Dixons

[Timmay]

Ebuyer are really good, some people, Timmay I remember being one of them, have complained about poor customer service but I've never had any problems with them, got a few faulty drives, sent them back and got replacements really quick.

Yeah, they were absolutely shite the one time I ordered something from them - they sent the wrong item. Fine, happens all the time, send another one out and let me send this one back. No, send us that one back, and we'll send you the replacement when it gets here. Errr....

Took 24 hours at a time to get a response to the messages you post to customer service on their site (they'd stopped the phone system, cause it couldn't handle the load) and they didn't accept direct emails. Got it all sorted in the end, but it took about a month to get it done, and they did refund me the postage back, which was nice.

I'd probably buy from them again, as they are so cheap, but I wouldn't bother if it was something I needed quickly. Lots of good, and lots more bad, reviews on Ciao.

EDIT: I should add that they only actually got their arses into gear once I found the email address of their MD, and copied him in on an email to Trading Standards and some magazines - they were very responsive then. But it shouldn't have to be like that.

[Rats]

They didn't refund my ruddy postage when I had to send things back.

[Timmay]

I think by law they have to. Could be wrong though. Statutory rights or something. I dunno - it's early.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

I just told this story to Torty, and she says she would have picked it up, said "Well, if it's out of stock, then it can't be sitting in my hand, can it?", and walked out of the shop with it.

She'd probably get away with it as well.  Someone like me or you probably wouldn't.

That's exactly what occurred to me when I read the article the first time. If something is technically out of stock / does not officially exist, then I can't really be prosecuted for helping myself to it, can I?

Oh, and I can probably run raster than most of the staff in most branches in Dixons.

I bought an end-ofsthesrange Panasonic DVD Recorder in Asda "Living" (i.e. not food). It was in a clearance and I excitedly pointed at the ticket, only to find that there were none on the lhelf, only the display model. Still, no matter, as I enquired about the possibility of buying it without a box or whatever. Quizzical, non-helpful looks at first but they were soon reversed when they got the very helpful young chap who remarkably held some senior position in "electricals". He agreed to sell me the unit, at cheaper than the clearance price. He went in the back and had a good rummage for any bits he could find. He waited patiently as the till monkey failed to work out how to override the price. He ended up doing it himself. And as I left, bargain in hand, he even had the forethought to remind me to bring it back if there were any problems, even though it was a display model that I was taking a gamble on. That was a month or two ago, and I'm still v. pleased with the purchase.

The moral of this waffle? Well, not all "big-store" purchases are troublesome, but more importantly don't write off the big supermarkets when on the hunt for something. Their support probably beats Dixons et al - no quibble refunds and all that. And yes, for PC equipment, do not use Dixons Group under any circumstance, you deserve everything you get. In fact they're probably not worth it for anything over a tenner.

Also, it helps to live near Micro Direct

Almost exactly the same happened to me at Makro last December, when I wanted a Philips DVDR610.

The only problem is that I have never been able to get hold of a remote control that is actually designed to work with it. And Universal Remotes don't know how to persuade the machine to erase discs.

[Utter Shit]

I think what this thread is showing is that particular companies aren't (generally speaking) guilty of inherent poor customer services, it's down to the individual worker. It just seems that way, because 90% of workers couldn't give a shit about their job and doing it well, and to be honest why should they when they're paid fuck all for the pleasure. You get the odd story like Cerys' and chav's, but those involve the small minority of do-gooders working in these places who actually bother their arses to do a good job.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

No, it's not down to the individual worker. If

90% of workers couldn't give a shit about their job and doing it well

then it's all about company strategy, exploitation (particularly in terms of salary), crappy recruitment, and training.
Every single store has employees that have not got a clue what they are doing and/or hate their job. They see themselves as having little in the way of career prospects, and are in a position where they have to deal with annoying colleagues, annoying products, and annoying members of the public.

The problem is, that's the way retail is- until someone like Richard Branson has the vision to set up a decent high street electronics retailer, this situation will continue.

Dixons would never survive in America, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, Holland, or a whole lot of other countries.

[Timmay]

Dixons would never survive in America, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, Holland, or a whole lot of other countries.

Well, all of DSG (Dixons Stores Group) stores are as shite as each other, but they trade quite successfully as Elkjøp in the Nordic region, PC City in Spain, France, Italy and Sweden, UniEuro in Italy, Electro World in Hungary and the Czech Republic and Kotsovolos in Greece.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

Yes, but only by being very different from how they are in the UK (and not just because they don't call themselves Dicks' sons). And they don't have quite the market share that they enjoy in their home country.

