Hi all --

Anyone got anything for Pixmania (pixmania.co.uk)?  Paris-based company that uses 08700 118117 for their Surgical^WTechnical Support line.

There's a Paris number in the whois information, but I'd rather like to get the call answered by an English speaker (my French is a tad rusty).

FWIW, after my recent experiences, I don't recommend dealing with them.

Ta,

Jon

I know of no other number unfortunately.  I second the comments of jonsg.
I am afraid their customer service is atrocious and their terms and conditions are utterly unreasonable - did you know that they claim the contract is covered by French law and subject to the jurisdiction of the Paris Commercial Tribunal?  And even when I quoted French law at them (studied a bit at university 30 years ago!) I got the brush off.
I resolved then that I would never under any circumstances deal with them again.

Pixmania.com website is very good.

However, after 20 minutes of musak I was cut off.....very annoying and expensive.

It seems there is no geographic number for 087000 118 117

wrote on Sep 26^th, 2005 at 4:14pm:

...It seems there is no geographic number for 087000 118 117...

I believe there is no geo for the UK because their calls are transferred to outside the UK (probably paris) but are answered with english-speaking call centre staff.

If you do ring the 087 number as soon as it starts ringing there is a very short delay (as in the call is diverted) and it starts ringing again.

Thanks for the info.......so far I have no grounds for complaint as your explanation makes sense.....I'll judge them by how I find them....although I have found some of the comments made here and elswhere disconcerting.....I wish I had read them before placing my order £700+

If you look at the contact details for the Customer Complaints department (in the Help section), it gives the number as being 080905-879-0879, which doesn't look right to me - it's too long for a UK number and 08 isn't an international code as far as I can see.  It does say that it costs 10p/min to call.

Anyone work out where it's come from?

I'm concerned about my order with Pixmania too - first they promised me 18 iPoints but gave me 0 once I'd placed the order, and now they've taken the money (nearly a week ago now) and the "my account" section is telling me that I have no current orders, although nothing has yet been delivered to me.  I don't even have confirmation that the order was received, as I never received a confirmation email from them.

I sent an email to customer support about the iPoints 9 days ago but haven't yet received a reply, so I'm not too hopeful of getting a speedy reply to the second email I've just sent them!

The Paris number for "Reclamations" Dept. appears to be (in France)  0810 069 749, although Telediscount doesn't allow it on their 0845 Dial-Through (from UK).

RECLAMATIONS SERVICE CLIENTS

"Pour toutes réclamations vous pouvez contacter notre Service Clients :
- Par téléphone au 0810 069 749 (de 10h à 18h)
- Via la page contact
- Par fax au 01 45 01 36 38
- Par courrier au Service Clients myPIXmania - 43-47, avenue de la Grande Armée - 75016 Paris"

That funny UK Nr. for Customer Complaints department (080905-879-0879) ,

is actually 0905-879-0879 , a true Premium Rate which is 10p/min from BT Land Lines.

Does being an 09... number, mean that they shouldn't be allowed to keep you holding in a Queue ?   Does it keep you in a Queue ?

OR Try:-
Pixmania 43-47, AVENUE DE LA GRANDE ARMEE, 75016 PARIS 01 44 23 66 33

Another Possibility here:-
http://www.gfm.fr/actualites/actu_aff.cfm?actu=1017&esp=f

So it seems Pixmania is using a NGN in france as well. Telediscount wont allow you to dial the 0810 thru the 0845 as the 0810 is like our 0845 in the uk. plus a €.78 'connection' charge.


0800 Free Numbers and Expensive Numbers


Quote:

0800 numbers are free ("numéro vert" - green number), but not all 08xx numbers are free. There's somewhat of a scandal in France about the use of the more expensive of these numbers for support/call-center calls, including France Telecom, where users are charged while waiting for a response, waiting on hold, and waiting indefinitely until you have to call again and start the expensive procedure all over again. It's bandied about that some of the abusers make more profit on the telephone charges for their call centers than they do on their main products. French laws should be coming along soon (2005) to correct this very public problem. Here's a review of these special numbers.

