PC World & HFC Bank

suebev

My partner and I bought a new PC from PC World thinking it was on higher purchase. We found out later that it had been arranged through HFC Bank.
We only found this out when HFC contacted us and called us in. We then got roped in to amalgamating all our debt into 1 loan.

12 months later we paid the loan off early. We then found out after 12 months of paying 252.00pcm that we had paid off very little of the loan.

We did not take any PPI.

We feel that we were given bad information and the interest on the loan was a ridiculous amount at the beginning of the loan. We could have been ripped off for early settlement and there is also the issue of not being informed by PC World that the payments would be through HFC.
There must have been a deal between the two companies.
The sales person at PC World was not financially qualified.
Any advise on where to start??

Cheers
Sue Bev

robpw2

comet,currys dixons pc world all use hfc bank for there hire purchase items and none of the stores tell you this but i have found out after by the letters refusing ..
The sales staff are not qualified to give finacial advise and thats why they shouldnt

twistedeagle

On the finance agreement which you signed, you will notice that it says finance is arranged through HFC Bank. It will have also stated the interest rate etc etc.

narced

DSG group (includes Currys, Dixons and PC World) are scoundrels and should be avoided like the plague. Not only their finance is a con, but they try and sell you extended warranties that are an even bigger ripoff.

The PCs they sell are generally cheap own brand tat and their 'extras' are way overpriced e.g. you will pay double for memory chips compared to buying over the internet.

DazJilly

"DSG group (includes Currys, Dixons and PC World) are scoundrels" = DSG are the biggest electrical company in EUROPE!

"Not only their finance is a con" = They are members of the FSA and ALL staff are tested every year on the way they sell finance and ppi!

"but they try and sell you extended warranties that are an even bigger ripoff" = the customer makes the final decision! (If you buy a samsung tv for example and pay £7 pm for whatever happens. YOU accidently break the tv within 5 months (not covered under manufacturers warranty). Whatever happens replace your tv for £35!!) But yet still a rip-off / con ?

:mad: Some people!! :mad:

"We only found this out when HFC contacted us and called us in. We then got roped in to amalgamating all our debt into 1 loan" = Your own choice to GO to the bank and amalgamating all into one, and again you would have been asked to sign the agreement which you should read.

If you were paying £252 pcm and paid of little of the loan then HFC (part of HSBC Bank) take more of your payments towards their interest and only a small amount to pay off the loan. for example £175 to pay months interest and only £77 to pay off loan.

Nothing can be done with regards the sales assistant as the loan was with HFC, which you have cancelled and set-up a new account direct with the bank.

CannyJock

suebev wrote: »

We only found this out when HFC contacted us and called us in. We then got roped in to amalgamating all our debt into 1 loan.

12 months later we paid the loan off early. We then found out after 12 months of paying 252.00pcm that we had paid off very little of the loan.

Basically they've saw you coming and done a sales job on you.

They won't have force you to sign anything, but they'll have made it sounds like a good idea for sure.

They'll have front-loaded the interest on the loan. I'm helping a cousin sort out a few things and he's paid 20 payments of £ 497 on a £ 25,000 loan and the settlement figure he just got shows he's only paid £ 1,200 of the capital.

This was from the bank he "trusted" with his mortgage, buildings and contents insurance, 3 flavours of payment protection and a credit card at 24.9% APR.

Only person looking out for your financial well-being is you.

paperclip4201

i used to work for currys (part of DSG) and agree with what your saying; we're not properly trained to do the credit system - i learnt most of it through colleagues as opposed to doing it through training - 24.9% APR is disgusting. they try to sell it more because they get bonuses on it (as opposed to interest free/buy now pay later)

the whatever happens after sales is only good if your accident prone, otherwise replacing it yourself is more worthwhile (again, they'll sell it to gain bonuses)

you do sign numerous forms that say HFC bank though, and early repayment fee (2 months interest) is told, you should've been aware that it was with HFC bank

you may be able to go and complain to the store manager; especially if it was during christmas because if your in luck you can blame it on a christmas temp (trade descriptions act maybe?)

