Maplin Galway

DRakE

Draaaaaging up old posts ;D

danniemcq

surly it's better than startin a new one with all the same points in it again

forbairt

gotta admit .. I'm well happy with pc world ...
Great service on a disk that died on me in there lads seemed to know what they were at as well .. this was the service repair guys not the sales staff who I'd never talk to ..

Maplin ... I've had good experiences with as well .. it all depends on which of the staff you get in these places ... some of them are muppets ... some of them are great

monument

Inspector Gadget wrote:

Unfortunately, neither do Argos

Maybe they've changed since you posted that... http://www.argos.ie/

Inge Binge

edit... didn't read monument's post

kc66

JackieChan wrote:

I've always found Maplins prices to be the UK price with the Euro conversion applied.Similar to Argos.
So if you see the cost in sterling you can make an accurate calculation of what it will be in euros.

I looked up a projector screen recently- £200 on website ~ €290
Went into shop to order it and it was around €350/€360.
Big rip off there.
It was similar with other products

po0k

It wouldn't be much better if it was Peats.

patsyh

as hopeless as most of them are in there, its still a very handy shop

grimskull_99

As for the many above members that have posted blogs about maplin galway, and after reading them all I want to set the record straight, for customers and for ex staff members alike.

1), you cant slate of a staff member for not knowing what you are blabbling on about, they might have just started in the job that day/week.

2), we dont have the entire catalogue and technical knowledge downloaded into our brains, so when you come in and ask "do you have that thing that i need to connect to my yoke!" .....dont be surprised when we give you a blank look back.

3), if you worked in the shop (managerial level) you will know that there is 101 things to do every day, thats just on the managerial-admin side of things THAT HAS to be done, no matter what, so if you get a staff member that "is hopeless" that is because he-she is doing the jobs that are allocated to him-her in that day, which has to be done before he-she goes home...that is the way in the stores in the west of Ireland.

4), yes they shud have a euro website, but they dont, but to calculate all of the WEEE legislation, fee, PRF charges, along with the sterling-euro conversion rates (they change every day) you might wonder why.

5) yes... they dont pay their staff enough for the sh!t they put up with everyday... customer coming in not having a receipt (all receipt have an EPOS code with is needed to complete all refunds)..not knowing when they bought the item (*some time about 5 weeks ago*)...this does not help the situation. Also if you go to http://www.oasis.gov.ie/consumer_affairs/consumer_rights_and_protection/consumers_and_the_law_in_ireland.html?search=consumer+law
you will learn what your rights are and are not....so save the "I KNOW WHAT MY RIGHTS ARE AND I'M NOT LEAVING HERE WITHOUT A REFUND"!

6) As the saying goes, if you ask a stupid question, you get a stupid answer....and I quote "where does the paper go into this keyboard?" or for the lady that wanted to return the wireless network card because she cudnt get the internet on the beach like the Dell ad said she could!

7) As for Commander Vimes ...i hear ya... I totally understand where you are coming from...... If every customer that came into us worked for Maplin would give us a 4 week paid holiday to California for the sh1t we put up with, Radioshack in the USA are 100000000 times better than that place.

8) As for customer service....you are entitled to good customer service, our hands are tied to sending the item back to the UK to the Service Centre, that is procedure, we cant change it, If the item was returned to the store within 28 days of purchase (with receipt, original packaging, not torn to peices) then you are entitled to a full refund. We get sh1t from both sides of the fence, our head office, and from customers so cut us some slack, you wudnt like it if we went into your job and fu(ked you out of it because you were following the rules of your company and by breaking the rules you can get fired, which is more important, your job or customer service?? Remember we all have bills to pay.

9) The staff are good, each to their own area of interest, everyone cant know everything in the shop, theres over 14,000 I dont think that NUIG has an I.T/electronics/consumer law/Electronic engineering/sound and vision/automotive electrics/TV and radio engineering course last I checked.

10) when you do visit the shop because you have nothing else to do in your sunday and you browse around, picking up products, looking at them, wanting to buy them but you know that you cant because your partner will kill you for it, please put it back in the same place you found it, it takes someone 20 mins to straighten up the shop after you come in and mess it up!

Redhairedguy

I sympathise... At the end of the day a job is just a job..

Most retail jobs are the exact same... stupid questons... shítty customers who love nothing more than tormenting you, just cause you're wearing a uniform, dodgy pay, etc etc (need I go on?)

So please don't think you're special...

