PC World Muppets

Dr. Dre

Slighlty OT, but, was in PC superstore (dundalk) about a year ago, they had an normal run-o'-the-mill internal CDRW (48 speed I think) €260 !!!
Must go down there today and check out their prices.

MarkR

There was a pcsuperstore in Limerick for a while. Wickedly overpriced as I recall, really badly situated. Closed now. Pity, i could have spent some of my bonus bonds there!

Hobbes

The single thing that pissed me off (same happened in Curreys).

I would look at an item. Ask a store guy some questions on it, they would go in detail about what it does. Then I say I will take it...

"We don't have any"

So I would ask the same thing about another item, they don't bloody tell you they dont have it for sale until you say you want it.

In Curreys I got him to tell me exactly what was on sale.. sure enough everything that was expensive was on sale and the cheap stuff was just for show.

In PCW I was pissed off at this stage I asked him why he would tell me everything about the item but not tell me it wasn't for sale.. I just got a blank look.

Falkorre

hmmm pcworld.....
I live near the liffey valley store, there are two guys in there who def DID know what they were on about and many who will openly admit they dont when asked, so I personally dont blame the staff themselves. There should be some kind of knowledge base available in each store, and employees cannot *all* be experts. A few "experts" in each store is all that is needed.

Few years ago, I bought a SONY VAIO laptop in there with a loan of €1300 I hade gotten. The machine was a absolute *disaster*........
Their level of service was great the first day, then the second the worm turned so to speak, once it was obvious there was major problems and a refund was in order, they even tried to convince me that it was "perfectly normal" for a TFT screen to periodically go black for 5 seconds at a time and for spontaneous reboots (course, turned out to be a power supply problem as i had suggested on day one), this went on for almost 3 months and eventually i got my refund after a solicitors letter and a LOT of phone calls to head office in the UK. But no compensation for the 3 months of phone calls abroad, or solicitors letters. :rolleyes:

Like I said tho, dont blame the staff, blame the managment for not implementing better support for their staff and jus throwing them on the floor and saying "just read the box to the customer, you dont need to understand it!" (yes I know somone who was actually told that).

I will say tho that *somtimes* it can work to ur advantage, for instance, their "marked down" shelf, ... /me got,.... a Zoom ADSL modem/router/firewall, all fine cept no drivers incl, €30! lol

B

dazberry

Originally posted by Hobbes

In PCW I was pissed off at this stage I asked him why he would tell me everything about the item but not tell me it wasn't for sale.. I just got a blank look.

That's one of my pet hates, although it hasn't happened to me in PCW, mainly because I seldom buy anything there.

I did however find a bargain wall in PCW Liffey Valley one day a couple of years ago, and bought a few items there. Of course it caused no end of a headache for the guy at the till because he had to subtract the difference from the scanned price, and the scanned prices were shocking.

For me the biggest culprit is ITDirect. Ok, its a small shop, and they don't have sales AFAIK, and things do get sold out, but the contents of their website bares only a minor resemblance to what they actually have in stock.

D.

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by dazberry
That's one of my pet hates, although it hasn't happened to me in PCW, mainly because I seldom buy anything there.

I did however find a bargain wall in PCW Liffey Valley one day a couple of years ago, and bought a few items there. Of course it caused no end of a headache for the guy at the till because he had to subtract the difference from the scanned price, and the scanned prices were shocking.

For me the biggest culprit is ITDirect. Ok, its a small shop, and they don't have sales AFAIK, and things do get sold out, but the contents of their website bares only a minor resemblance to what they actually have in stock.

D.

I remember saying that to the guys in IT direct last christmas and they said they were having a new site built themselves. But it obviously never happened. Its pathethic at the moment. I just phone them to check stock levels. They generally have very little stock and order most stuff in.

PCW is wierd most of the stuff is scandalously over priced, but every so often you go in and find some thing cheap. I recently bought a AMD HSF cheaper than I could get it from the web for example.

therecklessone

Originally posted by Dawntreader


Few years ago, I bought a SONY VAIO laptop in there with a loan of €1300 I hade gotten. The machine was a absolute *disaster*........
Their level of service was great the first day, then the second the worm turned so to speak, once it was obvious there was major problems and a refund was in order, they even tried to convince me that it was "perfectly normal" for a TFT screen to periodically go black for 5 seconds at a time and for spontaneous reboots (course, turned out to be a power supply problem as i had suggested on day one), this went on for almost 3 months and eventually i got my refund after a solicitors letter and a LOT of phone calls to head office in the UK. But no compensation for the 3 months of phone calls abroad, or solicitors letters. :rolleyes:

Sounds like the hassle a mate of mine had with Dixons. 6 months of crap from them, eventually a full refund on a computer, but "we can't compensate for inconveniance"!!! What about for incompetence?

