PC World / Currys lack of customer service?

Silver-Cat

Just a bit of a rant after a poor shopping experience at PC world / currys yesterday. I went in to purchase a lot of items on debit card to value of £2346 / £2525 but their attitude to the sale was so poor I ended up buying only 2 items that we couldn't get anywhere else.

Their attitude amazed me as I though stores were struggling for sales and I had money ready to buy items I had already decided to buy so I didn't even need the sales patter if you know what I mean.

My partner and I were quite excited at what we were going to buy as this was a massive purchase for us after a bit of a windfall so it was a lets go mad and treat ourselves with a little bit of the money we got.

The basics is that my partner and I were discussing the purchase as two of the items in our list being ipads were cheaper elsewhere to which a senior staff overheard us talking and said he could look at the total amount and look as to see what offer could be made as it was for a total of 7 items, 2 X ipads, computer, kindle, possible 3ds and a toaster.

He got a staff member to serve us on when we told him what we wanted and wanted to know details of the price offer then took us to the computer we wanted to buy and provided incorrect details about the computer!!! If we had not checked prior we certainly would not have bought it if we believed what he said!!! After 10 minutes of sales waffle which was uncertain and inaccurate details I had to stop him and said its ok, we just want a price.

We got taken to a till and was offered a months free of their insurance policy which we would have to cancel after 30 days if we didn't want it or otherwise we'd get charged monthly, Umm, no thanks..
We also got offered £20 off our purchase which as we had already said to the senior manager what we could get from the other store seemed a bit pathetic and therefore had wasted our time if they couldn't match it or at least come close as he had suggested.

The young sales lad as pleasant as he was, was totally out of his depth and had already told us had just started working there.
After we told him we were not interested in the offer and decided that if that was the case we'd just buy the computer, he made no effort to encourage the large sale which was odd as my partner and I were clearly excited and keen to buy all of the items.

The sales asssitant lost interest in selling anything and put the computer sale through. My partner and I looked at each other a bit gobsmacked and nearly just walked out at the lack of service but since we wanted the computer decided to pay for it. As my partner was paying I wandered around the store looking at computer games and a camera I was looking into purchasing in the future and wanted to get an idea of prices.

The senior manager who was aware of the big purchase saw me and asked how we were getting on. I said we weren't interested in taking a free month policy that we would have to cancel to make sure we were not charged after the 30 days and that the £20 discount was a bit poor after what his other senior staff had sugggested. He asked what we wanted to which I said the computer is being purchased now and could he speak to my partner who was paying for the items as we still wanted to buy the other items.

He replied saying we still could had received the 20 off even if we just bought the computer, looked around the store and then wandered off!!!!!!

I was a bit gobsmacked at his comment and that the fact he then left with no effort to help with purchasing the other items especially since he was the senior manager.
I thought maybe he was going to come back so I went to the tills where my partner was and we waited for 15 minutes then got fed up and left.

We then went to John lewis to see if they had the ipads and kindle reader, got amazing customer service where they checked we knew what we were buying. Okay we didn't get a discount but we found out there was a 2 year gurantee which they seem to offer on all of their purchases and since it wasn't more expensive we bought the ipads.

Maybe I should have just bought the lot from currys / pc world but their attitude / disinterest to helping us with our purchase was poor.

What do you think? Should I expect to have good customer service since I had already pre chosen what I was going to buy?

malkie76

With the exception of the computer there is very little mark-up in what you were buying, hence the lack of discount or specialist attention. It might have been big money to you (and I is to me too), but not to PCWorld/Currys as they aren't making much profit from the items you've listed.

No excuse for poor customer service of course.

pmduk

If a store is unhelpful before a purchase, I take that as a good indicator of their attitude to a post-sale problem. Personally, I'd have taken all of my business elsewhere.

Silver-Cat

malkie76 wrote: »

With the exception of the computer there is very little mark-up in what you were buying, hence the lack of discount or specialist attention. It might have been big money to you (and I is to me too), but not to PCWorld/Currys as they aren't making much profit from the items you've listed.

No excuse for poor customer service of course.

You are spot on about the prices but then we never asked for a discount, my partner and I were debating what to buy from where after looking at the computer and the senior staff said he could do a similar offer after we told him we got double points from sainburys due to innsrance policies hence why buying from there may be an option.

It was the strange almost bored attitude of the young sales assistant and the manager not the senior manager who approached us initially.

The sales assistant was a young lad and was more interested in talking to us about computer games as he recognised us from a Gamestation / Game shop he used to work in that got closed down recently. I got the impression he was missing it quite a lot as we had a job to get him off that subject! Did feel for the lad though.

Silver-Cat

pmduk wrote: »

If a store is unhelpful before a purchase, I take that as a good indicator of their attitude to a post-sale problem. Personally, I'd have taken all of my business elsewhere.

Believe me I wanted to, but the computer we wanted was only in stock here and I don't think any where else had it except for online which we try not to do on larger more expensive items.
It was a Sony screen tablet type computer thingie and cost £999 so not exactly a cheap purchase.

I was just bit a baffled by their attitude.

Silver-Cat

I had a pm from this user.
Are they not genuine then?

vyle

Silver-Cat wrote: »

Their attitude amazed me as I though stores were struggling for sales and I had money ready to buy items I had already decided to buy so I didn't even need the sales patter if you know what I mean.

