Hi- Hope this appropriate, sort of half a complaint/half advice.

Our insurance company gave us Currys/PCW vouchers to replace a damaged laptop. We were gutted that we had to take our custom to PCW (having had a terrible experience from them years ago), but swallowed our pride and checked out the website to pick a new laptop.

Found a Compaq Presario (C542EA) with an instore price of £499 that we decided to go for. Went to the store an hour later, and were shocked to see it for sale at £599.

When we finally got hold of a salesperson we queried the price. He tried to fob us of with, 'maybe you made a mistake and £499 was the web price', but we insisted we were right and he went of to check with someone.

Lo and behold, 3 minutes later he returned, said we were right and changed the price on the ticket with a pen! Hey presto - instant instore £100 saving

Assume if we hadn't checked on line, PCW would have had the extra £100 off us, not to mention the £100s of uneeded/overpriced extras, that because my other half is an IT wizz we were able to fob off or knew we could buy far cheaper elsewhere.

Of course, now having read a lot of the posts in this thread, we waiting in dread for it to break down the day after the warranty runs out....;-)

Bernie.

Bit of advice, you do not have to accept the insurance companys vouchers.

Tell them you don't want to deal with PCWorld/curry/dixons etc, and go to an independant dealer.

Pref one who is a member of NASCR.

Darn, knew I should've checked here first. Will know for next time and remember CAG is here for more than just bank charges advice

Sometimes we miss labels, it happens in all stores and it is ALWAYS worthwhile checking prices on the website or whatever when you are buying high ticket price items. Was the price coming up when scanned into the computer, or was the guy just quoting from the label on the item? It would probably been a surprise for him too!

If the guy was just quoting the price straight off the label, then he wasn't a very good floor assistant. A good floor assistant ascertains from where the customer thinks they got the different price, then checks that source, then scans through the till/checks the system. Just quoting shows the customer that you're either lazy or not bothered. In my many years of experience in retail, I've found 'my way' to be the most customer-based solution, and often the quickest, too.

Yeh I fully agree, was just trying to show that the customer advisor may not have been doing it strictly for the purposes of ripping someone off

Yeh I fully agree, was just trying to show that the customer advisor may not have been doing it strictly for the purposes of ripping someone off

Never ascribe to conspiracy that which may be adequately explained by stupidity