DSG Group status / * * Warning for those purchasing from DSG (Currys/Dixons?PCWorld)

Jnelhams

hippey wrote: »

Rumbelows - what a blast from the past!

Past....what about Lipton's , Fine Fare, International, Mac Fisheries, Express Dairy Shops, Bourne & Hollingworth...Oh I feel so old :rotfl:

5bellies_2

hippey wrote: »

Rumbelows - what a blast from the past!

Rumbelows - a warning from history.

Remember when they went bust, then opened up half the stores again as German PC manufacturer, and general flogger of tat, Escom - only to go bust again nine months later. Isn't that what's been happening so far?

MFI get a 'management buy-out' then fall apart within six months. Adams are rescued from bankruptcy, then fall over 18 months later for the same reasons. Zavvi get a management buyout then...

For an awful lot of companies the writing has been on the wall for some time, but some banks just didn't care.

Talking of a warning. One Rumbelows shop is still there:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/joncombe/356739473/

bbbob

Jnelhams wrote: »

Past....what about Lipton's , Fine Fare, International, Mac Fisheries, Express Dairy Shops, Bourne & Hollingworth...Oh I feel so old :rotfl:

Used to love Finefare

Suppose we'll be including Allied Carpets to the remembered list in a few years time.

Antispam

I remember Rumbelows it didn't last long in our high street on about a year or so. I also remember trident they were run by Tyne tees tv if I recall in the early 80's. Wigfalls was another electrical store that went

lawsofnature

DSG can't be that hard up because I assume they have coughed up their rents for this quarter. If not, then stores may fall fast. But, I can't foresee the whole business going belly-up. As others have said, DSG are in the position to make massive overhead reductions by closing half of their stores.

I would have thought the sensible move would be to shut down all PC Worlds and move computers and fast-moving related goods in to Currys, and then put paper products and other low-tag PC goods online or collect only.

Between Currys and Comet, I'd like to see Currys stay as Comet have by far the worse retail staff in the country. At my local store, it's hard to even approach the staff they have a dodgy geezer attitude about them....I'm never quite sure if they are shoplifting or providing customer service.

peediedj

lawsofnature wrote: »

Between Currys and Comet, I'd like to see Currys stay as Comet have by far the worse retail staff in the country. At my local store, it's hard to even approach the staff they have a dodgy geezer attitude about them....I'm never quite sure if they are shoplifting or providing customer service.

i hope comet stays staff seem helpful,yet you can never find any staffi in currys and if you do they say i,ll get the guy who knows about that and no-one ever comes back

D_e_n_i_s_e

DSG just got it all wrong!

think about it for years they and comet were the only main players in the market, profit margins were good, customer base was strong (if you didnt like them, tough, you still went back to them as they were the only ones for miles who did the branded electricals and had a variety of them).

this was there time to capitalise, build a customer relationship, a decent rapport with there customers. but instead they just treated there customers as your motorway service station would (that is one off, get this one sale in the bag and thts that!)

what they didnt understand was customer retention, retaining customer so in future they would come for subsequent purchases of different items. whilst this was happening the internet came along, and this mean home deliveries become common, which means people now have more access to places like John Lewis my nearest one physically is 35 miles away, online just one click. and we know there customer service policy and inclusive gaurantees comes as standard with there product.

sure thing this boxing day PCWorld was heaving, but whilst i waited in the car for it to get warmed up before starting off during a period of 10 mins i prob saw 50 people leave the store and only a handful that probably had a pcworld bag (hence im assuming made a purchase).

most people i think if they were anything like me, popped in saw what they liked, went next door to comet saw there prices, then went home and checked online to see if anyone else for instance like amazon offered it cheaper.

the DSG mess is there own doing, and personally its survival of the fittest. sure there will be huge job losses but for they have been in the market for years and should have been way ahead of the competition in offering a decent service on electrical goods.

so i dont have any sympathy for the DSG group, iv always seen them as a catlogue, see what i like and get from elsewhere (often cheaper or with a better service).

in this time of a credit crunch most people buying goods will want to buy from someone reliable, who will be understanding if something goes wrong with the product and who they remember gave them a decent service, for most that wont be DSG.

an elderly neighbour bought a DECT handset in october that is now was not holding its charge, called currys who asked him/her to contact manufacturer (wash there hands clean / nothing to do with us / ur problem attitude). the fault was the fact she spent a couple of seconds to long hitting the end call button which turned off the handset - simple, took two seconds to fix.

opaque

There is also now the ability to stand in a shop like PC World and use your phone to go online and compare prices.
I know I've done that with my iphone.

Ryan

Who knows if DSG will go under but personally I wouldn't take the risk!

I had no end of problems with Currys and we now buy all electricals from John Lewis. The service is far better and they will price match high street competitors. Failing that try Comet - by no means perfect but definitely better than Currys, Dixons and PC World!!

savemoney

I find Currys expensive compared with many places online, Comet are useless, only other place with have is Dixons really same group as Currys. We have the odd independent but they have a very limited range