Harvey Norman Scam into buying AntiVirus

AllForIt

Cecelia Damp Cross wrote: »

OP, you admit she's computer illiterate and yet allowed her go an buy a laptop on her own....the first fault lies with you!

God forbid anyone allowing women to do things on their own.

Del2005

AllForIt wrote: »

God forbid anyone allowing women to do things on their own.

Sex doesn't matter if they have no idea what they are buying.

Krazzzzy Kay

Xterminator wrote: »

Not all users need SSD.

If your mother told me speed and performance was not a requirement (eg just general use and browsing the internet etc), and plenty of storage was what she wanted, i would have steered her in the direction of mechanical 1tb drive over a 256gb SSD.

Its simplistic and nonsense to suggest that standard hard drives are undesirable and being dumped on dupes. i know plenty of excs who got surface pros/ slim laptops with SSDs etc, and are really struggling for space on their SSD's after 1 year. With the OS, a few programmes and a bagful of pictures, your out of space before you know it, and cannot get updates to install etc. for someone who has external storage and knows what they are doing, grand, but for less proficient users ....

With regards to getting 2 different antiviruses for 2 different OS - its not illegal, probably not unethical either. do they have one product that would cover both? if not then its justified. PS i wouldn't rely on defender only on my laptop and i can at least spot scams before i give me bank details to prince jamal! For an end user - its probably not a bad thing to have defender and another store bought product, and certainly not grounds for complaint, in itself.

IMO you are attributing bad intentions and sharp business practises to the sales person, when there are other explanations. You are vaguely unhappy, you dont peronall agree with some of the decisions. But they were not inherently wrong.

I'm sorry but I have to disagree, I don't know anybody who wouldn't prefer their computer complete a task faster, no matter what they use it for, I couldn't be arsed listing all the other advantages an SSD has over a mechanical drive, if you want extra storage, there are plenty of free cloud offerings, and external HDD's if you really need it.

Your entitled to your opinion though

I never suggested to only use defender, I would pair it with malwarebytes anti malware, but as an anti-virus Windows Defender is as good if not better than any other offering and has the advantage of being bundled in the OS making it lightweight and efficient on resources.

I don't know what store bought product you would put on your machine along with Windows Defender, but I can assure you that you are wasting your money and it is very much so a bad thing!

HN sold my mother something twice, it would by like buying a car and then being sold an extra car jack, you don't need it, the car came with a perfectly good working car jack, in fact the car jack they are selling you is inferior to the one the car maker provided with the car.

Del2005 wrote: »

Your complaining about being ripped off yet you sent her to bricks and mortar shops which are more expensive than buying on the net. When you gave her the specs would it not have been as easy to actually pick one out and buy it for her, that's what I'd for a friend never mind my mother.

I did pick a laptop for her at www.komplett.ie, she took the decision to go into HN, what can I say, I can't force her to purchase online. :rolleyes:

dunleakelleher

Krazzzzy Kay wrote: »

vided with the car.
I did pick a laptop for her at www.komplett.ie, she took the decision to go into HN, what can I say, I can't force her to purchase online. :rolleyes:

but you could have gone along and helped her, after all, she is computer illiterate. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

robo

I think the title of this thread is a bit misleading

ballyargus

I worked as a Toshiba rep in HN many years ago. Got a bit of bother for telling people not to bother with Anti-virus because it's a waste of money and system resources.

Upselling and adding crap to people's carts is very much part of their modus operandi. You should have picked one online for her and either ordered it or gotten her to order it after pinging her on the link.

uck51js9zml2yt

AllForIt wrote: »

God forbid anyone allowing women to do things on their own.

OP knew she didnt have a clue and yet didnt bother to go with her knowing what these stores are like!

Krazzzzy Kay

Cecelia Damp Cross wrote: »

AllForIt wrote: »

God forbid anyone allowing women to do things on their own.

OP knew she didnt have a clue and yet didnt bother to go with her knowing what these stores are like!

That's not even slightly true, I gave her the information she needed, I didn't know the stores would do what they did, and it wasn't possible for me to travel to her county within the time that she wanted to get her new laptop.

Thanks for trying to paint me as some sort of devil child though, she'll get a good laugh out of this when I show her :D

jimmycrackcorm

Xterminator wrote:

If your mother told me speed and performance was not a requirement (eg just general use and browsing the internet etc), and plenty of storage was what she wanted, i would have steered her in the direction of mechanical 1tb drive over a 256gb SSD.