SSTSparkz

I work at PCW and just started around july, we opened a new store and all our store members apart from 3 managers and 2-3 people from other stores we was all taken on at the same time, we spend 3 weeks trainning learning all different parts of the company and how to sell items, we recently got some xmas staff in which a few stayed on but even they are learning alot. I'm also not sure if where different from other stores or not but we dont push sales on people.

We only sell somethink to a customer that where sure they it fits there needs and that there happy with it, reason for this no company likes refunds and no company likes a unhappy customer.

The "extended warranties" on PC's and Laptops are not a con! reason for this we charge around 6-10£ for a service argreement thats a service not a warrenty. within the service your paying for 247 support lines, yearly computer spring cleans "healthcheck" and upgrade work (i.e your borght ramm somewhere else we install it and check it for free) we will also do data recovery which works alot more better than recovery programs. with that then you get other features that would help towards a warrenty like repairs, worldwide protection (coverd abroad) and mishaps.

for a computer wizz that would seem a pointless waste of money, apart from the mishaps protection and possably data recovery.

for a person thats picking up there first pc or for someone who isnt that well technacally minded or like other people to look after there PC when things go wrong, this is a benifit for buying a computer at pc world because we can help and yes its at a chrage but for 6-10 a mounth and if you feel you didnt use it or need it you simply cancel it.

For somethink that happend just before the new year a bigger store up north from us had 2 laptops the same. laptop 1 had the serivce agreement the other didnt. both laptops had the motherboard fail on them and was just out of the years manufacture garentee. the person who did not take out the serivce agreement payed 130£ for parts and service from i beleve was from the company itself, the person who had taken the service agreement got it repaired for free. yes they might of payed 9£ a mounth but with they they might of used our healthcheck had a few more repairs within the year and maby had an upgrade so in that way they saved money.

alwaysonthego_2

To SSTSPARKZ- have you not heard of the Sales of goods act 1979. You have been brain washed my friend!

Of course the extendent warranties are a con btw I am an ex sales person from Currys and we were forced in to selling them because they were performance related and if we didn't sell 12% of them compared with our sales we would get a dressing down in our 1 2 1 with the store manager.

haylibo

Years ago (when we were young and almost naive) we tried to buy a washing machine with a debit card from comet. The salesman asked whether we wanted to pay now or when the goods arrived. Having never bought any electricals new before it seemed to make sense to pay on delivery if that was the way it worked but when my OH went to sign the contract it was for a credit deal charging stupid% interest. OH was so cross that we told them to stick it where the sun-don't-shine and left buying nothing. The store was actually really busy and if we had been a little less savvy we would have simply signed without checking and ended up with a pile of poo we didn't want. We complained to the manager who was standing behind the counter at the time but he almost ignored us, looked a little uncomfortable but wouldn't get drawn in.
Before that I always assumed they were on a par with other stores such as JL, possibly with the addition of lower end products but that experience made me see them for the crooks they are. Never returned.
Hayles

SSTSparkz

alwaysonthego wrote: »

To SSTSPARKZ- have you not heard of the Sales of goods act 1979. You have been brain washed my friend!

Of course the extendent warranties are a con btw I am an ex sales person from Currys and we were forced in to selling them because they were performance related and if we didn't sell 12% of them compared with our sales we would get a dressing down in our 1 2 1 with the store manager.

the act states they can ask for a replacement or a repair, they can ask for a repair of the product but let’s face it pc performance isn’t a con if your paying for a quick service than waiting 4 months to receive new parts and labour to be done, most manufactures will charge for parts and labour after there manufacture guarantee, plus like I stated before its not about a guarantee its about the extra services aswell. plus pc world is not the same company as currys there in a group and partnership but we run differently. yes we all have targets even in retail you have targets these days for counter selling. but we dont push people in to buying somethink they dont need.

Just to add to that our repairs are software basied aswell as hardware, if you get a virus on your pc its not the products fault, its your fault!

Sparkz.