Play.com blames supplier for graphics card mishap

Wrong cards sent out

By Kelly Fiveash • Get more from this author

Posted in IT Channel, 14th January 2008 14:59 GMT

Online retailer Play.com has admitted that some of its customers received the wrong graphics cards before Christmas.

The Jersey-based firm said it had sold the graphics cards to a number of people because its supplier, Zotac, had passed on inaccurate information which was then used on Play's website.

Reg reader Alexander alerted us to the problem - he ordered Zotac's 8600GT 256MB GGDR3 graphics card for £60, but was sent the GDDR2 version of the card - which has less memory.

He contacted Play but was told that it would take three to five days to contact the warehouse and confirm which item it had in stock before it could be replaced.

Alexander said he was disappointed with Play's customer service and told one company rep that he planned to contact Trading Standard's about the misleading information.

However, the rep brushed the criticism to one side and allegedly told Alexander that the firm was "a Jersey registered company and therefore not governed by trading standards" before hanging up on him.

Eventually, after a second failed attempt at getting his order corrected, Alexander was told that the product he wanted was in fact unavailable at Play and was instead offered £20 off his next purchase.

"Needless to say I won't be shopping at Play.com again. They can put the 20 quid into the staff training budget, has to be double what they currently have," he said.

We asked Play to comment on the cock-up. It said in a statement:

"An error was made in the information provided by the Graphics card supplier to Play.com, but as soon as we were informed of this error we corrected the information on the Play.com website without delay.
"A handful of customers ordered this particular memory card over November and December and we are sorry if any of these customers were disappointed with what they received, and as with the customer who informed us of this error, we will seek to reimburse them or replace the memory card speedily.

"We would encourage any customers who believe they received a GDDR2 when they ordered a Zotac 8600GT 256MB GDDR3 card to contact our customer services so we can help them."

However, it did not reveal the exact number of customers who had received the wrong order.

The firm has now corrected the graphics card information on its website. ®

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