Hmm nice to see they also have the call waiting problems, but at least in france premium numbers all use 08xx.


Phone Numbers & Tariffs:
Emergencies:

Dial 15 for SAMU (Emergency Services, Ambulance)
Dial 17 for Police
Dial 18 for Fire Services

Dial 12 for Directory Enquiries (€0.80 per call)

Prefixes & Rates (as at 1/03/05)
0800, 0805 – free ('green' number)
0801, 0810, 0811 – Local call ('azur' number) + €0.78 connection charge.
0802, 0820, 0821 – €0.12 per min ('indigo') + €0.11 connection charge, after 56 secs.
0820 20, 0820 22 - €0.09 per min ('indigo')
0825, 0826, 0803 – €0.15 per min ('indigo') + for 0803 and 0825, €0.11 connection charge after 45 secs.
0891 – under €0.30 per min
0892 – under €0.45 per min
0893 – under €0.75 per min
0897 – under €0.60 per min
0898 – under €1.20 per min
0899 – more than €1.21 per min

Numbers beginning 06 are mobile numbers.
The Phone-Number Change


Quote:

In October 1996, all French phone numbers changed to a 10-digit (internal) system. (Externally, the "33" country-code plus 9 digits.) The old division between Paris and the "rest of France", where you dialed 16 to get a second dial tone, was eliminated.

The first digits of the phone number indicate a section of France:
   01 - for Paris numbers
   02 - for the northwest of France
   03 - for the northeast of France
   04 - for the southeast and Corsica
   05 - for the southwest of France

My order did arrive about 9 days after I ordered and not the three days promised via DHL, minus an accesory I has also ordered.    That is now waiting at DHL for me to pick up.

I found that the published number 08700-118-117 did work, but only if I called at 09.00 prompt before a queue could build up.

I had a previous bad mail order probelm with Dabs.com in obtaining a refund for a faulty PVR.   They would not refund the money until they had "checked" the item.   Fair enough exccept they took 2 weeks to do this and Dabs.com do not provided a phone number at all, so you really feel helpless.   I remain out of pocket for return carriage.

I should have learned my lesson because it can be quite stressful, especially as I did realise that Pixmania was overseas and therefore there is no credit card protection in place.

Wow, this thread has seen a lot of activity since yesterday!

Update on my dealings with them: this time they have responded quickly, albeit incompletely, to my email.

As I mentioned above,  I emailed them yesterday, pointing out that I had already been charged for the order and asking them to reinstate it if it had indeed been lost (as well as reminding them about the iPoints). This time they got back to me quickly but all they did was tell me that the order hadn't gone through and I should go back to the site and place it again. They completely ignored the point I'd made about having already been charged.  so I've had to email them again, asking THEM to re-place the order so that I don't get charged again for it.  (With hindsight, maybe I should have insisted on a refund and then started again from scratch.)

Useful to have a selection of French phone numbers to try, so thanks to those of you who've posted those - I can call France for considerably less than 10p/minute!

joe65, I haven't yet resorted to trying the 0905 number but, judging by other users' comments, I don't hold out much hope of them not putting me on hold!

wrote on Sep 26^th, 2005 at 4:38pm:

If you do ring the 087 number as soon as it starts ringing there is a very short delay (as in the call is diverted) and it starts ringing again.

I had an idea that Oftel (presumably Ofcom have forgotten?) were not going to allow calls to be answered with diverted ring tone lest the caller paid for listening to ring tone.
Or was that merely a hopeful (hopeless?) idea?

wrote on Oct 29^th, 2005 at 11:00am:

joe65, I haven't yet resorted to trying the 0905 number but, judging by other users' comments, I don't hold out much hope of them not putting me on hold!

