pcworld

[WOOD73]

I went with my sister to buy a laptop on sunday, got to pc world, looked at what they had, picked one and eventually found an asisstant.

Told him wanted that laptop, but didnt want the security package(norton), he then went off to check stock, when he came back he said bad news they didnt have one in stock, but currys had one, so we said thanks and went off to currys.

 

When we got there the assitant said I'm sorry the one we have in stock has been reserved, but pc world have got 5 in stock, told him we'd just come from there and what they said, at first he said he couldnt understand why they had told us that, so we picked another one, but we made it quite clear we were not impressed with pc world.

He eventually said 'well I shouldnt really tell you this, but the reason they said they didnt have one was because as a store there are targets, and one of the targets is the percentage of pc's and laptops sold with the security and because we didnt want norton, they would rather not sell the laptop as it affects their percentage'.

 

Now in all honesty it didnt bother my sister or me which shop it came from, but I dont like being lied to, and as a result she didnt get the laptop she really wanted.

 

is there anything that can be done?

[Renzokuken]

I can confirm what you've been told is correct.

 

The attachment rate at the moment for stores on norton is a huge 40%. Yet the actual cash and profit targets are relatively low, meaning stores can afford to lose buisness if they are "bad sales" aka sales that will lower their attachment rates. Which at the moment is pretty much all our managing directors care about, Maximizing the amount of profit generated from each individual sale, with attachments. I believe I already mentioned somewhere on the currys board on here, about the ripoff of Premium lead attachments on televisions.

 

Anyway this is what is expected of sales staff:

 

Whateverhappens on TV's = 30%

Whateverhappens on Computing = 30%

Premium Belkin leads with TV's = 35%

AV furniture (stands) with TV's = 40%

Norton with laptops/computers = 40%

Microsoft Office with laptops/computers = 25%

Mobile Broardband with laptops/computers = 10%

Discount = Under 1.5%

 

Or at least those are the figures I remember off the top of my head, but these are for currys, I'd assume the laptop/pc ones would be higher in a pc world branch, and the TV ones would be lower.

 

If your sale doesn't contain any of these, then you might as well forget about asking for any discount, and if the member of staff isn't exceeding his target by enough to take the hit, he may well do what has been done here and tell you to go elsewhere under the guise of having no stock.

 

Unfortunately thats the huge amount of pressure we're under at the moment to hit these way over the top targets. Those that aren't hitting them have been guaranteed disaplinarys and eventualy they'll start hitting them or be sacked.

 

Technicaly you could complain about this, but the worst that would happen is a slap on the wrist if you report it to head office. Or nothing but the "promise" of an investigation if you go directly to the store.

 

Externaly, and legaly, I don't know if there is anything you can do.

Edited March 18, 2009 by Renzokuken

[WOOD73]

the currys store lad said we dont follow it quite so much here as they do in pcworld, and that pcworld have just lost £500 of business.

Im sure there could be some reprisals if you were disciplined for failing to make sure customers bought optional extras. I doubt for instance a tribunal would look very favourably on it.

I think they rely on being a big chain of stores, and if an employee brought about proceedings then the barristers would be thrown down and some sort of excuse would emerge.

I now though would think twice about going there to buy anything again, and over the last few years I have spent quite a bit of money there, especially when I was running a business.

I see they have also done away with small business discounts as well.

[Renzokuken]

the currys store lad said we dont follow it quite so much here as they do in pcworld, and that pcworld have just lost £500 of business.

Im sure there could be some reprisals if you were disciplined for failing to make sure customers bought optional extras. I doubt for instance a tribunal would look very favourably on it.

I think they rely on being a big chain of stores, and if an employee brought about proceedings then the barristers would be thrown down and some sort of excuse would emerge.

I now though would think twice about going there to buy anything again, and over the last few years I have spent quite a bit of money there, especially when I was running a business.

I see they have also done away with small business discounts as well.

 

Well without sounding sarcastic here, your only other major shopping choice is comet. And they have just as many issues on their board, as currys and PC World do on theirs. Or online, where you can deal with the catastophe that is the RMA system when something goes wrong.

