Time shuts up shop!

andy wrote:
"Simon" wrote in message
. uk...

Just been on the news that they're almost bancrupt - so maybe a
little more permanent than a few days closure.

I'm sure the 1200 or so soon-to-be redundant employees thought 'damn'
too....

Yes, I saw it on teletext this morning.

It is sad for the staff, I had just left work with Tiny when they went
under, so had mates who lost their jobs.

Just no sympathy for the company themselves, selling the same old
rubbish.

It had to happen. Time have consistently been bottom of all customer
satisfaction surveys for years. Selling faulty goods, poor or nonexistent
after sales service, and so on. About a year ago they stopped using the Time
brand and instead concentrated on Tiny. Presumably they felt that the Time
brand was fatally tarnished, so hiding behind Tiny and Computer Shop would
present a better image. However if you consistently sell rubbish at rock
bottom prices, fail to provide anything approaching adequate after sales
support, and overreach yourselves by opening hundreds of stores around the
country, the outcome is inevitable really.

I agree - lots of sympathy for the long suffering staff, but none at all of
the company itself. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Good luck to the likes of
Evesham, Mesh and Watford.

I see that the web site (tiny.com) is still up and running, and appears to
be still accepting orders.

Brian

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:25:35 UTC, "BrianW" wrote:

I agree - lots of sympathy for the long suffering staff, but none at all of
the company itself. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Good luck to the likes of
Evesham, Mesh and Watford.

Mesh: OK
Evesham: inveterate spammers
Watford: you must be joking!

--
[Davism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended.

Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:25:35 UTC, "BrianW" wrote:

I agree - lots of sympathy for the long suffering staff, but none at
all of the company itself. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Good luck
to the likes of Evesham, Mesh and Watford.

Mesh: OK
Evesham: inveterate spammers
Watford: you must be joking!

There's another thread on Watford. I bought a PC from them several years
ago, and it's given me stirling service. All dealings I have had with them
have been entirely satisfactory. I'm aware that some others have been less
lucky, but the best way to see how well a company does is to look at product
reviews and customer satisfaction surveys, not rants in this forum (and I've
done some ranting in the past believe me).

Have a look at past issues of PcPro, and you will find that these companies
regularly come up with award winning PCs. (My Aries PC was a PcPro award
winner many years ago. My newer PC is a Systemax - don't get me going about
their "on site warranty"...).

Brian

On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 09:14:45 +0100, Nick Webster
wrote:

In article ,
om says...
On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 02:07:53 +0100, "Jeremiah Harbottle"
wrote:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/200...me_shops_shut/

Only a temporary thing, apparently, damn!

Odd. Why would their whole chain have a "problem"? Surely each shop has its
own swipe machine & connection?


Unless their merchant account has been pulled :-)

They defaulted on a loan with HSBC, who are also their acquiring bank
for card transactions; allegedly

Ah the wonders of financial logic: "You defaulted on a loan so we will
stop you talking any orders until you have enough money to pay off the
loan repayment".
--
Gamma gamma gamma chameleon
You come and glow, you come and glow.
Kick out the cats before you reply

andy wrote:

Just no sympathy for the company themselves, selling the same old rubbish.

Let's all say a collective prayer for the company that sold PCs with
"optimised" modems that only worked with one ISP -- theirs.

"BrianW" wrote in message
...
It had to happen. Time have consistently been bottom of all customer
satisfaction surveys for years. Selling faulty goods, poor or nonexistent
after sales service, and so on. About a year ago they stopped using the
Time
brand and instead concentrated on Tiny. Presumably they felt that the Time
brand was fatally tarnished, so hiding behind Tiny and Computer Shop would
present a better image. However if you consistently sell rubbish at rock
bottom prices, fail to provide anything approaching adequate after sales
support, and overreach yourselves by opening hundreds of stores around the
country, the outcome is inevitable really.

I agree - lots of sympathy for the long suffering staff, but none at all
of
the company itself. Good riddance to bad rubbish. Good luck to the likes
of
Evesham, Mesh and Watford.

I see that the web site (tiny.com) is still up and running, and appears to
be still accepting orders.


Agree with most of what you say but any company with their strategy of
selling at the bottom end is likely to have problems. No one with any
knowledge would buy their junk which automatically means they are selling to
the clueless most likely to have user problems too. On top of being nasty
tat, a lot of the problems reported I've seen are user problems. When the
world finally realised what they were buying under the Amstrad name Alan
Sugar shrewdly bought Viglen.

From BBC: 'All directors except the non-executive chairman have resigned and
the firm has begun laying off staff, it (the company) said. Granville
chairman Bill Davies said "it could well be the case" that the company is
close to collapse.' But their websites still seems to be taking orders.
Hmm.

"BrianW" wrote in message
...
Bob Eager wrote:
On Wed, 27 Jul 2005 08:25:35 UTC, "BrianW" wrote:

I'm aware that some others have been less lucky, ...

....loads of others...

MC

Just goes to prove that there is no room in this world for companies with a
bad attitude towards customer care. Other companies please note!
I can't help but wonder to what extent the Watchdog article earlier this
year contributed to this but they only have themselves to blame.
"andy" wrote in message
...
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/200...me_shops_shut/

Only a temporary thing, apparently, damn!

M wrote:

Just goes to prove that there is no room in this world for companies with a
bad attitude towards customer care. Other companies please note!

Unfortunately, the reverse may also be true. I had been a Dan customer,
until they went under about 2 years ago. Their customer care was superb;
a phone call to Support would always be answered quickly by somebody who
knew what he was talking about. This, however, must have been expensive
to operate and in consequence Dan weren't the cheapest. Not enough
people, apparently, were prepared to pay Dan's prices to receive this
level of service, more's the pity.

--
John Ray, London UK.

Agreed! and I am typing this on a Dan that's nearly five years old and as
good as the day it was new.
"John Ray" wrote in message
...
M wrote:

Just goes to prove that there is no room in this world for companies with
a
bad attitude towards customer care. Other companies please note!

Unfortunately, the reverse may also be true. I had been a Dan customer,
until they went under about 2 years ago. Their customer care was superb;
a phone call to Support would always be answered quickly by somebody who
knew what he was talking about. This, however, must have been expensive
to operate and in consequence Dan weren't the cheapest. Not enough
people, apparently, were prepared to pay Dan's prices to receive this
level of service, more's the pity.

--
John Ray, London UK.