It's the same story with everywhere, from a smoothy bar bringing in a little over a hundred euro a day, to a big ass advertising company making a million quid an hour.

padi89

I think its a good shop for get me by products,quality is very iffy but it does the job and usually ties me over until i can afford something a bit better.
My dealings with the staff are good i have no complaints ,they have helped me out on many occasion with dumb and complicated questions.I wouldnt expect the staff to all be qualified electronics engineers because surely after doing x amount of years in college you will have your sights set higher.
Im sure they have a pretty big turn over off staff too,so its hardly expected for all the staff to be familiar with everything in the store.Im glad its there now,its dead handy.

TerrorFirmer

Thats all well and grand grimskull, and in fairness we've all been in situations where people treat you like crap, BUT

At the end of the day, you shouldn't hire staff that don't at least have some basic knowledge in the field.

I mean its not just maplins, its pc world as well - you wouldn't buy a car off someone who knows nothing about cars, so why should it be any different with PCs, audio or other equipment?

The few times I have had a query in Maplins and/or Pc world, generally the staff were actually knowledgable in fairness - but in the past we've all have idiots telling us 100% mistruths because they don't have a clue.

po0k

To be honest, the only time I bother the staff is if I can't find something myself and may need to order it in, or I'm paying for something.

Expecting your typical PFY, who's just happy to have a job for the summer / semester, to know XYZ stat of ABC product is absurd. But if they're in a job like that, you generally start picking up stuff if you're not already into tech, so it's *kinda* expected that you are familiar with some of the stuff the store stocks.

That said, working in retail sucks, mainly because of the fncking morons you have to deal with on an hourly basis. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing, often leading to delusions of competence and subject knowledge in the punter. It is not outside the bounds of civility to keep a cluebat at hand.

My biggest gripe with Maplin is the price of some items. I don't expect a bricks&cement store to match online e-tailers due to stock, but they could try to be competetive. The price of alot of items are a few euro over what is reasonable to ask. Hard-drives are a joke.

After all that's been said though, I'm damn glad to have a store like Maplin in Galway. Just ditch the thermaltake range, they suck.

john_g83

Hi just to agree with what a number of people have already mentioned here. I have worked with Daryl in another shop in Galway and have to say from my experience he was extremely helpful to any customer that he got involved with, is extremely knowledgeable and deals with many thankless tasks admirably.

As far as the other staff are concerned it is difficult to know everything about everything, do people realise how many different types of products are in stock there so cut them a break.

I have found the prices are usually lower (sometimes considerably lower) than other retailers in Galway. A couple of weeks ago I picked up a PCI BB modem for €17 which I thought was a steal. I think that compared to the alternatives, mapplin is a very attractive place to shop.

TabulaRasa22

john_g83 wrote:

I think that compared to the alternatives, mapplin is a very attractive place to shop.

I'd say you are 100% correct in that. The staff there have always been helpful and courteous, unlike PC World. I'm going to share my PC world story now, settle back with a cup of coffee...

I went in to buy a laptop, looking for something rock bottom price, so I asked if there were any ex-display units or old stock they wanted to get rid of. A bit of haggling later, they duly bring out the laptop, discounted. So I take it to the counter, and the large and well fed manager there (glasses) wanted to give me a receipt. This was after he went into a back office twice to "consult with the manager" about the discount.

And here is where it got interesting. He wanted my name and address. Now, being a card carrying, published, and participating member of various online rights and privacy organisations, including the FFII (anti software patents group in Europe), I said no, I won't, give me the receipt please. I had actually passed him a few hundred quid for the laptop, it was in his hand at this stage.

After a moment of confusion, he said, no, he couldn't, unless I gave him my name, address, and phone number. So heres me, looking at this individual, with hundreds of euros in his hand, not giving me a receipt. He also said I couldn't get a warranty unless I passed over my details.

I repeated myself, and asked, can I get that receipt please. No dice, my money wasn't good enough. PC World store policy trumps the Director for Consumer Affairs, it seems. I mentioned this fact to him, which made him even more adamant that the receipt and warranty would not happen unless he got satisfaction, and my private personal details. It was like watching an overweight, bespectacled tribesman trying not to lose face in front of his tribe.

So, having better things to do than argue with a rising star in the PC world hierarchy, I pulled my money from his clasp, and walked out, leaving him and his discounted laptop there. I did have a good laugh about a year later though, when the oul fella went in looking for a printer, and I tagged along reluctantly. What should have been a simple purchase turned into a two hour long haggle fest, with terrified salespeople dodging me dad as he hunted them throughout the shop, high and low, with a gleam in his eye that spoke of a profitless day. We walked out of there with five reams of paper, three laserjet cartridges, and a new printer. Chunky McMiddle Manager was floating around in the background, but one of the advantages of being in your sixties is that young lads are scared to backchat you.

