Dixons - The Saga

Safrole

Long post re the most shocking service I've ever had the misfortune to encounter. I'm interested in hearing other peoples comments or own experiences with Dixons / PC World.

I bought a new Compaq PC from Dixons / PC World in March this year, and after much protesting, managed to leave the store without purchasing their miracle cover plan. It operated reasonable well but would occasionally crash and require a hard reset. About 7 weeks ago it died altogether. So I called technical support.

Call One – "Please call back with your receipt and we will book an engineer out"

Call Two – "Please call back when you're at your PC"

Fair enough.

Call Three – "Got an answer, motherboard and graphics card replacement, will send and engineer out to you."

So I wait patiently for an engineer to call and book an appointment with me. Imagine my surprise when a week later the engineer calls mobile at 09:30 to tell me he was at my (incorrect) address. No appointment had been made, I couldn't get out of work. The engineer refused to give me his mobile number that I had to ring the UK. He ends up asking me to bring the PC into the store near Sandyford which was apparently "near my house and was open until 21:00". I get a taxi to the store at 20:00 to find that it's open to 21:00 on Thursday to Saturday only. (Or something similar). The taxi cost a total of €40.00 – a short trip indeed. A call to technical support tells me the agent who booked the job should have given me a day to call out.

The following night I had to pay another 40.00 approx to get the computer there.

About a week later again they call me to say the PC is fixed and that I could come and pick it up. After waiting an hour in the store while the only repair guy plodded about I got my computer back. (Funnily enough the only queues in the store were at the repair counter, there were plenty of other staff milling about doing nothing much in particular. Also on display was a lovely notice on the counter advising us all that any verbal or physical abuse towards staff would result in legal action, seems they play regular host to angry customers)

So I finally get my PC home and turn it on. I find software I didn't want on it, various settings changed and the whole thing running like treacle. I do a backup, format the machine and reinstall windows.

All looks well until windows decides it has a critical configuration error, and spouts some nonsense about code purple. I call their technical support number, spend another productive five minutes speaking to a machine and then get put on hold for 30 minutes until a technician answers. When he explained what had happened I was fairly livid.

Apparently the machine had been "tattooed". I had never heard the term but it's similar to windows XP registration protection – only extremely more sensitive it seems. The mere change in the serial number on the motherboard had been enough to make it refuse to boot. They hide the tattoo on a protected file on the hard drive. God forbid I would try to change any hardware myself on the PC – and isn't that supposed to be some of the point of a pc, upgrading it?

So I rant a little to the technical support guy who told me welcome to the world of corporate capitalism (his words), and told me that he would send an engineer out the following Thursday. So I take the day off work, tidy my room and when the engineer hadn't rang me I called technical support again. The story I'm fed this time is that I shouldn't have been told the engineer was calling out today. The way they work is you could get a call at any time to say the engineer is there – booking an actual appointment seems to be something they don't do. Obviously I'm supposed to just sit at home and not work until their engineer graces me with his presence.

Livid, I brought the PC into the Jervis Centre store I bought it from and demanded a replacement as I had been without a PC for the last five weeks, and that I didn't believe the machine was fit for the use it was sold for. (I suspect that I'll be left with a useless pile of metal after the manufactures warranty runs out in three months) The manager pointed out that this wasn't his problem but he would get the engineer to come to the store instead. I gained some slight amusement watching him caught on hold for twenty minutes to oh so fun support centre I had to contact. ( UK based).

The following day the engineer called me to say he was about to get to my house and could he have directions. I kid you not.

This has to be the worst customer experience I have ever had the displeasure of going through. I'm writing this in the hope that other people don't make the mistake of buying a PC from Dixons/PC World – they become much less willing to help when something goes wrong. I sent a detailed complaint much the same as this email to their customer service department – and received an auto-template response –



"Dear Blahdeblah

Thank you for your email of 28 November 2006.

We acknowledge our responsibility for the quality of the product. However, to provide our customers with the best possible service the manufacturer acts as our authorised repair agent and will liaise with you directly.

I would like to apologise for the prolonged nature of your enquiries with our company. May I assure you that customer service is of paramount importance to us and I regret any additional time or expense you may have incurred in this matter."

