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Story: Time Computers denies tales of woe
Posted by: Surj (Thursday 28 July 2005, 3:15 AM)
This news, though saddening is not surprising, considering the peculiar of the company.
I really do feel for the employees as I fully understand what they are enduring, as I gone through the same process twice.
I am in unique position as I have worked for during Time computers as a Technician between 1998-2000. and at 2000-2003 at Tiny computers as a salesman before the company went into administration and was acquired by Time. In both companies the parallels and similarities in the manner both companies went into administration and the strategies of deception employed to deliberately mislead employees and consumers are almost carbon copies. When Time decided that they could no longer afford IT technician at every store I informed of my redundancy by phone with only a few days notice by my area manager. We were told to tell customers that ‘it was business as usual’. The closures were for internal restructuring. The reality was that Time were struggling financially.
As a qualified technician who has worked for Time as such I can give a professional opinion as to the quality of their product, sales advice and after care support.
I used to service around 40 pc’s a week. 80% of the machines were a year old or older, the remainder less than one year old.
Very rarely did I encounter issues whish were software related, almost all were motherboard issues as time insisted on using the most basic / lowest quality MSI boards as a matter of course. The rest of the hardware was not much better, all were generic lowest spec hardware combinations available. Leaking capacitors and ill-chosen CPU/ mainboard combinations led me to believe that no burn in actually took place at HQ. I remember when a whole product line had to be recalled as a certain MSI / Elite mainboard when used with IBM Cyrix CPUS caused the CPU to burnout as the mainboard could not recognise the correct Vcore voltage for the CPU.
The PSU’s were of extremely low quality resulting in very unpredictable power output. As for graphic cards, modems and any other component it was obvious that the lowest priced components where chosen over quality and reliability.
At least the components used in side the systems were consistent, peripherals components were a different matter – I remember seeing 4 different monitors from 4 different customers for the same system model!!!!
The sales team were largely ignorant of the technology or software that they were selling, possessing only rudimentary technical knowledge. However it was the deception and hard sell techniques that they used to sell the systems which disturbed me greatly.
Sales at Time were driven by the need to sell executive software bundles (mostly obsolete software of dubious value) and the over-priced warranty bundles, particularly the Gold warranty packages. A salesman could earn £30+ commission per system if they sold the correct package to an uninitiated customer.
Salespeople would commit acts of outright fraud to secure sales – one salesman told a customer that the price of a 5 yr gold cover (£568 if I remember correctly) was ‘paperwork’ costs made by the finance company. These frauds, and others occurred daily, every day. This was evident on the salesfloor too as the extended warranties were pushed hard. In the case of Tiny a salesman had to sell 70% of his monthly quota with a warranty otherwise all the commission would be lost – a huge burden as the commission was structured in such a way that it accounted for over half a good salespersons salary.
The levels of service for gold customers and standard customers was the same, I should know – I fixed the PC’s.
For my part I did a very good of actually repairing PC’s – in most cases simply would not use the approach of using the back-up CD (a Norton ghost image) as this did nothing to resolve the underlying issue.
However I did replace faulty hardware when I diagnosed it using my own testing kit from home
Full Talkback thread
Story: Time Computers denies tales of woe
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Lets face facts. The PC hardware business is very... James Foster -
Strange things have been going on in the comp... A Store Manager -
Yesterday I emailed Tiny that I intended... Anonymous -
All I can say is I'm glad I'm an EX empl... Anonymous
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time pcs are worthless junk mine bluescreened from... Doc s
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I bought a Time (Platina Range) PC and have h... bluescreen
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CAMRA - Campaign for Real Ale is a great... Pedant -
Hi does anyone know if the insurance crappy p... Anonymous
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I work at Time/Tiny and we have been told nothing... Anonymous
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my plamsa went into repairs after the 2nd day... simon docker
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Harris is full of it, we dont get informed of ANYT... Anonymous
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Fantastic. Everyone who works in the stores... shambala
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I feel sorry for the customers. We can c... Anonymous
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The computer business is dead. I ca... Anonymous
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I worked for Time Computers ab... Jason Bird
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Working at Time Computers.
I p... Jason Bird
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Actually there are less than 10 PC Tech Support le... FrED UPpington
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Passing technical calls to india was a terrib... Anonymous
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Any Time/Tiny/Granville employees worried about th... Anonymous
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I work at Time and everyone is really panicking ab... anonymous
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This is all true, i worked as a sales assistant in... James Ashman
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Well I can see that HSBC may decline to proce... tickle my fancy
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THE CORIER AT TIME IS ALSO REFUSING COLL... Anonymous
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we were robed how can you accept payment of g... Anonymous
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all computer shop managers have been informed toni... Anonymous
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Lets face it thew company has gone. I was emp... An soon to be ex employee
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I am a former Time employee, and I was t... Former Time Employee
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About time they went bust after sel... Phil B
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Well it all comes to no supris... Anonymous
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This was no surprise. The comp... Anonymous
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I PAYED £1200 FOR A PLASMA TV... ANDREW BRODERICK
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I was a technician in the "flagship... an ex employee
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i worked at a shop has a sales rep and t... who cares
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Don't Trust TotalCare, is the same... John
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Don't need TotalCare, I can fi... Tony
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AS A MEMBER OF THE COMPUTER SHOP TEAM IN SWIN... Anonymous
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all i can say is *balls* ... once again a tits up... £1perminhelpline@tiny.com
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I also work for "the computer shop" and I now reli... The Computer Shop
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I have has a Plasma package from the computer... Big_Al
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I have had problems with my pc for over... Time customer
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Dis anybody else receive a letter from t... Jason (Teesside)
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I received my package saying that u... Jason Beck
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All Stores are closed. We dont know whats going on... Anonymous
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As an ex-employee of the company (i left in early... Anonymous
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Hi, I recently left the company (Last friday).