[Cerys]

And then you sued them because of the lack of wheelchair access.....?

No - the DDA doesn't legislate against stairs.  As long as service is provided in a reasonable way, it's okay.

[amp]

No, it's not down to the individual worker. If

90% of workers couldn't give a shit about their job and doing it well

then it's all about company strategy, exploitation (particularly in terms of salary), crappy recruitment, and training.
Every single store has employees that have not got a clue what they are doing and/or hate their job. They see themselves as having little in the way of career prospects, and are in a position where they have to deal with annoying colleagues, annoying products, and annoying members of the public.

Exactly. If you alienate your staff then you're only going to be able to employ monkeys, as the knowledgeable folk who genuinely want to help customers won't tolerate it. Inevitably, the customer suffers as well, thus stores end up with a (deserved) bad reputation.

Training seemed to involve little to do with product knowledge, and more to do with "every customer who enters MUST buy a PC OR YOU HAVE FAILED", plus sales techniques which sound great in theory but don't actually work in the real world.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

That's absolutely right- it's a dinosaur of a business model and it's nice to see that over the last few years, now that Tandy have largely died out, Maplin have started taking up more and more high-street locations around the country as they have always been far more to do with quality products, sensible pricing, diversity, and staff that (largely) know what they are talking about.

Hi all,

I'm going to University in September and can't be arsed dragging my desktop all the way down South. So I'm on the lookout for a good but cheap (contradiction I know) laptop.

The main thing I'm after with the laptop is a decent soundcard - I'll mainly be doing audio editing on Adobe Audition. A hard drive with between 40-60GB would be nice, and it'd be ideal to have not only wireless networking capabilities but also the normal network connection fro when wireless is unavailable.

How much would I be talking here? Anyone know any good makes and shit? And which places should I approach?

Lovely stuff, ta!

Oh dear, there's one born every minute. All I can say is that I hope to god that peter does not go to The Computer Shop, PC World, Dixons, or Currys. Being a CAB enthusiast reassures me that he will probably have the intelligence not to do so.

Try going to MESH or Evesham Micros, and ask if they have any of these....

[Utter Shit]

Anyone recommend any other competitively-priced online computer sellers? Just to compare prices and broaden my horizons somewhat.

Mesh and Dell are the only places I've really looked so far.

*edit* And Evesham...crap.

[Pinball]

Dell seem to be good quality, but huge machines. Has anyone seen one of their (admittedly desktop replacement) notebooks? Huuuge!   It's the 4x4 of notebooks ;-)

Their PCs are also big (the top of the range ones, XPS I think?), but from what I've seen this may not be a bad thing as they've got plenty of space for ventilation, and a lot of it.  My aging HP Pavilion killed a hard drive, probably 'cos it couldn't cope with heat from the new graphics card, so I have to use it with the side off permanently. Good in Winter though :-)

[shouting at pets]

Anyone recommend any other competitively-priced online computer sellers?

aries?  a watford eletronics brand.  they get good write-ups.
there's a "are Dell the best?" article in the recent (computer shopper / pc pro? - one of those in whsmiffs).

[Borboski]

I had a terrible experience with DELL - a small part overheated, I could smell smoke - despite having a next-day onsite warranty they wouldn't come out - and offered to replace the whole system. They wouldn't transfer the hard drive across, or leave me with the two PCs at once, so I had to find someone else to install my harddrive in there's.

Then they completely misled me over the new PC, and replaced my graphics card - an ATI 9800 Pro, with an ATIx300.  The 9800 pro still retails for around £100 while the x300 retails at £30.

They also lost the replacement PC in transit which meant it was over 6 weeks before the replacement PC arrived.  They just wouldn't acknowledge that it was lost!

So - basically every night I was on the phone - the nice friendly people in Ireland put you straight over to the useless people in India - many of whom I spoke to didn't have any PC know-how, or good English language.  Probably for 20 days I was phoning a couple of hours every day.

Gagh - so, it just happened that I managed to sweet-talk a rep in Ireland to replace the x300 with an ATI x850xt - which retails for £350+, so from the sublime to the ridiculous.

I wouldn't buy from them again - the tech support in India is just awful... I'm sure they're underpaid and it's no fun doing the job - but they just don't have the skills or the impetus to offer good customer service (it's not like I can go to Dehli to speak to their manager...)

They've never picked up the old PC though - so I have RAM and DVD writer hanging around.

