A review of Medion customer relations .. or lack of

In November, 2003, I purchased two Medion Titanium MD 8080 XL system towers from ALDI in Tottenham, North London. These systems come in boxes claiming a 3 year on-site warranty. This site details what I consider a breach in that warranty and a complete disrespect for either the customer or the Sale of Goods Act.

The symptoms

In April, 2005, I found one of my systems to be faulty. After around two to three hours' use it would stop responding and the monitor would show no signal being received. If I restarted the system it would start but then fail within seconds or minutes. I don't claim to be an expert on the intricacies of PCs but it seemed to me that the system was overheating - didn't need to be a rocket scientist to work that one out.

Like all horror, it starts quietly ...

Wed, 20th April

I called Medion's Support Hotline. The gentleman took the details and diagnosed the graphic card as the likely cause. He said he would arrange for it to be swapped out and advised that I should get a call from their support agents within a few days.

Tues, 26th April

Their support agents called to say that the engineer should be in contact shortly to arrange a convenient time to call. OK, no problem .. yet.

Two weeks later (unsure of exact date.)

Having heard nothing I rang Medion and was told that they try to resolve all problems within 28 days. If they fail to achieve this the problem is automatically 'escalated.' I can't say I was over the moon at hearing this but, as it was only another week, I didn't say anything at the time.

Tues, May 17th

28 days being the next day, and having heard nothing again, I rang Medion. I explained that over the previous weekend my brother and I had opened up my other tower (this one) to make sure the fans were not clogged with dust etc, using compressed air to clean them. We'd noticed that the cowling attached to the main CPU fan was noticeably looser on the faulty system, it seeming much more secure on this one. The gentleman said that this could well be the cause of the problem because if the cooling unit has come away even slightly it would cause the CPU to overheat. He said he would arrange for that to be exchanged along with the graphic card. He told me that the parts had now come in to stock and I should hear from the support company shortly.

This is the first time that I was made aware that they did not have the required parts in stock previously. This is important later on ...

Thurs, May 26th

I hear nothing (anybody seeing a pattern here?) so I call their support company. I am told that Medion have sent the parts over but they are still being 'allocated' and I should hear either that afternoon or tomorrow. I called Medion to confirm this and was told that parts have to go through 'allocation' and this can take up to six hours - but I should hear today or tomorrow, and that I should be near the top of the list due to the time involved.

Finally, I was going to get my repair .. over 4 weeks in but it was going to happen. Wasn't it? .. oh

Fri, June 3rd

Over a week passed without contact, so once again it befell me to contact them. I called their support agent. The gentleman I spoke to seemed surprised I hadn't had the repair and said he would e-mail their stores to find out what the situation was - he promised to phone me right back as soon as he heard. I explained at this point that I could only be here the following Tuesday and was told this wasn't a problem, an engineer could be down then.

As soon as I put the phone down I contacted Medion, as much to register my displeasure at the continued delay as anything. I explained to the gentleman what was happening and that I could only possibly be here the following Tuesday. His advice? .. if they don't get back to you by Wednesday, give us a call back.

OK, back up .. if they're not in contact by Wednesday, a day you can't be there, then call us? - Yes, that works logically .. hmmm

Help me Obi Wan ...

You don't really expect me to say anybody called, and you'd be right. Did I call them, yes .. but not straight away. I spoke to a technology expert on the radio - he thought it unreasonably that Medion hadn't sent an engineer within days to check what the problem was, he was certainly unhappy that over six weeks had passed with no sign of a repair. He advised I ask compensation be made for loss of use, inconvenience, devaluation of the system while it remains unusable etc. He also suggested I contact the Trading Standards Office or Citizens Advice Bureau.

I actually spoke to Consumer Direct, this is a body designed to advise consumers and is supported by the Department of Trade and Industry, it also liaises with the TSO. The lady I spoke to advised I write to Medion and give them a set limit in which to make good the repair, should they fail I could contact them again and they would take the matter up. I was advised that I certainly could ask some form of compensation if only as a gesture of goodwill.

A lesson in futility

Wed, June 8th

Call me an optimist but I thought I would give Medion the chance to get this dealt with before writing to them, so I called. The lady I spoke to said she would look into the problem and promised to call me the following morning. I'd told her of Consumer Direct having a complaint pending against them so surely this would be it .. they would look in to the matter and call me, right?