I s... Anonymous
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I worked for Granville Technology at head off... Anonymous
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I worked for Time Computers(Granville Te... Neil Foster
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please get EVERYONE & I mean EVERYO... ex employee
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Alarm bells have been ringin for a while, rumours... Anonymous
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SHIT SHIT SHIT. What a crap company to work... Anonymous
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WHY OH WHY ?
WHY DO SOME DREGS OF THI... DICKO - - - LIVERPOOL
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ALL stores are closed, all staff are at home wonde... Anonymous
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could be worth contacting the local MP and see if... Anonymous
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i doubt that will acheive anything, the local MP?... Anonymous
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My son's laptop has just gone in for repair.
Am I... Anonymous
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Apparantly there was a management buyout whic... Anonymous
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Yes and the bank is about to "drop the b... Anonymous
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i feel sorry for the people who hav... dave griffiths
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well no customer goods have been delivered so the... Anonymous
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http://tinyurl.com/a5pwq Offical news company i... Anonymous
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http://tinyurl.com/a5pwq Offical news company i... Anonymous
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I have just paid £1100 for a plasma. Can anyone he... Linda
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Linda. You asked about your Plasma, If you pa... Anonymous
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HEAD OFFICE STAFF GETTING CASH IN HAND -... Anonymous
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This news, though saddening is not surprising, con... Surj -
cont'd............
However I did replace faulty ha... surj
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Hi I bought a laptop from Tiny last year I ha... Anonymous
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i knew this was coming the day i stepd in to that... Amjad
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hi iam a supanet subscriber who i understand are... Anonymous
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After contacting Supanet myself, they've conf... Anonymous
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A Tale Of DISCRIMINATION?...
http://business.times... annoyed
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i am an employee of "the computer shop"....or... Anonymous
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copy and paste into your browser :)
http... annoyed still
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At the moment I remain a CCC employee after w... Tired of Secrets
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I hope all the staff at Time get what is coming to... Anonymous
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To all of those who are saying that time staff got... Anonymous
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I left Time Computers about six years ago and am s... Anonymous
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Hooray, I am so glad to see the company and the di... Anonymous
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I paid £1800 and the money was taken out of my acc... Anonymous
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THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE DISGRACE! I LIKE MANY PEO... Ben Hoult
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Can anyone help me I am trying to get my... Paul Truelove
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i bought my pc on 18/07/05 and payed cas... jonathan daniel
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I for one feel very sorry for the ex employees of... Joanne S
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I purchased a Time computer in 2001 and took... Anonymous
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I have a County Court judgment against Tiny.C... Anonymous
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I worked for Time but left about 8 years ago and t... MR
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Supanet will suffer badly as their subscribers wer... Ken Davies
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To all fellow 'out of pocket' Time customers.... Out of pocket customer
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Sad case of another Time/Tiny sucker. Paid £1... Ken Rolfe
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Visit following link, Time back in busin... Anonymous
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When i bought a time computer in 19... Anonymous
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I'm a freelance journalist wor... Anonymous
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Does anybody who worked there or an... Simon Brown
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I Bought a tiny computer in march 2005 and already... Ben Turnbull
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for all those who are interested i still work... Anonymous
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I bought both a tower and laptop from Th... Anonymous
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Hello. i still work at Time/Tiny. i... anon
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I've had THE SAME PROBLEM too... my laptop wo... Anonymous
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Me again!!
Tech support advise to get la... Anonymous
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hi i have bot my pc 1000 pound.the pc went for a r... florinda
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i bought a time patina laptop it has had been clea... steve mortn
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i have only machine.
i want to buy screen a... soni urmil
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Back in Time. For all Tiny/Time customer... Anonymous
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Yes its true, they are the same peo... Anonymous
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Its amazing how stupid Richard Harris thought ever... Nicholas Kingsley
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all my god how can you give people jobs and cant t... Anonymous
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what is this world comeing to i cant see light at... Anonymous
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I used to work as a Technical Support Advisor at T... Anonymous
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I have lost 5 years cover gold insurance
pay back... Anonymous
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i'm confused here there tradeing again what the he... mike
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I bought a time computer 5 years ago and took out... Carmela Cirino
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