Why I hate PC World with a passion!

asot

Okay, I know there is a recent thread on PC World already but I have so much to vent about I thought it best not to hijack that thread.

Where to start with a company where there is so much wrong? There are many things you probably expect or have guessed about PC World. What I have to say is based on both previous experience working there (until recently) and current knowledge from contacts working within the stores still - as a result there is a mixture of tenses. I have no reason not to believe that all of what I will describe still goes on in stores today.

Pay
In the time I was there they only paid me correctly twice. Almost every single month they get your pay wrong, I don't know if this is a nation-wide issue but certainly I wasn't alone in the store. Every time you asked a manager about it they basically said yeah yeah and then next month the issue still wasn't resolved. If you tried to ring head office about it then you would get someone equally incompetent as the store managers who didn't have a clue how to help you and just referred you back to store management. These pay problems are mostly regarding overtime and the sums missing can be as high as £600 which when you consider that as a part timer this can be double your usual salary missing from your pay packet it is a huge amount to be without for months on end. It isn't just overtime either, it has been known for head office to decide someone has gone "awal" for weeks and to deduct their salary.

Contracts
Lots of staff aren't provided with any written contracts. In fact recently in a store I know that all part time staff have been forced to take 13 hour "contracts" (unwritten) disregarding any previous contract they may of had. Furthermore they are being pressurised into saying they will work any day of the week whenever required. Obviously this means when people are sick or go on holiday they can lose out on money. If staff don't accept these conditions they are being threatened with being sacked.

Cover
On an almost daily basis staff were pressurised into selling cover. When selling cover you couldn't just say would you like cover, you had to ask the customer why they didn't want it and then proceed to scare them by saying "what would you do if x happened"? Obviously any money saver will know these plans are rip off and can cost as much as a whole new product over the course of 3 years.

Finance
Like many stores there was pressure to sell rip off finance products, namely they want to sell you their "easipay" 21.8% loans as they get a kickback from HFC the bank that runs it. What is more annoying though is the fact they widely advertise "0% interest" offers in store but neglect to tell customers that there is a £25 admin charge on these offers.

Staff Knowledge
Staff knowledge was generally quite poor. There was no requirement to know anything about computers when you joined and there was no mandatory training on computing, in fact the only thing they seemed to care about was how well you can sell. Now obviously you need to be a good salesmen but when this means you spend most of your day blagging or making stuff up then I think it is wrong.

Customer Service
There can be times when customer service is good, but then there are many times when it is not. Examples include where a customer has driven over 100 miles (not round trip) to find a reserved item is out of stock but then been refused anything, even a discount on a display model or alternative. Then I have heard from a customer who have purchased an Apple Mac computer that the cover helpline (which they were paying a subscription for) told the customer "they shouldn't have bought a mac then" when they couldn't help the customer.

Marketing
As hinted at in the previous PC World thread head office also ask staff to automatically sign customers up to marketing without telling them. FYI the link to the previous topic is http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=248794

So there we go, I hope this will encourage a few of you to stop shopping at DSGi (Dixons Store Group International) who also own Currys, Dixons and The Link amongst other things. This is unless of course you are screwing them for profit.

I don't think I've said anything untrue or illegal but if you spot something that they could kick my !!! for please let me know so I can remove it.

shopbot

Well done for posting. It's interesting to see it from the staff perspective. Customer Service at PC World is pretty poor. I don't blame the shopfloor staff though as they are only as good as how they are trained and how they are managed. I think PC Worlds problems are pretty fundamentally down to them assuming they know what is good for the customer rather than actually listening to the customer.

ManAtHome

Same as most of the other retail businesses - there to make a profit! Never had a problem with them, but then I check round for what I want and go to DSG if it's a reasonable price.

I certainly prefer DSG, Comet etc for monitors and cameras where you can do a bit of "touchy feely" to see it suits, and definitiely better than driving 20 miles to a couriers depot to pick up mail order stuff.

Biggest problem is most people want stuff for next to nowt - as margins drop, staff training and admin tend to suffer - DSG are by no means the worst...

asot

ManAtHome wrote:

Same as most of the other retail businesses - there to make a profit! Never had a problem with them, but then I check round for what I want and go to DSG if it's a reasonable price.