[thisissi]

Curry's log their returns into the stock computer but don't have a field to indicate whether or not it's a return.  I.e. you turn up having had them tell you something is in stock on the phone, but when they go and get it, it's a broken return.  Then they direct you to the next nearest store where they are showing in stock, and the same thing can happen (happened to me until they finally directed me to Wrexham - I live in Manchester).

Then they don't seem to stock their cheaper goods at all, so pushing you into buying a widescreen TV instead of a 4:3 one.  In fact if you stand by the 4:3 TVs no one comes over and asks you if you are being served, my girlfriend and I had to stand in front of a widescreen TV to get anyone to take any interest in us.

....and to make matters worse, if you ask them what models they have in stock (rather than select one at a time and then wait while they come back from the store room and tell you they aren't in stock), they can't tell you!

I'm actually surprised they sell anything.  You would have to be massively patient and still end up spending way more money than you intended.

[Mister Cairo]

The problem, in my view, is that all the decent stores are online only. This means that there will be no boycott of shoddy stores, as people will either use online stores or if they don`t want to/can`t shop online, have to use one of the high street stores. If Dell etc opened up a decent high street store then I`m sure the others would have to improve to compete.

I don`t like buying computers online becuase I don`t like the idea that you have to use the Internet to be treated properly, because I like to see in the flesh what I am getting and because I`m worried about fraud. Maybe I`m being a little paranoid, but I prefer going physically into a shop, browsing and making a purchase. It`s good exercise as well, and gives you an excuse to browse other shops that you might not normally be arsed to visit (where I used to live, the computer shops are on an industrial estate, so you can look at the Army and Navy shop as well).

I feel that more needs to be done about these stores other than people going online-maybe Watchdog and Dispatches should sniff around.

No-one`s mentioned Comet-are they much cop?

[terminallyrelaxed]

Dixons would never survive in America, Germany, Austria, Scandinavia, Holland, or a whole lot of other countries.

Yes, as Bailey has it, we are english and so crave disappointment.

[SetToStun]

A word of warning concerning Dell - in the past we (at work) have evaluated their PCs several times (we have to review purchasing policy once a year) and they have never come up to scratch. The problem has generally been with the components rather than the build quality. For example, you won't know until the machine arrives what make of memory, HD, sound card etc. you're going to get. It seems to depend on what's cheapest on the day they make the machine. This might not be such a problem for a home PC but when you're trying to put together a standardised version of a Windows installation for 1,500 PCs it's rather important. It's also probably quite important if you're going to do fairly intense stuff with it, gaming, sound or video editing, etc.

The other problem has generally been that the guts of the machine don't seem to be put together with regard to people who want to customise their system (lack of additional power supply cables, hard-to-access expansion slots, etc.) although that may well have changed (judging by Pinball's comments about case sizes).

For what it's worth, we use HP Compaq desktops and Toshiba laptops - they come out tops year on year.

As for buying anything from PC World (or any Dixons Group store) - forget it. They're rubbish, overpriced and ultimately very, very poor value.

For other electrical goods, it's well worth checking independent stores nowadays, as they're generally members of a great big trade association (can't remember what it's called offhand) meaning they have the ordering clout to get best price from the manufacturers and importers. Dixons may have quite a few high street shops, but the independents' association fronts for thousands of shops and their ordering volumes are immense (my Dad works part-time for one and I've seen the price books). Besides which, I'd always prefer to give my money to the independents - the staff are generally knowledgeable and actually care about finding you the right thing, not the most expensive.

[Alberon]

I've had good experiences with John Lewis shops. The one in Reading that used to be known as Heelas has generally been very good. They're still very good when it comes to price-matching even with some internet retailers.

Had a discussion with one sales bod about LCD and Plasma TVs a year ago where he came out with the fact, totally unprompted, that none of them can rival a CRT for picture quality with standard definition pictures instead of trying to flog the latest model. When I bought a TV from them a couple of years back their prices were exactly as good as you could get online with a couple of years guarantee thrown in.

[Timmay]

The other problem has generally been that the guts of the machine don't seem to be put together with regard to people who want to customise their system (lack of additional power supply cables, hard-to-access expansion slots, etc.) although that may well have changed (judging by Pinball's comments about case sizes).

That's because they are designed for businesses, or home consumers who just want a PC to use. If you're a geek and are going to fiddle, you'd build your own anyway, surely. My only possible complaint would be the usage of proprietary components, so it's a pain/expensive to replace if something goes wrong outside of warranty. That said, their warranties are among the best in the industry.

Toshiba laptops - they come out tops year on year.

