Curry’s PCWorld just won’t take no for an answer. Insurance

TheTalkingDead

Had to purchase a new TV after my trustee Samsung I bough in 2007 blew its power input pcb board.

After searching amazon and Argos, John Lewis for a specific tv, me and my wife and kids know well and we like, we looked for an LG the one we wanted only had stock in our local Curry’s PC world it just so happened to be the cheapest, I loath curry’s, I specifically hate this branch they tend to be heavy handed with sales of insurance and extra’s.

We walked in store after the drive down, seen it in stock and display tv had a fiddle with, Got jumped on by staff but as we knew we wanted this model asked for it, as they do, once they have the tv out for you, they get you by those satellite instore tills that only take card payments, he asked my wife (the purchaser who has the money) did she want cover for any type of imaginable scenario deliberate or accidental insurance cover for £5.99 per month? As I was in a good mood I politely declined and my wife agreed with me that we did not need insurance, here came the hard sell, went through his sales pitch speil about how nothing will compare to this insurance it one of a kind and no excess to pay and claim as many times as you want, said I could take a hammer to it purposefully and still cover it, I said no thanks and gave him the “I’m losing my patience look” he said I’ll add it anyway and if you change your mind you can ring the number on the top of the receipt and cancel at anytime, I specifically told him No you will remove it I’m not paying it and he did.

Now normally after “the look” if they persist I normally just get out and say sorry hard sales loses sales, my wife is also the type to not decline anything or question things as she is shy and don’t like to say no.

We had to go the tills at the front of the store to pay cash, I went to the car to put the seats down in the back ready to accept the tv, being disabled it takes me a bit longer to achieve this by the time I got back inside my wife had paid, he even threw in for free a tv wall bracket worth £15.00, I thought wow, then this quickly followed by a burst of anger, he follows up with I have added the insurance for you (using our details from a previous purchase where we had the item delivered) and have paid for the first month upfront for you too, with a smile, I thought about demanding a full refund, but I just said that wasn’t needed nor wanted and as he was the manager I thought pointless in asking for one.

Will be on the phone tomorrow now to pc world and insurance company to stop the cover and make a complaint but could have done without the hassle.

worried_jim

One more reason to only buy from Richer Sounds.

Les79

I have read your story, and I feel that you should have sent your wife to sort out the seats and you sort out the final particulars..


I am in the not least surprised to be fair though... I once went into Currys with my nan, with the aim to purchase a laptop. They spent more time trying to blag the insurance/backups than actually talking about the sale. My nan being old was actually falling for the spiel and was contemplating buying it... But I reminded her that, despite it being a good backup (however back in the early days of PCs I'm pretty sure this sort of thing was provided FREE OF CHARGE), I've never actually had a laptop which hasn't given a good few years' of use and you have consumer rights protection if it is inherently faulty etc. It just simply isn't worth it.


I believe that the margins on electronic items like that are very low mind you, and that the commission (or even profit if they no longer get commission) is more around the addons. I think that's why they do the hard sell a lot of the time, and sadly their eyes probably did light up when they saw a disabled person with their shy wife.


One thing I'd recommend is posting on "consumer rights" forum part. You may have scope to cancel the contract and get a refund for the item and thus the insurance. But yes, also contact the insurance company and see if they can cancel it too.

DoaM

OP knows they can cancel the insurance portion, and they still want the TV - so no need for any CR advice as far as I can see. Their annoyance is in having to do so in spite of repeated statements to the salesperson that the insurance policy was not required.

OP - one other thing to check (as C/PCW have form for this); make sure this was put through as a Consumer sale and not a Business sale.

BakingC

Had a similar experience when buying a laptop recently. Had declined insurance and expensive cloud storage and all manner of anti-virus / office subscriptions with no less than 4 different staff before my fiance very assertively said "You are making me not even want the f****** laptop"

I would complain to them about the mis-use of your personal data as they forced a product on you via details they had held previously without your say so.

TheTalkingDead

DoaM wrote: »

OP knows they can cancel the insurance portion, and they still want the TV - so no need for any CR advice as far as I can see. Their annoyance is in having to do so in spite of repeated statements to the salesperson that the insurance policy was not required.

OP - one other thing to check (as C/PCW have form for this); make sure this was put through as a Consumer sale and not a Business sale.

Yes I've checked, its a customer sale.


What he actually did was as he ringing the tv through the till he gave a £40.98 managers discretion reduction from the Tv price of £419.00,
Added the £5.99 Customer support agreement.


