Laptops Direct a good product till it needs maintenance.

For context I'm a house bound, disabled former electrician and engineer with fair-good IT skills.
Being house bound my world was brought to me via multimedia through my laptop. I bought a TUF Asus laptop from Laptops Direct with an extended warrenty just for peace of mind. It worked great for
Almost three years but like all things it had a bad day and it wouldn't power on.
So knowing I had the warranty I sent it back with the peace of mind it will be fixed, I was told not to include PSU. Almost a month later it was returned to me, no cover note, no information just the laptop in a different box than the manufacturers that I had sent it in. I took it out, atempted to power it on, nothing, oh maybe its just needs a charge. The lead now doesn't seat properly and projects 5-6 mm further than before.
Still wont power on, still doesn't acknowledge the PSU supply. Ok get back in touch with LD they say can you provide picture of it not working, get told to return it after some resistance.
Its picked up two days later, taken away, two weeks later im told it works. They wont take a picture showing it working. They say they will return it.
A week later I call they say they will get in touch with logistics.
A week later I call pleading for some news, one person says he will find it. Next day I'm called saying it
Will be returned.
It arrives the next day.

IT STILL DOESN'T WORK...

So is it trading standards next, an indipendant technical exaluation of the laptop, a solisitor all for the
Sake of saving some money punishing an isolate, disabled, housebound me.

TLDR - Company of scammers who use bait and switch tactics to get you to buy and then scam you for more money! AVOID AVOID AVOID!

If possible I would leave a negative score I can begin to emphasis how strongly I advise anybody considering doing business with these people to reconsider and run away as fast as possible. I ordered a graphics card on 16/7, and everything seemed to be going well, order was accepted and money taken. Received an email confirming everything (delivery around 21/7) and that my order had been marked VIC - Very Important Customer, think this actually stands for Very Irritable Con now.

Received another email from the company on 19/7 saying that they wouldn't be sending the order as it wasn't in stock and that their sales team would be calling me to discuss within to days, keep in mind they had already had my money for 3 days by this time.

Having still not received a call by today 21/7 I called them, after multiple attempts to get through the automated switchboard, trying every department and getting cut off sometimes with someone actually picking the phone up and putting it straight back down I managed to talk to someone.

Options presented were order another product at a higher price or get a refund, when i pointed out that the product I ordered was available to order and would like that was told it was a mistake and the website was wrong. Asked how often it updates and was told realtime, when I then said that the card has been available to purchase for the past three days a little panic set in and I was told he would raise the problem to get it sorted (guess what it hasn't been - I've just logged in with a fresh device 30 mins later and can still purchase the card if I want to!)
I was then asked what alternative product I would like, once i stopped laughing told them I want a full refund into my account by 9am in the morning, before i report as fraud at 9:10am if it isn't there. Was told refund has been issued but could take 5 days as it is impossible for payments to be issued faster, when pushed I was informed that the company does not have the mechanism to make faster payments through the BACS system - strange how I can with a personal account but hey ho!

I paid for an Xbox on the 30th of March at the cost of £329.26 for my father to keep him entertained due to the lockdown.
I have CCTV around the outside of my house and I waited for it eagerly for my father so as we could enjoy some gaming together.
After 3 days, I get an email asking how they have done... Not so well considering that it had not arrived but afterall, it was only 3 days.

After 11 days on the 10th of April, I decided to contact them having given ample time for it to arrive and checking the CCTV footage from around the house in case I missed it.

Finally after another 11 days on the 21st of April, I get an automated email and then someone also emailed me with the following:
"We do apologise for the inconveniences caused here, we are still currently investigating this with DPD, and are due to conclude within 24 to 72 hours from now. We will be in touch to resolve this matter. Can you advise at this stage if you are still wanting the item? Or a refund?"

By this point, I had already shelled out more money just buying one from a local retailer as both myself and my father were getting pretty bored in the house. So I requested a refund and again checked the CCTV - No sign of DPD except for a parcel that was no bigger than a book, turns out, my father ordered a tablet for himself instead. Still no Xbox

This went back and forth from this point where the typical response from them was "we are investigating with DPD"

After multiple emails, I decided to use all of the details I could find to find someone higher up the chain to deal with as I was clearly getting nowhere. Eventually I got a response as below:

"We're really sorry that you've had to send through an email regarding your experience with us.
I've got a dedicated team on hand to help our customers where there's an issue we haven't been able to resolve. One of my team will be in touch within the next 72 hours and they will be your single point of contact and try and help resolve any issues you're experiencing.
My apologies again that it's got to this point but rest assured we'll look into this further for you.
Kind Regards
Paul Sims
Head of Customer Service"

And then I also get this from someone else:

"Thank you for taking the time to email me. My sincere apologies that you have got to a point where you're having to send this email.
I'll be working with my team and Head of Customer Service to further investigate the issues you've had with us. We'll get back in touch once our investigation is complete to let you know how we can help.
Kind Regards
James Rigg
Customer Service Director"

The next day, on the 23rd of April... 24 DAYS after I had ordered the damn thing I am given "I will aim to be in touch with you within the next 2-3 working days" SERIOUSLY? From the email address: *******@buyitdirect.co.uk YET the email was signed by a "Katrina Shaw"?

