🚀 go-pugleaf

Bad Trader Alert
================

This posting will be made periodically to these groups to warn people of
the following company, until this matter is resolved. To ignore further
copies of this posting, killfile the subject "Synergy Computer Systems - 
Bad Trader Alert". If this post is inappropriate in this group, I apologise,
no need for spam or flames, a short note will suffice.

Trader:

Synergy Computer Systems
Balsall Common
Kenilworth

In October 1996, I asked for a quotation on a P166 Cyrix complete system from
this company. Ever since, I have been having to contact them, and then
subsequently Trading Standards to try and get the deal completed as agreed.
I took delivery, and paid in full by cheque on November 8th. 

o I was quoted for, and ordered a Midi Tower. I received a Mini Tower. On
  my order I stated 2 free 5.25" bays *after* installation of CDROM, for 
  peripherals I wanted to fit. I ended up with only one free. The company
  claim that this is indeed a Midi tower, as ordered. In another call I 
  was told that the definitions are 2x5.25 - mini, 3x - midi 4x - full.

o The motherboard is claimed in their quotation to upgrade to 512k cache.
  The manual supplied with it states that, for the chips I have installed,
  it is in 256k *only* configuration. There is no COAST socket. The cache
  is soldered in. How is this upgradeable? This is "misdescribed goods".
  TSO investigating.

o Driver disks for the CDROM, Video card, motherboard were missing. I asked
  about these and time of collection, and was told they would be sent to me.
 
o All of the front panel controls, LED's, switches etc. were left
  unconnected. Thankfully, I had the motherboard manual to rectify this, but
  this should have been done at build time, surely? How sloppy!

o The hard drive supplied was faulty. This was where the trouble really began.
  I tried to fdisk/format DOS partitions into it, and this failed quite
  badly about 90% into a partition. 

  I phoned them to report this, and was told that the 2 Gig EIDE drive
  supplied wasn't actually faulty, but it was a BIOS bug, and that all drives
  would do this. I pointed out it was in LBA mode, and that Linux, which
  doesn't use the BIOS, also chokes on it, with errors like "Sector ID not
  found". Then they said "Well, can't you just mark the sectors as bad and
  ignore it?". Modern EIDE drives don't show bad sectors, as they remap bad
  areas. This was showing 1 Megabyte plus of bad sectors!

  They finally acknowledged it might be faulty, and promised next day swap
  out.  After many phone calls, excuses, and missed appointments [RunAround
  V1.0 (tm)] to meet and exchange the item this was exchanged on November
  26th, It only took threatening to buy a replacement at retail price and
  take action to recover the cost, or alternatively to return the entire
  machine to get this!

o On 14th January, I faxed them to report that the CD drive supplied, after
  finally getting drivers off the net, was possibly faulty. It was a CD620E
  Creative Labs. It was extremeley slow at changing tracks, and was really
  noisy, you know, "grind, whirr" noisy. I was told that this was fine, and
  not to worry, as long as it still worked.

o I also queried driver disks - after Trading Standards got involved, they
  sent through the video card driver disks. Now I still can't use the card
  in accelerated modes under Windows or Linux, as every time the accelerated
  "move region" feature fires (drag a window etc.), any data to or from my
  soundcard is blitzed. I've subsequently found it appears to hog the PCI
  bus so that realtime audio is impossible. So I've got a 765 running in 800
  by 600, when I should have 1280x1024. They disclaim responsibility, as
  they don't support Linux. Fair enough, but it doesn't work under Windows!

  They did agree (in writing) to exchange for another card, but couldn't say
  on compatibility. So I sent them a list of Linux compatible cards which I
  would be willing to accept in exchange. Still no reply.

o Motherboard flash-setup disk for the motherboard was not supplied. The
  story here has gone from "We'll send it you", to "We don't send them out,
  because you might damage things", to "We can't send it out, there's no such
  disk for that model". I can't get a contact number for the manufacturer
  out of them, so I can't verify any of the above. (KTX 8500TVX motherboard)

o Terms And Conditions - I had to fight tooth and nail to get a copy of
  these. I see the reluctance to send me them - although for a consumer sale,
  they seem to remove statutory rights over your right to return the goods.

  "The buyer shall not be able to reject the Products after delivery
  except for those not in accordance with the contract"

  This is apparently illegal, and the Office of Fair Trading are looking at 
  this. 

  They also tried to wriggle out of this by stating it was a company (trade)
  transaction. This is because I work for Code For Effect Ltd, and they know
  the machine is also being used for business use. However, the machine is my
  personal property, paid for out of my money, on a personal cheque. The
  order was placed on private letterheaded paper. It is in no way a company
  to company transaction. They insisted to TSO that it was, and that they
  should have no interest in this matter!

o Warranty - not worth the paper it is printed on. In addition to it being
  printed on my invoice, I have a letter confirming that the warranty is
  "for one year, return to base, from date of invoice".

  So when the CD drive finally failed - skipped on audio CDs, then finally
  didn't bother spinning them at all, I sent it back. (19th April 97). They
  agreed to send a replacement. No replacement yet ...

  Repeated phone calls have been met with "Can't get spare drives". They are
  supposed to be a computer supply company. No CD drives at all for 2 months?
  Excellent warranty. All I want is what I paid for -- a working quad or hex
  speed EIDE drive.

  When TSO asked for an update on the situation, and checked with Synergy
  what was happening about the CD drive, and why so long, they were told
  that it was not outstanding. Well, I think it is, seeing as I have no
  CD ROM drive still!

o Additionally, the power supply fan failed - making an awful sound during
  the night. The machine is only 7 months old! This has been replaced at my
  cost, as I can't face having to argue the toss with them over whether it is
  actually broken or not.

o CE approval? What's that? Well, after having to ring around to find out
  about what the system was, try and get disks etc. I discovered that the
  sale of non CE approved cases on new systems was illegal since 1-Jan-96.
  My case is a cheap no-name case. No name, no CE approval. Nothing. Illegal.

  So that's why BBC2 has herringbone patterns, and you can't get 100.7 Heart
  FM. with the machine on :( Seriously, this is a breach of EMC regulations,
  and is also being investigated by the TSO.

Previously, I had to wait from 7th September to 23rd November for a 28.8k
modem that I had paid for (again, paid in full at time of order). I was told
on one occasion that it was ready to collect - went over - nothing. "Oops,
we thought it was ..." Finally, after phone calls, letters, visits, they told
me that it was with their suppliers, they just hadn't got round to collecting
it yet. I then had to contact their suppliers and ask where the modem was - 
they'd had it sitting waiting to be collected for ages. They posted it out to
me direct, with an apology on behalf of Synergy, and I had it next day.

Of the above items, I'm resigned to the fact that their support is zero, and
that the best I can hope for is a replacement CD rom drive eventually, or
a taking them to the small claims court for the value of one. The other
offences the TSO are willing to follow up independently.

All in all, they are a very unresponsive company, and have repeatedly lied to
myself and Trading Standards about these issues. I would urge people not to
do business with them unless they understand that a company offering good
(cheap) quotation may not necessarily be the best company to deal with.

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Brown                        Personal:      mjb @ pootle.     .co.  
C++ Consultant, Code For Effect Ltd      Work: c4effect @        demon    uk
----------- Current project: dK - The Wargame the professionals use ---------

-- 
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Michael Brown                        Personal:      mjb @ pootle.     .co.  
C++ Consultant, Code For Effect Ltd      Work: c4effect @        demon    uk
----------- Current project: dK - The Wargame the professionals use ---------