Anyone come across NS Optimum before?

[ICTNUT]

NS Optimum (hears swears under his breath)

 

I have had no end of problems with these guys, have never ordered from them they just keep calling, emailing, faxing, sending smoke signals......

 

I once asked for a company called VLAN to quote for some kit I wanted they went bust and NS bought them and I guess details of clients/potential clients and that was it, my hell began.

 

I have not heard from them so far but I guess it's only time

[CyberNerd]

I wonder if its 'illegal' to set up a rule in our mailservers that automatically replies to their spam, - if we all did it their inboxes would get full of "no were're NOT buying from you" they'd get fed up of it pretty soon

[Geoff]

Illegal under Computer Misuse Act. Deliberate waste of someone elses computer resources aka Denial of Service attack.

[CyberNerd]

lol - I guess that also applies to NS then

[jcs808]

I found them to be too pushy for my liking. We were going through the usual tendering process, getting quotes from a few companies and they just kept badgering me, sometimes 2 or 3 times a day.

 

The final straw was when I had explained that all of the quotes were “on our head teachers desk” and that when he wasn’t so busy we were going to sit down and make a final decision, they called him directly!?!

 

Here are a few tips to any IT suppliers reading this:

1) Tender your quote and back off. If it’s reasonable you’ll get the business.

2) If the first price you quoted wasn’t the lowest you could possibly do, then don’t expect me to call you the next time I need anything.

[muppet]

Right then...... do I take it that a few of you have not had a good experience of NS then!?!

Thanks for all the advice, I think I will use them as a 3rd tender option. To tell you the truth, Dell came in above them on price, but only just, so I think I am likely to offer the contract to them.

Once again thanks for all the advice......ever had the feeling you shouldn't have asked something!!!!

[Roberto]

 

2) If the first price you quoted wasn’t the lowest you could possibly do, then don’t expect me to call you the next time I need anything.

 

At the risk of being controversial, I'm not sure this is reasonable. What does the 'lowest you can possibly do' mean? I believe some companies have offered us computers at below cost price before now in order to get our business and drive us away from our current supplier. We said "No, thanks" to that.

 

Making it that cut-throat will impact on warranty & support, and in the sort of operation we all have, the user's confidence in you and your system can live or die by the warranty support you receive. Driving prices so low that companies go out of business or are unable to meet their warranty / support comittments only makes sense if you're certain that you won't ever need to go back to that supplier for further business or for any kind of support.

[TechMonkey]

I think what he means (as it is a bugbear of mine too) is suppliers sending in a quote and then pestering afterwards that they can drop the price, or let them know if someone does it cheaper as they'll take some off. Just give us your best price and then the decision can be made. It kind of follows your argument as well in that it stops companies dropping prices to try and cut out others as they never kno what others have submitted.

[Sylv3r]

They pester the ICT Co-ordinator here all the time. Just as well they dont have my name or details......yet.

[Ric_]

Money isn't everything... cheap tat can end up costing more in the long run when you consider the time spent looking after it, etc. TCO is everything

[Maltese_Wizard]

Hi all,

I have just received a qoute for tender back from 5 companies, one of which was NS Optimum. I was recommended them from a collegue in another school, but wanted to know if anyone else has used them, and if so what do you think of them? I am looking at purchasing 87 desktops, 60 hardend TFT screens and 27 normal TFT's.

Any info anyone can provide will be gratefully received.

Many thanks,

Muppet

 

Hi, i've viewed this forum for a while but never posted anything so I hope i'm doing it right..

 

I've just moved from a NS school and i must say I found no problems at all with the equipment or service, all bar a few problems that were dealt with quickly and to my satisfaction. I have dealt with DELL and RM before, i found them both extremely unflexible when it cam eto problems solving and DELLs support was an absolute joke, when I have a problems I want to talk to someone who speaks English at least.

 

My last purchase with NS was a few more PC's for the suite, a new server and a trolley of laptops back in April and we had no problems at all. The school I have moved to has a much larger network and I will most definately be bringing NS along with me.

 

Gordon.

[sidewinder]

Dont want to say too much here, but our experiance with them has gone from extremely good to pretty god damn awful

 

Still no problems really with their desktops, but laptops have been steadily declining in quality since christmas - latest batch would barely close properly, almost all randomly reboot and crash.

 

Its the support really, you send something away and it often not be back for months, and you then discover the same problem is still there or there is a completely new problem. Or you receive another schools computers back

 

Also cabling - cablers dont turn up when they should, work has become extremely shoddy, and they fail to keep to timeframes agreed

 

Add to that, sales pressure from them to other companies they know are dealing with us

 

Not a big fan at all

[CheeseDog]

Ordered some laptops in January with extra batteries and battery chargers.

 

Overall the equipment was good but it did take a long time for me to receive the battery chargers due to a mix up with the order.

 

I ended up with 10 power inverters at first which meant I convert a cigarette lighter in the car to a 240V mains socket. Had a few phone calls back asking if I was sure they weren't the right thing.

 

Laptops arrived in mid February chargers finally arrived in June.

 

Just had to RMA one of the laptops today (by telephone) and it should be picked up tomorrow. At the moment the online RMA form does not seem to work and I received no response from the email I sent on Thursday.

 

I'll let you know how quickly they turn it around.

 

As for a lot of phone calls from them I can only say I experienced this as I let it slip I could do with some other items. Haven't received a sales call since April I think.

 

As for the sale call I received one last week maybe even on the day I posted the above.

