CPL Preston Pty Ltd (CPL Preston)

Don’t go changing Greg. Never a smile, never a pleasantry, never small talk, just efficient and gruff service day in, day out. Special kudos to the “2 month renovation” and “temporary entrance” that if they were alive, would now be old enough to go to primary school. I really don’t know why I shop here but I can’t help myself. Amazon is often faster and cheaper. Maybe it’s a deep desire to have the trifecta of Bunnings, Supercheap, and computer store all within local reach, or maybe it’s self mortification — I don’t really know which. On further reflection, it’s probably just the amusement of seeing how long a business with such terrible customer service can survive. The 1 star reviews are numerous, customers are clearly being driven away by bad experiences, and the prices don’t even match MSY… but yet somehow, CPL is still staying afloat in 2025. Incredible.

Great value and good locations

Large range of computer and AV accessories at good prices

CPL Preston is such a vibe. Never change, Greg. Wall to wall nerd supplies, a huge hole in the ground out back for burying customers that ask too many questions, standard prices are generally a bit better than Centrecom, Scorptec etc, but they have less promos and sales. Still, the process is quick, they're just off Bell Street, and there's always parking right next to the door, so they'd be my preferred retailer whenever they have what I need, which is 99% of the time. Contrary to what others have said, I've found transfer of items from their distribution centre to be very quick and in line with advertised ETA.

I was served promptly, and got the cable I needed to install a new hard drive after a sudden SMART error. Much appreciated.

Horrible customer service. I called up to inquire about a case and it's availability and I was told to check the website before calling as that shows whether it is in stock. I work up the road and already new what case I wanted, was merely calling up as it was quicker for me. Did not need to be a rude prick. I work In computer sales and I will be recommending any clients stay away

the store is ok, and pricing is ok, convenient for my location however, there is only ever 1 person working and they have the worst possible customer service ever and knowledge of product and stock is very much lacking. I would recommended spending the extra money elsewhere just for the experience alone.

How many times have CPL saved me? Too many to count. Loooooooooong time customer since the West Melbourne days through to lockdowns, CPL always have just what I need when I need it. Emergency mouse crisis averted today. Can’t imagine going anywhere else for my tech bits n pieces :)

Always amazing prices, and easy parking. Friendly services!

Shocking customer service. Prices advertised on their website never match store. Not a one time incident. They tried to overcharge me in 3 different occasions. First time they overcharged me they refused to refund me the difference claiming they couldn’t do it in store. Gave me an email to send them my bank account details so the can refund me and told me I had to wait 30 days. When I tried to talk to someone in their head office and explain. She wouldn’t help and hanged up the phone on me. Avoid if you can. Prices on website are never the real price. There are cheaper and better places to shop for computer parts

Friendly staff, good pricing & good communication whilst waiting for my order

Basic setup, friendly service, good stock levels on a wide range of products

I've shopped with thrm several times. The website is easy to check stock levels. Ordering over the phone is easy. I got a call next day to say the product I ordered was in. Greg at Preston is very helpful.

You dont want to go through a warranty RMA with this company, they take a week to return the product and wont refund after it has been back for a third time. 6 Months + and the issue is unresolved, now they are blaming me for damage that happened while it was in their control. Weak customer service

Huge product selection in stock

Never any issues. Nice guy

Prices generally good. Stock level usually reliable. Service can be a bit on the functional side. But that's OK, the job gets done.

Greg and the team to a great job

Great range of PC parts as well as networking gear, printers, laptops and all things IT at very sharp prices. One of my go tos. They've been working out of the loading bay in the back since they opened here, so I'm guessing at this point the shop front is probably not happening

Always incredibly quick to fulfil a click and collect order. Great pricing, no nonsense. Highly recommended

Buyer beware. Our Windows crashed and our repair guy told us we needed to buy Windows again. In good faith raced off to CPL as it is nearby and where we bought our PC. In the meantime the repair guy recovered our original Windows so we had no use for a $189 product. Having not read the fine print on their website T’s & C’s, we were unaware of a 15% restocking fee. Even though the guy in the store picked the package off the shelf in front of us they refused to waive the $28. The pack was unopened and we had the receipt. For a technology company their incapacity to physically refund money is laughable. Their policy itself is ridiculous and borderline illegal. Strange way to run a business. No stars for you.

