shocking experience at curry's pc world

[crow_raven]

Me and my wife as regular customers of Curry's Pc World went to this store with the intention of buying the ipad air for our daughter as a birthday present.

 

We arrived around noon the store was really quiet at the time,

we went to the ipad section and asked for help,

 

 

one lady approached us few minutes after and we start our enquiries about product,

she was very helpful and explained to us the prices and we were happy to purchase the ipad air.

 

 

She also asked us if we would be interested in customers care plan as we immediately responded NO,

she insisted that if something goes wrong with the product or if in the future any damage happen it will be covered by the plan for only £5.50 monthly,

again we said NO we already have two tablets and we have our own insurance so we saw no point of getting this deal.

 

 

Although she mention to us that was not her department and asked us to wait few minutes as she was getting the sector responsible to finalize the sale.

 

We waited few minutes and she came back saying that she could not find anyone so she will finalize the transaction herself.

 

As an O2 customer I received a promotion code to use on your stores when spending more that £200 in-store I would get £25.00 discount,

I asked if I could use the promotion but the lady was very confused and told us that she would ask this to one of her colleagues.

 

We went to the till and she started to look for a colleague to help her as it seemed no one was interested to help.

 

Finally one colleague came by and she asked for help regarding the promotional code

and the gentleman explained it was possible to use, and again the gentleman also asked us if we were interested on the care plan,

again we said NO, the gentleman insisted and told us:

"don't say no yet give it a month, you can try for FREE and then if you decided to cancel you can do it just with the simple phone call".

 

After such persistence from both sellers and thinking I had nothing to lose as it was free for the first month I said ok.

 

The lady proceed the bill and I paid for it this included the promotional discount of £25.00.

 

As soon as the lady give me my receipt I noticed that I have been charged for an extra £5.50 which I immediately questioned about it to the lady.

 

She also looked confused and could not explain to me why I had been charged for the care plan as her colleague had said that the first month would be for free.

 

She called him back and I asked him why I had been charged for £5.50 on the care plan?

 

He said because I had used the O2 promotional code the first month would not be for free and I would have to pay for it.

 

I explained to the gentleman that I was not interested to pay for any care plan and the only reason that I have had accepted

was because of the fact he told me the first month would be for free.

 

 

At this point the gentleman said I must misunderstood him he never said the first month would be for free

but even his colleague did not support him in this affirmation.

At this point he was giving the impression that I was lying.

 

I asked if it would be possible to have a refund of the £5.50 care plan,

the gentleman said he would have to make a refund of everything

and re-charge me for the price of the ipad

and I would have to get another promotional code as this one was no longer valid,

or I would have to pay the full amount of the ipad price without the £25.00 discount from my promotional code.

 

 

At this point I felt deceived and I believe this is a really unfair customer service.

As I could not get another code I decided to request my full refund

and I was told that I would get my money back in 3 working days.

 

The staff involved seemed to have very little knowledge of customer service

and no team work at all as all of them tried to escape from the situation instead of trying to help.

 

After all of this we came out of the store with less money on my bank account,

lost my promotional code as well as empty handed with no ipad for my daughter.

 

This whole situation ruined our special day, specially my daughter who could no get her birthday present on time.

 

really frustrating experience.

[i hate bailiffs]

I would put this all in writing as a formal complaint to head office

Stating times and staff involved if you remember any of there names

 

The staff must be on commission for there insurance that you do not need

[dx100uk]

all to line their own pockets with a bonus commission.

 

 

I'd be writing or emailing the CEO.

 

 

dx

[fkofilee]

[email protected]

 

Thats the current Dixons Carphone CEO...

Go get em!

[king12345]

I also noticed a change of attitude when refused to purchase their insurance.

They were first very polite and smiley, but after refusing to purchase the insurance a dozen times in 5 minutes, the girl "assisting" me just printed the receipt, slammed it on the desk and walked away.

I had to ask for a bag from another till.

Personally I didn't care much about her attitude, I was just happy to walk away with a brand new laptop for about half price.

But in your situation I would escalate to ceo as suggested.

Maybe they're paid a basic salary and make their money from the commissions, but they shouldn't treat customers like that

[postmn]

I also noticed a change of attitude when refused to purchase their insurance.

They were first very polite and smiley, but after refusing to purchase the insurance a dozen times in 5 minutes, the girl "assisting" me just printed the receipt, slammed it on the desk and walked away.

I had to ask for a bag from another till.

Personally I didn't care much about her attitude, I was just happy to walk away with a brand new laptop for about half price.

But in your situation I would escalate to ceo as suggested.

Maybe they're paid a basic salary and make their money from the commissions, but they shouldn't treat customers like that

 

Ive stopped going to pc world now since all they seem interested in is their insurance . I order all my bits online from a couple of retailer and get them the next day . also their after sales is far superior than pc world

[labrat]

ill make a note here

 

as far as i last heard staff bonus was based off customer service - so make a complaint to his manager and he is likely to loose a fair amount\

 

however i do know that selling the insurance is one of their "key preformance indicators" i.e. dont sell it and you might not make it pass your probationary period

 

however from personal experiance, and this is pretty much every retail enviroment that i know off alot of staff are not bothered about customer service as they know they can easely switch into another meaningless job

 

its also causing extremely poor service as stores are no longer training staff properly as it costs alot and the turnovers so high

[crow_raven]

Thank you for your help.