Thurs, June 9th

... nothing, no phone call, no nothing - at all. Nada.

Fri, June 10th

... no, nothing today either. I start writing that letter.

Sat, June 11th

The letter to their Customer Services Manager is posted. To be brief, the letter detailed everything that had happened thus far and gave them ten days from receipt to get the situation resolved. I asked that compensation be forthcoming for breach of warranty etc, as per the advice given me. The compensation I suggested was not a blank cheque, it was nothing extravagant - I suggested they upgrade my towers from 512mb to 1Gb of memory (this is something I have since learnt online was granted to another customer that they messed about in a similar manner.) This would cost them peanuts in parts and the engineer was going to have to open one tower anyway, it was hardly going to keep him here very long. Reasonable? I'd have said so given the circumstances.

Mon, June 13th

The letter is signed for at their Swindon HQ. I sit and await their reply ... go on, guess!

Thurs, June 16th

Curiosity got the better of me, I called them. The lady I spoke to said that the managers were looking into it, she also took the opportunity to remind me that I had given them ten days after all. Hmmmm, ok

Friday, June 17th

Why the separate headline for this day? .. because it is a dark day in the annals of customer relations.

I received a call from their support agents to arrange for the engineer to call down. The earliest they could come was the following Friday, not only a week longer to wait but also a day on which there is no possibility of my being able to be here. They couldn't (wouldn't?) arrange for an earlier visit. I was not happy at the prospect of it taking even longer .. but that was the least of my worries!

I asked what work was going to be carried out. They checked and told me ... just the graphic card. So what of the main fan? They said I'd need to contact Medion about that. Oh happy days, this should be fun.

The Call

I rang Medion and asked to speak to the Customer Services Manager only to be told they're not available, 'can I help?' .. I doubt it very much but here goes nothing. I explained the problem with their agent not being able to come down until the next Friday and that I can't be here, his attitude was that this was my problem. This didn't bode well.

I said about the fact they aren't now going to change the main fan. He said that the original diagnosis had been that is was the graphic card and so that was all they were willing to change. This was getting silly, to put it mildly. He told me that, in his eight or nine months' experience, 98-99% of all phone diagnosis is accurate .. he then deftly avoided answering when I said that it was also their phone diagnosis, based on more information, that pointed to it being the main fan.

This bit is priceless: I asked what would happen if, as I suspect, they come down and change the graphic card only for it to solve nothing. He told me that I could then contact them and they'd look into what else is causing it. I said this would involve waiting even longer while more parts are ordered and a return visit by the engineer arranged .. his response, in a very sarcastic manner, I kid you not, 'Well hopefully it won't take as long next time.' Yes, he really said that.

Now, as anybody who knows me will tell you, I am very softly spoken and am far from aggressive or demonstrative, I certainly never swear lightly. I'd had enough though, they'd pushed me and pushed me, so in exasperation as much as anything I closed my eyes, took the phone from my mouth and muttered quietly to myself, 'They are taking the p***' (note I don't even say it here where I could legitimately use it in context!) The gentleman, and I use the term loosely, then said, 'If you swear once more I shall terminate this call.' Excuse me? .. again? .. it was hardly a torrent of abuse, as he deserved, it was clearly not even directed at him. You hear worse language on TV before the watershed, the guy must have been kidding me? Dumb as I must be, I even apologized!

He said that I was unreasonable expecting them to repair the system in the first four weeks as they didn't have the parts. Now, at NO point did I state I was unhappy about those first four weeks (I wasn't happy, no, but I didn't say as such to them.) Had they even told me during those first four weeks that they'd not got the parts in, rather than telling me on the 27th day? No.

When I said that I wasn't unhappy about that, I was unhappy that those four weeks had elapsed a month ago he again said I was unreasonable expecting a repair in the first four weeks. Pass me a wall, I need to bang my head against one.

I asked why, when I'd been told the parts were in a month ago, I was still to receive the repair. He told me, in the condescending, arrogant, patronizing tone he adopted for the entire call, that there must have been people ahead of me for them as it's done on a time basis. So, they either didn't send enough parts over (incompetence?) or they have so many repairs made on these systems I'm surprised it hasn't warranted a product recall on the grounds they're unreliable.

