With Dabs' worsening customer service and (usually) higher prices I hardly ever buy from them these days in any case. Try eBuyer.com instead.

Well, thank god for SkypeIn! That's what i will use... I am a student without a landline, and dont see why on earth this new landline requirement can make any security sense.

Quite ironic really.... seeing as you can't order from them over the telephone.

Why not stick in a parents or even a non existant phone number and see what happens?
I suspect your order will go through without any problem. I don't think Dabs can check the authenticity of a number - it could be ex-directory for example.

I've used Dabs for ages and never noticed an increase in the number of unsolicited calls I've received since registering with them. That said, I've moved house since and have just noticed that my Dabs account still has my old phone number (which has actually not existed for two years - and still doesn't!), so Willam Samson's advice above is clearly a good plan, as Dabs obviously haven't checked my phone number out!

I also stopped using Dabs a while back. They supplied me with a DVD drive that was clearly faulty on arrival (it rattled) and although there was no problem about replacing it they still left me to cover the cost of the return before sending the replacement.

Amazon or Ebuyer are far superior IMO.

I've had absolutely no joy either in getting a refund for goods not properly delivered. They obviously don't want to be bothered by mere customers, as they are not contactable by telephone and emails are gererally automated and meaningless responses. Perhaps we should all try emailing the boss sm@dabs.com. He never replied to me either but if all his disatisfied customers did, he might do something about it

I purchased a Sony TRV14E camcorder from DABS. As out of warranty and Dabs are not abiding by the sale of goods act, I will be pursuing them via the small claims court on advice from the Trading Standards. Sony not of much help, but law states redress is via the seller. I now know it is a good idea to check the net for comments on sellers before buying.

hi, i've a very disgruntled dabs customer but have found a lack of telephone nembers a pain. if you want call the try the coperate sales number 870 129 3013 and also just ring the fax line all the time it will eventullay piss them off.

dabs telephone number
if you want to call dabs to complain ring 0170 4293456 and ask for steve mitchel. make the switch board work over time

update to the number for dabs
still try the coperate sales line as this just pisses them off, but try ring
Phone: +44 (0)1942 853100
Fax: +44 (0)1942 857100
ask for steve minchel dont say that your a customer.

Yep, it goes on, Dabs charged me £30 for some memory, it never arrived and they told me thats not their problem, if you want some of the worst customer service ever then go with Dabs, otherwise give them a very wide body swerve

I wish I had been on this site before I ordered from Dabs, they could not fulfill an order, I requested an refund and was told that this was not possible. They would not let me cancel my order, as it had not arrived this is in clear breach of the distance selling regulations, do they care - no, they are above the law

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The experience I have had with dabs has been absolutely appalling. I have never known customer service this bad. Not being able to call is just a nightmare especially as they won't give out their staff's name so nobody is accountable for dealing with your issue and they just sign assistance@dabs.com AARGH !!
However thanks to the previous people who have taken time to but comments on this site I have used a corporate sales number and although it is not his responsibility I have got through to a human being who has told me his name, direct line and has empathy with me. Watch this space

As I suspected the corporate sales guy couldn't help me directly but he did come back to me very promptly to tell me this and gave me the switchboard no. Phone: +44 (0)1942 853100 and the name of the MD - Simon Curry. I then rang the switchboard and the girl who answered was very helpful and told me the best route was to email scurry@dabs.com and copy in ncolley@dabs.com. Although it took a couple of days I then got an email from Dianne Dillon - Operations Director and my issue was resolved fully. Yippee ! Dianne's contact details are

Dianne Dillon
Operations Director
dabs.com plc
www.dabs.com

Tel: 0870 429 3452
Fax: 0870 429 7452
Email: DDillon@beta.dabs.com

[Edited to remove personal information - PCW]

I like so many others have had nothing but trouble with dabs...
I am not into a 4 month wait for my money back after a mp3 player failed to turn up.
Thank You the kind person who posted DD and SC details I will start my hate mail campaign until I am refunded.

Quite unbelievably bad service. Spoke to Diane Dillon's PA to be told 'it's not possible to talk to Diane, you can only communicate by email, and any further complaint must be by email to 'scurry@dabs.com', the MD.

No answer as to why my emails to customer services are not answered days after being sent, or why the 'chat' line is permanently busy, not letting you wait, only offering email.