Pwn3d.

TerrorFirmer

I returned a laptop to pc world, a basic model, sempron processor with onboard ati graphics. Wasn't working as it should have been so I brought it back after 2 days and outlined my complaints to the manager.

Surprisingly he was great and I ended up with a Sony Vaio with a Geforce 6400 card for a mere 200 euro extra (999 euro - absolute steal for a vaio of this spec).

Great guys. Was surprised to say the least, all the staff I spoke to that day seemed to have a good knowledge of PC.

Someone working in PC world with a good knowledge of PCs, its rather sad to have to say that this is rare, but there you go, a good experience I had recently.

sgthighway

Lads - Laptops is my thing. If you want one for everyday use and not into gaming on them by a Dell or HP "Business Notebook".

They will not crash unless their is a serious hardware fault. I am a true believer that there is no such thing as a "Gamer" or "Multimedia" laptop. The processing power isn't good enough. A 1.7Ghz "Business" Laptop is better than the top of the range "Multimedia Laptop".

padi89

TabulaRasa22 wrote:

I did have a good laugh about a year later though, when the oul fella went in looking for a printer, and I tagged along reluctantly. What should have been a simple purchase turned into a two hour long haggle fest, with terrified salespeople dodging me dad as he hunted them throughout the shop, high and low, with a gleam in his eye that spoke of a profitless day. We walked out of there with five reams of paper, three laserjet cartridges, and a new printer. Chunky McMiddle Manager was floating around in the background, but one of the advantages of being in your sixties is that young lads are scared to backchat you.

Pwn3d.

Dont take this the wrong way but i would say the staff were avoiding your dad not because they were "terrified" or "scared" but because they couldnt be arsed dealing with someone for two hours looking for discounts.No offence, he is quiet intitled to bargin and fair play for getting it, but its normally customers like this that get on your nerves.

TerrorFirmer

sgthighway wrote:

A 1.7Ghz "Business" Laptop is better than the top of the range "Multimedia Laptop".

Eh? Business ones tend to be lighter and more mobile due to their nature but no more sturdy in my experience...regardless of who makes them. How can a 1.7ghz "business" laptop (as you call it) be better then a specifically designed multimedia one?

The only real laptop aimed specifically at business only users would be Dells latitiude....the rest are either cheap solutions (dell 1300) or multimedia designed options (6400) or even intensive gaming (xps). All of which can be used for business as well of course, but probably lack the battery life of the latitude.

Come to think of it, your whole post makes no sense? Business laptops never crash but gaming ones do? And what are you saying about processors being strong enough? I don't get that...

sgthighway

Just my opinion. 12 Years experience in maintaining them = the sense.
How long does a battery last in a Notebook with a 17" Screen?

TabulaRasa22

padi89 wrote:

Dont take this the wrong way but i would say the staff were avoiding your dad not because they were "terrified" or "scared" but because they couldnt be arsed dealing with someone for two hours looking for discounts.No offence, he is quiet intitled to bargin and fair play for getting it, but its normally customers like this that get on your nerves.

No offence taken, and I agree with you in most situations. I've worked tech support in a variety of businesses in my misspent youth, and an unruly customer isn't helping himself or anyone else. Still gotta smile and suck it up, though. And tbh, I was more than a little surprised at the lengths he went to. In the case of PC World it was well and truly deserved, however. The staff in there have a superior,"we're doing you a favour by gracing you with our presence" attitude that I would sack any of my own sales staff for taking with a customer. Why? Because it pisses off the customers, and if you do that, you lose customers. Doing it often enough means you lose your business. For reference see CompuStore. I wonder if any of those lads got jobs again in Galway? Although there were one or two good ones in there, as I recall.

Oh and it was fear alright. You could smell it.

arrianalexander

ok putting things into perspective...its a shop!

if you don't like it for whatever reasons..don't shop there...

if you feel you have a valid complaint about a particular shop whether it is PC world or Maplin write to the store or their customer service... I seriously doubt PC World or Maplin have told their customer service staff to be checking boards.ie for customer issues..i think they might look after the people who ring them up or write them a letter/e-mail to them. I don't know maybe i'm wrong..

but either way i don't think any retailer in the world would care what people like ye have to say...

and please don't be so pathetic as in to point out the irony to me..and for those who can't get the irony of this...my opinion of ye is proven!

TerrorFirmer

sgthighway wrote:

Just my opinion. 12 Years experience in maintaining them = the sense.
How long does a battery last in a Notebook with a 17" Screen?

