Good old PC World(Dixons Group)

joseph brand

Received this in an e-mail.

Just proves what I already know to be true, from my own, and friends experiences'.

http://www.complaints.com/april2003/complaintoftheday.april30.2.htm

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on April 29, 2003:

From: joe Andrews [joeca1234@hotmail.com]

RE: PC World, Blanchardstown, Dublin, Ireland - price changed on PC while attempting to purchase it


Hi there,

I hope you can help me in my complaint regarding PC WORLD.I went into their store in blanchardstown in dublin to buy a new pc with 1500 euros in my pocket. while i was looking around i saw some clearance models. These were just towers and nothing else. I thought this was ideal as the only thing wrong with my current pc is the processor(its a bit slow). There were no prices on the items though. I called for an assistant and another customer was interested in the same model as me as there were 2 of them.

The assistant came back and quoted 450 euros. Myself and the other customer thought this was a great price as the specs on the pc were great. the assistant took them to the till but the cashier wanted to do a price check.
An assistant came back 10 minutes later and stated they had made a mistake and they were 650 euros. Myself and the other customer said we would think about it. I phoned a friend of mine who knows computers like the back of his hand and told him the specs, he said at 650 euros its still a good buy.

I asked an assitant to speak to manager and a deputy(with no name badge) appeared. I told him of the confusion about the price and the time i had to spend waiting in the store in the hope of a small reduction on the 650
euros. His attitude was one of he didnt care what i thought and 650euros is the price. I then asked if i could speak to the general manager. after 10 more minutes he arrived wearing white jeans, navy tee shirt and no name
badge!

Before i could say a word he stated the machine was actually selling for 1000euros not 650. I then stated to him that irish law requires everything must have a price visable to the consumer to avoid confusion. He
stated that he didnt by law have to price everything!( he's scottish) I asked him to write down his name and a telephone number of the area manager. He came back with his name(eddie mcgrory) and a telephone number(01-8781620)) and i left the store.

Phoning the number the next day it was the number for the mastercare coverplan service for thier products. Luckily the young woman was able to put me through to customer services where i spoke to mohammed. I explained the whole situation and then he said he wanted to phone the store and put me on hold. 16 minutes late he came back to me and said he had spoken to managers in the store and they stated i wasnt quoted 650euros but 1200euros and that when the manager quoted 1000 euros it was a good will gesture. You
could imagine my frustration at this point.

Mohammed then gave me a reference number : 436315. i asked what was this for, is this for my benefit for following up the complaint. He stated the complaint would be investigated internally and no further contact would be made to myself about the complaint. I though this customer complaint arrangement was very wierd as they take alll of you details at the beginning of the call.

I feel i need help in putting my point accross to someone at the dixons group to get some consumer confidence back. Im a retailer myself and i feel if my staff treated any of my customers in the way i was treated, i would be
in serious financial trouble.

Please, Please help
Kindest regards
Joe Andrews

Flukey

I recently decided to get an electric blanket. I could have got it a while ago but anticipating that I would get some vouchers as Christmas presents and that the sales would now be on, I waited until last Tuesday. Then I went into one of the main department stores in Dublin, Roches Stores, and bought myself an electric blanket.

I looked at some of the different ones on offer. One that looked quite good did not have a price on it. It was the only one of its type there, though there were very similar ones by the same manufacturers that had prices on them of around €51. I presumed it would be about the same price and with the vouchers and the 15% reduction advertised I'd get it fairly cheap anyway.

I did even better than expected. I took it up to the cashier to do a price check on it. She did it and I was surprised at the price she gave me. At just over €25 it was far less than the other ones of the same brand and similar versions, so it could not have been right, and I pointed this out. She scanned it again and it turned out that the item code had been incorrectly entered in their system as it was giving the name and price of a completely different brand and much cheaper one. She consulted one of her colleagues who was on a nearby register and he said that they would have to sell it to me at that price and point out the error to their superior, who was not there until the following day. Items should have a price on them and shops have to sell products at the price quoted, so I was lucky.

skywalker

Flukey wrote:

shops have to sell products at the price quoted,

not true. price tag is an offer to treat only, not a binding contract.

Spalk0

skywalker wrote:

not true. price tag is an offer to treat only, not a binding contract.

Thats in some cases of price advertising!

In others its illegal.....Im not sure which is which now as its been a while since i did bus org!

Drakar

Once the company made a genuine mistake, they can refuse to sell you anything which may have been priced incorrectly. The only time they can get in trouble with this is if it can be shown that they didn't take due care (so if 5 customers all come up with the same mispriced good, and if the shop doesn't update the sign/price stickers they may be at fault if further customers are misled). It's very unusual though to have a shop in trouble in this way.