Most users do not require large storage these days. What is an illiterate computer user going to use a TB drive for? Why do you think, for example, that the bat majority of MacBooks sold have low storage options.

Even movie storage and torrents have been superceded by streaming. But not only does an SSD improve start up but the overall performance is improved from the advantage of memory paging.

billybonkers

HN are <SNIP>

CrankyHaus

Krazzzzy Kay wrote: »

That's not even slightly true, I gave her the information she needed, I didn't know the stores would do what they did, and it wasn't possible for me to travel to her county within the time that she wanted to get her new laptop.

Thanks for trying to paint me as some sort of devil child though, she'll get a good laugh out of this when I show her :D

Have you brought it all back and got a full refund yet?

It's poor form but not surprising. I don't know about HN but a lot of companies train staff to upsell and even have secret shoppers attend and assess whether they do or not, with the person who didn't upsell getting "constructive feedback" (a bollocking).

Really for electronics for old relatives the best thing is to decide what they want and get it for them online and then have them reimburse you. My parents have so much junk electronics that they've bought that I feel sorry for them.

coylemj

CrankyHaus wrote: »

... a lot of companies train staff to upsell and even have secret shoppers attend and assess whether they do or not, with the person who didn't upsell getting "constructive feedback" (a bollocking).

That's especially true of electrical retailers. A lot of the people who come through the door already know the price of what they're buying because they've checked the websites of you and your competitors - DID, Power City, Currys/PC World etc.

Which means that a high proportion of customers are buying items with tight margins so (surprise, surprise) the shop will make up for the low profit margin by pushing high-margin extras. And people in the retail business know all too well that people making a large purchase are vulnerable amenable to this upselling - sure what's €60 for a HDMI cable when you're spending €900 on a TV?

CrankyHaus

coylemj wrote: »

That's especially true of electrical retailers. A lot of the people who come through the door already know the price of what they're buying because they've checked the websites of you and your competitors - DID, Power City, Currys/PC World etc.

Which means that a high proportion of customers are buying items with tight margins so (surprise, surprise) the shop will make up for the low profit margin by pushing high-margin extras. And people in the retail business know all too well that people making a large purchase are vulnerable amenable to this upselling - sure what's €60 for a HDMI cable when you're spending €900 on a TV?

Gold plated HDMI cables anyone??

rock22

Krazzzzy Kay wrote: »

...

..

...r.


I did pick a laptop for her at www.komplett.ie, she took the decision to go into HN, what can I say, I can't force her to purchase online. :rolleyes:

Your problem seems to be that your mother preferred the advice of the shop assistant rather than the advice you offered.

Realistically, what do you expect. Do you want an upper age for purchase of IT equipment? Should HN refused to sell to her because she was elderly and ask her to return with her son?

Even if you go and buy a suit, the assistant will try to sell you a shirt and tie. It happens. And I am sure your mother has experienced this type of upselling before.

beauf

rock22 wrote: »

Your problem seems to be that your mother preferred the advice of the shop assistant rather than the advice you offered....

No the issue is they deliberately directed the customer from a better spec machine to a lesser spec machine but added in AV not to give the customer a better experience but to give the shop/salesperson better profit margin.

Ye are all making this personal about the OP, when thats not the point at all.

If the sale guy is not going to be helpful you'd be better not using them at all. Which many will know.

dunleakelleher

Krazzzzy Kay wrote: »

I didn't know the stores would do what they did,  :D

erm, like sell stuff....

listermint

OP , why didnt you go in with her.

If you feel that strongly about the purchase.... ?

Krazzzzy Kay

CrankyHaus wrote: »

Have you brought it all back and got a full refund yet?

It's poor form but not surprising. I don't know about HN but a lot of companies train staff to upsell and even have secret shoppers attend and assess whether they do or not, with the person who didn't upsell getting "constructive feedback" (a bollocking).

Really for electronics for old relatives the best thing is to decide what they want and get it for them online and then have them reimburse you. My parents have so much junk electronics that they've bought that I feel sorry for them.

She wont let me take it back, I would gladly :cool:

I don't think she'll like being called old, I said she's computer illiterate, not a pensioner :P

I will be insisting on making future purchases on her behalf

Krazzzzy Kay

beauf wrote: »

No the issue is they deliberately directed the customer from a better spec machine to a lesser spec machine but added in AV not to give the customer a better experience but to give the shop/salesperson better profit margin.

