back to article BT axes 20 jobs at Dabs.com

BT has laid off 20 Dabs.com staff at the e-tailer's Bolton warehouse. The online electrical retailer told employees about the latest round of job cuts yesterday morning. A Dabs.com spokesman confirmed it had axed jobs to The Register "We regularly review our organisation to ensure we are efficiently organised to deliver the …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    No wonder

    Is it any wonder? BT have cocked up that company in the way that only BT can - taken a good company and turned it into a steaming pile.

    Orders must be through the floor (is it any wonder when customers could add things to their regular buy list, but then not access that list to order from it? - they' fixed it after we complained)

    So orders are down and BT's solution is to cut jobs!!!

  2. richard 69
    Heart

    i remember

    when dabs used to be a great online store with hot prices........although the returns set-up was a pain in the arse...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    I am not surprised.....

    at all as Dabs just cannot get it together !. I have several times tried to buy items from them but each and every time it has gone through motions and then 1/2 hour later get a declined card email. NEVER EVER vefore have I had the solo DEBIT card declined and each time I have gone immediately to Aria and bought from them !. I hope Dabs read this.

  4. Rob Beard
    Unhappy

    Oh dear...

    Oh dear, I was going to put an order in with Dabs too. I think I'll go elsewhere.

    I do feel sorry for the staff who had the axe, not a nice thing to go through.

    Rob

  5. N2

    Shame but

    People avoid Dabs because they dont like contributing to anything associated with BT & Phorm.

  6. Daniel 1

    Efficiencies could have been found elsewhere

    How many IT houses are like ours, and get nine copies of the Dabs catalogue, every few weeks (four of them addressed to people who no longer work for the company)?

    They may using this carpet bombing approach to sales a bit less, these days, but when I hear the name 'Dabs', I think of a fat, ugly, gaudy little booklet, printed on thin shiny paper, full of dreary pictures of mindlessly delighted young women with microphones strapped to their faces, USB pens, and digital cameras from companies I'd never heard of.

    Inevitably, these things would be unwrapped from their no-recycleable pastic packaging, and dumped in the 'not worth pulping' waste paper bin. I am given to wonder how much of the money, that they now find they do not have, was spent on sending me this colourful glimpse into a world where camcorders could be used on the beach without jamming full of sand, and blissful couples sat down to watch balloons on their plasma screen TVs.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Avoid Dabs

    couldnt have happened to a nicer company. Now when they come to sacking the rest and packing this sorry excuse for a company up cant come to soon.

  8. The Cube
    Thumb Up

    Thanks for the tip off, I didn't realise Dabs were now Bastard Telecom

    I shall make doubly sure I never order anything from them now, although their prices do a pretty good job of putting you off. Maybe they are competing with Micro Anvika for who can be first to charge £50 for a £0.05 cable in display packaging....

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    I feel sorry for the staff but............

    Dabs can rot as far as I am concerned as their returns policy stinks. I hope the company goes belly up and all their bad customer service with it then the assets get bought up by someone with an idea of how to treat a PERSON who hands their money over properly.

    Cross out reg from the tombstone and insert the word Dabs

  10. Derek Hellam
    FAIL

    Just like BT

    I used to use Dabs a lot, before they got swallowed up by BT. Once BT had them, the bargains went, the prices rose. Now I'd never buy from them, as N2 states above, I'll not spend money with them because of BT practices, phorm, and the poor value for money post BT.

    It is a crying shame that 20 low paid warehouse staff get the bullet. It is not their fault that the company is not doing well. If it where my company, I'd keep the warehouse staff and start looking at the performance of the sales and marketing staff! Not selling stuff? Sack the sales people, get better people in. But this is BT and no doubt there is a them and and us mentality.

  11. J.Butler
    FAIL

    Stopped Using Dabs...

    .. when BT bought them.

    BT are a complete failure as a telecoms provider in terms of standard & quality of service. Clearly this has extended this to Dabs... which comes as no surprise.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Bad

    This sounds to me like BT have a target to shed a certain percentage of staff across the group, regardless of whether they work for an efficient division or not. I have always liked Dabs they have let me down only once in over 150 orders, and that was only when they changed the courier to HDN.

  13. Dave Harvey
    Thumb Down

    Dave Harvey

    Definitely the reverse Midas touch by BT - turning gold into Sh*t.