[snip]

He got a staff member to serve us on when we told him what we wanted and wanted to know details of the price offer then took us to the computer we wanted to buy and provided incorrect details about the computer!!! If we had not checked prior we certainly would not have bought it if we believed what he said!!! After 10 minutes of sales waffle which was uncertain and inaccurate details I had to stop him and said its ok, we just want a price.

We got taken to a till and was offered a months free of their insurance policy which we would have to cancel after 30 days if we didn't want it or otherwise we'd get charged monthly, Umm, no thanks..
We also got offered £20 off our purchase which as we had already said to the senior manager what we could get from the other store seemed a bit pathetic and therefore had wasted our time if they couldn't match it or at least come close as he had suggested.

The young sales lad as pleasant as he was, was totally out of his depth and had already told us had just started working there.
After we told him we were not interested in the offer and decided that if that was the case we'd just buy the computer, he made no effort to encourage the large sale which was odd as my partner and I were clearly excited and keen to buy all of the items.

The sales asssitant lost interest in selling anything and put the computer sale through.

Snipped a fair bit there, but the main things they did wrong really, by the looks of it, were have a manager authorise a discount, then hand you on to somebody new who didn't have the experience or authority to really offer it as such. It appears that the new guy was under obligation to offer the extended warranty and could offer a discount from that, but not the "manager's special" if you will. I expect he got crossed wires from that, especially with having no support from anybody senior.

The bits I've bolded do confuse me though. You just wanted the transaction put through, made it clear you didn't want any interaction beyond that, so when he provided you with the service you'd asked for, you didn't like it?

I suspect as a new guy with targets for selling the extras, he especially deflated knowing that his ratio will be screwed up and he'd get in trouble. I know I've seen currys staff on here before saying that sometimes, if they don't want their sale-to-addons ratio to get them in trouble, they'll turn away a sale just to keep their job -- ironic as that might sound.

How does one get excited for, or encourage a sale that somebody's already decided on anyway? Isn't that a bit patronising and transparent?

Oh and I should add, that giving wrong details about the computer was inexcusable, but again, the manager or a senior member of staff should have been there to support their new member of staff. It's company suicide to get a new member of staff to just run free.

Those sony desktop tablets are in a few places though, certainly not just PC world.

bod1467

May be genuine. But this company already has an official company rep registered to this forum. If the above person is requesting any personal details or data I'd recommend telling him to "go do one".

marcowil

If this is a rep of Currys/PC World it's shameless advertising and just shows the levels of non-communication given that there is already an official rep registered. Not very clued up on "social media" if they cant even check something so basic.

OP, I'm sure you got what you wanted from Currys/PC World but I would be very surprised if the same (or equivalent) item wasnt available cheaper elsewhere

Silver-Cat

vyle wrote: »

Snipped a fair bit there, but the main things they did wrong really, by the looks of it, were have a manager authorise a discount, then hand you on to somebody new who didn't have the experience or authority to really offer it as such. It appears that the new guy was under obligation to offer the extended warranty and could offer a discount from that, but not the "manager's special" if you will. I expect he got crossed wires from that, especially with having no support from anybody senior.
I think you are spot on here but he did go away and ask someone, no idea who, as to what was being offered. He was a friendly lad at first but clearly unexperienced and didn't seem to get any support from other staff.

The bits I've bolded do confuse me though. You just wanted the transaction put through, made it clear you didn't want any interaction beyond that, so when he provided you with the service you'd asked for, you didn't like it?
We wanted to know what the offer was, and the young lad went all silent after we said we weren't interested in the policy offer. His lack of communication after made it difficult to know what to do next and as we had already decided that we'd be buying the computer from there anyway it was like he just focused on that and put it through the till he was using. It just was very odd and maybe I'm not explaining it very well here. It was almost like a sulky child but that is just my opinion.

I suspect as a new guy with targets for selling the extras, he especially deflated knowing that his ratio will be screwed up and he'd get in trouble. I know I've seen currys staff on here before saying that sometimes, if they don't want their sale-to-addons ratio to get them in trouble, they'll turn away a sale just to keep their job -- ironic as that might sound.
He probably was deflated we didn't and I must stress that it wasn't neccessary him that lost the sale although his odd attitude at the end was baffling but he clearly was inexperienced and there was definately a lack of support from staff who kind of dumped us on him thinking probably we were a sure thing

How does one get excited for, or encourage a sale that somebody's already decided on anyway? Isn't that a bit patronising and transparent?

I think you've misunderstood me or maybe I've come accross like that. We were excited about buying the items but that doesn't mean that we don't want to get the best value for money and we had not made a decision as to where we were getting what. As demonstrated by the excellent service at John Lewis, we ended up buying more goods we were considering but not sure on.
I wasn't expected them to get excited about my purchase!

vyle

Silver-Cat wrote: »

I think you've misunderstood me or maybe I've come accross like that. We were excited about buying the items but that doesn't mean that we don't want to get the best value for money and we had not made a decision as to where we were getting what. As demonstrated by the excellent service at John Lewis, we ended up buying more goods we were considering but not sure on.
I wasn't expected them to get excited about my purchase!

Ah I get you more now. Yes, I misunderstood a bit. I thought you wanted him to be, effectively waving his hands in joy about you buying stuff lol.