Added a Tv Wall bracket kit, it scanned in at £15.99


then another Manager offer manager discretion input of
1xTv Wall bracket -£15.00 =£0.99 then a generic description input of 1xWall Tv bracket sales 1x@ £34.00 =£34.99


Amount Due: £419.00 (the shelf price of the tv).


Manager Offer, manager discretion:
Monthly card mandate.
Ref Number:000000000000
Monthly card mandate reference number.
Address
Address
Address
Postcode
1x Delivery Hotpoint washing machine @ Ref number: 000000000.
(this is where he asked my wife if she still lived at our address but said nothing else , he basically took a past tendered item, and used the delivery address to set up the customer support insurance).


Cash £420.00


Total tendered. £420


Cash change. £1.00


So much for his super duper insurance and breakdown cover it says in:


PART B WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED:
Bullet point 5 "repair or replacement of the product that has been neglected, abused, misused, or damaged intentionally, You must take reasonable care the product.

I was by the phone on standby with my wife just now, when she called to cancel, after giving personal details, he said "I see the manager paid your first months fee for you"
my wife said yes he wouldn't take no for an answer form my husband and when we got to the till my husband went put the seats down in the car, he asked if my address was still the same as they have on the system and she said yes, he said nothing else, then when my husband came back told us he included the insurance we did want so we want to cancel, the guy on the phone said "I've already done that for you, sorry for that" and that was it.


Now to make a complaint.

DoaM

BakingC wrote: »

I would complain to them about the mis-use of your personal data as they forced a product on you via details they had held previously without your say so.

That is a very good observation.

tempus_fugit

TheTalkingDead wrote: »

Had to purchase a new TV after my trustee Samsung I bough in 2007 blew its power input pcb board.

After searching amazon and Argos, John Lewis for a specific tv, me and my wife and kids know well and we like, we looked for an LG the one we wanted only had stock in our local Curry’s PC world it just so happened to be the cheapest, I loath curry’s, I specifically hate this branch they tend to be heavy handed with sales of insurance and extra’s.

We walked in store after the drive down, seen it in stock and display tv had a fiddle with, Got jumped on by staff but as we knew we wanted this model asked for it, as they do, once they have the tv out for you, they get you by those satellite instore tills that only take card payments, he asked my wife (the purchaser who has the money) did she want cover for any type of imaginable scenario deliberate or accidental insurance cover for £5.99 per month? As I was in a good mood I politely declined and my wife agreed with me that we did not need insurance, here came the hard sell, went through his sales pitch speil about how nothing will compare to this insurance it one of a kind and no excess to pay and claim as many times as you want, said I could take a hammer to it purposefully and still cover it, I said no thanks and gave him the “I’m losing my patience look” he said I’ll add it anyway and if you change your mind you can ring the number on the top of the receipt and cancel at anytime, I specifically told him No you will remove it I’m not paying it and he did.

Now normally after “the look” if they persist I normally just get out and say sorry hard sales loses sales, my wife is also the type to not decline anything or question things as she is shy and don’t like to say no.

We had to go the tills at the front of the store to pay cash, I went to the car to put the seats down in the back ready to accept the tv, being disabled it takes me a bit longer to achieve this by the time I got back inside my wife had paid, he even threw in for free a tv wall bracket worth £15.00, I thought wow, then this quickly followed by a burst of anger, he follows up with I have added the insurance for you (using our details from a previous purchase where we had the item delivered) and have paid for the first month upfront for you too, with a smile, I thought about demanding a full refund, but I just said that wasn’t needed nor wanted and as he was the manager I thought pointless in asking for one.

Will be on the phone tomorrow now to pc world and insurance company to stop the cover and make a complaint but could have done without the hassle.

Why the heck do you go back to a shop that you "hate", even if it was to get a TV that you particularly wanted? And why the hell didn't you stand your ground in the shop and force them to take the insurance off the bill and you won't leave until they do? I wouldn't have stood for this. It seems to me that you wanted to have an argument with them as you had a fair idea of what would happen.

tempus_fugit

TheTalkingDead wrote: »

Yes I've checked, its a customer sale.


What he actually did was as he ringing the tv through the till he gave a £40.98 managers discretion reduction from the Tv price of £419.00,
Added the £5.99 Customer support agreement.


Added a Tv Wall bracket kit, it scanned in at £15.99


then another Manager offer manager discretion input of
1xTv Wall bracket -£15.00 =£0.99 then a generic description input of 1xWall Tv bracket sales 1x@ £34.00 =£34.99


Amount Due: £419.00 (the shelf price of the tv).