Great geek out for parts

Cheap price compared to the likes of the bigger chained corporates. Never much of a wait for service either. Recommend.

Refund policy here is really whacked. We wanted to return an unopened $14 product and the store wanted our bank details and said the refund would go back into our account within a few weeks. It was give bank details or get a store credit. Ergh. Too much hassle. Credit instead and bought another product. We wont be coming back here again.

You could not emagine a more minimilist shop, some empty cabinets and a service counter with some ancient looking point of sale equipment. The person who served me was very friendly amd helpful..

For all your latest electronic needs, can't go past CPL.

Great for all your tec parts. Staff were happy to help me with any questions I had.

Heve really lifted their customer service

Do not buy from this place. I repeat. Do not buy. They have the most horrible customer service. And are nothing but rude. They dont care if you are a personal or a business customer their motto is to be rude and make your shopping experience with them as painful as possible. If they feel they couldn't live up to these expectations, they will make up for it when you plan on claiming warranty or returning and swapping. We were a business customer who spent $1000s of dollars every few months at their place. Their clear words were they dont care about Australian Consumer law. I really hope they go bankrupt and all their owners suffer. Worthless company

They have decent stock levels, so if you don't mind waiting for 30-60mins to get served its OK. There is only 1 person servicing customers on the counter who is totally run of their feet answering phone calls as well.

This one bloke who is always here does his best and literally runs around to try and keep up. The only reason people come are the prices. Put another employee here, this guy works 6 days a week, I hope he's paid well. People complain he's not friendly, but I understand it's hard to be friendly when you're overworked every day.

If you want to burn some money, spend it here. If you want to purchase a product and receive it, go elsewhere. Support non existent, stock levels on website and ETAs a blatant lie. As others have said in their reviews, you may save a few dollars, but good luck actually receiving what you pay for. Pay the extra few dollars at another retailer (statice.com.au is a good tool). In the process of a dispute with Fair Trading now.

Bought a saitek x56 hotas and was told if you have any issues you can exchange or refund if it's dead on arrival. We'll low and behold, it didn't work out of the box. Went back the next day and was told they will not accept it as I opened the box! Will be contacting the ombudsman and ACCC . STAY WELL CLEAR OF CPL. Very unscrupulous business practises to say the least

Plenty of stock, good prices and good service tho you may have to wait to be served if there's other customers ahead of you.

very easy going and fast service. such a breeze to place and order thats in stock and pick it up same day after a call to say its ready for collection !!

With only 1 staff member and a large order by the guy ahead of me, I waited more than 15 minutes for a 5 minute RMA.

Didn't have exactly what I was chasing and only having the one staff member available to serve meant some wait before getting the answer to my question. Staff member was friendly and helpful suggesting alternative to my request.

Great prices are just the beginning!

Great place for computer supplies. Easy parking. However, with one person only serving customers, the waiting time is something that can be described at times as frustrating. We went to buy 4 drivers and a person in front had a list of cables to be purchased. We waited for over 20 minutes and left to buy in another place. We even said all we wanted was the drivers (all the same) but we were told there was no one else to serve...... well. well...........

Good stock levels and cheapest around. This is a wholesale operation. If you expect immediate retail service it may not be for you. I always expect to wait.

Slow but friendly place. Great prices.

They are good lads 👍 always willing to help and give the right advice...key words right advice""

CPL is an excellent place to purchase computer parts in general as the price is really good. CPL Preston, It's a warehouse and not a store. So they really dispatch the product. So unless you have knowledge of what you are purchasing, do not expect a sales person will welcome you and show you with different models and type of computers like you will experience in electronics stores in the shopping centre. So for the price CPL is the place for the technical people really.

Looking for the latest computer gear, but at a competitive price - then look no further.

Good prices and a wide range in stock

Absolutely disgusting behavior from the old guy working here. Absolutely no respect or care for customers, I saw him be abusive and condescending first hand and pulled him up on it. Will never shop here again.

Good range in stock.

Ordered a CPU online to collect in store and received an email notifying me it was in stock. When I went to collect in store, they REFUSED to sell it to me because it was their last unit and I didn't order anything else.

