Currys and laptops

sams247

My friend’s son (I’m going to call him Jake) works for Currys, and he has just had a reprimand for refusing to sell a customer insurance on a laptop they neither wanted nor could afford. He told us that apparently the company make little (or no) profit on just selling a bog standard lap top, so the rule for the sales team was to push the extras, the insurance etc etc. And if the customer refused to budge and stuck to the basic buy only then the sales manager would employ several tactics to avoid the sale. Jake said this ranged from telling the customer the laptop was out of stock, to deliberately fudging credit checks if they applied for a no interest loan. In one week Jake sold 22 laptops and got hauled over the coals as he had not ‘upsold’ any of them, and was told he had badly let the team down. On a few occasions the manager said they had reached the limit of sales made with no extras and any future sales enquiries (with no extras being bought) were to be sent to PC World so that the shop didn’t get bad rating from Head Office. Seems a dodgy thing to be doing to me! (especially the deliberate false information on credit checks). I send this as a warning, and am happy for any Currys staff to add a view or two.

nexuss

These kind of stores do not buy the manufacturers warranty when they buy stock as to be able to offer cheaper prices.

Bowling_4_Gold

I don't really see anything wrong with that. If I was manager, would I really be wanting to have staff who didn't make money?

Obviously the manager in question is concerned that 'Jake' is picking up bad habits by processing easy sales and in the long run, this can be bad for both 'Jake' and any future employers.

Idiophreak

It is down to the company in question how they want to run these things...Personally, I'm a "bums on seats" kinda guy - I'd like to see 25 people coming in and getting a laptop, rather than 1 coming in and buying the warranty. Long term, I think people through the door is the best way of staying afloat in troubled waters.

If Currys chose to set targets on a personal, or store by store, level, that's their prerogative, though...

zzzLazyDaisy

That's nonsense. I never buy extended warranties, and if the result is then that the store would refuse to sell me the item, I'd be furious.

Bogof_Babe

Thanks for the warning. I will give Currys a wide berth from now on, as I do not wish to be coerced into buying unwanted warranties.

Esqui

We've recently had a communication from John Browett saying that we should not be refusing sales on hardware only. Equally, we should not be mis-selling product support (and have to pass a test every year to make sure that we remain aware of the legal requirements). If people are lying to sell it, they should be fired, quite frankly.

Yes, it's true that the amount of money made on a single laptop or TV is quite low. That's the same for any retailer, and is a result of lower prices. Salespeople should be able to explain without resorting to lies about the benefits of extras, and allow the customer to decide for themselves.

Obviously I can't comment on actual amounts of margin on products, or store targets. But the targets are not set by the stores themselves. How people not achieving the targets are dealt with is a matter for the manager concerned, and different managers will handle it differently

sams247

Well, I appreciate all those comments, I personally feel that one really happy customer who is not coerced into buying what they dont want is a customer who will a) come back the next time they want to buy and b) recommend the shop to their friends. And a customer who is high pressured to buy what they dont want and ends up being told what they really want is out of stock continuosly is a cusotmer who is likely a) never to return and b) to tell everyone they meet to avoid that shop. It's a short term view to pressure up-sell.

It may be that this particualr manager is a bit over zealous, and Jake is young and wants to be honest. Not throwing any stones here.

I am naive in that I want to buy from a shop that views me as a customer rather than a one-off money making opportunity

I appreciate the comments from you Esqui as every story has two views, or at least a slightly wider view in some cases.

dealer_wins

I will definitely be avoiding them from now on. Thats disgusting from a high street chain.

Thanks for the heads up!!

sugarbabe861

I work for currys and we have been told in our store anyway that we are not allowed to refuse a sale because it still counts towards our turnover and if we do we get disciplined according to the companys procdures it is true that we dont make alot of money of anything in the stores we make the money on the WEH and Attachments and the way the company has set our bonuses now we have to get the add ons to get a bonus thats why some sales staff do make up lies to get out of selling laptops and if this is so then i suggest you email our head office with the salespersons name and store so they can be disciplined because its not fair when one customer has a bad expeirece that we all get blamed

Pound

I bought a keyboard from Curry's and I was asked if I wanted the extended warranty. I asked her how much it was but she wouldn't tell me and instead would say something like "it covers you for three years". After asking her three times she pointed at the display on her till to show a price almost as much as the keyboard.