Dixons in talks to offload loss-making online mart PIXmania

Dixons Retail confirmed this morning it is trying to offload loss-making web bazaar PIXmania to German-listed industrial holding company mutares AG by dangling a multi-million pound dowry to fund operations. The retailer says it will now enter a consultation period with PIXmania's Work Council, in line with French labour laws …

[Fletchulence]

Sheesh

Against my better judgement we tried using Pixmania as an extra sales channel. Complete waste of time. They didn't appear to have any customers, and technology wise they were so far behind their competition (Amazon & eBay obviously) it was laughable.

[Anonymous Coward]

I bought from Pixmania the once and that put me off ever using them again. Bought a HD camcorder thinking it had mic on as the previous model did (my fault for not double checking), the product was shipped from a Dixon depot in the UK and had the Dixon contact details for returns. They refused to take it back saying I had to ship it to Pixmania in France to get a refund.

[A K Stiles]

It' still going?

I made the mistake of buying something from Pixmania 5 or 6 years ago - it was such an unpleasant experience that I've blanked a load of it from my mind, but I do remember the delivery taking the best part of a month, and then the items turned up with built-in European 12-volt adapter plugs (not clear during the order process and not an easy cut and replace option) along with a couple of UK style plug-adapters - that didn't fit over the transformer part of the euro plugs! Sent an email pointing out the problem, to which the first response was "but all our stuff has euro plugs on, you should have got adapters in the box", resent the email highlighting the fact that their adapters didn't fit and eventually got a Gallic shrug of a response which essentially said "we can send you some more adapters if you like, or we could refund you £3 so you can buy your own."

Never used them again, and recommended avoidance to anyone I knew who was considering them for a purchase.

[Anonymous Coward]

Negative for Dixons, negative for me

Only etailer where I have evidence that they leaked my email address (I make a habit of using disposable/identifiable ones).

Needed a particularly hard to find phone accessory back in the day when Nokia made worthwhile phones. Pixmania had them, no one else seemed to, so Pixmania it was. Some months later, junkmail starts arriving to the address I used exclusively for Pixmania.

[BristolBachelor]

Re: Negative for Dixons, negative for me

Same here with the email address, although unfortunately not the only etailer I've used to do it.

Plus they added on a "Pixmania club" card for an extra £5 or so without me asking. Plus gawd awful customer services.

[tin 2]

Wow they cut out all of the customer service, and ignore returns, and they STILL can't return a profit?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dixons, please

offload yourselves, hopefully to Mars, you'll make this world so much better, for once.

[Terry 6]

ghastly

Tried to use them once. Like A K I've sort of blanked the whole horrible proccess. All i can bring to mind now is that I still seethe when I hear the name, but it revolved around failing to deliver and not answering lots of emails I think.

[Anonymous Coward]

+1 for crap service

A low price doesnt cover the horror of trying to get a refund for something DOA; they ignore or refuse to honour UK DSR, refuse to refund until an attempt at repair has been made (3 months!!), and refuse to refund postage without a 2nd application to an obscure address in France.

[stu 4]

Goes both ways

I remember waaay back when they launched (2003?) I used em, and they sent me 2 cameras by mistake.

which was nice.

However, the next time it was dreadful much like everyone else.. and that was the last time I used em.

[Oli 1]

based in france made it a nightmare for payments on large items.

tried to buy a fridge, freezer, washing machine and dryer all in one go. absoulute bargains... until Mastercard thought the card had been cloned and stopped the payments as it was out of the country and excessive amount. they did this 4 times, we ended up doing a direct transfer.

when one of the items was then simply not what i ordred they delivered the correct one but the delivery guys refused to collect the wrong one. its still in the garage, fully packaged awaiting return. this was 2 years ago....

[Anonymous Coward]

Pixmania are awful. Anything goes wrong - they refer you to the manufacturer and deny any responsibility as a retailer. You'd have to sue them through the French courts to get any money back, and they know you won't do that. They deserve to go under.

[wyatt]

Am I the lucky one!?

Ordered a Logitech 555 remote as it was cheaper than anywhere else (including the discount card that you had to purchase). It came and worked fine till the wife dropped her curry on it!

[Anonymous Coward]

Crash and burn Pixmania and take the Dixons Group down with you!

Terrible company (all of 'em mentioned in the article).

Bought bargain MP3 player. Didn't work, Got the "Pah! We are French so sue us" brush off.

Manufacturer provided replacement. Never bought from Pixmania again.

[TechnoTechno]

Good riddance - PIXmaina are and always have been utter shit

[Cian Duffy]

Posted me a tiny, empty box and then tried to imply fraud when I reported no drive in it. When I eventually got it redelivered the box was significantly larger