Currys & PC World don't want my custom

caz2703

Thankfully haven't gotten as far as buying anything from Currys or PC World as both stores lost out on a £300-£400 sale due to their appalling staff.

In Currys I approached a member of staff walking towards me and politely said "excuse me". I was immediately smacked down with "I'm with a customer". I stood there stunned and he repeated what he'd said with an even more annoyed tone. At that point I said I'd take my custom elsewhere and walked out.

Unfortunately PC World are no better. I was in today to give them a 2nd chance after a rather rude 'floor manager' simply waved me off after stating his pay grade and pointed me in the direction of Dumb and Dumber at the other side of the store yesterday. Today I asked could I have the battery put into the laptop to check the weight to which I was told the weight was shown on screen and the actual batteries were out back and they couldn't get them. Silly me then asked would it be possible to get 2 similar models of laptop put side by side to see what the difference in the screen was. Numpty sales guy said the screens were identical (fail - one was back lit, one wasn't), then he said it would take 10 minutes to move one of the laptops because of the security tags and as they were rushed off their feet in the sale (the store was almost empty) he couldn't do it. I explained that for the sake of 10 minutes he'd be losing a sale so he asked the same 'floor manager' I dealt with yesterday who presumably told the guy to tell me where to go as I was told straight out that no, they wouldn't move a laptop.

Honestly, why are Currys and PC World so determined not to take money off customers?

BillTrac

They're no better on line...:mad:

After my recent difficulties in getting Currys to deliver a large item when they said they would I cancelled and have taken my business elsewhere.

And I will never vists any DSG shop again

shaun_from_Africa

And I will never vists any DSG shop again

Never say never.
Dixons and Currys both have their uses (as does Comet).

They normally have a good selection of items on display and do sometimes come in useful for viewing and comparing stuff before going online and ordering from Amazon or other good dealers.

caz2703

I can't even say I won't ever buy from them as here in Northern Ireland there is so little choice that chances are we'll have to use them at some stage. We don't have Comet, Laser went into administration and Currys and PC World are owned by the same group so there's no competition.

I agree with Shaun that it's useful to do a touch & feel in-store then buy online cheaper. I was all too happy to hand over my husbands cash for my Xmas pressie but when they can't even be bothered to unhook one laptop from their security system for the sake of £300+ then why on earth would I give them a 3rd chance for a laptop or anything else.

shaun_from_Africa

I agree with Shaun that it's useful to do a touch & feel in-store

Surely that's illegal in N.I.

Gavin83

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

They normally have a good selection of items on display and do sometimes come in useful for viewing and comparing stuff before going online and ordering from Amazon or other good dealers.

Thats probably the main reason they are unwilling to go out of their way to assist. Nothing more annoying than taking ages unhooking a laptop to compare it to another only for the customer to leave and buy online. It's easier just to wait for a customer to appear who actually wants to spend their money.

shaun_from_Africa

But is the shops concerned actually gave good customer service (and more importantly, good after sales service), more people might actually buy from them.
If I made a special journey to a shop to look at/buy an item, I would get it from the shop even if it was a few £'s more than buying online provided that I knew the dealer had reasonable customer service.
Sadly this isn't usually the case with Dixons, Currys and PC world.

caz2703

shaun_from_Africa wrote: »

Surely that's illegal in N.I.

Very good!

We had absolutely every intention of buying from PC World as at least you have somewhere to go back to should the laptop develop a fault. Mind you with DH working in IT it would be quicker and easier for him to fix anything that goes wrong!

After yesterday I will treat PC World and Currys as they treated me. I don't like making someone work hard for no return but as their signs say, they don't work for commission, they work for us (the customer) so maybe that's why the sales staff don't care as they get their salary regardless.

Jakg

caz2703 wrote: »

Numpty sales guy said the screens were identical (fail - one was back lit, one wasn't)

"Fail" you numpty, all screens are backlit (otherwise you wouldn't be able to see anything...)

Would you like to me address the rest of the fail in your post?

In short - you went in on one of the busiest days of the year. They can spend hours trying to make you happy OR they serve one of the other customers literally queuing up to spend money. What do you think they are going to do?

I can't help thinking the attitude expressed in your first post might explain why you didn't get what you wanted.

fozmcfc

Of course if you were starring in their TV ad, you would have got all the service you wanted and more.

The problem is I've never been into a PC World that actually has staff who work like the actors, but then I guess they aren't on the same sort of pay either.

The last PC I bought, was online from a specialist company who basically tailor everything to my needs, if you even want a modicum of service like that then don't go to PC World/Currys they are just large electrical stores, who shift tons of standard boxed PC/Laptops.

I would imagine their staff are under pressure to secure sales, so they would rather deal with those who go in knowing exactly what they want.

caz2703

Jakg wrote: »

"Fail" you numpty, all screens are backlit (otherwise you wouldn't be able to see anything...)

Would you like to me address the rest of the fail in your post?

In short - you went in on one of the busiest days of the year. They can spend hours trying to make you happy OR they serve one of the other customers literally queuing up to spend money. What do you think they are going to do?

I can't help thinking the attitude expressed in your first post might explain why you didn't get what you wanted.

So explain why the model I was looking at was described as having an "LED backlight" and it was brighter than the other model I was wanting to compare it against? It was nothing to do with screen brightness or contrast but the type of coating which made the screens differ both in brightness and colour warmth.

In short, I went in yesterday which was a darn sight less busy than the day before (approx 20 people in the store at the time and staff sitting on tills and walking around twiddling their thumbs). They did not need to spend hours making me happy. We went in with a budget of around £350 for a laptop, there were two I was debating between and the 2 things I wanted to check were laptop weight including battery and did the difference in screens justify the difference in price. I didn't ask them anything difficult in fact the battery problem would have been easily solved by getting a new laptop from their store room.

So jakg, what should I have done differently? I knew down to 2 models of laptop what I wanted. I didn't need a demo on how to use them nor did I require the staff to use any of their vast amounts of expertise in order to sell me one. Maybe I should have gone in waving a wad of notes or perhaps a letter written in blood promising to buy something from them?