Kingsize

the dixons thing is typical of big uk retail companies who venture off what they wrongly refer to as "the mainland",most of the managers/team leaders are brought in from the uk on the promise of a promotion back in blighty a few years later.A lot of them dont really want to be here & consequently treat their customers & staff like sh-it.

okidoki987

That story does not surprise me as it involves ANY of the Dixons Group
(Pc World, Curry's or Dixon's).
The lot of them put together are useless.

tk123

What about in say Icelands or Homebase where the price is in Sterling - do they have to accept sterling?!
Anyhoos I got my laptop in PC world - 31 days later i got a smart drive message saying the drive was going to die and to back up my stuff. I did a backup and called PC World after waiting aaages the tech support guys said they wouldn't fix it till it actually broke and if it was after 12months I would foot the bill!!!! All was not lost thou becuase my good friends at boards told me I could go directly to the place that fix Toshibas - they had it sorted in 3 days!! Also PC World and Co get really shirty if you refuse to take service plans /insurance with them!

d22ontour

i bought goods in dixons and when i went to the till i was told that the wrong price was displayed ,the manager came over and quickly gave the floor staff an ear bashing then gave me goods for display price,and all the remaining goods were removed and repriced i presume

elvis2002

hmm. invitation to treat as said above. Shops have the right to refuse selling you something. Dixons are prefectly legal here if im right.

Something similar happens with the dell website sometimes, like they put a pc up for a euro by accident and you have all these lads buying them as quick as possible. Dell send out an email saying they cancelled the order, people then start complaining saying they proof of purchase etc. But remember "Invitation to Treat".

Orion

Trigger! wrote:

Thats in some cases of price advertising!

In others its illegal.....Im not sure which is which now as its been a while since i did bus org!

Actually it's in all cases. As stated any price tag is an invitation to treat. The contract does not take place until you make an offer at the till to pay the price displayed. At that point they can tell you it's actually a higher (or lower) price. (test case in the 80s was a woman vs Boots)

The gray area is when they charge you a higher price without asking you (eg supermarkets). Technically you have offered to purchase as the display price but they have charged a higher price without your agreement. That puts them in the wrong.

So - legally the guys in Dixons were acting within their rights. From a customer satisfaction point of view though they were completely in the wrong.

joePC

If your going into PC World with €1500 to buy a PC you deserve to get abused, So he got the wrong price fcuk sake get over it ((JESUS)), If he wern't so hungry about getting a discount off the €650 (for what ooohhh Yes ""the confusion"") he may have got a good deal......

I am MAN

I would love to hear what the specs actually where.

Keyzer

On a good note, bout 3-4 years ago, went into pc world to buy some ram and a game. Ended up picking up Return to castle wolfenstein and 80 pounds worth of ram. The dude at the till was so busy talking to his mate he charged me 20 qiuid for the lot. they dont give a shlt....

On a bad note
Also, when speaking to one of their "computer experts" about what ram i needed (was almost 100% sure i needed pc100), he says stick it in and see what happens.. Great response...

When buying a graphics card I asked another guy to tell me the difference between 2 cards.
The response - "That ones good, but that ones better"...

I built my next pc myself and would never buy anything from those muppets again...

Keyzer

joePC wrote:

If your going into PC World with €1500 to buy a PC you deserve to get abused

Fool.....
Do you speak to your customers like that?
Some people aren't as computer savvy as others.
1500 Euro for some people = super dooper machine with all the extras....

Chong

tk123 wrote:

What about in say Icelands or Homebase where the price is in Sterling - do they have to accept sterling?!
Anyhoos I got my laptop in PC world - 31 days later i got a smart drive message saying the drive was going to die and to back up my stuff. I did a backup and called PC World after waiting aaages the tech support guys said they wouldn't fix it till it actually broke and if it was after 12months I would foot the bill!!!! All was not lost thou becuase my good friends at boards told me I could go directly to the place that fix Toshibas - they had it sorted in 3 days!! Also PC World and Co get really shirty if you refuse to take service plans /insurance with them!

Very true once say that you dont want the coverplan and insurance, they get so narked.

pat kenny

I wonder if he would have got it for €650 if he shut the **** up and didn't ask for a discount he wasn't entitled to.
He kicked himself in the balls and then complained about it.
Proof that the customer isn't always right, sometimes hes just an @sshole.

Red Alert

Not surprised about roches stores - their pos system was installed by complete muppets (NSB). (We had the same one where I used to work and ended up doing a lot of manual corrections.) In fact, I make a point of avoiding Roches anyway because there's better quality stuff for less elsewhere.

My friend went into compustore during with summer wanting to buy some hardware, I forget what exactly. Was going to come to around 80/90, I think. He then asked for a student discount. The price then came down to 35...student discounts aren't generally around the 60% mark...

gaui3d0pnbz86o

that email was sent apriel 29th 2003 , thats old, however some points still remain valid

but the point about the 2 graphics cards above, most people who shop in pc world do not know much about pcs, and an answer like that one is faster\better then that one, normally suits them fine. they dont want to hear, well this card is a refined version of the xxxx chipset with added x and y, it means nothing to them.