I will never use them again. They used to be so good. How can anyone trash their own company this way?

I'd recommend to anyone considering using them: forget the price, pay more elsewhere, whatever the difference it really isn't worth it.

I bought a New Acer notebook from DABS 17thOctober upon receipt it was faulty and wouldn't load Windows properly. Had to wait until 17th November until I received some restore discs. Then by the 29th November it had died on me completely after a rocky blue screen of death 10 or so days and it has been back with Esplex Acers own, not sub-contracted, repair company ever since.

Yet I am still waiting on my notebook being returned to myself. I have written to all the Management staff of DABs , Acer and Esplex and have got nowhere yet.

If i don't get a result soon, I am filing a claim in the small claims court and also contacting every trade journal there is. Not forgetting letting BBC Watchdog nowabout it, I urge you do the same. As before I recommend that you pay a few pounds extra and get something from another manufacturer and from a supplier who is on the high street.

Looks like no one at any of the above companies give a toss about my brand new notebook whether it hasn't worked since i bought it. Anyone up for bombing them?

I have for the last few days being trying to make a purchase from DABS. I have just discovered the site for the first time. I ran into trouble when I entered my details to open an account. It kept saying my postcode was not valid. I could not contact them and in desperation typed into Google "Have DABS got a landline" up came your website with all the bad experiences. I am glad that I have discovered this website, as I can now make my purchase elsewhere.

I have just received a new graphics card from DABS. It came very quickly, but doesn't work. I think it is faulty but want to check some technical points before returning it. I would much prefer to talk to DABS before searching for manufacturer help. Some hope! Perhaps PCW Interactive will encourage a change in DABS policy.

DABS seem to be running a scam. I'd never ever heard of them and certainly NOT bought from them. But they scammed me by sending me FOUR floppy disc drives, right out of the blue! Then they billed my credit card! How did they get my details??? And trying to contact them to get the transaction reversed and the unsolicited goods picked up is a nightmare. My credit cards people are looking into the possible fraud behind this. At least my card cannot be billed ever again, it's been cancelled.

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Thought I would share this. Someone used my credit card details (how they got hold of them is a mystery) to set up three dab account using my home address but a different delivery address. They then bought thousands of pounds equipment on 4 consecutive days. Dabs did nothing to alert me to this or prevent it ??? I am mega pissed off with this company. They seem to have zero security procedures in place, and no fraud checks.

I have recently purchased a keyboard and mouse from Dabs and it is faulty and is a nightmare to return!!
I will never use them again!!

I placed an order for my 8800gts 640mb graphics card before 4pm and on their site it says if its before 7:30pm it will be sent next day as i asked, i have now found out at 7pm that it has a sign saying "awaiting security check" yet i have bought off them in the past so this shuldnt have happend i am very dissapointed as i needed this for tomorrow as i am on holiday from that night onwards

I tried to purchase a printer. However the transaction didn't go through - on enquiring with Dabs as to why I was told that my bank had blocked it. I contacted my bank who told me that they had seen "patterns of fraudulent transactions" following purchases from Dabs so they did this for my protection and advised me to shop elsewhere!

please everyone file a complaint to watchdog http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/contact_online_purchasing.shtml

I will never use Dabs again either! It took 3 attempts to finally obtain an HP laptop last September which worked correctly (first two had a sound issue). Glutton for punishment I recently ordered a Buffalo Linkstation Pro, worked for 2 days and then gave up the ghost! I have been trying to return it since Monday of this week: Monday no show, Wednesday no show. Third attempt to return it today but it is now nearly 4pm and STILL no courier to collect. Tried speaking to their customer service clerks through webchat but you just go round in circles. I will be using the above telephone numbers and this time requesting a refund. They are history for me, won't use them again. Strange how Dabs, a BT susbsidiary, does not want to have telephone operators to assist. customers!!!

I have just been told by Scott Kay that my Laptop was Dead on Arrival but because I didn't send back the power cable and recovery disk they won't be able to refund me or repair said laptop. Thing is I did return cable, transformer, Book and Recovery Disk but also when I then spoke to toshiba they instructed me NOT to send these peripheral items - so what the hells going on. When I purchased the machine I was told if a fault developed I would get a replacement AND refund and all I want is one or the other. And for those of you wanting a telephone number try 0870 429 3059 (Scott Kay's DDI) and fax is 0870 429 7059. And send him my regards! This Company is definately one to avoid - now using Insight on 0800 333 333 bloody brilliant even when things go wrong.