I asked about the compensation. No, they would not be giving any as, 'the warranty makes no provision for compensation.' Maybe not, but the warranty also doesn't provide for them taking two months, failing to phone, failing to come down, lying to me etc etc.

I again asked to speak to the Customer Services Manager, asking that they call me back if needed. It was then that he told me that the Customer Services Manager doesn't speak to customers, only communicating by letter. OK, back up again - why was I not told this when I first asked to speak to them, instead of being told they weren't available right now?

I said I would get back to Consumer Direct, I wasn't happy. He didn't seem in the least bit phased by this, 'That's a decision only you can make" was his reply. The call ended with him saying sarcastically, 'Have a good day.'

ALDI

I'd had enough, I'd spent enough energy on this and got nowhere .. but my brother had an idea. He called ALDI, the store from where the systems were purchased and so the other party in our contract of sales. The lady there was very pleasant and, rather tellingly as you'd not expect an admission like this to a customer, said that Medion were a 'problem.'

She said she will look into this for us and see what she can do. As of writing this, 5:40pm Monday May 20th, I have yet to hear. I don't expect her to get very far with Medion, they have the attitude that they are untouchable and can get away with this shoddy treatment ... they are wrong.

The technology expert has also very kindly taken up the cause and said he will do all he can to help get this resolved. Whilst his name, which I have not given here, certainly carries a lot of weight in the industry I somehow doubt anything will get Medion to resolve this amicably. Time will tell.

Why me? Why now?

Call me a cynic, call me suspicious, but I don't think this little debacle is entirely coincidental .. you see, Medion did this to me before. Prior to purchasing the towers Medion were contacted on several occasions to ask about the specifications etc, we were advised to install a better soundcard for musical purposes (I'm an amateur musician.) This was likely to need the moving of the modem/TV card from its middle slot, or its total removal, which they repeatedly told us would not be a problem. It wasn't until we had purchased the systems that we subsequently found that all the information they had given us was completely wrong, the card could not be removed and if it was the slot would be of no use as it's not a standard PCI slot. This left us in a very difficult situation and so I complained, as you would have too! They investigated the complaint and found that they had given false information and admitted full liability .. but then refused to make good the problem. I persisted with them, with it casting a dark shadow over that whole Christmas, and they finally relented in January 2004 after a letter to their Managing Director. It was only very begrudgingly that they made good then, there was certainly no feeling of goodwill involved. Now, ask yourself this, wouldn't you be smelling a rather large rodent if you were me now?

The Bottom Line

So .. that's where I stand at the moment. One system working, for how long I don't know, and another virtually unused for over two months. This page is to let others know of what to expect should they make the mistake I made and purchase anything made by Medion. Had I purchased the systems from Dodgy Larry down the pub, no questions asked, I wouldn't expect any worse after sales service .. or at least it wouldn't surprise me.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Tues 21st June

The support company called to arrange for the engineer to come down. The earliest they could come was .. Monday next week - when I have my driving test, so no go on that one. They've now got the visit booked for Wednesday next week, this is TEN WEEKS after I first called Medion ... and this isn't the best bit, oh no, not at all, read on ...

After everything that Medion have put me through, after getting a radio technology expert involved, after getting ALDI involved, they are still as complacent, incompetent, arrogant and useless as they were to start with. How so? I hear you ask - because they are STILL only coming to swap the graphic card, not to deal with the loose CPU fan that their own technicians considered the more likely cause 5 weeks ago ... unbelievable.

Right now it's a good job I can't get to their HQ in Swindon, I wouldn't trust myself...

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Wed 22nd June

Sometimes I wonder if somebody up there hates me. I said in jest, above, that I wondered how long this system would last ...

Today I was chatting to somebody on MSN and found that it wasn't registering keystrokes some of the time (new batteries in the keyboard last week, so not that.) Then, suddenly, the whole system stopped responding at all and I was forced to perform a hard reset. Windows then refused to load, even in Safe Mode.

