PC World forcing extras

Guardsman

They tend not to bother you so much when you buy a notebook due to them having to download any bundles.

vaio

bod1467 wrote: »

.......No, but you'd not be forced to buy - you could either accept their requirement or not bother with the tea bags. (i.e. same position as per the laptop).

This is the legality - the reality is that you probably got the wrong sales people/ wrong time ... perhaps they'd already met their targets and saw you as an easy mark, so not bothered about losing the sale.

Yep, but systematic behaviour like that might well fall foul of the false advertising rules

ajones456

Every sale is a sale, this is true, but as you admitted the salesman will have a target to reach. Sometimes its tough when someone walks in and wants nothing - you have to think from a company point of view, if you go into asda and buy tea bags they don't try to sell you milk and sugar as extras because its not a money maker.

Its a given that these extras make companies money, sadly there is not as much margin in laptops as there used to be. When I used to work there we got the figures (£8 per kindle sale, for example)

We used to have a common phrase in the store I worked at "That's why the targets aren't 100%"

bluenoseam

"Excuse me, I would like a word with your line manager" and tell the line manager that you want the product, not the useless guff that goes with it, any further attempt to pressure sell and I will walk away and not spend a penny in your store.

Mind you, as someone pointed out, you work in IT and went to PC World? To be frank that's pretty bad - I don't know anyone who's above ECDL level knowledge who will touch that place with a pole!

vaio

somethingcorporate wrote: »

Yep, their position does not make commercial sense. Any sale is better than no sale! Unless they have targets with add-ons as a % I cannot see a decent justification for refusing such a sale.

Edit: In conclusion PCW were bonkers to refuse the sale.

I suspect there is much much more money to be made in selling the "add ons" rather the actual hardware and therefore the sale targets are going to be add on related.

Gavin83

bluenoseam wrote: »

Mind you, as someone pointed out, you work in IT and went to PC World? To be frank that's pretty bad - I don't know anyone who's above ECDL level knowledge who will touch that place with a pole!

I don't see what the problem is really, if PC World offer a laptop at a lower price than anywhere else (although this in itself is unlikely) I'd buy it from there. I don't need the advice as I also work in IT so I don't really see what I'd be paying the extra for elsewhere, it's the same product. You could argue that I'd be paying for customer service should I have a problem but it doesn't take away my basic rights. In fact, someone with less knowledge should be going elsewhere, those who do have the knowledge are a lot less likely to be misled.

I used to work in sales for Comet and I'd imagine in the same way PC World is, it was very target driven. If a certain percentage of your sales wasn't warranties and accessories you'd have to explain in front of all the other sales staff why your performance had been so bad. Although I never forced stuff on people I did on several occasions pass sales onto other staff. It was the kind of culture the store bred.

Guardsman

bluenoseam wrote: »

"Excuse me, I would like a word with your line manager" and tell the line manager that you want the product, not the useless guff that goes with it, any further attempt to pressure sell and I will walk away and not spend a penny in your store.

Mind you, as someone pointed out, you work in IT and went to PC World? To be frank that's pretty bad - I don't know anyone who's above ECDL level knowledge who will touch that place with a pole!

There is nothing wrong with using PC World if they stock a item you need and you need it in a hurry.
These so called computer experts who dismiss places like PC World are doing it because of computer snobbery.

transient

Guardsman wrote: »

There is nothing wrong with using PC World if they stock a item you need and you need it in a hurry.
These so called computer experts who dismiss places like PC World are doing it because of computer snobbery.

Not snobbery at all EVERY encounter they have had no knowledge an sometimes that is just the basic things.

boxer16

Just because the people who work there have no knowledge, doesn't make their products useless. I may work in IT but I know a good deal when I see one

CKhalvashi

boxer16 wrote: »

I was wondering about reserve and collect... whether you have to pay online or in store. If you pay online then I'd quite happily do that.

I've actually got my eye on a particular laptop and I don't think John Lewis do it, otherwise I'd have gone with them because I've heard good things about them.

Currys did this when I got my new MacBook. Managed to get £300 off a brand new model I would have bought anyway (due to the nature of what I do for a living, plus my old one had just died), for taking something like £30/month of extras, then lovingly cancelled the DD's with HSBC about 2 weeks later.

What you need to do is negotiate the maximum discount, without it costing you anything.

CK