At the time of writing this my computer is still in the store. I called them yesterday and was told that the PC was ready and in store.

After trekking to the store, to no real major surprise, they told me it wasn't in fact fixed. The first rep I spoke to showed no interest in the matter, he didn't know anything about it and asked to take my number so they could call me tomorrow. Even after managing to speak to a manager there was no solution –call this number tomorrow. I've been without a PC for the last 7 weeks now and have found no other option than to lodge a file with the small claims court. I'm hoping it will cause some action.

tba

Thats sucks, I've had some bad experiences but they look like bliss compared to that.

what exactly was that tattoo thing you mentioned? Could a replacement ie (hand picked) mobo fix the problem?

dl

I wonder what the response would have been like if you had taken out their cover plan insurance! In my experience you have to be very blunt or even rude to the sales assistant when you insist that you do not require their 'cover plan'...

Time for you to take some action alright & stop being Mr. Nice-Guy!

Best of luck with it...

Anti

And if you took the cover plan you would have been sorted in no time at all. I myself am a ex-employee of PcWorld. And this type of thing is typical. I've never heard of this " tattoing " before though. or code purple. I do know that just after i left in april PcWorld were planning to have techs that would cover certain areas in vans/cars. But booking it into their " clinic " should have sorted it. All they would have done is change the hardware, wipe the harddrive ( without asking ) And install everything again using the backup partition already on the hdd.

You can report them to trading standards, This usually works.

jor el

Damn, that's a hell of a story dude. While reading down I was thinking your only course of action may be the small claims court, but you're ahead of me on that I see.

That's some shoddy service by the staff in the shop and the techs/engineers on call.

However, to provide our customers with the best possible service the manufacturer acts as our authorised repair agent and will liaise with you directly.

Has the manufacturer actually liaised with you directly yet? This seems like a case of passing the buck to me. Your contract is with Dixons and not the manufacturer. From what I understand, under Irish consumer law, it is therefore Dixons who are ultimately responsible to ensure you get what you paid for.

Have a look on oasis.gov.ie to see if there's any help there regarding Dixons' responsibility in this matter.

Bring it to court now would be what I'd suggest though.

Safrole

Apparantly Jor El, when I call tech support I'm actually talking to the manufacturer. So yes.

The tattoo seems to be a fairly recent thing. It simply causes the machine to go "code purple" - ie refuse to boot - if you use the installation software and the hardware had been modified in any way. So if I change the graphics card and reformat my PC I'll have the same problem again. It seems to be over the top sensitive - the same make motherboard and GFX card were put in, just with different serial numbers.

On the cover plan I did have to get rude to get them to stop, I think I said something along the lines of "I'm not a walking commission check, drop it".

I'm in a dillemma now. Two hours after sending them an email telling them I had lodged a complaint with the small claims court they contacted me to say the PC was fixed and I could pick it up. Thing is the manu warranty runs out next March and I've seen hardware like this before - where something will keep breaking.

segasega

At the end of the day its best to build you own PC or have a friend who can. I remeber back when my family got our first pc and we had a few problems, but nothing like this, I try stay well clear of places like those main stream stores, half them just want to stiff you.

Good Luck.

irlrobins

Moving to consumer issues

gosimeon

When my parents bought our PC they were asked by a Dixons member of staff if they wanted insurance cover.

They said they'd rather not.

We ended up being charged for it anyway, and it took about a month of phone calls to actually get our money back.

Never again will my family shop there thats for sure.

daywalker

Tattooing is a procedure that is used by mostly packard bell and HP/Compaq AFAIK, its basically a small file stored on the computer which holds information on the exact hardware in the machine so that when the original software is reinstalled using a generic restore disc set, the restore installs only the correct drivers and/or software. this allows the manufacturer to produce one single restore set that can then be used on multiple different configurations, the code purple problem on hp/compaqs is where the restore software cannot find the tattoo information, possibly due to hard drive failure or file corruption

vms7ply9t6dw4b

If you went to small claims court i would put money on you winning. I would also put money on DSG not letting it get that far and as soon as they get the letter from the court clerk they will contact you and give you whatever you want

Good Luck

vms7ply9t6dw4b

gosimeon wrote:

When my parents bought our PC they were asked by a Dixons member of staff if they wanted insurance cover.