This persisted, with me getting more and more concerned at the data on the system I needed being lost. Eventually I got it to load in Safe Mode but couldn't see anything wrong, nor could I write anything to CD so I couldn't back up that data. Then it happened - the Blue Screen of Death. Went back to restarting, failing, scanning, restarting, Safe Mode, BSOD .. this continued for nearly 2 hours. Then, miraculously, it loaded Windows properly .. well almost, it's certainly not stable (had a BSOD again tonight) and it keeps freezing up for seconds on end for no reason. Menus etc are also taking way too long to appear, slowly fading into view. I've run a virus scanner, adware scanner etc etc - nothing found. I've not installed anything on the system for weeks, so what's up? Your guess is probably better than mine!

Of course this wouldn't be such a worry had Medion come down and fixed my other PC when they should have, 9 weeks ago ... but now I don't have a PC I can reliably use, and that's just not on. I'm surprised I have completed this update without the system failing.

Before you wonder what Medion said of this problem, I didn't contact them. I have wasted enough breath on that company and quite frankly couldn't face speaking to another member of their staff only to be given the brush off. I called ALDI, but the lady there just said she'd contact Medion - like that is going to help!?

I really am now at the end of my tether, I don't think I can cope with much more from Medion or their PCs.

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Thurs 23rd June

One has to wonder at the level of incompetence the human body can achieve .. by my reckoning Medion must be pretty close to that limit.

ALDI must have contacted Medion because we received a call today to say an engineer would be with us tomorrow, Friday. Medion knew full well that I CANNOT be here that day, so why arrange a repair for then? Add to this the obligatory fact that they are still not going to look at the main fan, only swap the graphic card and you'll see just how absurd the whole fiasco is. They have agreed to upgrade the memory of one machine, which is a step in the right direction - but a step far too late. I asked them in my letter of two weeks ago to upgrade both systems - but that was before they proceeded to mess me about further by refusing to replace the fan, it was also before I was treated like dirt by their staff on the phone. It was also before this other system began playing up.

It's laughable

The following reports are taken from forums found online, I make no claim for their reliability - but they are more than likely true given my experience.

I'll take this opportunity to point out something rather amusing. It has been drawn to my attention that another customer purchased a system from Medion, poor soul. The PC in question came fitted with an Nvidia graphic card but Medion had, for reasons best known to themselves, chosen to install ATI Radeon graphic drivers. When she asked them about this they replied that this was indeed the case but those drivers had been installed to give her graphic card a "boost"

This is akin to buying a diesel engine car and finding they've filled the tank with 5 star petrol to "give it a boost." It will do no such thing, on the contrary it will cause nothing but problems. I understand that Medion did offer a solution, they would restore the system to the factory settings .. for £100. This was on a machine that THEY had installed incorrectly!?

If you look at what that poor customer was told you can extrapolate two conclusions: either Medion staff knowingly lied to her, giving her a load of rubbish about it boosting her graphic card, or their staff actually believed this utter codswallop to be true. Whichever it is, their staff are incompetent buffoons who shouldn't be allowed near a telephone, let alone allowed to speak to a customer!

A search online found another gentleman who had a part exchanged that didn't resolve his problem (like will doubtless happen with my graphic card - if I let them come down, which is far from certain now.) He was told to contact Medion only to be informed they'd have to wait for the engineer's report before doing anything further. He too was kept waiting and waiting, no calls etc. Do they seriously think I will tolerate that too?

Yet another customer made the mistake of buying a laptop from Medion, I believe it was actually direct from their online shop. Almost inevitably he had problems and had to contact them. It was during a conversation that one of their staff expressed surprise as that model of laptop hadn't been sold for some time. It turned out that the laptop they had sold him as new was in actual fact a returned or refurbished unit - this is ILLEGAL under UK trading laws. He then had the pleasure of chasing them for a refund, and you don't need me to tell you that even this didn't go smoothly.

So, it's obviously not just me that suffers at the hands of this company. The difference is this - I have nothing better to do with my time, I am not going to simply give up and walk quietly away. I can't afford to write off £1700 worth of towers, and why should I?

UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE

Weds 29th June

The engineer that was booked to come phoned this morning. When asked what work he had down to be carried out I was told the graphic card and a memory upgrade of one system. I explained the circumstances and how this was unlikely to resolve it as Medion had said SIX WEEKS ago that it was most likely the main fan - and how I was now not willing to let them undertake a repair as it had been an unreasonable time in law. I also stated that I had asked that BOTH systems have their memory upgraded, not just one - and that was before I'd been spoken to in such a reprehensible manner by Medion. He was very pleasant to talk to (so they do employ some nice people!) He said he'd contact head office at the support company and get back to me.

