PCWorld - Always Good For a Laugh!

[chris_w]

[spook51]

[northants_guy]

After reading through some peoples veiws of PCW, I thought i should share the story of my friend ( a complete novice with computers ).

His requirement was:

A Laptop to play warcraft on
A adsl modem with wireless so he could play warcraft in the garden/living room etc.

They sold him:

A desk top PC
A wireless router
A broadband modem

he phoned me and said they had given him this and would like my help to set it up, not a problem so I went to his house.

I'd actually given him a list of what he needed before he went to pcw and kfc! So the first thing I did was put his new pc and stuff into my car and took him down to PC world.

we walked in, went to the "customer service" desk and waited. about 10 minutes later someone in a tie (not clip on to my surprise) arrived and asked what the problem was. I explained, in clear english that the "laptop" they had sold my friend was in fact a tower pc with wireless mouse and keyboard.

We were told that my friend should have been more specific in his requirements, so I showed them the piece of paper with the spec on it which the pcw staff member had written on explaining what it was he had supplied for each item. I asked how my friend is expected to use a wireless router with his only pc which is desktop?

after half an hour of discussing calmly, I asked for a full refund - it took another half an hour and a phone call to trading standards (a friend who sounds posh when needed) before we got an offer, they would exchange the unopend pc for what we wanted.

I accepted their offer, and proceeded to pick out the best laptop for him.

small amount of cash back and a laptop which is actually capable of running the game! my friend was very happy, so I took him to staples and showed him the same pc and modem/router for £200.00 less!

Now, I know the manager at staples very well - he is not the best when it comes to pc's and openly admits this, but i gave him the same piece of paper that pcw were given and he laughed at what they had supplied.

anyway, he did me a nice quote for the same equipment and we went back to pcw.

different sales person on the till and cs desk, so i said I had found the whole package cheaper else where and wanted a refund - i didn;t mention the original discussions with them.

they eventually met the price from staples and offered to through in norton internet security free as well, I asked if we could just have the £50 extra taken off the price and they agreed.

ended up with andother £250.00 back from them, and as we left my friend could hardly believe it. took 3 hours to sort them out, and 10 minutes to set up the laptop and everything else when we got home.

I've now told my friend if he ever buy's a pc or pc related item again he is not to go on his own and he is not to go back to pcw!

sorry for the really long post.

[DPL]

[northants_guy]

he didn't!! instead I made him ply me with beer whilst i set up his system and for the three hours I spent showing him what he needs to be aware of and lots of good sites to look at on the web!

oh, and he paid for a taxi for me to go home and come back the next day to pick up my car!

[Privateer]

[northants_guy]

already done! he does want satnav, but I have tried to explain to him that he needs to sort out his driving license first!

[russgunn]

Just thought I'd share with you all a private e-mail to me from a member of this forum who doesn't have the balls to tell me who they are... Please, if you want to personally insult me, do it to my face, rather than from your hotmail account 120 miles away!...

Hi Russ,

Just to let you know, I work at a PC World store in the South East. I have
and HND in Computing, and a 2.1 in Computer Science. I like my job, earn a
reasonable wage, (23K) and am on the management training course. I enjoy
helping people to purchase the correct product, at a reasonable high street
price, and if I don't know the answer I will look it up for them, or fetch a
colleague who does. It is a bit of a generalisation to state that we are all
monkeys, especially as my spelling and grammar are better than yours. In
short, I think you are a .


Byeee.

As it was directed at me personally I felt it only appropriate to respond...

Good for you. Not difficult to spell with a spell check though eh? See you
in your store where I shall be putting my 15 years of experience in the IT
sector to test with your very friendly staff, as well as not spending any of
my £45k a year salary in the store. By the way I enjoy being a , it's
great fun, especially when I get the responses I crave from industry trolls
like you. You just seem to enjoy spending your spare time creating bogus
hotmail accounts and writing e-mails to people you don't know. Good luck
with your career.

Russ.

[northants_guy]

it would have come across a lot better if they posted and said I work for PCW and know what I am talking about, unfortunatley the majority of staff are thick as pig s***.

I do understand that he may take offence at being gernalised, but I am sure everyone knows of at least one company/shop where the majority are not up to it but that there are the odd few who are genuinly useful and helpful.

[Darren]

This thread is starting to descend into the mire. Unless we have anything constructive to add to the debate lets bring it to a close please guys.
_________________
Darren Griffin

[DPL]

[chris_w]

[monkeyboy1974]

As many of you do, I also have a PC world story.

I rather stupidly plugged a charger for my mates's PDA into my hp 2210. Although the charger connection was the same shape and size, the configuration was obviously different.... It burnt it out big style.

Took it back to PC world, and (obviously) tried to blag under the warranty, only told them that I tried to switch it on this morning after charging and it doesn't work. The assistant pressed the on button about 3 or 4 times, handed it back to me and said "sorry... those sort of faults arn't covered"..... Is he psychic, or if something fails to switch on, is that the warranty knackered even without testing? They make me laugh. His solution was to spend £400 on a hp hx4700 which is... in his words not mine.... "the direct replacement for the ipaq 2210".

So I phoned hp, they collected it, fixed it and even replaced the plastics which were scratched up, returning it to me within a week..... FOR FREE!!!

