Is this typical of Turnkey? If so, I have absolutely no idea how
they're still in business.

Last Saturday I rang them and ordered a Tascam 788. I was told it
would be posted out by courier on Monday and delivered to me on
Tuesday. In order to have it delivered to me at work on Tuesday,
rather than at home, I agreed to jump through various hoops which
involved faxing my bank statement, copies of the front and back of my
Switch card and a letter authorising them to deliver to me at my work
address, rather than at home.

On Monday morning I faxed the necessary info across and then rang and
spoke to the rep' I'd done the deal with on Saturday. He confirmed
he'd received the fax, that he had all he needed and that he'd just
been upstairs to ensure that the Tascam would be posted out to me that
day, for delivery on Tuesday. All seemed well.

On Monday evening, though, just before 5pm, I had a phone call from
Turnkey to say they'd not posted my Tascam out at all. I rang and
spoke to a manager, who told me that their entire IT system had failed
the previous week, and that as a result they were unable to post
anything out. He said he had no idea when the IT might be up and
running again, as every promise that had been made thus far by the IT
department had turned out to be untrue. When I told him how
frustrating that was, because if I'd known they were having problems
I'd have ordered it elsewhere in the first place, he suggested that I
contact Digital Village, whom he described as Turnkey's major
competitor, to see whether they had a 788. He even gave me DG's
website address, and he told me to ring him back if I needed to cancel
my order. I rang Digital Village, they did have a 788 (exactly the
same price) and they promised to deliver it on Wednesday. I therefore
gave my Switch details over the phone and arranged for delivery to my
home address (I no longer had the energy to jump through the faxing
hoops to arrange delivery to work).

On Wednesday, Digital Village delivered a Tascam to my home address,
in accordance with our agreement. However, at midday a second UPS
delivery man arrived - this time at my work address - with a Tascam. I
was immediately suspicious as Digital Village were supposed to be
deliveing to my home address, and so I asked who had sent it. The UPS
man said he didn't know, but I checked the invoice in the plastic bag
stuck to the box, and sure enough it was from Turnkey. I said I
couldn't accept it, and that UPS would have to take it away again. The
UPS man was annoyed, and slammed the door on his way out. Fortunately,
perhaps, this was all witnessed by a colleague.

I then rang my bank, and they confirmed that Turnkey had debited my
a/c in the sum of almost £400 on Tuesday, despite cancellation of my
order on Monday. So too had Digital Village... I rang Turnkey, and
after a couple of calls eventually spoke again to the manager from
Monday night. He immediately acknowledged the mistake, referred again
to the continuing IT chaos and promised me a refund. He was very
pleasant, but he didn't seem to understand why I might be annoyed at
what Turnkey had done. Anyway, at about 6pm that evening I had a
further phone call from him to confirm that the refund had been
actioned, although he said it could take up to 5 days for me to get my
money back.

Today - Friday - I had a phone call from a young woman who said she
was calling from UPS. She said she was ringing to check whethe a CD-RW
had been delivered to me on behalf of Digital Village - not Turnkey -
earlier in the week. I told her that a Tascam 788 had been delivered,
not a CD-RW. She said thanks, and that was that.

This evening I got home from work to find an agitated message on my
home telephone answerphone from the manager at Turnkey. He said it had
come to his attention that I've still got the Tascam that was
delivered to me earlier in the week, that it's an extremely serious
matter because he's already refunded me, and that we need to speak and
sort it out without further delay. By the time I got his message (30
minutes or so ago) Turnkey were long closed for the day, so I'll have
to try to get hold of him in the morning.

I've never come across such utter chaos on the part of a major
retailer before. After I'd ordered the Tascam I told a friend where I
was buying it, and he told me that he's had such bad experiences with
Turnkey in the past that he just doesn't use them any more. Is this
par for the course? If so, it's hard to believe they haven't folded
long before now :-(


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WP
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