What's wrong with PC World etc?

sleep2much

I just wish Dixons Currys and PC World, would have some kind of pricing policy I could understand, some things in Dixons can be £200 cheaper than Currys or vice-versa, then collect @ store stuff at PC World can be a good few quid cheaper than getting it off the shelf yourself, nothing worse than buying something then going home to find you could have saved £10, I don't really know why they pretend to be different companies.
Oh yes, back to the original question......most of their stuff is over priced, even with the "secret" money off codes we can all find doing a Google.

isofa

I totally agree with the others, and my experience matches superscaper's to the letter.

In general I've found them to be mainly overpriced and with dated stock, poor/bad advice, inaccurate technical comments, pressuring selling for extended warranties, I could go on! It would be the last place I'd recommend to buy a PC, IMO.

rev_henry

O actual dear! Cables for £15. Yes as sleep2much said, currys, dixons and PC world are all part of one company, DSG retail, although this doesn't mean their prices will be the same. PC world online on the other hand can be a wonderful source of very cheap refurb laptops, although I have never ordered one, just seen the prices.
My grandfather recently acquired a laptop, his first real experience with a computer. I suggested various PC world online laptops - all under £250. He then went into a PC world store where they talked him into buying something for about £370, that is stupidly powerful and does loads of things he will never used. It is a nice laptop though, just totally unnecessary and expensive.

isofa

sjc wrote: »

The thing that annoys me with them and Currys, Dixons, Comet etc is in the shop the price is say £100 order and reserve on the Web walk in shop with reservation number and get the same item for £75..

That drives me mad too!

Bit of a Comet aside but... I needed to buy an iPod Shuffle for a gift last year, check the prices on-line, and they were cheaper in Comet than anywhere else. Popped to the local store, item £15-£20 more expensive, apparently I could only have the cheaper price if I "reserved" online. So I had to go home, reserve on line, and go straight back to the same store and pickup the same item with my "reservation". That is ridiculous, and reason alone I won't ever purchase from them again either! End of rant

rev_henry

Forgot to mention. About 2 years ago now I went to currys, comet and PC world for a new printer. Decided on the brother DCP-117C and the staff in PC world and currys were extremely helpful. I'm a bit of a tech nerd and they were quite happy to go on and on with me about stuff for quite a while lol. In the end I got the printer from currys - £49.99, and I paid the extra £10 for a 3 year warranty. They didn't have any left in stock when I got there (for about the 3rd time that day!), but one of the staff got the one off the shelf for me. In PC world it was £79.99, and if I had bought the warranty it would have been £20 or something, as the warranties cost more for things over £50. So I did actually have a pretty good experience, all the above stores were in Lancaster. Fantastic printer as well btw! Ink carts last ages and can be had for £2 or £3 for 3rd party ones online.

esuhl

What annoys me about PC World (in addition to the issues discussed above) is how they specify their PCs to sound good to those who don't know what specifications to compare.

For example, a PC might be advertised as being dual core, with 2GB RAM, 512MB graphics memory, 600GB hard disk, etc. etc., but they don't highlight the very low FSB speed, small cache on the hard drive, small CPU cache,
and the fact that the on-board graphics shares system RAM, for example.

So people who aren't technically minded, but are just trying to compare the advertised specifications to get the best PC for their money are just as likely to end up with a much slower PC than they could get elsewhere... if that makes sense.

Of course, it's not *just* PC World who do this.

russ_gillespie

Having worked in a Currys (DSG Group, same as PC World) store when I was younger, I can confirm that the sales staff usually know very little about the stock. If you're lucky there's one person who's good on each area of the store, but when it's busy everyone just sort of blags their way through each customer.

Most of what we used to know was read from the back of the box, or just learnt as we went along, or sometimes we learnt things from customers!

Most of the special offers were items priced double what they should be and then reduced 2 months later so they could be advertised as "half price". I think they get away with this because a lot of the items/models they buy are exclusive to them. Don't be fooled by the half price offers or any major reductions. If you don't believe me, look at their next half price offer and google it, I doubt you'll find anyone else selling the exact same model.

superscaper

esuhl wrote: »

What annoys me about PC World (in addition to the issues discussed above) is how they specify their PCs to sound good to those who don't know what specifications to compare.

For example, a PC might be advertised as being dual core, with 2GB RAM, 512MB graphics memory, 600GB hard disk, etc. etc., but they don't highlight the very low FSB speed, small cache on the hard drive, small CPU cache,
and the fact that the on-board graphics shares system RAM, for example.

So people who aren't technically minded, but are just trying to compare the advertised specifications to get the best PC for their money are just as likely to end up with a much slower PC than they could get elsewhere... if that makes sense.

Of course, it's not *just* PC World who do this.

Wasn't long ago the ASA ordered PC World to pull a couple of their TV adverts because they were misleading. (I think in particular it related to "connecting your laptop to the internet anywhere" without specifying you needed a wireless access point). I agree they only pick out the specs that
don't really give you enough info to make a fair comparison, but I suppose that's just marketing.

tomsolomon

I have had a very bad experience with PC world, very bad.
But beside my prejudice I would just like to point out a couple of things.........

Firstly have you ever seen any of the Tech Guy's wearing an anti static wrist strap, (or any other anti static precaution come to think of it), whilst repairing a PC???????

I asked a manger if they sold them in store and his reply was...
"Erm anti what"

Also, being technically minded, and trained in IT support and PC maintenance, overhearing some of the bad advice and poor direction given to customers by some of the staff there, left me with shivers.

Its entirely down yourself at the end of the day, these are just some of my experiences, but something you realy need to take into consideration, is the fact that PC World staff are sales staff, not too technically minded, if you know what I mean.

hedgewytch13

Last Christmas my mum bought my sister a laptop from PC World. By Boxing Day it had died. We spent nearly £30 ringing technical support etc, looking for help. The customer service was terrible and in fact verging on rude. Going into the store did little good as they didn't understand what we were talking about. They insisted it was a software failure and our fault because my mum (who can't use a computer at all) hadn't immediately backed up the system on purchase and no they don't have any back up discs. My husband insisted to them it was hardware and their responsibility to fix it. They wouldn't accept this. We had to ring the manufacturer to get a system disc. This would be free, except for postage from Hungary (I think) which would £30. So we had to pay. Disc arrives and tah dah.....! It doesn't work, it's a hardware problem. We waited a month for the disc. Then had to wait for them to take away computer to fix it. No apology or compensation. I was disgusted by their attitude and lack of professional knowledge. I would never buy from them again.