CPC

[cfmonk]

I'm not intending to be slanderous in any way and will only state facts here but Mods if you think it's naughty then please do remove it. I just want some reassurance that my recent experience is not how things are going to be going forward because this company is very useful!

 

My foreman tried to place an order with CPC last Wednesday but they phoned back the next day and said they couldn't deliver the order to our warehouse because the company credit card was not registered there. I then had a half hour conversation where we had to go through a long process using the company's registered office (my house) as the delivery address. Two days later the stuff had not arrived at my house (we had paid for 24h delivery) and so I rang them back to be told that they had cancelled the order because the credit card was not registered to my home address. By this point I was thoroughly confused as it looked like our company credit cards are not registered to either our warehouse or our registered office which seems strange but anyway we tried to place the order again using the warehouse address as this is where our credit card statements get delivered to. I also gave them strict instructions that if there was a problem with the order they were to contact me and not just cancel it like they did before.

 

Next day they phone me up and, surprise surprise they can't process the order because the card is not registered to the warehouse address. I slightly lost it at this point and was eventually put through to a lovely lady called Glenda who decided the only way for it to work was to set up an account. Form emailed over, I faxed back all good. The order FINALLY arrives today (a week after we started trying to make the 24h delivered order) and they had only sent us half the stuff we had originally ordered. More phone calls made and the other stuff is going to be delivered on Monday. My opinion of them is pretty rock bottom at this point as I turn to doing the PATs on all the new kit for me then to find that the earth bonds on the middle outputs of 3 out of the 9 Three Way Y connectors were non-existent (reading > 20Ohms).

 

I am so mightily unimpressed by them that I am considering never using them again but they are so useful I half want to give them another chance. Is my experience out of the ordinary?

[Just Some Bloke]

Is my experience out of the ordinary?

 

Personally I'd say "yes".

 

It's quite common for companies only to send first orders to the credit card address in order to prove that you are bona fide. Once the first has been successfully recieved and, more importantly, the payment has gone through without problems, then they are often happy to send to an alternative address from order #2. I guess you need to find out the registered address of your credit card!

 

As regards missing earths, this is to do with the manufacturer not the supplier, of course, but I've never had that problem with anything I've ordered from cpc, and I've ordered loads!

 

I know other BR users have good tales to tell of this company so I really do suspect you've had some bad luck here. Give them another go and see how you get on.

[themadhippy]

to find that the earth bonds on the middle outputs of 3 out of the 9 Three Way Y connectors were non-existent

If your on about the 16A black splits then its down to the dodgy manufacturers soldering the cables together before putting them into the screw terminals,also each socket is wired individualy,so you have 3 cables soldered together and rammed into one tiny hole.

[dan slv-tech]

Ive had similar issues with orders being cancelled because of an alternative address, I try to only get stuff shipped to unit now.

Ive had untold problems of stuff being wrong (in my favour) and extras being thrown in.

I have emailed a nice chap called simon hornby there who has been great, and touch wood not had any issues since.

 

dan

[tommulliner]

Im sure that Chris Beesley will have something to say about this - hes a rep from CPC.

[MarkPAman]

Yes - well sort of!

 

I too have had problems with the registered credit card address, though in my case, when ordering on line - not a new card or address so I guess the bank may have tightened things up. A phone call sorted it for that order, but it happened the next time too. A slightly longer phone call seems to have made that one go away for now though

 

I've also had some stuff which didn't pass it's PAT, but as JSB said, you can't expect CPC to unpack & test every item before sending it on! It was swapped (carriage paid for) with no problems at all.

 

I've had these sorts of problems with other companies too - CPC seem no worse (but probably no better) than anybody else IMHO.

[paulears]

Paying by credit card to any address other than the one the credit card company use is plagued with problems - and although I'm not certain, I expect it is linked to the amount of fraud individual companies suffer. If the supplying company has a history of chargebacks back the credit card company, then you can't blame them for taking the risk - which is what it is. I buy plenty with a card, and if I wish to ship to a different address than the card, and this detail can be entered on the screen when buying it usually works - until one of those security 'extra' boxes your own credit card company sometimes, but not always use, pops up.

 

Personally, I've never had any issues with CPC - and am a happy customer.

[Chris Beesley]

Hi Guys,

 

Looks like we are in the bad books again

 

Chris - I would like to apologise on behalf of CPC and promise to look into the issue of the Y-Splits and other gripes for you. I am however out the office until Monday so cant do anything til then.

 

As for the accounts issue - the credit card payment issue has been raised before and isnt something we can do anything about as we are plagued by fraudulent calls every day, as a result we have to be very careful when shipping goods. Finally with regards to the general customer service - I will highlight this to the powers that be internally here. As I work on the product side of the business this isnt my area of responsibility... that said we do have an obligation as a company to deliver first class service.

 

Hope this helps! If you need to contact me direct drop me a line via chris.beesley@cpc.co.uk

[sleah]

I had almost exactly the same as the OP with CPC a couple of years ago.