Only going on personal experience here, and that of my company, but no no no no no!!! My work laptop was obviously a Friday afternoon build, but in its 3 year life, it's had 2 hard drives go on it (one went last week in fact), one motherboard, soundcard/USB (on same daughterboard), numerous dead pixels, charging circuit went, and it's just started bluescreening when running on battery for more than 5 mins. Pile of shite. I'd never buy Tosh again, although they are decent laptops when they work.

[Utter Shit]

This might be a stupid question, but then I'm a stupid individual.

Can anyone give me a guide as to how much 'better' (faster,  more efficient, superiority of blowjob technique) a brand new Dell PC will be compared to my current one?

Spec of my current machine:
800mhz processor
128mb RAM
30gb HD

Spec of my new machine:
3.0ghz processor
512mb RAM
160gb HD

Obviously the hard drive size speaks for itself, and I guess logically the other specifications do as well - a 3ghz machine should run roughly 4 times as fast as an 800mhz machine, right? But in practical terms, what are the chances of me being able to run the old Football Manager game, while also running a few programs like MSN, possibly a few download programs such as Ares etc.? Football Manager is probably the most hoggiest of all my resource-hogging programs, and is the main reason I'm buying a reasonably decent computer (3 years at Uni equates to roughly 2 years of playing Football Manager, if I've done my maffs right, so it's a good investment), so I want to know that I'm going to be spunking  my cash on something that'll get the job done. Possibly upgrade the RAM to 1024mb in the future, if necessary like.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

I've had good experiences with John Lewis shops.

John Lewis, as far as I can remember, is quite possibly the only computer retailer, apart from Harrods, that I have never heard a complaint about- well never about their computer department anyway.

But while, only a fool whose brain has been erased by mind rubbers would buy a computer from Harrods, the same does not necessarily apply to John Lewis, just because they are a department stores.

Generally, I hate department stores, and am proud of the fact that I've only ever set foot in Debenhams once, and that was because my ex thought it was a good idea to buy a mattress there.

It never occurred to me until the late 1990s that John Lewis might be a place to buy a computer, but then someone reminded me that they are apparently

Never knowingly undersold

and I took a look out of curiosity and found what they had on offer to be of high quality (no surprise there), but unexpectedly good value for money.

Micro Avinka, on the other hand is a company that I would spurn like a rabid cat, and was rather unimpressed with Selfridges when I noticed that they had given the shop a large amount of space in its flagship Oxford Street store.

[Frinky]

John Lewis, as far as I can remember, is quite possibly the only computer retailer, apart from Harrods, that I have never heard a complaint about- well never about their computer department anyway.

I've got a few, if you like, Brezh-nev.

[Adrian Brezhnev]

That doesn't surprise me.... sadly.

[Frinky]

John Lewis staff seem no less educated on thier electronics than most of the other large retailers, but the crucial difference is that thier staff wear nice suits and are generally a bit older, and are paid to lick your arse in the most disgusting fashion, so thier incompetance doesn't seem quite so glaring.

Also, whenever I go in there, I appear to look too poor to serve, yet getting the iPod out while I'm trying to browse means I've got assistants falling over themselves trying to serve me.

I really hate going into John Lewis, which bites, because in Watford they're the best people for new Mac stuffs.

[gazzyk1ns]

Isn't it simply a bad idea to go to an actual shop, looking for electrical goods? What are the odds that they'll have the best item for you? What are the odds that the sales staff know what they're on about? Compared, of course, to the net which has everything available (well, nearly) and all available information about those things. I suppose the things to consider are P&P, and the reputation of the online retailer... I must admit if neither of those appealed (especially the latter, I'd not worry too much about paying a tenner more for something ideal) then I suppose I would go to a real shop.

[Frinky]

Isn't it simply a bad idea to go to an actual shop, looking for electrical goods?

Not when you know what you actually want. Although in certain stores it can boil down to "GIVE ME THIS ITEM OR I WILL STAB YOU IN THE LIVER" confrontations just to get a hold of it.

If you're a relativly savvy consumer, it shouldn't be too much trouble.

I really wish I had the inclination to type up my PC World stories.

[gazzyk1ns]

I would have thought that if you're a very savvy customer then it would be a nightmare, i.e. "We can't sell you that on its own", etc.

Maybe they're just wowed by your ties, I dunno ;)

[Frinky]

Ok, super-savvy, then, as in, "I know that you can sell me this item." I dunno. I can get in and out of a PCW/Dixons/Currys in about 30 seconds with what I want as a rule, it's guitar shops that give me the most grief.