Curry's Sales Staff Advice

magicbastarder · 26-03-2017 5:36pm

thelad95 wrote: »

always trying to upsell and give you insurance and warranties which only add very minimally to your consumer rights if at all.

i was buying a birthday present of an electric shaver for my brother years ago, and was offered the insurance on it for €15 (it was €75 for the shaver iirc). i managed to bargain the chap down - he was the manager, i imagine most staff don't have the authority to bargain - to €2.50 for it, which shows how much it's making for them.

chicorytip · 26-03-2017 9:09pm

TerrorFirmer wrote:

Most shops usually have assigned departments, so that particular staff members are expected to know the basics of a particular department (eg washing machines and fridges, TV and audio, laptops and tablets etc.) Most large retail stores have staff that are geared towards certain areas of knowledge, they don't expect staff to know everything about everything.

This is no longer the case in many large retailers, as far as I can tell. In Curry's, for example, there is just one centrally located checkout/information area in the store where general sales staff are deployed rather than "specialists" for each department.

murpho999 · 26-03-2017 10:04pm

I wish people would learn he shop name is Currys not Curry's.

Grayson · 26-03-2017 10:17pm

ForestFire wrote: »

Taken direct from their own website:

....Every day, we use our people’s expertise to reach out and help new customers......

...we can offer our customers the most comprehensive service....

When I worked in M&S years ago the number of people who would ask for wine suggestions was ridiculous.

Grayson · 26-03-2017 10:19pm

magicbastarder wrote: »

i was buying a birthday present of an electric shaver for my brother years ago, and was offered the insurance on it for €15 (it was €75 for the shaver iirc). i managed to bargain the chap down - he was the manager, i imagine most staff don't have the authority to bargain - to €2.50 for it, which shows how much it's making for them.

I worked in a computer store and we had the authority to offer accessories at cost as long as it came with something. So if you bought a laptop then the sales person could discount mice, bags etc...

LordSutch · 27-03-2017 4:42am

BailMeOut wrote: »

bought a new washing machine at Harvey Normans yesterday and the very young guy we dealt with knew everything about every model they sold. He could do mastermind with washing machines as his specialist subject! Very impressive young lad and very positive experience.

Its wonderful when that happens, not just in Hardly Normal, but whatever retail shop you happen to be in. Getting a knowledgeable & honest salesperson is very reassuring, but but you can be lucky in any store, even Currys.

I wouldn't personally single out Currys as a bad retailer, as over the decades I have come across all kinds of sales people in many different retail chains, from McKennas (remember them)? to Power City, to PC World to whatever ... good & bad in all.

Was in Hickeys fabric shop last week and got a very snooty & unhelpful sales assistant (very off putting), so I came back later in the week & found another more helpful & eager to sell assistant, made my purchase, job done.

ssmith6287 · 27-03-2017 12:50pm

LordSutch wrote: »

Its wonderful when that happens, not just in Hardly Normal, but whatever retail shop you happen to be in. Getting a knowledgeable & honest salesperson is very reassuring, but but you can be lucky in any store, even Currys.

I wouldn't personally single out Currys as a bad retailer, as over the decades I have come across all kinds of sales people in many different retail chains, from McKennas (remember them)? to Power City, to PC World to whatever ... good & bad in all.

Was in Hickeys fabric shop last week and got a very snooty & unhelpful sales assistant (very off putting), so I came back later in the week & found another more helpful & eager to sell assistant, made my purchase, job done.

Id imagine it's extremely difficult to remain honest and ethical when you are judged on these hard sales products. Personal experience of being an honest salesperson, it causes more harm then good because you don't agree with customers points of view. then all of a sudden you've gone from being honest to offering poor customer service. so in this day n age my conclusion in general is good customer service is lying to get the goods out the door, poor customer service is being honest and truthfull

witchgirl26 · 27-03-2017 1:19pm

ForestFire wrote: »

At no point did I say I expect them to know everything, but I do not think it is acceptable to make stuff up, as I said 'I don't know' or 'I need to check' are reasonable responses.

Somewhat contradicting yourself there - from your OP it looks like the sales guy did say they'd have to check with someone and you walked away.

ForestFire wrote: »

Sales:-
I'll have to check with someone else
Me:-
Its okay I have to leave now

Look I agree that sometimes the sales guys are less then great. I've had mixed experiences but have to say my last one in Currys was great. The guy went out of his way to get me the best price possible for what I was buying and when he couldn't get it down any lower, threw in some extra bits for free which was much appreciated.

On the other hand in Harvey Norman who advertise that they are willing to haggle, when I asked if that was the best price they could do, the guy just looked at me & said "Whatever's on the tag, that's what it is & that's the price". I left at that point. Had another one try to sell me a fitbit with the large strap coz "ah sure it'll fit you, you'll just have to put it to the tightest bit".

Wildcard7 · 27-03-2017 1:58pm

cml387 wrote: »

Given that all this stuff is available to buy directly from Amazon we still choose to go to a store and interact with people to buy something, so maybe we should cut the shops a little slack or one day they'll be gone.

The reason people still go to physical shops is because they are happy to pay a little extra for help buying the right product. Sadly that's not what happens sometimes. Shops like Currys will be gone soon if they don't provide that extra service, and that might take paying their people a little more than minimum wage to get people who are somewhat motivated and knowledgable.