I certainly prefer DSG, Comet etc for monitors and cameras where you can do a bit of "touchy feely" to see it suits, and definitiely better than driving 20 miles to a couriers depot to pick up mail order stuff.

Biggest problem is most people want stuff for next to nowt - as margins drop, staff training and admin tend to suffer - DSG are by no means the worst...

Hmm, yes I have no problem with them making a profit and maybe I would accept all the pressurising and poor service if they were able to pay their staff correctly. But how would you feel if your pay was consistently £100s short and your sick/holiday pay was cut to 1/3 of what it should be? Or if you were the customer who spent £200 in cover charges to be told "you shouldn't have bought a mac then"?

As for the touchy feely, yes if you wish to wait 20 minutes to view last years camera range sometimes £100 more expensive than online, with staff who haven't a clue about the features and who don't get paid properly then fantastic. As for the monitors then that is even worse - they are all showing an ultra low 640x480 resolution usually which means you cannot properly compare them as they are all pixelated (blocky). They also have an extremely limited range of monitors. Having said that printers and networking equipment are good things to buy locally (when reserved online at net prices) as they so frequently have problems and need to be returned.

Yes retail in general is a poor area to work in, but I don't think that other major companies treat their staff quite as poorly. I have only worked at a couple of others but I definately preferred them to PC World.

If we always just accept however companies behave then nothing will change though. Same as anything.

IvanOpinion

PC World is just another big chain .. sometimes they offer great value for money other times they don't .. however I have never yet found intelligence or knowledge in a single employee ... I think they must recruit from the rejects for the chimpanzees tea party.

Ivan

chatta

IvanOpinion wrote:

PC World is just another big chain .. sometimes they offer great value for money other times they don't .. however I have never yet found intelligence or knowledge in a single employee ... I think they must recruit from the rejects for the chimpanzees tea party.

Ivan

I think this is very unfair, anybody who watches Monkeyworld on Animal Planet would know that the chimpanzees there are highly intelligent creatures. i want you to retract that Ivan

ManAtHome

Mileages obviously vary - as I said, been more than happy with service at the Leeds and Wakefield stores. Whenever I've asked, they've been prepared to hook monitors up to 'real' sources (I agree that displaying movie clips doesn't quite hit the mark..), and must be above average on cameras as they do seem to know some of the more obscure stuff (like lens filter sizes).

The telling phrase is the "£100 more expensive than online". Many years ago before PC World was invented there were heaps of high street computer dealers - most went bust due to customers spending a couple of hours going through all aspects of a PC (cheapest were over a grand at the time), then expecting a price-match with the box-shifters (mail order). I think the high street learned the lesson...

In general, I expect DSG, Comet etc to be convenient box-shifters - as I find they are better than that, I have no complaint.

Don't get me going on Payroll and Personnel depts - you've probably been lucky in that the majority (2/3) have been reasonable. And whatever you do, avoid being "promoted" to management - you'll get the "opportunity" to work an extra 10 hours a week without the worry of payment...

asot

lol @ IvanOpinion/chatta, but harsh I must say. There is the occasional person with intelligence that works there.

@ManAtHome I think the northern stores seem to be better generally, my northern relatives get much better service than is provided in my area. I also guess they are lucky enough to have someone who knows something about cameras in your local stores.

Also I have left PC World, it was only a part time job whilst at Uni so I am free from the chances of "promotion" :-)

chatta

lol @ IvanOpinion/chatta, but harsh I must say. There is the occasional person with intelligence that works there.

They must have been on their deserved day off when I went the once

sellparttime

A man went to the Job Centre for an interview.

Man: I told them I isn't got no qualifications, no skills and as for me customer services, get stuffed.

They said: "You're exactly what they're after at PC World.

IvanOpinion

chatta wrote:

I think this is very unfair, anybody who watches Monkeyworld on Animal Planet would know that the chimpanzees there are highly intelligent creatures. i want you to retract that Ivan

Humblest apologis at my slur on our primatial friends ... you can tell the intelligent PC World employees because they are the ones walking about scratching thier armpits and picking fleas out of each others hair

Ivan