    I used to use them a LOT - never ceased to amaze me that I could place an order at 18:00 and get it delivered (without even paying premium postage) by 09:00 the following morning.....until of course BT took over and started meddling....service went down, prices went up, and they became just another, mediodre web retailer.... And as many other have pointed out, don't BT realise how tainted their image is - not only amongst the general IT public, but espeically with anyone involved in healthcare IT who has seen how incompetently they've handled the National Programme fiasco!

  14. serviceWithASmile
    Megaphone

    Apparently my title is too long. Maybe a hard limit on this box would be a good idea?

    Dabs are just a big failbucket.

    Despite a long spat with BT (which I won't go into) they still insisted on sending me their marketing Gimpzines, even after repeated long sweary and rude emails explaining to them why I will never use them again.

    I don't open them. I'm saving them for November the 5th. I expect they will make good kindling.

    On the plus side however, maybe laying off 20 staff from the warehouse will have a positive effect on their prices?

    I remember ordering a bag of RJ45 connectors, for about £5 (which is a little on the steep side but meh.), only to have a "handling fee" of £6 tacked on, plus delivery. Maybe that £6 was to pay these guys..... I didn't buy anyways, i got them from misco for about £4 including delivery.

  15. MikeWW

    @ AC 09:07

    Have to agree with you there. I no longer email our account manager @dabs.com but instead @businessdirect.bt.com as Dabs4Work is now BT Business Direct. At the moment we aren't having many issues but still more than we ever used to - I wonder how long it is before BT do drive more customers to their competitors.

    Hmm, poor service driving BT customers to their competitors sounds somehow familiar...

  16. Phil Endecott

    Good. The sooner they close the better.

    Dabs is by far the worst company I have ever had to deal with. Their "customer service" was literally non-existent: there is no phone number, and emails are answered by a robot. My package was "lost", and it then took several MONTHS before I could get a human to send a replacement. No apology. It seems many customers resort to complaining to trading standards since they are unable to reach the company itself. They do not deserve your custom: go somewhere else and let them fail.

  17. This post has been deleted by its author

  18. bertie bassett
    FAIL

    Gave up dabs before BT

    well it wasn't BT that ucked it up IMHO they'd managed that themselves quite spectacularly before being taken over. Can't remember the details now but they seriously screwed delivery on an order for a start-up I was involved in, so off my buy list.

    Obviously they won't get a second chance having been bought by BT so most of my buying was from the likes of ebuyer or misco.

  19. Mike Shepherd
    Thumb Down

    Just up the road

    Just up the road, they were the natural choice for practically all our computer equipment and consumables, especially for stuff you needed the same day. We spent £1,000s and £1,000s there. It was a comfortable relationship. You would sometimes see Dave Atherton indulging in a cigarette outside the "no smoking" warehouse.

    But in the run-up to the BT sale, they became "faceless" - closing the counter for personal callers and going rapidly downhill. We haven't dealt with them since they became part of BT in 2006.

  20. CorruptioN
    FAIL

    Ah...

    I did wonder why dabs got so crap! Its quite ironic that a retailer run by the UKs largest telecommunications operator doesn't have phone support. Maybe dabs refused to pay royalties for actually using their phone lines to aid their business model.

    (Oooo new icons!)

  21. teebie
    Thumb Down

    That isn't what Dabs are for

    The dabs serach engine is fantastic, it's really easy to start with a vague idea of what you are after and narrow it down to one or two options...

    ...then you go to the website of a competent retailer, and buy the product from them instead.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Me too

    Used to use dabs for everything, but HDN and BT wrecked it all, now never use them. Feel sorry for the staff though, it's the useless fuckwit senior management who should be taken out the back and shot.

  23. Potato Man
    Unhappy

    dabs are great

    I've never have any problems with them and I use them alot at work. Since bt took over i've noticed no difference except the dabs4work site has been changed to bt business direct. I preferred it as it was but it doesn't bother me.

    no probs here. sorry to hear they're losing staff.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    Dabs of old

    Ah Dabs. The days of collecting stuff from the Woking branch. Then they moved to Bracknell which was also great.

    But then it went downhill. Bracknell closed and Dabs went downhill to being just another faceless online box shifter. Can't say I really use them much anymore. As faceless online box shifters go, Ebuyer have the better deals and there's Scan for the more obscure products.

    A far cry from the days of selecting what you wanted from a 20 page advert in PCW and then ringing them up.

    I'll drink to the memory of Dabs of old but don't expect me to use them these days!

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