They said they'd rather not.

We ended up being charged for it anyway, and it took about a month of phone calls to actually get our money back.

Never again will my family shop there thats for sure.

They get sacked if they dont sell X amount of those per week

Occidental

Don't forget that you can now lodge Small Claims Court applications online. Best of luck with it, no one should have to put up with rubbish like this.

Red Alert

For tatooing etc, I always do a full re-image using Unattended for PC's when I set them up for people. The manufacturers often install so much crap you're better off with a clean slate.

I've often been disturbed by the attitude of PC world/Dixons staff. I bought a 17" LCD monitor there about 3 years ago, which thankfully still works today. The staff there tried to make me purchase extended insurance cover, to which i asked "why should i buy the monitor if it will fail in a year?", to which he had no answer and got rather agitated.

Champ

Solution for your Code Purple problem here:
http://www.billoblog.com/billoblog/?p=152

I actually never had the problem, but your story peeked my curiousity and who knows when such knowledge might come in handy in the future.

Only had a quick glance but it seems to be as simple as editing a single batch file.

Wertz

People actually buy PCs in PC World?

sandyg

I know what you feel. I bought a computer from them and got the same crap from them. It took nearly three months to get sorted between leaving it in with them and telling me they would send someone to fix it. ( all that was wrong was the CD drive wouldnt workbut they wouldnt give me a new drive from the shelf, it had to be sent to them from a factory). Had a laugh one of they days while in their shop trying to get it sorted (again) myself and hubbie met customers as they came in and told them as they were passing not to buy in this shop as we were having probs with them and told them about their crap service. Most of the customers thanked us for letting them know. Manager was a bit quicker to sort our problem out! All i got for the hassle in the end was a €30 voucher which was to cover my phone calls to uk to which i insisted they gave me cash for it as i wouldnt buy one more thing from their shop, currys or dixons (all the one company). Ive learnt that the best shop to buy from is an Irish owned one. I dont know how they keep their shops open as everytime i pass the shop it is more or less empty.

daywalker

sandyg wrote:

I dont know how they keep their shops open as everytime i pass the shop it is more or less empty.

DSG international which own the chains, despite the numerous consumer complaints levied against the stores, are still making huge profits, as people tend to go with their wallets, and to the average consumer, excluding us clever boardsies , PC World/Dixons/Currys generally have cheap goods. also in some cases the stores have little competition, in Waterford for example there are very few competitors in the market to PC world, and even those who are competing do not have the amount of goods in stock that PC World have.

bullrunner

i bought my laptop from pc world a while back..no probs with it so far (touch wood!)....but i also got "the you have to buy our warranty in case the laptop breaks"...so i asked how much was it...to which i was told it was 40 euro a month for 10 mths! I nearly fell off the chair when i heard that! That almost half the price i paid for the bloody thing. I told them that i wasnt paying that...and the sales rep said that all kinda things could go wrong with the laptop. Told him that if anything went wrong with the laptop that PC World would be replacing it...as a laptop shouldnt break down within 12mths! He also told me that even though i was not buying the laptop that i had to give him my name phone number and address.(??) i refused and that kinda confused him..he had to call over his manager to find out what to do in that situation!

Safrole

Yeah sadly my laptop went on the blink in March, just after I had been paid my bonus for the quarter. So much as I loath even setting foot into their stores I was faced with a) Buy one from them on credit or b) wait two months.

I found out after Dell do credit also. /doh.

On a similar note, where is a good place to get PC's from in Dublin? Dixons was the only one I could find in the city centre.

daywalker

bullrunner wrote:

He also told me that even though i was not buying the laptop that i had to give him my name phone number and address.(??) i refused and that kinda confused him..he had to call over his manager to find out what to do in that situation!

i assume you mean you didn't buy the insurance plan, and he still asked for a name and address?

I think the name and address thing is to do with the guarantee, which is tied to PC world rather than the manufacturer directly, though you are entitled to refuse to give a name and address, the fact that he was confused and had to call for a manager, just goes to show of the abysmal, or lack of, training that they give their staff.