If they are making you wait on a UK 0905 ... number,  my very limited understanding of the regulations (ICSTIS) suggests that may be Unlawful, which should at least  incur the wrath of the hardened campaigners on this site...  if not of an official regulator.

having spend over 3 hours on phone 5 or 6 emails to a.walker@pixmania.com, I can safly say don't touch them if they've got your money head for the courts. >:(

Got a phone No in France for Pixmania

0033145013535

ask for   Alice Walker
                      or
             Maeve Harpur
                     or
                 Malin

I have had problems too, I have requested compensation for wasted time and phone dredit (£25 approx on my landline) just dealing with their lack of competance. Basically they delayed and delayed my order  and couldn't tell me when it would be dispatched. So i cancelled the order last wednesday afternoon, the guy on the other end said thats fine i'll send you comformation via email, i then ordered the products elsewhere. So imagine my horror when the order tracker changed to dispatched with a parcelforce tracking number. I now how to refuse the camera i don't want to get a refund and am getting nowhere with miss walker etc And guess what here we are on tuesday and according to parcelforce it isn't even in the country yet.  >:(

I am in the process of getting a site set up to document peoples problems to prepare a dossier to send toBBC's watchdog, trading standards etc. I'll post back here when its done. Wasted so much time and money on them they never reply properly if at all to emails/ the contact us script and such long waits on a 08700 number is unacceptable. From what I've heard it is because they are movng warehouse, would have been nice to have been actually told that! Lets all band together to get them some bad Press nothing is more harmful to a company IMO  ;)

Hi AL123. You may like to add some comments on Pixmania to the Grumbletext site.  ;)

You can place your order with PIXmania.com over the phone by calling 08700 118 117 (national rate) Monday to Friday 9am - 5pm

>:(go to this site for some warnings
http://www.ephotozine.com/forum/viewanswers.cfm?qid=557&catid=18
It seems pixmania is based in france, so not a lot of chance getting a UK number for them

courtesy of pricerunner.co.uk
Web Address http://www.pixmania.co.uk
Number of Stores 1 Pixmania.com 792, Fulham Road Fulham - LONDON SW6
Telephone Order Monday to Friday, 09.00 AM to 05.00  
Fax 0033 0145 0136 78 / 0033 0145 0139 07
Telephone 0 87 00 118 117
Head Office Address Pixmania.com 792, Fulham Road Fulham - LONDON SW6  

perhaps fulham is a front


>:(More warnings here
http://www.epinions.com/msg/show_~threads/cat_id_~22/id_~5556/forum_id_~145/pp_~2


From the dutch pixmania site, same layout, different language
Per telefoon bestellen
Je kunt je bestelling via de site, maar ook via de telefoon opgeven, op 0900 - 2658520 (0,25€/min), van maandag tot vrijdag, tussen 9 en 17 uur.


if you can read french
E-mail: Contacts
Tel: 0892 700 104
(0,34 € TTC/min)
Fax: 01 56 61 45 54
Remarques : du lundi au vendredi de 10h à 18h
Société : Fotovista
Siège social : Pixmania
43/47 avenue de la Grande Armée
75016 - Paris

>:(MORE WARNINGS HERE
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/forums/index.cfm?action=showthread&threadid=215258&forumid=2

from pixmania themselves
Pixmania French company, located at 43-47 avenue de la grande armée - 75016 Paris FRANCE - Mail address : Pixmania -marketing department - 43/47 avenue de la Grande Armée - FRANCE

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO DEAL WITH THIS COMPANY?

Another thread on a website discussing them (again not showing them in a very good light) gives this number for their London address:

020 7384 3759

why is it only when parting with money do i bother to check things? >.<

has anyone here actually had a good experience with them or should i just cry off my £250 and start grovelling towards my lawyer friend?

If you paid that £250 with a credit card then you have some form of help available from your credit company.
But a grovel to your friend wouldn't be unhelpful.

As the name suggests, I have rather a large problem with PIXMANIA and as im not that familiar with e technology, it has taken me a while to come across this site. All I want is somewhere to vent my mounting anger with a company who treats its customers as it does and to warn people about the dangers of placing an order and payment with them.   Am I in the right place??
a very nice man wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2006 at 10:43am:

If you paid that £250 with a credit card then you have some form of help available from your credit company. But a grovel to your friend wouldn't be unhelpful.