Awesome pricing, but service is very slow

Good prices average customer service

Long story short, after nearly a year of dealing with a warranty replacement. CPL stopped answering my emails as I was consistently asking for updates! I ended up have to process the warranty myself from the supplier and start the warranty process again!!!!. I'll never purchase or recommend this store again... and I strongly advise others to buy their products elsewhere.

a big fan of the pile of gravel

Only onen staff on duty. Poor guy under the pump and alot customers waiting

Horrendous after sales service from CPL and their supplier Dell. Purchased a premium wireless keyboard and mouse in Oct 2020, only to have to return it 6 weeks later because the keys were sticking. It’s now Mar 2021 and after approximately 15 phone calls to CPL we are still no closer to either providing replacement hardware, fixing the original hardware or a refund. Pathetic customer service! The poor bloke working at Preston has no support from management whatsoever and is in a state of perpetual motion. Next step will be CAV.

Appalling service, took 40 minutes to serve two customers in front of me. Very slow services, systems are out of date and incredibly inefficient. How do you run a business like this? I won't be coming back.

Excellent no-nonsense supplier.

Poor staff member was getting smashed, they probably should have a second operator on if they’re always so busy. Also I know sometimes you’re in a pinch but if you have a big list of components you need at a minimum print or write the list for the worker to get all of it rather than dictate on the fly orrrr even better email or call through your order in advance.

Awful awful awful, oh my god. Save yourself the stress and time, god forbid any item you order is DOA or fails soon after purchase. You'll never get your money back. Go buy at scorptec or online, I can't believe this company is still in business.

Recommended by a mate definitely a place to get your stuff for pc.

Everything is good but service was very slow one employee total warehouse -_-

Disgusting to deal with. Have been chasing a refund on a faulty product I returned back in November 2020. They told me I could have a refund when fault was verified. Don’t test on sight so sold me another product on this basis. Have been chasing the refund for months. Do yourself a favour and get Officeworks to beat the advertised price they publish - at least you won’t get screwed if something happens. Now to lodge consumer affairs complaint

Very poor service. The man at the counter was not friendly at all. Everything seemed to be a hassle. As an electronic company they need to be more understanding regarding refunds. We purchased a specific cable $70.80 on late Friday afternoon and then asked for a refund on Monday - the package and cable was in perfect condition and we had the receipt. The man at reception was rude and not personable at all. We will not be buying from them ever again.

Didn't have what I needed

Worst computer store, useless staff, refuse to price match and never have stock.

Fantastic prices, sometimes slow service, but really reliable.

Friendly service and cheap! Edited, from 5 stars to 2 stars. Shop owner seems confused with basic task such as finding stock and serving customers on 2nd visit. Made mention of me not wearing a mask as well.

Literally had the worst customer service experience this afternoon. Was requested via email to bring a broken chair in and was allowed to bring it to this store since it's 20km closer to me than the Notting Hill store. Guy was extremely rude, constantly muttering under his breath and didn't physically inspected the chair before deciding it must be physical damage instead of a manufacturing defect. Notting Hill and North Melbourne staff were a lot better than this; go there instead.

I'm a big CPL fan, and this location is very fittingly no frills.

I ordered a Monitor from their online store (for pickup at Preston as they didnt have stock in Preston) which according to the order info online you can order for collection at another store and they redirect a unit from one of the other warehouses to your designated pickup location after 24hs. 72hrs passed without an email confirmation indicating its ready for pickup so I contact them and they advise they havent sent it to Preston because its not been paid for where the option to Pay On Collection was selected at placement of the order. This was explained to the rude person on the phone who said that I am supposed to call to confirm the order before they send the item to the warehouse which is absolutely retarded as thats the sole purpose of placing an online order. Customer service isn't their strong suit, wont be buying from there again as they lack communication skills.

Easy process. Order online and store pickup was easy go. Friendly staffs. Reasonably priced.

Very good prices! In-store pickup is still convenient despite the renovations underway. Greg was very friendly and helpful.

Prices are pretty competitive and overall range across the stores is excellent. I've never had an issue over the past few years of getting bits and pieces.

Good range and competitive prices