Red Alert

I'd only really buy from Dell, for any PC's i'm not actually building.

Sponge Bob

Safrole wrote:

On a similar note, where is a good place to get PC's from in Dublin? Dixons was the only one I could find in the city centre.

Marx

http://www.marxcomputers.ie/

Safrole

I ended up taking the pc back from them as they finally got it fixed. Was all in working order, so when the small claims court guy rang I told him to drop the claim.

More fool me....

It broke again at the weekend, from what I can see exact same issue - motherboard or graphics card.

I went into the store and demanded a replacement, she told me that unless it has been repaired three times for the same issue they would not replace it.

Their interpretation of "fit for use it was sold for" is crazy.

Will post an update when I get their reaction to the small claims notice.

Fanboy

daywalker wrote:

i assume you mean you didn't buy the insurance plan, and he still asked for a name and address?

I think the name and address thing is to do with the guarantee, which is tied to PC world rather than the manufacturer directly, though you are entitled to refuse to give a name and address, the fact that he was confused and had to call for a manager, just goes to show of the abysmal, or lack of, training that they give their staff.

Right you are...so if people lose the receipt, they can look it up using name & address.

gerrycollins

i bought a pc from dixons 5/6 years ago and three years after a few things went wrong with it and i had the insurance thing and luck i did, got it fixed in under 4 days both time for different things.

new pc 2 years now and nothing wrong so far so I'm a happy customer.

sorry to hear about ur plight and its not the first i've heard, but everything u have said was the exact opposite with me. I was able to contact the engineer directly, took no more than 2 days for him to contact me and i used my local dixons as a drop off point for him to fix it instead of calling to my house.

i would like to hear that you will persue a small claims on the matter if it is possible, considering its fixable plus if you read the small print on their insurance contracts and sales contracts they cover their arse without you even knowing it. the only course is tru the courts but probably not do a thing to them

Safrole

gerrycollins wrote:

i bought a pc from dixons 5/6 years ago and three years after a few things went wrong with it and i had the insurance thing and luck i did, got it fixed in under 4 days both time for different things.

new pc 2 years now and nothing wrong so far so I'm a happy customer.

sorry to hear about ur plight and its not the first i've heard, but everything u have said was the exact opposite with me. I was able to contact the engineer directly, took no more than 2 days for him to contact me and i used my local dixons as a drop off point for him to fix it instead of calling to my house.

i would like to hear that you will persue a small claims on the matter if it is possible, considering its fixable plus if you read the small print on their insurance contracts and sales contracts they cover their arse without you even knowing it. the only course is tru the courts but probably not do a thing to them

To be honest your just proving the point here. Those who shell out for the coverplan get the golden treatment and the rest can go to hell. The reason I didn't get the coverplan is that in the first year if anything goes wrong, legally they are obliged to sort out under the sale of goods act.

I would have been happy with a replacement up until now, but will go for a refund and see what happens. I didn't sign any agreement with them at all, however even if I did it would be null - you can't get someone to sign away a legal right (in most circumstances), making the contract itself illegal.

Safrole

Got a call from a supervisor today, who offered me a full replacement.

She listened, asked questions and talked sense. Finally!

mcaul

Had problem with new camera boght in dixons (was pressie, so I hadn't choice in what store it was bought from!) - Internal connectors missing, so CF card would not go in.

They tried the "we'll send it to canon for repair story - it will take 28 days" Simply informed them the the problem was obvious and canon would more than likely give a replacement. Also said it seemed to be a display model as the seal ion the box was broken when received. Kept cool, kept manners and received a replacement - probably helped that the store was busy. - Initailly they thought they had no replacement and were going to send me over to PC World, but manager knew they had 2 in storeroom somewhere and decided to a a good look as - in his own words - "PC World staff suck - they probably won't look after you"

So warning is - if their own staff think this of PC World then better avoid!

afatbollix

bought a wireless stuff in dixions asked the manager if this is what i needed to set it up...3times i had to go back telling them it wont work...on the third time i just asked for my money back...then noticed while leaving what i really needed..must of just got it in...so told me to buy whatever they had on the shelf....

sdanseo

3 words:

Small Claims Court.