Purchased a Chromebook 5 weeks ago as my previous experience with Argos has always been good and having recently suffered appalling service from Curry's who took over a month to resolve an issue with a faulty product.(I actually paid more from Argos for this item than the Curry's offer but wanted good service if an issue arose)The Chromebook developed a fault so I visited my local store and explained that I had tried to phone the helpline but the system would not let me proceed as it would not recognise my receipt number.After showing photos to the Manager of the issue she accepted the item was faulty and said they would send it away to be repaired at their service centre I stated this i was not acceptable after 5 weeks of ownership on a £350.00 item,the Manager stated if I was not happy I should call customer service I explained the difficulty I had accessing this service via the menu,she then checked the order number on my receipt and stated it was correct but if it didn't work I should just press any random number and see if that worked ! She also stated that if at the time of purchase I had paid £29.99 for the extended warranty they would have replaced the item,so it appears Argos offer a 2 tier customer service policy which punishes you if you do not take out the extended warranty option.I have today wasted a further 2 hours going round in ever decreasing circles trying to access the customer service helpline or obtain an alternative number without success via their live help service,they did however offer to get a Manager from their call centre to call me back in 48 hours which I declined,I subsequently called Sainsbury's customer service who own Argos who tried to help but could not provide a number,in the last 12 months we have spent over £8,000.00 on groceries etc with them and I informed their agent we will not be spending another penny with them until this issue is resolved (I offered to give them my Nectar membership details to confirm but the agent wasn't bothered).I have today talked to the Manufacturer who after running through their tests have emailed me to confirm the unit is faulty and offering a direct repair service which I have declined given the short period of ownership.Before visiting the store I did check the Argos returns policy and if I had returned the item in its original packaging I could have received a full refund as they have extended their 30 day returns policy for the Christmas period,the reason I did not do this is unlike Argos I have a conscience and did not want to put a faulty item back into their supply chain for someone else to be saddled with,the final irony is now they have reduced the item price to £249.00 so I could have obtained a refund,purchased a new laptop and been £100.00 better off (honesty clearly isn't always the best policy)In summary check their terms and conditions before buying anything from them and consider using John Lewis who understand what customer service is.The moral of this is where Argos are concerned if customer service was a cows ar*e they couldn't hit it with a Banjo at a range of 2 feet!Message for Argos social media team,I will be posting the above on every review platform I can find.
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