Currys Infinity can I do any thing about it?

moon999

Hi all,

I can understand a lot of the situations on here. I can also tell you that there are some PCW/Rentsmart people who post on here trying to defend the actions of these mis-sold contracts. I can also say that PCW staff were/are given store incentives to sell this contract to as many people as possible irrespective of it being suitable.

While it is of course common sense to read the T&Cs, the retailer has an obligation to make sure the financial product being sold is suitable for the customer. This is not only a legal requirement but also a PC World policy - one which is NOT followed in all cases.

I know of several people who were lied to about this product and were presented as business customers - exactly who this product was aimed at.

How can a student or normally employed person be a business customer? Easy. The sales person asks 'are you using this for ANY work related purpose'.? Thats usually all it takes to 'become a business user'. The reason why? Selling smartplans earns huge amounts of money for the company. Whilst all companies are in it to make money, the methods and deceit used here is astonishing.

I know a lot about this situaiotn, so please ask if you need any further information.

Fosterdog

Moon you sound like a disgruntled ex employee.

I don't know when you were with the company but this thread is not about the old school "Smartplans" which are only for business customers. This thread is about "Infinity" which is still done by Rentsmart but is 100% a domestic lease. So there are no staff convincing customers to switch to a business lease.

The terms are different for the domestic version, from what I've looked into it costs more than a standard Smartplan and has loads of extras thrown in which bumps the whole thing up in price.

You clearly don't know as much about the situation as you think you do, Infinity has been a domestic lease for 2-3 years so your information is very outdated.

As for having staff defending it here, there are some members here who make no secret of working for the company so there is no deceit there. I have admitted many times that my brother is a manager for the company and while he's not a member here I do ask him about procedures etc. to help people out on here.

Apples2

Fosterdog wrote: »

The terms are different for the domestic version, from what I've looked into it costs more than a standard Smartplan and has loads of extras thrown in which bumps the whole thing up in price.
.

That would have to be a seriously impressive list of "extras" which could justify more than doubling the price of the product, but not even include the product at the end of this ridiculous offer.

I would be completely gobsmacked if anyone walked into this as a personal use customer knowing what it all meant.

moon999

Fosterdog wrote: »

Moon you sound like a disgruntled ex employee.

I have heard that line before. Strange how when any ex-employee mentions anything bad about this company, they are immediately labelled as disgruntled.

What I can tell you is staff used to sign up for forums with the sole intention of stifling debate. It's a known tactic of corporations to do so. But of course all these things are silly little conspiracy theories There are plenty of employees there who will do all it takes to defend them, they are usually the ones getting staff to push finance illegally. I don't need second hand information from my brother, because I personally worked there so I know exactly how they operate and what goes on. I know this thread was about affinity, but there were several mentions of smartplan too. Plus the people behind it are the same, so the selling techniques are the same. Do you have any idea why affinity was quickly introduced into stores?

Fire_Fox

I can't believe in this day and age people are not aware that the staff are sales people with targets and probably on commission, NOT advisors or helpers or assistants or customers champions. Nor can I believe that customers are not checking the total amount they will have to pay including any APR on finance deals. There is never any excuse for lies but equally there is never any excuse for signing a contract you have not read carefully.

moon999

Your right Fire Fox, but a lot of the customers buying on credit are what these companies class as easy prey. The customers are just happy they got credit. Targets are so overly managed, that sales people will tell any manner of lies to get a sale, even though there is no commission.

It was common practice to sell people the interest bearing plan instead of the BNPL schemes with the lie 'it's easier to pass the credit check for the interest one'. On top of that the lies about PPI were astonishing.

I remember sales people slapping on PPI automatically to BNPL schemes without even qualifying the customers eligibility, because 'you will be settling this before payments start anyway'. No wonder there is a PPI scandal.

Jinks

I worked for Currys until recently and sold some of these while I worked there. It's true that for businesses leasing is often a great option and I dealt with many happy business customers who had renewed their leases multiple times. However, the introduction of a leasing plan for non-business customers certainly caused some issues, and not just for the customers - in fact it caused the most issues for the staff who had to sell it.

Staff at Currys/PCW are not on commission and are not pushing certain products to get any sort of financial gain for themselves. Rather, they have to meet certain targets or they are in danger of losing their jobs. In the case of Infinity, in many stores disciplinary action will follow if they are unable to get the required number of customers to sign up for it. Unfortunately, this attitude by the company encourages staff to be cagey about the details - they need to sell that product to a certain number of people or they might not have a job any more, so if they need the job, they have to sell that product.

I hope this helps redirect some of the anger I see here toward the salespeople, because often they are not being treated very well by the company either! I also hope that those of you who didn't want the Infinity package are able to settle things satisfactorily.

By the way, it is possible to do the same thing with Infinity as with Smartplan in regard to purchasing the product at the end of the term at auction value (usually a low value, not much more than an extra monthly payment). However, you have to specifically request it at the end of the term. They don't advertise this option because they want customers to upgrade and remain on the Infinity plan instead.

moon999

Anyway my intention here wasn't to come and have a rant at them, and it may seem that way, I could have done that anytime in the last 3 years, but I would like to offer anyone whatever advice I can with regards to miss-selling and Smartplan problems.

CoolHotCold

Perhaps waiting till people post their issues and then giving advice instead of pulling up old threads that don't help.

pete_the_postie

paddyrg wrote: »

The infinity deal sounds like it might make more sense for businesses - leasing can work well in terms of cashflow and tax, and depreciate over 2 yrs (by which point, who wants a 2-yr-old gadget anyway, all the posing value has gone by then). Then with the accidental damage, theft, loss and online backups to restore to a replacement unit, it is actually not too bad. An Applecare warranty for instance won't replace in half the conditions this deal seems to.

But for most consumers, it sounds pretty lousy I agree.

I knew what I was getting into but when I was asked if I was going to use it for business the senior of the two salesman taking me through it (who was leaving for another job the next day by the way) shook his head as if to say it was better for me if I said no.

Interesting, especially as I got an Acer V5 Touch, which is OK, but running Windows 8 which is the most annoying OS I've ever used and should have stayed where it belonged - on mobile phones!