Manager Offer, manager discretion:
Monthly card mandate.
Ref Number:000000000000
Monthly card mandate reference number.
Address
Address
Address
Postcode
1x Delivery Hotpoint washing machine @ Ref number: 000000000.
(this is where he asked my wife if she still lived at our address but said nothing else , he basically took a past tendered item, and used the delivery address to set up the customer support insurance).


Cash £420.00


Total tendered. £420


Cash change. £1.00


So much for his super duper insurance and breakdown cover it says in:


PART B WHAT IS NOT INCLUDED:
Bullet point 5 "repair or replacement of the product that has been neglected, abused, misused, or damaged intentionally, You must take reasonable care the product.

I was by the phone on standby with my wife just now, when she called to cancel, after giving personal details, he said "I see the manager paid your first months fee for you"
my wife said yes he wouldn't take no for an answer form my husband and when we got to the till my husband went put the seats down in the car, he asked if my address was still the same as they have on the system and she said yes, he said nothing else, then when my husband came back told us he included the insurance we did want so we want to cancel, the guy on the phone said "I've already done that for you, sorry for that" and that was it.


Now to make a complaint.

It's pretty obvious that no insurance would ever cover wilful damage to an insured item. That should have been no surprise.

DoaM

tempus_fugit wrote: »

It's pretty obvious that no insurance would ever cover wilful damage to an insured item. That should have been no surprise.

So (taking the OP at face value) why did the sales guy explicitly say it was covered?

TheTalkingDead

tempus_fugit wrote: »

Why the heck do you go back to a shop that you "hate", even if it was to get a TV that you particularly wanted? And why the hell didn't you stand your ground in the shop and force them to take the insurance off the bill and you won't leave until they do? I wouldn't have stood for this. It seems to me that you wanted to have an argument with them as you had a fair idea of what would happen.

tempus_fugit wrote: »

Why the heck do you go back to a shop that you "hate"

Spend a week with my lot and you would soon go to any shop, if it meant WWIII would stop.
We have experience with a certain TV too, we loved its layout of apps and stuff and so wanted it for ease of use and disability friendlyness, if you wanted a certain car and it was at dealership you hated you'd buy from them, setting aside your own high moral pedestal to purchase it from there.

tempus_fugit wrote: »

And why the hell didn't you stand your ground in the shop and force them to take the insurance off the bill.

and he said he had its in my OP look here it is:

wrote: »

I said no thanks and gave him the “I’m losing my patience look” he said I’ll add it anyway and if you change your mind you can ring the number on the top of the receipt and cancel at anytime, I specifically told him No you will remove it I’m not paying it and he did

If you mean before we walked out with the tv after I returned then, you have to consider this:
When you have a level of disability I have, and most days if not all days are struggles and bad days, and you have that 1 odd day in the year your actually happy and loving life and feel nothing can stand in your way, and are determined to not let anyone break your will to live, you focus more on loving life and enjoying the rarity of what is a good day, some people are happy are to go out their in a day to get mad and even at a situation that have them doubled over in fury, instead I chose not to for the obvious reasons I did want to let it in the way of my good day.

tempus_fugit wrote: »

It's pretty obvious that no insurance would ever cover wilful damage to an insured item. That should have been no surprise..

Tongue in cheek nod to the sales pitch he was going through in the store in my OP. I was not surprised, it made me laugh I thought I would share. I knew full well what it covered and that is why didn't want it.

tempus_fugit wrote: »

It seems to me that you wanted to have an argument with them as you had a fair idea of what would happen.

yes I walked away because I wanted to argue so badly... I was seething.....foaming at the mouth mad! really wanted to get my point across and ruin my perfect day, a day I rarely get to see in a year. BUT WAIT, you would have stopped and argued and maintained the fact you wanted it removed to the point it would ruined your day. My actions PROVE I didn't want no argument, and knew it would be sorted by other means, I walked away!, there was no point going forward with anything from that point IT WAS THE MANAGER OF THE BRANCH who did it! who else was there to speak with, ah yes no one! no one there UNDER his RANK would override him fearing backlash (I knew this too, but wanted to stay there and argue over t according to you) But if you were in the same position it would be "you want to have to stand and argue with them and look for an argument" even though you would have "stood your ground and demanded it taken off" :rotfl:
Do you often contradict yourself, " do as I say, but not as I do whilst sat up high on that high horse"?