Problems with suppliers TINY

[Tartan Giant]

Has anybody else bought a PC from "TINY" and had trouble with the product, and thereafter, trouble with getting good customer service ?

[Self Loading Freight]

Lots of people. The industry joke is that Tiny stands for Tough - It's Now Yours.

R

[InFinRetirement]

Not personally. But I do know of two instances where the quality of service was really appalling. TINY do not have a good name as I understand it.

[hansi]

I must say I bought a tiny PC about a year ago, and when delivered the monitor was shot. Took 20 mins of waiting on the phone and then 5 mins to convince the tech support that I had plugged it in. After that no probs bloke turned up the next day took the bust one away and left one that works. And if they hadn't I'd have picketed the outside of their shop untill they did.

[blackadder]

TG,
If it's not too late, go for Gateway, I've had probs with my PC and Laptop, all were resolved. Excellent service, and 10/10 for attitude.

[Tartan Giant]

Thanks guys,

BlackAdder......I'm getting the box of tricks back on Thursday (that was it's second time back) so maybe third time lucky !
If not, then three strikes and they are OUT.
Gateway was my number two choice, should have been first by the look of it.

[beaver eager]

Credit where it's due, I've had my P3 450 from Tiny for 13 months now with no problems at all (apart from the odd software crash which were always partly my fault and they always sorted it out on their helpline). I've certainly been very pleased with the product and the deal was by far the best I could get at the time without paying there and then (isn't buy now, pay in a year great - until you get to the end of the year).
Tiny's helpline and customer service usually does poorly in Which? magazine's reports and I've a mate in trading standards who doesn't rate them either. My own experience flies in the face of this though and I'd buy from them again.
Which? magazine always gives Gateway and Dan best buy status but they don't do buy now pay later deals - maybe when I'm a rich Airline Captain........

------------------
Keep it up!

[blackadder]

TG,
bring us up to date. :-)

[Tartan Giant]

Hi BlackAdder,

I got the PC back last Thursday - I wish it had gone blown up on its way here.
The PC could not even find the mouse driver; then half-way through the auto-loading of my printer software CDROM up pops a msg saying "the volume selected had already files on it, next time check first to see if it can be changed.............press any key to continue" (bloody cheek !)
I did, and the screen went black. Nowght happened. Frozen. Pulled the plug out and started again. Second time lucky.

A sod of a time loading my ISP Dial Up configs.
TINY changed the modem to a HSP56 MicroModem (whatever the hell that is) but it communicates slower than my old Pentium 200 machine which has a SupraExpress 56k. Connection speed is ALWAYS 40000bps. and ‘connecting’ and downloading of emails takes an age - it is crap !

A sod of a time re-establishing my scanner/software. The machine could not find the drivers from the "Have Disk" option.
Had the dreaded Yellow exclamation mark against the scanner – sorted by “remove” and starting all over again.
Despite loading the drivers from original disks, the PC could not ‘open’ the scanner.
“Unable to open driver failure or no scanner” - which was bollocks of course.
I can scan in AdobePhotDeluxe3.1 but not in PhotoSuite111 - strange little msg saying make sure you have enough space on the HD…..as if 25GB is not enough.

The Digital Camera set-up was another sod of a time…..the standard entry to retrieve such photos does not work, so I have found another way via “other source”. It’s like using Alternative Laws.

The CD copy software (NeroBurning) comes up with a msg saying, “It looks like your destination drive for the 0n-the-fly copy process are connected to the same IDE bus. We would strongly recommend to connect your source and the destination drive to different IDE busses”.
It said do you want to ‘burn’ anyway……I said YES !!
It copied OK but it’s like doing something you should not, having received a warning.

I’m doing what you might call a full airtest on the sodding thing before writing up the tech log and seeing what TINY can do with it.

I would call the box of tricks a highly disappointing bunch of rubbish. Putting a F1 engine in a Ford Fiesta chassis with dodgy electrics and poor tyres does not work.
If this is meant to be a P3 733 running on a 133 motherboard, I’ve seen more life in a clockwork mouse going backwards.

If anyone thinks about buying from TINY, my advice would be DON’T.

[Vortex Wake]

For my next machine I have been recommended DELL. You can tinker with the spec on the website to get what you want. Not so many gadgets bundled in but whats the good if they dont work!

[blackadder]

TG,
after reading yr trubs, why not consider returning it under the terms of the 'Sale of Goods Act'?
If the PC is not of 'Merchantable Quality' bung it back to them or ask for a full replacement.
Have a chat with yr local Trading Standards Officer.
G/way use ICL engineers, good crew too.
Good luck.

[Tartan Giant]

Hello BlackAdder,

The very thing has crossed my mind not for the first time !

Whilst I accept they have tried to solve my problems (in good faith it must be said, taking the thing back twice ) the fact that the machine is underperforming in my estimation may not be the view they take; so the argument they will put up is that it works, but the customer is not happy...tough !

I continue to have some small unexplained glitches......I have kept the thing running continuously now for days, but this morning I came in to find that the screen saver had frozen ! Terrific.

I copied all my email addresses from my other machine onto a floppy (wab.exe) by the drag and drop method (Windows Explorer).

I checked on the old machine that they had in fact all been copied OK by reading direct from the 'A' drive......they had.
Now I foolishly thought if I go to the new machine fire up Windows Explorer, insert the floppy with these copied addresses and then drag the copied wab.exe file from the 'A' drive, into the Outlook Express folder containing the wab.exe file, ALL my old addresses would be married into the file....HA HA....NO !!

For some extraordinary reason it always only reads/shows the existing addresses on the new machine (reads the wab.exe file).
It refuses to accept what the 'A' drive has waiting to deliver, despite making all the right noises reading the drive !!!

Maybe that's my finger trouble, but I can't find a way to copy my old email address to this new PC.

Another irritation came along after I closed Adobe Photo Delux 3.1 - the icons on the DeskTop ALL had the same 'image' of the little Windows flag thingy.
I restarted the bloody machine, and they all restored to their original form.
Another 'B' defect. Tiresome or what ?

The Air Test can't go on much longer I feel.

[Captain Sensible]

Tartan giant, To transfer Outlook & Outlook Express stuff, I think it's "outlook.pst" & "outcmd.dat" files you need to copy.

[Tartan Giant]

Capt Sensible,
Many thanks, I will try that.
TG

[Tinstaafl]

Also use the 'Import' option on the 'File' Menu.

Worked for me after I copied the .wab file & the various inbox etc files.