[PCW-Monkey]

Well, You guys certainly have a lot to say about PCWorld. For the most part bad!

As you can probably guess from my nickname I work for them. So, am I going to stick up for them? erm, not exactly. Am I going to throw fuel on the fire? We'll see.

I've just sat here and read through all the posts in this thread and I have to say that you are all of a common mind (or so it would seem) but there are a few points that stick in my mind (yes, amazingly I actually do have one). I sumarise:

PCWorld aim at a particular market.
Oh yes very much so. Most 'Knowledgeable' people wouldn't shop there. We do get people in to take a look at equipment and I'm quite sure they then go and order off the internet. Good for them. That's not who we're aimed at. We're aimed more at the people who really don't have much of a clue and come to us for advice. OK, I can hear you all laughing so hard you can hardly breath. Yes, some of the staff give BAD advice and make up things that they have little or no knowledge about. Or even, sometimes, make up things to get the sale but not all staff are like that. The majority are there to do an honest days work and if they can help and advise someone they will. Unfortunately the few bad apples give the entire chain a bad name but this is partly due to the way PCWorld is run. The Sales advisors are given targets and the pressure is on from the management of the store (or, actually, from above them) to hit those targets. A dressing down and even hints of losing your job are given out if those targets are consistantly missed therefore a lot of the sales advisors are under pressure to hit those targets and they will do whatever they can to do that. Unfortunately sometimes this forces those advisors, who are lets say 'less capable', to bluff there way through just to get the sale. Also there is, of course, the commission!

PCWorld are in it to make a profit.
Um yeah! We're not there to make a loss! We're still in business and have been for some years. We're still making a profit so will quite likely be here for a few more.

PCWorld pay peanuts and get monkeys.
Absolutely. All part of the profit thing. PCWorld couldn't afford to stay in business if they actually employed IT people. PCWorld do have training but unfortunately this is aimed more at selling the benefits of PC Performance (PCWorld service agreement - or 'extended warrenty') than selling the benefits of the hardware we sell because this is far more profitable. Try this out next time you're in store. Ask an adviser some technical questions about computers/pda's/GPS/whatever. Then ask him/her about PC Performance. The latter they'll be able to rattle out at you like a well oiled machine gun, the former they will probably stumble around and grasp at the point of sale ticket. The vast majority of training is around PC Performance. It makes the most profit.

Something about KFC usually being in the same retail park.
Yup - gives the staff somewhere to go at lunchtime.

There is a load more I could pick out but I won't. This is turning out to be a long enough post already.

The theme here? Profit. Is PCWorld good at it? Christ yes! Why? Because the staff are trained and retrained at selling the profitable items (but that DOESN'T often include computers or laptops!!! The margin on those items is actually quite small).

The answer to all this? PCWORLD NEED TO DO BETTER TRAINING FOR THIER STAFF! they also need to LAY OFF THE BULLY TACTICS ON SELLING PC PERFORMANCE.

So, am I some bitter employee of PCWorld (actually DSG)? Not exactly. My wages aren't fantastic and my job satisfaction could be better (based on what I acheive with customers as opposed to how much PC Performance I've sold).

So why this post? Am I trying to explain to you why PCWorld is the way it is? Yes, I suppose I am. Why? Because the upper management need to deal with this. We are a customer facing company and ALL your posts in this thread are relevant. I want PCWorld to listen and IMPROVE!

I'm a woman in a mans industry and I'm used to speaking my mind. I've said pretty much all of the above to my managers to no avail. You people give a good indication on how much PCWorld is messing up such a large part of the market and I really hope someone from the 'upper management' read this and TAKE NOTE.

PCWorld CAN improve. PCWorld SHOULD improve. Would I shop there? No! Are we all monkeys that work there? No. Do the majority of us want to do an honest days work and go home knowing that we've actually helped someone? Yes. Will the management listen? Who knows.

Flame me if you want I'm used to it (the dangers of being outspoken) but take note of one thing. I've been honest with you. A lot of the posts here are directed at the b*lls**t that is given out by PCWorld advisors so there would be little point in me doing the same here. I'm not making excuses for the bad staff. Why should I? I'm just telling things how I see them.

Maybe, instead of just flaming PCWorld you could answer with some CONSTRUCTIVE Criticism. Go on. Wouldn't you like a national chain that you WOULD go into to buy equipment? Where the staff actually KNOW what they are talking about? and can actually HELP you? Now there's a thought!

X

Note: The opinions given above are mine and not necessarily that of PCWorld, DSG or other employees of the company. It's up to them to speak for themselves - if they dare![/b]

[StefanP]

I have to say that some (and they are in the distinct minority) PCWorld branches are reasonably ok, provided their staff don't bug you the minute you walk in the door. I detest that. But I detest being utterly ignored too. To discretely keep an eye on the customers in the vicinity in order to be able to be of service when needed, is sadly an art form in this country. It shouldn't be.

Granted, DSG is out to make a profit, but the profit mostly comes from overinflated RRP pricing and extended warranties. I have found Staples, as much as their electronics choice is less extensive as PCW's, to be more helpful and useful than PCW.

I've managed to snag some fantastic bargains at PCW, especially when they are still open at some ungodly hour on a Sunday

Stefan

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