 

I received the laptop back today and it appears to be fine. Even recieved a call to tell me it had been received and was going in for testing and I might have it back as early as Friday (just gone). So I can't complain really.

 

Also had a reply within 10 minutes yesterday when I asked if there was a reason I hadn't got it back on Friday.

 

So mixed experiences here with them here.

[wellwillthisnamedothen]

Wish I had found this thread earlier. The new Head at one of my schools brought Optimum in with her and they put in a new computer suite. It was late, but mostly worked. My complaint is the difficulty getting a response out of the company. I told the Head my opinion of optimum but she bought interactive boards off of them- hugely late and poorly installed. Only the invoices were on time, demanding money for work not done! Well, she is now converted.

 

In my effort to get things done I gave my email and Rose has contacted me......

[k-strider]

I wasn't going to post to this thread since its quite old now... but here is my two pence’s worth

We have two suites from NS Optimum.. and I have to say that we haven’t had any problems with them that haven’t been resolved really, the components they use in the PCs are good like Intel MainBoards. And when we have any that break they are usually turned around within a week or so, we had an engineer on site once, he was good, it was to swap some poor Intel (oem) fans out that were noisy . the Girl I talk two on the Phone (clare) is nice.. and there price is good.. I would certainly consider buying another set of desktops from them. We haven’t ever bought servers or Laptops from them.. I really like the Ergo Laptops we have, and the HP Business notebooks ..

 

There you go if I could earn 2p like that!!! I’d be a rich man.... well maybe not...

[merlin6xg]

I know that this thread is very old. However i have just experienced NS Optimum and feel like shareing my experiences.

 

On the site they state that they are a Total ICT provider. I asked them to fit some networked screens - what a nightmare!!!

 

Finally got the screens fitted after the first 2 fitting dates fell through due to NS Optimums incompetance.

 

When they arrived the screens where ex demo charged at full RRP - they left the delivery note in the box !!!

 

The reps you speak to on the phone will promise you the world plus more, then turn round later and not deliver. They told me info that contradicted the manufacturer.

 

In the words of one of their fitters......they employ lots of temp staff to ring up schools just after april (new tax year) to feed in business and then we bear the brundt when we get on site.

 

In short, i wouldn't use this company EVER AGAIN.

 

I now use DABS.com They supply cheap hardware and have a superb warranty. They will even arrange installation via their recommended fitters in your area- all thrown into the quote at a very reasonable price.

 

More importantly DABS do not lie NS OPTIMUM DO LIE

[Midget]

Who was your account manager?

[wellwillthisnamedothen]

Welcome to the club

[merlin6xg]

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[Ste_Harve]

Well i'll add my thought to this. We've dealt with them for the last 3 years. We ordered 2x servers and 105 workstations 3 years ago. Out of these machines we've had 3 failures due to hardware. 1 HDD and 2 PSU's. These were both sorted next day by them sending out replacement parts.

 

I can understand what people say about them constanlty ringing as we had this as well until I asked them not to ring as often. Now they ring maybe once a term. I get about 4 emails a term from them with special offers.

 

We have just ordered 4 new servers and 100 desktops and 48 laptops plus 3 trolleys. They were the best on price for us. The kit is all good quality. New machines are a lot better than the ones from 3 years ago. All use quality parts.

 

The service we've received is excellent as well. They're always available to speak to an engineer. Mark knows his stuff and if he doesn't he will find out and let us know.

 

Anyway thats just my 2pence worth.

[Midget]

I spent 2 years dealing with NSO and personally I found them to be an excellent company to deal with for alot of out purchases. We got most items at a much lower price than from other places and they were always able to give, or find out, useful information.

 

My AM Brian was fantastic, great person to talk to and very helpful, Alan was a fantastic Engineer and Dal the Tech Support was very helpful in giving information when I required it, or getting replacement parts sent out the next day.

 

However their biggest weakness are their temp installers that they have to get in order to fullfil all the installs that are required during the holidays. As with alot of temp staff, they don't really care about the company and don't give 100% irrespective of what industry they are in. Just as you can have bar staff who are abusive to customers and lazy, you can get installers who don't want to do any work for their money. If you want just fully trained, full time staff to come do the installs then do what I did and arrange them to happen at slow periods, such as training days or during term if it doesn't disrupt T&L.

 

£0.02

[merlin6xg]

I agree the techs at NS are good. Mark offers fantastic service and advice as does Dal. No problems there.

 

Its the sales Reps that promise you the world and fitting dates without checking the facts. Then they dont bother ringing back until its too late or you push the enquires with them.

 

Just as a matter of interest did you order run of the mill equipment? because they can do that no probs. Its when you order obscure equipment and want fitting. Then the problems roll in one after one but a i said before its with the sales side.

[Midget]

As with all company sales depts you will get good ones, and bad ones. I work with both types atm so have seen first hand what it is like. Do not deride all of the account managers based off the ones you have dealt with. I know at least one of the guys there is a very abrupt typical salesman, but unfortunately they are the company's face. If you dislike your salesman, you dislike the company.

 

As for obscure equipment, what are we talking? Some TV Screens that weren't installed when you wanted and then turned out to be ex-demo? That could have been a stocking error or maybe you got a huge discount because they were old stock. You have to remember that the number of install teams is based on speculation, and they are a company, it is no good them having 20 perm guys when there is only call for 6 outside of easter/summer. What happened with the sceduling? Did they tell you why they were delayed? I know they have terrible luck with their vans and people crashing into them.