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Cougar extreme poor customer service

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Flak999
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Posted May 11, 2011 at 6:42PM

Well, to say I am disappointed is an understatement. Those of you who have read my other thread New PC spec will know that I am in the market for a new PC.

So this morning having done my research I sat down with my credit card and a list of questions and phoned Cougar to make my purchase. This was at 10 am and the person I spoke to said all of their representatives were busy, but took my name and phone number and promised to call back.

So I waited until midday and when I still had received no call back I called Cougar again, I spoke to the same person as before who informed me that there was still nobody who could speak to me but they would call me back! I asked if the call would be today and was assured that it would be.

I waited until gone 4pm still having received no call, and sent them an email thinking that as they were an online company I might get more response that way. All to know avail, come close of business tonight I have heard nothing from cougar neither by phone nor email.

The £1700 pounds that I wanted to spend with them will now be spent elsewhere, because if this is the standard of customer service that I might expect if I did purchase from them, naturally I don't want it!

So I am about to start my search again, has anybody any recommendations for a reliable computer manufacturer that will build me a custom PC?

Has anybody any experience of Arbico?

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Woolwell

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Posted May 11, 2011 at 9:20PM

Chillblast get some good feedback.

I think that Cougar may be a victim of their own success. They also have an unfortunate tendency to supply bits that are not exactly the same as ordered, to be fair sometimes better than ordered, but their communication could be better.

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Flak999

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Posted May 12, 2011 at 12:31AM

It all seems a bit of a minefield to be honest! I have spent hours looking at different companies websites all of them promising fantastic service, only to do a search against their name and find unending horror stories about poor customer service and badly put together systems.

They all seem to be as bad as each other, I haven't found anybody that inspires me with the confidence to part with £1700. I thought I was on to a winner with Cougar, but as you can see from my opening post they are a let down as well.

Perhaps I should seriously look into building my own system, it may work out more expensive in the short term but at least I could be sure of getting the spec I wanted and could at least be sure that it was put together properly.

I don't know how easy this process is however!

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wee eddie

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Posted May 12, 2011 at 4:14AM

I think that you're being a little hard on Cougar. In fact, I'd go a lot further but FE would be forced to delete it.

I can think of very few businesses that, on a very busy morning, would be able to come back to you in a couple of hours.

In clichéd terms: I think that you're cutting off your nose to spite your face.

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iscanut2

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Posted May 12, 2011 at 9:36AM

If Cougar want business,they should ensure that there is always someone free to take/discuss orders, no matter how busy. I would also have gone elsewhere in this situation.

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Woolwell

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Posted May 12, 2011 at 10:30AM

Every manufacturer will get those who post complaints. The problem is in deciding what the proportion is of those who dissatisfied compared to those who are satisfied (and tend not to post).

I have used Cougar and found their customer service to be good.

A rival PC mag puts Chillblast at top for customer service. But how reliable was their poll?

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finerty

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Posted May 12, 2011 at 12:07PM

flak why dont you just go down to your local shopping mall and see whats around.

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Flak999

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Posted May 12, 2011 at 12:17PM

wee eddie

I can think of very few businesses that, on a very busy morning, would be able to come back to you in a couple of hours.

Really! It is not the fact that they were busy that is the problem, If the person to whom I spoke had said to me that they were incredibly busy and that they may not have been able to get back to me that day, all would have been well.

Indeed I would have taken it as a recommendation that they were so busy. However I am sure you understand that a business stands or falls by the way it treats its customers.

To use another cliché You never get a second chance to make a first impression! and on this occasion the first impression that Cougar gave me was that they did not want my business nor value my custom.

When dealing with companies via the internet one has to look past their website and actually speak to a real person to attempt to gauge how one is to be treated as a customer, and I expect that if I as a potential customer am assured that I will receive a phone call, then I expect to receive it!

It's not difficult is it? If they couldn't for whatever reason get some one to speak to me they should have just said so, and that would have been the end of the matter. It does not bode well for a future customer/supplier relationship after I have spent £1700 with them if at the outset thy cannot call me back when they say they are going to.

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Flak999

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Posted May 12, 2011 at 12:22PM

Update

Cougar have left me a message this morning and emailed asking me to call them. I shall let you know what transpires.

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Flak999

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Posted May 12, 2011 at 4:39PM

Just to update the thread regarding Cougar, I called them back in response to their request at 12.30 today, to be told that the person with whom I needed to speak was out of the office.

I again left my name and was told that I would be called back. At 15.10 I was sent an email by Cougar asking me to again contact them. Unfortunately it was now 16.16 and I had concluded placing my order with another supplier.

I am sure there is a lesson here, and that is customer service must be a companies top priority. Now this could all have just been an unfortunate breakdown in communication, but the fact is The company I placed my order with Wired2Fire answered the phone promptly, provided me with knowledgeable answers to all my questions and have as a consequence received my order for £1693.

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iscanut2

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Posted May 12, 2011 at 5:13PM

What a shambles !! Cougar do not seem to care about the loss of this order and the message it sends across to readers of this forum.

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