I also got promised a call from a case manager by 11AM the next day which never happened.
After waiting another 3 days for the promised call, I contacted YET AGAIN on the 27th and was met by the response on the 28th of April:

"I am truly sorry for the delay and any inconvenience this has caused.
I have tried to call you this morning and left a voicemail.
DPD have advised us they have chased this investigation up and can see that all of there checkes show this parcel was delivered to the correct address.
Due to this, our investigation is now closed."

WHAT THE ACTUAL F**K? I checked, no call, no voicemail, nothing and DPD still maintain that they delivered it apparently? Despite there only being one appearance by them, with one parcel, for an android tablet completely unrelated, recorded on CCTV.

DPD did call me however on the 28th and ask me if it had been delivered, to which my response was the obvious, no, where is it? "Ah right, we'll continue to look into it"... then nothing

At this point, I replied to Laptops Indirect with:
"One of their checks was to ring me and ask me if it Was delivered!
It hardly takes a month! Where is the xbox or where is the money?
I have no choice but to call my bank and do a charge back. This is ridiculous and I'm furious.
Over £300 I'm out and all you have is this?!"

On the 29th of April, I get this:
"I hope you are well!
I am really sorry to hear of the issues raised here.
Please be aware as we had no contact from you DPD closed the investigation down.
Please can you provide a denial statement on paper along with proof of your signature, once we have this we will pass over to senior management to review and advise within 48 hours."

A denial statement... ARE YOU SERIOUS?! The whole damn email chain is a denial statement! Where is my money or my Xbox?! Either one will do at this point!

Nothing... They have since disputed the chargeback with my bank and now my bank has locked my account. I cannot withdraw money and have had to borrow to stock the cupboards.
An absolute audacious disgrace!

If you're a business user, don't touch Laptopsdirect.co.uk with a barge pole. I placed my order for 8GB of RAM for my MacBook Pro and immediately realised I'd made a mistake upon receipt of the goods. Rather than two 4GB sticks, I'd accidentally ordered 1 8GB stick. An innocent error...

But upon calling their 10p a minute 'customer service' helpline (which, in itself should be done for trades descriptions), I was told with complete disinterest that they would not accept the return or exchange of my incorrect order as I was a business... They couldn't care less about retaining a happy, satisfied customer. Nope. They had my money - and a little extra for calling their premium rate phone line and that was good enough for them.

So now, as a sole trader who works extremely hard for his money, I'm left with a useless stick of expensive Ram memory that I'll have to try and peddle myself on Ebay.

Companies who operate like this do not deserve your trade. Go elsewhere.

FOLLOW-UP - TWO WEEKS LATER (Feb 17th)
So, after posting this review, and later seeing further negative reviews had appeared online, I noted I had not received the stock reply here from 'Liam' as others had, however, I had received the same reply from him via my message to LaptopsDirect on their Facebook page... I had replied there and been ignored until I messaged again today asking if it was lip service or if they actually escalated these matters...

Well, to my surprise, I have just received a phone call from a slightly nervous sounding gentlemen with regard to my order. Who initially asked me if it was still sealed in it's packaging, which I explained it was. Completely unopened and untouched, resalable quite easily... Then I got the story of how it was now discontinued by them and how they had purchased it directly from their supplier and how they themselves would not be able to get a credit note for it. And how they didn't want their business (which boasts over 1,000,000 customers on their website) wouldn't want to be out of pocket just as I - a sole trader - wouldn't wish to be out of pocket.

I suppose I should show some sympathy for a company with so many customers (about 10% of whom also experience lousy service going by the statistics on this page) and who would rather leave me out of pocket and more than a little disenfranchised than possibly risk maintaining a happy customer, who spends a fair amount of money on hardware each year... Good move there LTD!

I'm not entirely sure what the point of their phone call was to me today. If it was to rub salt in the wound, it was successful. I am no longer disgruntled, I am now outright fuming.

So, I repeat. And shall continue to repeat on each and every review website I can find online;

DO NOT SHOP WITH LAPTOPS DIRECT AS A BUSINESS CUSTOMER.