Lump

Originally posted by sunbeam
oh dear god :rolleyes:

That reminds me of a few years ago was looking for a laptop with an IR or serial port so I could browse the net using my Nokia 6210.

Salesguy: ''And why on earth would you want to do that?''

Me: ''Well I travel a lot and want to use the net when I'm on the train.''

Salesguy: ''Could you not just plug in into a phoneline?''

:rolleyes:

Wel this is kind of right. Virgin trains are installing wireless internet along major train lines,so you can plug your laptop into the train and use the net. I assume you pay extra for the ticket.... but a damn good Idea if you ask me, how fast would a journey pass if you could browse the net with a decent speed.


John

eth0_

Originally posted by Lump
Wel this is kind of right. Virgin trains are installing wireless internet along major train lines

Well this would be relevent if we all lived in the UK.... :-/
Can't see wifi on trains here for a long time. But sure, you can plug your laptop in on the arrow, there are plug sockets beside a few seats on each carriage :-)

Agent Smith

Originally posted by unkel
Sure same reason as the Eircom lady spokesperson infamously kept saying about broadband: "There is no demand for that in the Irish market"

hahahhahahahhahahahahhahahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha



i've been pestering that bloody company for broad band for 3 year's and nothing





(god i hate that rat)

ArphaRima

I have hundreds of horror stories ranging from Gardai to the guy who stands at the traffic lights selling his Herald but that doesn't mean they're all the same.

If thats the guy near Christchurch then he is a legend. In fact he's a tourist attraction. Took me two years to understand what he was saying. Legend.

AdMMM

The one thing I like about PC World is going in with a product that you just broke (by accident, I swear) and confusing the staff by saying some **** about code 10 errors

Me: It just came up with a Code 10 Device Error saying that the device won't start

Salesman: So you're saying its broke?? Do you want a refund??

SantaHoe

I don't bother asking PC World employees questions anymore... not even "have you got any more of these in stock?"
Because they'll just wander over to were you've just been, have a look around on the same shelf you've just been rummaging through, come back five minutes later and tell you that they don't have any more in stock (true story).

It's probably not their fault though, it's hard to stay motivated on (quite likely) crap wages.
But if crap wages and unmotivated staff keep prices down, then it's really only a stalemate for the consumer... although their pricing is another days story, I've found them quite cheap for some things.

Another experience was when I was calling up to price a DVD drive.
ME: Hi, do you sell DVD drives?
PCW: Eeh, hang on...
**PUT ON HOLD**
PCW: Hello? .. Yes we do.
ME: Hmm, ok... how much are they?
PCW: *sigh* Hang on...
**PUT ON HOLD**
PCW: (quotes some outlandish price)
As the call draws to a close, the sales-person just hangs up while I'm in mid-sentance of saying "Ok, well thanks for your help"
Having worked in tech support myself (where good CS is beaten into you), I was pretty disgusted with the lack of quality customer service in this call.
You should be asked/told that you're going to be put on hold and thanked for doing so; for one thing, and you let the customer hang up first; whats more - you drop the "you're bothering me" attitude.
But again, I'm not blaming them... it's managements responsibility to train their employees how to speak to customers on the phone and to make sure they're given the time to do so, and the general publics fault for not making an issue of crap customer service.

You do find the odd jem in PC World with enough experience to help you out, but IMHO, they are few and far between.

Now peats on the other hand, excellent staff there in my experience.
I think there were only one or two guys in peats that looked blankly at me in all the years I've been going there.

RicardoSmith

Peats are probably even more overpriced though.

AdMMM

my friend got offered a job in there (€10.50 p/h) but refused it! So their pay isn't that bad, so you'd think they could stay better motivated!

mrculchiefarmer

Originally posted by eth0_
Uh, there's no PC World stores outside of Dublin, I just double checked on their site, just Blanch and Liffey Valley.
Sure you're not thinking of PC Superstore?

Theres a PCW in Waterford, Limerick and Ennis as well as the Dublin ones! But believe it or not they do not have a website! That's right, a PC store without a website!!:eek: MORE SHAME!!!!!!! :rolleyes: If you want to see their products you have to view their UK website and UK prices:mad: DISGRACEFUL
Enquired about laptops in PC World, would have probably bought one there too only I found the sales staff to be patethic, the thought of bringing back a faulty Laptop to them was simplaly unbearable!:dunno:

Ryo Hazuki

Anyone ever been to a PC world in england/scotland? They are so professional in comparison to any of the branchs here.