 

It's a sign of the times, the harder times are, the lower a company will sink, and the higher the pressure on the staff to perform. Which results in situations like this. It's a product of big buisness that should be stamped out.

 

As far as dismissals go. I would have assumed after years of retail experiance, DSGi would have something as trivial as dismissals for not hitting targets covered legaly. It's probably in the contract somewhere, although I've never seen mine so I wouldn't know.

Edited March 18, 2009 by Renzokuken

[WOOD73]

I know this sounds soft as they are all part of the same company, but I would go back to currys, but not pc world, it a personal thing maybe, but I dont like being lied to. I would have preferred the lad to say 'yes weve got 5, but if you dont buy norton, then I wont/cant sell you one'.

I am very much moving toward argos I think.

 

As for dismissal, The employment laws are very complex, and average joe wont do anything about being dismissed, the big corps know this. Contract can say pretty much anything, but when it comes to tribunal etc, they arent worth the paper theyre written on, unless they follow the law to the latter.

[labrat]

there is the third sneaky option

 

if you go to the pcworld website you can reserve a laptop for collection in store, the good news is you dont pay till you get instore and if theres any online discounts on that laptop you only pay the online price

 

so go to pcworld listen to him moan about how theres none in stock then nip home and reserve one (minus the norton of course), present the resevaton slip to him and make a sarky comment on how its amazing how quickly deliveries happen nowadays

[Renzokuken]

there is the third sneaky option

 

if you go to the pcworld website you can reserve a laptop for collection in store, the good news is you dont pay till you get instore and if theres any online discounts on that laptop you only pay the online price

 

so go to pcworld listen to him moan about how theres none in stock then nip home and reserve one (minus the norton of course), present the resevaton slip to him and make a sarky comment on how its amazing how quickly deliveries happen nowadays

 

Good idea.

 

Or, if you want to be REALLY annoying, buy it with the norton, then immediately take it to customer services for a refund on it. As it will get deducted straight off his strike-rate.

[ForestChav]

Legally speaking the price is an invitation for you to make an offer on the goods, they are entitled to refuse this.

[labrat]

admitedly i dont have this problem cos if they get pushy i remind them im buying what i want not what they want

 

then produce the staff discount slip, soon shuts them up

 

on the other hand if you want to really annoy pcworld ask them for a molex to sata power convertor he had to go off and ask several other people seven confused staff later it took someone out of the buisness department to know what i ment and that they didnt stock it, said it to a small local firm and he threw me 2 in free with the power supply i was buying

[mitch161]

only thing i wish DSGI thought about was the profit of all their products not just aftercare office and norton.

 

printers ink cartridges make the company more money then the aftercare. i mean think about it. £40 printer , the after care is just £10 and yet set of inks are £40 photo paper is £10 and cable is a rediculous £15, and yet all i see when i bought my printer is.

 

"you really really really need the aftercare"

 

no mention of how much i was printing to need an extra set of inks or if my paper supply was low at home and needed a top-up.

 

why have aftercare if half way through a dicertation i have no ink or paper. will they instant replace the inks, i think not.

[labrat]

no the profit on the printer is them selling the usb cables seperate £14.99 for an A - B usb cable you can get for £1 at poundland

[mitch161]

no the profit on the printer is them selling the usb cables seperate £14.99 for an A - B usb cable you can get for £1 at poundland

 

that is kinda my point they just think about the targets, not the money behind it or what customers actually want.

 

the only target i think they have on printers is the aftercare which is why thats all they talk about, when i want a printer i want a sales guy to ask me about ink paper, whether my desk big enough to fit it on and if id be interested in a bigger desk,

 

someone that actually thinks about whats gonna happen when i get home

[Kraken1]

these are all reasons why I don't shop there anymore. I just won;'t put up with the crap. the lack of service, lack of knowledge, lack of customer care.

 

I've voted with my feet. So far this year they have missed out on around 3k worth of sales. Sod em.