It depends on the components. Some of the newer notebooks can have up to 5 hours, even though with multimedia orientated hardware like the new geforce 7 cards and larger screens. My mother has an expensive "business" laptop from work. I have a sony vaio for gaming which has a much better gpu and a bigger screen. The battery life is roughly the same on both.

Unless you're willing to spend a good wad of cash - like over the average what someone would spend on a laptop - there is no distinction to make between what might be a multimedia or business laptop....

raheeny

I've never been In Maplin's Galway, but I have been in the Jervis St. branch in Dublin, and a few computer stores in Cork City. I have often thought "I should be working here, these guys haven't a clue". So now I suss out what I want on the net, go to forums like this one to see if the product is any good, or if it's suitable, then I can just go to the shop and buy it without asking any questions, which they don't know the answers to anyway.

redmouse

why do people think that sales staff should be a licka**e???? i cant speak on behalf of maplin but i do know that pc world pay sales staff F all. i know someone who worked there. loved the job cause he was a self confessed computer geek. he left though cause of the condesending, patronising customers. some customers expect the sales person to bloody kiss their feet.
i also know that a laptop sale worth a grand for example has very little effect on the pay packet at the end of the month.

JohnCleary

A place like maplin should have both sales assistants and technical assistants, and the badge on the person should clearly state which is which

padi89

redmouse wrote:

loved the job cause he was a self confessed computer geek. he left though cause of the condesending, patronising customers. some customers expect the sales person to bloody kiss their feet

Tell your mate to stay out of All retail jobs then.;)
You get more good than bad to be honest but the bad do cetainly make their mark.

Rasputin

TabulaRasa22 wrote:

No offence taken, and I agree with you in most situations. I've worked tech support in a variety of businesses in my misspent youth, and an unruly customer isn't helping himself or anyone else. Still gotta smile and suck it up, though. And tbh, I was more than a little surprised at the lengths he went to. In the case of PC World it was well and truly deserved, however. The staff in there have a superior,"we're doing you a favour by gracing you with our presence" attitude that I would sack any of my own sales staff for taking with a customer. Why? Because it pisses off the customers, and if you do that, you lose customers. Doing it often enough means you lose your business. For reference see CompuStore. I wonder if any of those lads got jobs again in Galway? Although there were one or two good ones in there, as I recall.

Oh and it was fear alright. You could smell it.

Am just so you know some of the people who lost their jobs in compustore are now happily employed in Maplin and PC World. Possibly the cream of the crop and the only perk to the job (for us) was working with those funny b4st4rd5

stevecrow74

padi89 wrote:

Im sure they have a pretty big turn over off staff too,

they do at that... i was one of the lackies that worked there for 5 months last year.. handy shop for bits you think you dont need but cant live without

the pay i there is very good though.. with the odd bonus thrown in...

i could go on....

some of the items are quite dodgy but most are high quality.. its just knowing what to pick....

Psychobiker

grimskull_99 wrote: »

9) The staff are good, each to their own area of interest, everyone cant know everything in the shop, theres over 14,000 I dont think that NUIG has an I.T/electronics/consumer law/E10lectronic engineering/sound and vision/automotive electrics/TV and radio engineering course last I checked.

GMIT does mate .

I absolutely sympathise with everything Grimskull has posted, I'm in there weekends and the occasional weeknight. The christmas period has been absolute hell, not only on the go in a retail sense, but standing up for eight straight hours in smart shoes does one's heels in :rolleyes:. But, I'd prefer to maintain as much a professional appearance as possible, that's just my take on things.
Should I nip off to Boston Scientific, I'd make in 3 days what I make in a month, but they aren't as flexible and it's only to keep petrol in the car/various niceties until I graduate and then...different story.

AAMOF, the only thing keeping me there and not to abandon it and lose my lifestyle vices is the crew who man Galway. Top bunch to work with!

At all times I try to strike a balance between following procedure and pleasing customers, it's a very rare occasion I'll get someone narky, whom I usually seek to calm down quickly to avoid any heated discussions/pelting them with hard drives/general shop-floor warfare and it's grand from thereonin.

Day-to-day running of the store definitely can have an influence on what sales staff are available on the floor at xx:xx hours, again, procedure. Actually, the summation of it all is in fact, procedure.
procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure procedure, so if you have an issue, take it up with Maplin UK, as they are the only people with power to change anything.
I'm not sure I'd like to work in the UK end of it at all, at least Ireland is still raw and there's no 'hewmin rooits' bull****, requiring written permission from the entire upper corporate echelons for something as trivial as the emission of post-BLT flatulence, for God forbid it offend some ethnic/religious minority by being of greater than expected tangibility or volume . It's only a matter of time before Ireland follows suit, it was hell when I lived in Bristol!