I placed an order using my personal credit card for a monitor I wanted at home, as I knew the house would be empty when delivery was due, I entered my work address in the delivery section (who happen to have a credit account ).

However they didn't even bother to ring me :D

They just cancelled the order, it's only when I rang to b0ll0ck them for not sending the monitor I found out why.

 

What hacked me off, isn't so much not being able to ship to an alternative address, but the fact the payment pages invited me to use an alternative delivery address.

I would be simple to have different pages dependent on payment method to make it clear, but then I did tell CPC their webmasters were a bunch of numpties when they had the major site upgrade, 'cos it was such a useless mess when they first re-launched it - some of that legacy still exists :huh: , such as they way the search works (or doesn't, at least not how you expect it too :D )

 

There may now be information about specifying alternative adresses, but I guess it isn't really clear if the OP was caught out.......

[cfmonk]

Hi Everybody,

 

Thanks for the answers and the reassurance.

 

To clarify on the alternative address issue:

 

I completely understand why orders could only be delivered to the same address that the card is registered to but what confused me is that we first tried the warehouse address which didn't work and then tried our registered office address which also didn't work! That was the most annoying thing!

 

Chris, thanks for the response!

 

Chris

[Sound In Gloucestershire]

so far my experiences with CPC have been positive

 

my first order, it would only allow me to send to my registered address, but once id had one delivery, I was able to change my delivery address

 

I have a whole load of the Y Split IEC cables and theyve all passed their PAT test, but some are bound to slip through the net, I wouldnt be massively bothered as the backup is usually great and the prices are very keen

[GRisdale]

There was a feature on Radio 4 about the current surge in credit card fraud just the other day. For any one that doesn't realise, if someone nicks your credit card (or card details), and buys a load of stuff online with it, you will eventually get your money back via your card issuer - from the shop that took the purchase. This means that not only does the store lose your money, they also lose your goods - lose lose.

 

Obviously this can only work if the fraudsters can get stuff delivered to an address they control. Therefore, even though they get flack for it, and perhaps even lose the odd customer, it isn't in CPC's interest to lift their restrictions. It does say, fairly clearly, on the order page that goods can only be shipped to the card address for non-account customers, but I know several people that have misinturpretted this to mean 'website account.'

 

More generally, I would say that CPC isn't perfect - I too have had the odd delayed order, short, or mis-pick, but they do have a LOT of product lines, well priced and dispatched quickly. All of the issues I have had have needed one phonecall to get sorted - at their expense. So it's a general thumbs up from me.

 

I guess you could always switch to using Canford instead or, if you're working to a budget, carve your equipment out of solid gold...

 

Gareth.

[Hilary Watts]

I suspect the value of the order may also play a part. If your first order (or first few orders) are of relatively small value you may well find that a firm will be willing to ship to an address other than that specified on your credit card. I regularly order small value items from a number of firms, including cpc and have them shipped to my office address, although the invoice is sent to my home address where my credit card is registered. In a couple of cases where larger value goods were involved I have sent written authority to a firm in advance of making a credit card order, asking them to ship to my office address. They have then sent back written confirmation to my home address, where my card is registered - which would give me a chance to object if the shipping instructions had been fraudulent.

 

As suggested by Paulears, I suspect that once they have sent a few small orders without incident then a firm will be far happier using an alternative address for larger value goods. What starts alarm bells ringing is a high value order from a new customer to be delivered overnight to an address other than that of the registered card holder. Within 24 hours the goods have been delivered and within 48 hours both the goods and the customer have disappeared, leaving the firm and the cardholder to argue about who should bear the loss - and all the firm can say is that they had a web order or a phone call which purported to be from the cardholder - but with hindsight clearly was not!

 

Back to the originally query by the OP - I've ordered hundreds of pounds worth of goods from cpc over the years and have never had a problem.

[mrjammy83]

In better CPC news

 

 

A friend of mine placed an order for some speaker cable and delivered the next day he received a 24 channel mixing desk.

 

He now believes his loyalty to CPC finally paid off and they now send him what they think would be a much nicer treat than what he ordered.

 

The following week he placed an order for some XLR Sockets in the vague hope he may receive a 62" Plasma TV.

 

 

That sadly didn't happen and all orders are now sorted.

 

 

thank you CPC for your powers of "Guesstimation".

 

 

HAHAHHAHA

[Sully]

My experiences have been with Farnell's Public Sector "OneCall" persona so YMMV. We had a lack of goods when we sent an order to CPC a number of years back, boss rang up was told "that should be sent to OneCall" which they didn't bother telling us. When I set up my "Staff" OneCall account it was also a bit of hassle doing this.

 

My general feeling is that they're great at product selection/delivery etc. The "niggly" customer service stuff like this which doesn't come up often when you have to ring them which possibly has sometimes been a little lacklustre.

 

David.