Dabs sold out to BT that why it's changed

I do believe that done like a Kipper was incorrect in his statement as he did indeed purchase a laptop from dabs.com and did neglect to send back a power cable and recovery disk which he was offered a free refund upon delivery of such items, the customer then proceded to send the items through regular post without keeping a reciept.

I have recently bought a hard drive, mother board, memory, psu and a Fuji camera all where delivered on time and DABS where the cheapest on the internet...so no problems here. A happy customer...

Just thinking the landline has to do with some legislation. I purchase something on an Italian website and I had to give a phone number. However, I just gave sombody else's and it was fine. It does not need to be your phone number.

drabs.com more like! DABS = Diabolical and Bad Service

Paid for a hard drive for my laptop never arrived. Never answered my emails and when I did get through to a customer service agant on their live chat facility, they told me to email them and would not listen that I had already done this to no avail. Avoid such cowboys at all costs.

I hate Dabs right now. In the 4 days I've been waiting for the security team to realise that the information they keep requesting from me has been sent to them three times now, so that they can finally authorise my card, I have been shopping around. I simply can't find another supplier who comes close on total price for the five items I've ordered.
I would love dearly to cancel the order, and have almost done it out of spite, but these are non essential items so I can't justify to myself paying more for a quicker service elsewhere. If there's just one company out there who are a cheap on a wide range of products, please somebody point me to them, so I never have to deal with Dabs pointless security checks and useless customer service again.
I will certainly never make any single large purchase from them, as their return policy stinks, and definitely never order anything that I need in a hurry!
I could rant for pages about my experience e-mailing the web accounts department and the uselessness of the online chat representatives, but it's all been said before.
If you can afford to wait an indeterminate period for your items, and it's nothing too expensive, then by all means shop with Dabs if they're the cheapest. Otherwise keep clear is my advice!

Now that dabs.com is owned by BT could this have something to do with owning a land line? I think we should be told.

As for service, Dabs was never top for after sales service (price, delivery and sales were always 100%) and now I fear that BT are trying to provide the same service through dabs.com that they are supplying overall ie no service at all and expensive at that.

PS I used Dabs from when it first started in 1990 until BT took them over. Now I shop around and buy from the cheapest source.

It realy is sad to read all the bitching going on here.Ok,so you have had a bad experience from a company(in this case dabs)given that they have hundreds of thousands of customers every year the percentage of service issues will probably be less than you think.Also they will be no different to any other retailer in that a certain number of customer will always feel totaly pissed off because what has happened has happened to them!
Wake up and smell the coffee folks,life is bitch these days with everyone out to make a dollar from you and no matter who you buy from something,someday,somehow will go wrong and you will think the same of that retailer then.
Personaly i have purchased many things from dabs over the years and have had no problems whatsoever :-)
Oh! and i have also been with bt for 32 years and not a single complaint.
Either someone up there loves me or i'm just lucky!

"nobodylovesme" - I agree every company has unhappy customers, and I can read between the lines of alot of peoples complaints, but as a regular online shopper I can tell you dabs has a problem. Ive never come across any company that does a security check on every order that takes minimum of 24 hrs. Also the ONLY contact is via e-mail - again a minimum 24 hr wait for a reply. Totally unacceptable.

Put simply...Never ever buy anything from Dabs. I'm shocked by their customer care. They are SO bad it's amazing. Pay that little bit extra and buy elsewhere. You have been warned!!!!!!

KEEP AWAY FROM DABS. I gave them £400 they apparently sent the product. It has never arrived. Not their problem they say. My advice keep away from DABS.
It's looking like a couple of hundred pounds worth of solicitors letters are going to be the only way forward. Another kick in the teeth for the little man.
KEEP AWAY FROM DABS!
It is impossible to talk to anyone from DABS who can make any difference to your predicament. It is the total lack of care of customers that still comes as a shock with these companies. They really are take the money and run merchants.
Perhaps the MDs are trading from a prison cell?
I WILL NEVER USE DABS AGAIN
I'm a journalist so I will try to get something slapped across the papers.
KEEP AWAY FROM DABS