This pretty much sums it up, telling her that the SSD is not worth the extra money, but then telling her the anti-virus is, it's just scummy in my eyes :mad:

rock22

Krazzzzy Kay wrote: »

She wont let me take it back, I would gladly :cool:

I don't think she'll like being called old, I said she's computer illiterate, not a pensioner :P

I will be insisting on making future purchases on her behalf

really?

Gatoh

Nothing upsets me more than HN and C sales people advise ( rather insisting ) to television buyers that they need to purchase additional €90 HDMI cable or otherwise "that new TV wont produce good enough picture" ..

mcmoustache

Gatoh wrote: »

Nothing upsets me more than HN and C sales people advise ( rather insisting ) to television buyers that they need to purchase additional €90 HDMI cable or otherwise "that new TV wont produce good enough picture" ..

Is there anything illegal about making such a claim? It doesn't seem right to me that you should be allowed to say that but it's not something that's mentioned in the SOG act either.

It's certainly rotten behaviour.

Gatoh

mcmoustache wrote: »

Is there anything illegal about making such a claim?

No ..

..but it's certainly rotten behavior indeed

goat2

I also find that when buying products, like a laptop I bought for a few hundred, then they advise you to pay for an extended warranty, I always turn this down, the price of these warranties are very expensive, when I ask the price, and anyway every item has a warrenty for some time after buying, so if faults come, it should happen in first few weeks

Dakota Dan

My wife and I went into HM a few years ago to buy a bargain flat screen TV. It was €500 for a 42" so my wife was chatting to the salesman as I was looking around. When I came back he had her convinced that she needed a special cloth and spray to clean the screen, an overpriced wall bracket, costly insurance in case anything happened the tv plus other add ons. The €500 tv was now at €1200, I said no thanks and went elsewhere bought the same tv for €500 and got a wall bracket off amazon for €10.

goat2

Dakota Dan wrote: »

My wife and I went into HM a few years ago to buy a bargain flat screen TV. It was €500 for a 42" so my wife was chatting to the salesman as I was looking around. When I came back he had her convinced that she needed a special cloth and spray to clean the screen, an overpriced wall bracket, costly insurance in case anything happened the tv plus other add ons. The €500 tv was now at €1200, I said no thanks and went elsewhere bought the same tv for €500 and got a wall bracket off amazon for €10.

Greed gets a person no where, 500 turned to 1200 for v little, this is just awful, and he lost a sale by doing so, I always turn down add ons, they always try to sell these insurances

oldblues

It's an electronics retailer issue, not the sales person - they are usually remunerated based on profit not a % of the sale value so they have to upsell to earn

Plus there are normally a series of required targets to be met in order to have their commission kick in so they have to add to each sale just to get what they are due, HN are probably the worst of them

Tough gig but unfortunately every time you walk in the door you're a target for the biggest basket they can get you back out with

rubadub

I now warn my father not to buy any extras, that they can all be bought online or elsewhere. I remember he came back with a USB mini B cable once which was 10 or 12euro, he did bring it back, he already had about 5 of them in the house!

You should show them this online, the cheapest HDMI cable in HN is a tenner, for a 1m one, I got a 1m one in dealz for 1.50 a few days ago. In argos a .75m is 1.29.

Part of the confidence trick is that they know people will likely have gone online to research stuff, then figure the shop is relatively cheap and so just guess things like cables are charged at the "going rate". I would love to be able to sting one of these places on price promises, like some might math the price or instead give you twice the difference in price as vouchers or something. Go in and buy 100 HDMI cables for 1000, then show the exact same one is 2.50 in powercity.

I have overheard sales people talking to customers and been disgusted at some stuff, I have gone over to a few people before after and advise them.

Gatoh wrote: »

Nothing upsets me more than HN and C sales people advise ( rather insisting ) to television buyers that they need to purchase additional €90 HDMI cable or otherwise "that new TV wont produce good enough picture" ..

I would love to overhear this and butt in going "yes, the difference is remarkable, well worth the extra -in fact they can easily demonstrate this to you by comparing the standard one and the 90 euro one".

Ideally the salesman or another salesman would be called in to tell which was the good one, without them seeing which was connected.

Muahahaha

Years back in Currys while waiting for assistance the salesman was upselling a warranty on a laptop for 300 euro to a couple in their 70s. After standing several minutes I couldnt stand it any more and interjected to tell the couple it was a very expensive warranty and their best bet was just to buy the laptop and use it to do their own research on warranties which are available anytime and dont have to be bought on the day of purchase. Needless to say the sales person was none too impressed but I just couldnt remain silent while he was talking 300 euro out of two pensioners pockets.