A gentleman called from the support company to ask what the problem was. I explained, he said he'd look into it.

The engineer phoned me to say that there had been a 'boo-boo' and that the main fan was down as being for exchange, however they hadn't sent one to him - lot of good that is! He said they could get the fan across to him 'as soon as' and then I could arrange for him to come at my convenience. I'm not having a go at the engineer, quite the contrary - he was polite and pleasant ... shame he doesn't run the company. He said he'd just done another Medion repair where he'd had to visit twice to get something sorted, this had taken eight weeks. As I explained to him, at least they had got a repair - I've not even seen an engineer in ten weeks, and it's still not resolved. He agreed it wasn't satisfactory.

I also took a call from a gentleman very high up in ALDI. He is eager to get this resolved today and is liaising with his contact at Medion. As to whether I'll end today satisfied that it's finally being dealt with, or whether Medion have just made themselves an enemy for life remains to be seen ... I'll keep you posted.

Finally!?

The gentleman from ALDI rang around 12:45 today, having spent some time talking to his contact at Medion. The resolution he offered is this: I take both my towers down to the local store and they will exchange them for two new, boxed systems as they last sold - these will presumably be far superior in specification. As these towers retailed for £750 and I'd paid £850 this meant a shortfall of £200 .. which will be refunded.

I might add that, even though they are now supplying two higher systems, I am not actually receiving any compensation for all the time, expense and inconvenience I have suffered - nor for the way in which I was spoken to in that fateful call of June 17th. It's taken ten weeks of my life, made me feel physically ill and is still not resolved completely now - I've still got to get the systems down there, exchange them and then reinstall all my software etc before I'm back to having 'working' systems. Not exactly a five minute task and far from convenient.

Apparently the contact at Medion was not happy about exchanging both towers as they hadn't been able to inspect the second one. Bearing in mind that this time last week I was tearing my hair out because it wouldn't even load Windows I don't think you can blame me for saying I couldn't care less what his feelings on the matter are - if his company had dealt with the first one in a reasonable time he'd not be having to exchange either system.

My thanks go to the gentleman at ALDI for all his time and effort in bringing this to a conclusion, it's just a shame that any customer should feel it necessary to contact a person in his position simply to get anything done.

Not just all 'good' things...

We took the systems down on Wednesday, 6th July, and due to the way the Manager at the store processed the refund to the card we were unable to purchase the replacements because the refund wouldn't complete for 3-5 days. This could have been handled better and just added to the misery, the Manager also seemed to be in a foul mood - not exactly sympathetic or helpful, and you can imagine my frustration at having to leave the store empty handed. I wrote to ALDI's Managing Director regarding this.

Venturing back to the store Friday evening we finally got the replacement towers. These seem to be working ok, odd teething troubles but that's fairly normal, at least they've not electrocuted me yet - famous last words maybe? Yes they are higher spec but then had I pursued a refund I'd have got similar or possibly higher elsewhere and without the dreaded Medion badge on the front.

On Monday, 11th July, I was called by ALDI's Managing Director - a very pleasant and helpful gentleman, it's a shame he doesn't run Medion! We had a brief chat and the situation was resolved, he apologized for the further trouble at the store regarding the refund. I'd like to point out that, on the whole, ALDI have been really good with helping me through the problems - it's unfortunate that they had to be troubled and inconvenienced simply to get something like this dealt with. It's rather telling that a letter sent directly to Medion's Managing Director didn't even receive a reply - so it seems that incompetence and poor customer relations is not confined to the support team.

So .. that would appear to be that. Over 11 weeks of worry, loss of use etc draw to a close. At least I hope they do.

I'll leave this site up as other sites link to it and I feel it only fair that Medion customers, or prospective customers, are made aware of just how bad they can be when you encounter problems. I'll also update this site if (when?) anything goes wrong with the systems .. watch this webspace.

LINKS

As this gentleman, who has also been put through the Medion mill, was kind enough to link to this page I think it only fair to return the favour. Dave's Rants

This page will be updated when/if anything changes, don't go holding your breath.