of infected files and several Trojans along with a nice collections of premium rate diallers etc, and its been "protected" since new with a regularly updated version of ZA. What's more ZA seems to be properly configured.

A friend of mine has just signed up for BT Broadband :( I've suggested that he bin the BT router and CD and buy an ADSL router with a better firewall.

I know that this configuration would be easy with most ISP's but am slightly worried that BT have been able to make it difficult to connect to broadband without their software, as they have done with dail-up.

Any comments welcome.

O no its easy, they imply their software is essential but it isnt You just need the userid and password as usual take about 20 secs on the router.

Thanks S

Spaceman

ZA anti-virus - Thanks for that. I was thinking of getting it to replace my Fix-It Utility one. Don't think I'll bother now!
Strange isn't it. You'd think a combined firewall (I think ZA firewall is pretty good as far as software ones go) with anti-virus should be the dogs-bollocks!

my local IT guys also say that Norton antivirus/net security suspect(with firewall). Virus part OK.

Sorted the display / graphics problem.Checked the graphics card and the fan had gone.Blocked with dust. New card for 50 and everything is back to normall.Thanks for help. Graeme.

Graeme

That would seem to be a good warning to check all of your other fans.

A bit of an update regarding my comments on ZA anti Virus yesterday. I am now a bit confused !

While cleaning the machine I used a number of different tools including Trend Sysclean, AVG Free (which has recently been updated to version 7), Mischel TrojanHunter, Spybot S&D and Adaware Free. However even after all of this I was still suspicious that there were some problems, and I did a scan using ZA Anti Virus, and guess what it found a few more infected files, this seemed very strange so I did bit of googling to find what others thought of ZA Anti Virus.

It seems that ZA use a well regarded 3rd party virus scanning engine which has a good detection record. So I went back to the PC I was checking and rechecked its settings, as before they all seem fine.

I have not been able to speak to the owner of the PC to see what he is doing but I am wondering if he is cancelling regular scheduled checks or possibly not taking any action when ZA finds infections that it cannot clear.

For interest the files found by ZA were in archives and it was not able to clean them, I had to clean them by deleting the files.

I did not keep records of what infections were present on this PC however during the clean up I found that my home network kept collapsing, at first I though that this was a problem with my router and rebooting it solved the problem for a little while but it kept returning, then I noticed that this did not happen if the infected PC was disconnected.... So I started up a network Sniffer and watched the network switch and sure enough the infected PC was flooding the local network with traffic to the extent that it was unable to respond.

I still use my router to provide firewall protection and also use Free software for virus and spyware protection, in my view it is not necessary to spend money for a good level of protection.

For anyone that is interested this is how I look after my machines at the moment :-

Firewall - Router provides basic protection and XP SP2 firewall also on my XP machines (I also have a W2K machine and a Mac they have no add-on firewall.
Spyware/Adaware - Spybot S&D and Adaware Free, both of these are free.
Anti Virus - AVG Free, now using version 7.

I also use a proxy server to provide further protection and to prevent web issues that I find annoying ! (thanks Alex)

I know I keep on about it but its easy to get very concerned about all the virus problems and other malicious actions that the press keeps reporting, try and remember that if you take basic precautions and use a few well chosen free products you can have a high level of protections. There is a lot of scaremongering going on and the companies writing software to protect you from these potential threats is doing a lot of it. I am not saying that the threats do not exist, but I am saying that they are mostly potential threats which if you take care you can avoid.

7th Floor, so it turns out that ZA may be OK, however I don't think it necessarily follows that a product by a company that is well know in one area will also be good in others, ZA firewalls are very well regarded however including Vius scanning is to some extent a marketing ploy to enable them to market a security suite, they have bought in the virus technology and even if its detection is OK it seems that its still possible to end up with a badly infected machine.