most amazing story re. PC World

pchelpman

As topics on PCW seems to be in vogue at the moment I thought you'd all like to hear this one, told to me last night. Possibly a candidate for the "worst ever encounter with PC World" award.

A neighbour of mine (a "high up" in AMEX) went to PC World and bought a brand new desktop computer.

When he was given the item the main cardboard box for the tower was a little bashed about and torn. My neighbour noticed this but said nothing in store.

He gets the purchase home ... opened the box for the tower ... inside ....

.... a block of concrete. :eek:

I kid you not.

He got a full refund but not after some very heated exchanges of words and allegations from the shop of "fraud", and related accusations, to my neighbour.

Needless to say that was the last time he set foot in a PCW shop.


PCH

FallingDownMan

I thought you were going to say it was DOA

That was one of the most common problems on tech support: customer gets machine home, plugs it in, and nothing.

Or, customer gets it home, turns it on, and BSOD (or equivalent) repeatedly. We'd then discover that there was a known problem with certain machines and had to offer repair on something a few hours old. We weren't allowed to say 'take it back' (that was sackable). But we sure as hell used to hint heavily.

Best part was that some people were daft enough to go for repair, but the machines would be so new (model-wise) that there was no known fix and simply replacing the motherboard also replaced the fault with the same one!!!

startrekker

Been thinking about this, so a high end piece of technology with a bashed up and torn box, noticed at the store and nothing said, still purchased, without checking!!!!!:eek:

Chances of it being knackered are pretty high, gets it home to find a concrete block inside:eek: ..................Pretty amazing story im sure....

startrekker

(for those of you who can't be bothered to click on the link, the article relates the experience of someone who tried to return a laptop with a cracked hinge. PC W4nk refused to honour the warranty because... (wait for it...) the user had removed Windows Vista and installed Linux.[/quote]


So the machine was much better when brought back and they refused to honour the warranty..................... some people:mad:

SueMaggie

I used to work in Argos many years ago when I was a student and the "brick in the box" trick was pretty standard for people trying to return things - I used to really enjoy opening the box in front of them and waiting for whatever feeble excuse they could come up with.

People used to also return re-sealed empty boxes for electrical goods - obviously didn't have the brain power to realise that the box should be heavier and they'd get get caught.

We had a karaoke machine that used to be bought every Friday and returned on the Monday, sold again the following Friday etc and steam wallpaper strippers used to get bought so that they could be used and then returned within the 16-days on the receipt.

Halloway

I think I'd start worrying if I were a PC World executive. There used to be one good reason for buying from them and that was they were pretty good at taking stuff back if it wasn't right for whatever. It was worth paying a premium for that alone. Now it seems the company has gone into 'screw the customer' mode. How long before it gets rebranded as 'Dixons Digital' or similar?

Browntoa

been lloking for a photo scanner...it's only then I twigged how small the choice of shops is now, why they don't give a hoot

Pcworld/Currys/Dixons

Argos

Jessops

Amazon

Dabs etc don't really carry a full range of specialist photo scanners

FallingDownMan

Take a look here. I get a lot of stuff here.

Scanners go up to £6,000!

ormus

i once bought a netgear router from pcworld ( i was desperate on a sunday!).
when i configured it, it had a previous username on it!

conmen is too good a term for them.

motorguy

I bought a 160GB 2.5 inch USB external hard disk for £99. I knew it would be a bit more expensive - a tenner i thought which i wouldnt have minded.

Checked when i got home - amazons price for the same drive £57.

jaz_2

pchelpman wrote:

... a block of concrete.

Yep, that's pretty bad, but how about this?