Never really had a bad experience there, except general lack of knowledge on the part of the staff, but I once bought 256mb DDR there, or so I though, Turned out it was SD, and I had to go all the way back to dublin to change it. He ended up giving me 512mb cause they were out of 256 sticks.

SantaHoe

Originally posted by |.Murderer.|
my friend got offered a job in there (€10.50 p/h) but refused it! So their pay isn't that bad, so you'd think they could stay better motivated!

That's much more than I'd expected... do they get commision aswell?
The muppets that hound you if you so much as dare walk through the 'full PC' section must be I'd say.
Maybe the place is run by David Brent?

SantaHoe

Originally posted by RicardoSmith
Peats are probably even more overpriced though.

Well considering I ended up getting my DVD drive from peats at less than half of what PC World were asking, makes you wonder.

dazberry

Originally posted by SantaHoe

The muppets that hound you if you so much as dare walk through the 'full PC' section must be I'd say.

The funny thing is that when you are looking for one they're never to be found, or more precisely they've been nabbed by some middle aged 'ol-lad that just wants to talk to demonstrate his (lack) of computing knowledge.

D.

eth0_

Originally posted by |.Murderer.|
my friend got offered a job in there (€10.50 p/h) but refused it! So their pay isn't that bad, so you'd think they could stay better motivated!

You wouldn't get that kind of money doing sales. When I worked there, you were on minimum wage plus commission. 10.50 sounds more like the hourly rate for someone in the technical/repair dept or security!

pcwwaterford

Originally posted by eth0_
You wouldn't get that kind of money doing sales. When I worked there, you were on minimum wage plus commission. 10.50 sounds more like the hourly rate for someone in the technical/repair dept or security!

That is the wage for the technicians in the clinic, sales staff are on minimum wage and get commision for their sales.

The only experience the company wants when hiring people is sales experience, all other knowledge is "On the Job":( training, over half of the technicians time is wasted answering stupid questions from the sales staff.

Jokah

"Its false advertising if prices dont correspond in the shop as they are in the paper. They dont have to sell anything to you at any price they advertised (in the paper etc). What u could do is talk to the manager [only they can deal with this- not normal floor staff] and show them the ad. They would then change the price with alot of fuss and half an hour wasted probably. OR you could complain to the Director of Consumer affairs who would look into the matter and advise them they are breaking the law, and if it happens again she will take them to court (if enough people complain). "

You are right about the Director of Consumer affairs.

Go to the bottom of this page ODCA

That whole paragraph is quite interesting in the URL

gaui3d0pnbz86o

That is the wage for the technicians in the clinic, sales staff are on minimum wage and get commision for their sales.

are you speaking on behalf of the company, or just an employee

Capt'n Midnight

They sell UK stuff that is no use here - phone adaptors (to UK) and also the Freeview units which only work close to an enabled transmitter in the UK..

RicardoSmith

Originally posted by SantaHoe
Well considering I ended up getting my DVD drive from peats at less than half of what PC World were asking, makes you wonder.

Makes you wonder what you'd have got it for on the web. Peats are normal one of the most expensive places to buy stuff IMO.

Impurity

Peats are well overpriced, so is pcworld!

The funny thing about pc world though is that you can't actually find out how much something costs cause everything is priced arseways! I went o buy a cable there the other day and it cost €50!!!!!!

I went up to the cash desk and it didn't scan and the, lets say it was a woman asked me "was der e prioce fer dat on de shelf?" and i replied with "not that i could see" so i got it for €32 cause she was too lazy to check/dumb to check it out ;-)

really if i bought it online at say komplett.ie i would have gotten it for about €6 probablly but i needed it urgently

pcwwaterford

Originally posted by flameboy
are you speaking on behalf of the company, or just an employee

Im just an employee of the company.Part-Time:),

Matt Simis

Originally posted by SantaHoe

You should be asked/told that you're going to be put on hold and thanked for doing so; for one thing, and you let the customer hang up first; whats more - you drop the "you're bothering me" attitude.
But again, I'm not blaming them... it's managements responsibility to train their employees how to speak to customers on the phone and to make sure they're given the time to do so, and the general publics fault for not making an issue of crap customer service.

Bring polite is not something "management" has to teach someone. Its not a skill, its a personality trait.



Matt

The Brigadier

I was in Dixons in swords the other week. I spotted one of the Hauppage Nova-t tuner cards on the shelf. The ones which pick up a freetoair digital signal a la freeview.

I hoped that maybe they were selling these cards because you could get a signal from the UK with an external antenna??

I asked if any of the staff new anything about these, I was pointed to an expert. He was surprised I knew of freeview, didn't know what it was himself and told me in quite a rude manner that you could just plug a sky digibox into it...