I wouldn't buy anything in a shop like Currys, because I know my way around computers and electronics. On the other hand I would have to rely on sales staff in places like woodies, as I don't really have a clue about DIY. I'm happy driving all the way to a physical store for being able to look at the items, touch them and talk to someone. If they can't give me answers or outright make stuff up then there is literally no point in having a physical shop at all.

magicbastarder · 27-03-2017 2:01pm

i have on two occasions cost shops sales by butting in and letting the people getting the pitch that they are being lied to. in one instance i was then followed round the shop by security until i left.

ForestFire · 27-03-2017 2:01pm

witchgirl26 wrote: »

Somewhat contradicting yourself there - from your OP it looks like the sales guy did say they'd have to check with someone and you walked away.
.

I'm sorry, but this is a completely miss-representation.

They only said this when I pushed them 3 times during their incorrect information, and they had nowhere else to go....but luckily I did....and with the extraordinarily made up answers I got I wasn't prepared any longer to listen to anyone else.

I later rang the Supplier directly myself to clarify the situation and bought elsewhere.

I posted this here as I thought is was kind of funny in a kind of ridiculous way, but I have to say I am surprised that some people think that:-

1) Packers are the same as Sales Assistance (But anytime I have asked a question in supermarket they never told me lies)
2)Its okay for sales staff to completely make up rubbish instead of saying they "don't know" or going to find out (Other member of staff/manager/Supplier).

Its €400 the shop lost out on because of this, and to be honest I was expecting and prepared to accept that the 10yr thing was not much good to me anyway, I simply wanted to know up front.

Can everyone be honest and say if they told you that, "they would post the washing machine parts out to you if it fails", would you have accepted this? What would you have done?

P.S. I am well aware also that this is only one story from one shop and it can happen in any shop the same and you can get a great sales person in Currys

witchgirl26 · 27-03-2017 2:11pm

ForestFire wrote: »

I'm sorry, but this is a completely miss-representation.

They only said this when I pushed them 3 times during their incorrect information, and they had nowhere else to go....but luckily I did....and with the extraordinarily made up answers I got I wasn't prepared any longer to listen to anyone else.

I later rang the Supplier directly myself to clarify the situation and bought elsewhere.

I posted this here as I thought is was kind of funny in a kind of ridicules way, but I have to say I am surprised that some people think that:-

1) Packers are the same as Sales Assistance (But anytime I have asked a question in supermarket they never told me lies)
2)Its okay for sales staff to completely make up rubbish instead of saying they "don't know" or going to find out (Other member of staff/manager/Supplier).

Its €400 the shop lost out on because of this, and to be honest I was expecting and prepared to accept that the 10yr thing was not much good to me anyway, I simply wanted to know up front.

Can everyone be honest and say if they told you that, "they would post the washing machine parts out to you if it fails", would you have accepted this? What would you have done?

P.S. I am well aware also that this is only one story from one shop and it can happen in any shop the same and you can get a great sales person in Currys

It's not a mis-representation at all I don't think. You said repeatedly that if they'd admitted they didn't know, you'd give them a chance but you didn't. So they tried to blag it a bit before having to run off to a supervisor - can you honestly say you've never done that in a job at all?! Yes the answers were stupid but honestly if I did want the product, I would have let them go get the supervisor and if their answers were as stupid, yeah walk away but give it a chance.

If they had said that to me I would have asked them if they could clarify the position with a supervisor as that sounded a bit unrealistic to me & wouldn't it void the warranty. Mainly because I don't want to see someone dig themselves into a hole at my expense & leave them feeling like a right idiot. I would have given the supervisor a chance to explain it to me or at least look it up.

Look not saying that what they said was the smartest thing but they did own up to not knowing and offered to get someone but weren't given the chance. If this was going on for 30mins, that's one thing but it sounds like a short enough exchange so I'd have given it a few more minutes.

ForestFire · 27-03-2017 2:40pm

witchgirl26 wrote: »

if they'd admitted they didn't know, you'd give them a chance but you didn't.

I'm not sure I said this directly, but what I meant is that, if they had done this in the first place without trying to bluff in the first instance.

And yes they did try to recover the situation after this and admit they did not know so fair play to her for that.

But If I had asked for the supervisor would that have not made it worse for her? Putting her on the spot in front of her boss and highlighting what she told me?

What I done was simply tell her, "Thanks and I had to go", so it was left there.

Anyway in general

It was only meant to be a funny story (Although some think not:(), not to be taken too seriously and to make people aware that not everything you are told is correct, but I guess most people already know this (And even some people accept the odd miss-information it as normal)

Capt'n Midnight · 30-03-2017 11:20pm

Currys Dixons and PC World are the same company.

In the past , and I hope they've stopped, I've had PC World sales people try to sell me insurance by suggesting that I commit fraud and lie about damage near the end of the term to recoup the cost.

The other thing that galled was being pushed to buy Microsoft Office when I could see they were using OpenOffice on their own computers.

rob316 · 31-03-2017 2:57pm

Nevermind Curry's, I was in the market for a new car recently and the level of misinformation I was been given was shocking from car dealers. I do expect some level of knowledge but I do feel somewhere like Curry's the consumer should go in armed with a bit of knowhow and there is no excuse when the internet is so readily available.

The_Kew_Tour · 31-03-2017 3:52pm

I have been in worse, but its funny when they try sell you insurance on a toaster. I mean in all fairness!

paulbok · 31-03-2017 4:19pm

magentis wrote: »

Them kerry lads are always mixing up inches and centimeters.

Just like the Healy-Raes, give 'em an inch and they'll take a kilometer.

Curry's Sales Staff Advice

Comments