I will send an email to the CEO regarding this awful situation.

[Oliver Queen]

there is no commission to dixons group exployees, bonus is paid for store hitting the customer satisfaction thresholds.

but there are kpi's and the store is obviously trying to buy their figures rather than do it properly.

[dx100uk]

doesn't matter which way its wrapped up

there is still an incentive to rip customers off

selling things they do not need.

 

 

dx

[crow_raven]

doesn't matter which way its wrapped up

there is still an incentive to rip customers off

selling things they do not need.

 

 

dx

And that is my whole point so true .

[Old Cogger]

Like the time few years ago, in Currys I was waiting to be served and a Chinese student with an English lady with her was purchasing a laptop and the young sales assistant was going on about the attributes of their any Care plan @ £9.00+ per month, the student was mesmerized as they kept repeating this plan, I felt like stepping in but the OH stopped me, (These students are only here for 1-2 years on International course), the English lady just sat there and let it all go over her head! needless to say the student signed up, = I walked out not purchasing a laptop @ that time, I wanted to explode at the dealings of that young 18-19 year old, uurrgggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhh

[BazzaS]

I've seen (12+ years ago, mind you) a PCWorld Sales Assistant tell a couple their 2 year old desktop PC "wasn't powerful enough and needed replacing".

The couple were in the queue in front of me. They complained that they were getting mail, and they could see what was written, but there was a "whole load of extra stuff in the e-mail clogging it up". It sounded to me like they were trying to read HTML formatted text on a non_HTML compatible mail program.

 

Fortunately, they didn't want to spend £x00 on a new machine, so walked away.

I followed and enquired if I could confirm that all the e-mails had near the start as the beginning of the "extra stuff", and, lo and behold, they all did!.

 

I explained about HTML, and suggested they try a HTML capable mail reader before buying a new machine.

I don't know if it was a sales ploy by the assistant or a reflection of their lack of knowledge but I've always suggested since:

a) try and avoid PCWorld unless they have exactly what you want, at the price you want,

b) If you must go to PCW, ensure you know one or two questions to ask that you already know the answer to, to work out if the assistant knows their stuff or is just a "waffler". If need be, get primed by a geek friend (or take a geek friend with you) to enable this.

 

In PCW's defense (its not much of a defense, but is worth mentioning for balance's sake) : I got talking to a different assistant about what I wanted: he suggested a Medion PC as part of a bundle they had that represented "value". It was relatively cheap, and ticked the boxes for what I wanted (in particular it had a low-end graphics card, but I didn't want high-end gaming).

With a RAM upgrade it was a perfectly acceptable machine, that served me for many years.

(With the RAM upgrade, it fitted "what you want at the price you want" for me, at the time).

 

I only became aware of it due to an assistant that listened to my needs, and knew his products.

I suspect (for PCW) he was the exception that proves the rule.

[tfp]

I used to work for Staples a few years ago. We were under tremendous pressure from head office to sell warranties to customers.

 

 

In one after work staff meeting the manager tried to convince us to that damaged items would not be covered by insurance

thus such warranties were actually a good thing.

One team leader even said he ''scared'' customers into taking out warranties.

 

In all honesty I did not want to sell them as they were not worth much more than the paper they were printed on.

 

 

They would make a £500 laptop jump to over £600 and could only be used once!

 

 

As such I was always moaned at by the manager even though I could sell more items than others and took customer service more seriously.

 

 

For example, I could sell a desktop PC for £399 and a printer and ink for another £129.

This could be considerably more than another colleague who may have sold just a printer for just £199 with a warranty for say £49 extra for sake of argument.

 

 

But because I did not sell a warranty, my efforts were seen as somehow less.

 

 

Such warranties and care plans are easy money for the likes of Staples and Currys PCW.

[Oliver Queen]

sadly due to the amount of margin made on the products, services such as warranties are repairs are the only things making the store any money.

the electrical appliance store model badly needs an overhaul

[tfp]

sadly due to the amount of margin made on the products, services such as warranties are repairs are the only things making the store any money.

the electrical appliance store model badly needs an overhaul

 

How true. Again when working at Staples just under half the buyers of laptops asked if we could toss in a laptop case for free. A laptop case would cost £15 - £40 or thereabouts. Unless it was a special offer where a laptop was an included incentive freebie, we had to refuse as a laptop or desktop often made as little as a 10% mark-up. Thus a free laptop case could wipe out any profit.

[maroondevo52]

I bought a new laptop for my son at currys pc world last weekend, the salesman was a total drongo, pushing and pushing the insurance almost told him to **** off.

Really hacked me off I for one won't be back in that store.

[tfp]

And another thing of course is these warranties are often unnecessary. Not only may you be covered via your household insurance (policy type notwithstanding), but the item on offer may well have an extended manufacturers warranty. You often see this with printers.

 

 

For example, I bought an OKI colour laser printer earlier this year from an online printer specialist. Not only did I buy it for less than usual after a bit of negotiating, the manufacturer offers a THREE year ON SITE warranty as standard!!! Other manufacturers offer say £100 cashback or an extra two to three years cover. So why purchase an extra warranty? Esp. if the manufacturer is prepared to offer it either as standard or a free option?