Compustore

Fusion251 · 28-10-2004 05:05PM

cheesedude wrote:

I am very glad the overpriced piece of crap that it is closed down.

"Them's angry typin words!" Was it you I chased from the shop not long back with a 17" PowerBook in yer arms?? Ye didn't get away though...did ye? :eek:

heggie · 28-10-2004 05:08PM

lol, think yer right about the abuse there. Somethins up with him

The Brigadier · 28-10-2004 05:36PM

cheesedude wrote:

No they are not cheap. They are overpriced. I said the majority, don't take offence if you are not one of the ones I am talking about.

I believe he was talking about the cheap shots being taken!!

unme · 28-10-2004 05:37PM

luckat wrote:

1) Bought an external CD writer and it didn't work; after a bit of argie-bargie they gave me one that cost 100 quid more in return for the non-working one.

2) They didn't have a cable; they told me to go down to All-Cables in Cork Street, Dublin, which is cheap and good for any cable you want.

Both of these experiences made me trust them and go back to them.

Luckat, I will take your comments as serious, though I suspect that there may be something 'tongue-in-cheek' about them.

If you were intending to praise Compustore, you might have chosen better examples.

Firstly, you bought a product that was defective, and then had to engage in what you call "argie-bargie" to get it replaced. Personally, if I had come across that kind of attitude, I would have had the people there in the Small Claims Court well before their coffee had gone cold.

Secondly, they did not have a product that you wanted (a cable), and sent you out from the shop to purchase one elsewhere. I hope you first went back to the shop that had the product in stock next time.

I'm not picking on you, but your experience seems to back up those who have been critical of the company here.

In fairness, I have met some nice guys in Compustore from time to time, but unfortunately (and to their embarrassment) they would not have basic items in stock whenever I would call in. Some of the items in stock would have been practically obsolete, but still sporting lastest-tech prices. Furthermore, there seemed to be no means for disappointed customers to order the items through the shops.

We seem to have a bit of an upturn in the tech sector at present (according to reports I have read), so, I hope that the more skilled and knowledgeable staff get even better jobs.

Fusion251 · 28-10-2004 07:06PM

The Brigadier wrote:

I believe he was talking about the cheap shots being taken!!

Yes Brigadier you are correct...he doesn't seem to be too bright..how dare he boast he was once a Compustore employee....heh!

In fairness most peoples posts about the lack of stock are correct...and I was a great one for directing people to Maplin, All Cables, sometimes even Dixons if we didn't have an item and were unlikley to get it....I mean I wasn't gonna sell ANYONE a 32mb graphics card for €200? I tried the ordering stock in for customers and it just didn't work. I remember I ordered an iMac for a man and we got it in......6 weeks later!!!
So, by the end our best option was to not be as helpful, sounds funny I know, but the amount of crap you would go through to get anything ordered there was unreal! And as Tribble said before, it was the higher managment monkeys not listening to us and ordering stock that just wouldn't sell that was the problem....

LegacyUser · 28-10-2004 11:50PM

In all fairness...

tribble · 28-10-2004 11:55PM

cheesedude wrote:

I, for one am glad it closed down. Let us hope something better goes there to replace it like a giant pet stop superstore .

Petstop Superstore?

I worked there before I worked in Compustore!

They went bust too!

But if they feel like making a comeback then I'd work for them again in an instant. Petshops are cool places to work.

tribble

blorg · 29-10-2004 12:01AM

Well my girlfriend's parents got royally ripped off on printer ink up in Sandyford only last week, before I had a chance to warn them of the alternatives. Unfortunately this little cash injection didn't seem save the company ;-)

AFAIK, employees get paid ahead of other creditors but after the Revenue. In any case, the Insolvency Payments Scheme should sort out any back pay and holiday pay in the worst case scenario if the company can't afford it. Read about it on Oasis, and good luck to you all in finding new jobs.

tribble · 29-10-2004 12:10AM

blorg wrote:

Well my girlfriend's parents got royally ripped off on printer ink up in Sandyford only last week, before I had a chance to warn them of the alternatives. Unfortunately this little cash injection didn't seem save the company ;-)

I know an ex-employee of Compustore tried to setup an Irish web based ink retail store but found it impossible to compete.
Ink was a big money spinner for the company but mostly due to the volume we shifted, not so much the margin. Bulk ink suppliers to Ireland fleese the shops who in turn fleese the customer.
Refills and third party is where the real money is.

blorg wrote:

AFAIK, employees get paid ahead of other creditors but after the Revenue. In any case, the Insolvency Payments Scheme should sort out any back pay and holiday pay in the worst case scenario if the company can't afford it. Read about it on Oasis, and good luck to you all in finding new jobs.

Cheers for that - I'm due some holidays so I'll look into it.

LegacyUser · 29-10-2004 12:16AM

I would love to work in a petshop come to think of it.

lachdoug · 29-10-2004 05:05AM

It’s a shame that Compustore has gone under. I bought an Apple iBook from stock in the Sandyford store three months ago and was happy with the service, although the accessories I wanted were not in stock. The folks in the Stephens Green store were rude, but had the accessories that I wanted.

Even though my Compustore experience was not perfect, I don’t think it’s fair for the people on this board to be coming down so hard on Compustore and its employees. We all know that computer retailing is a very difficult and rapidly-changing business.

Retailers with shop fronts have to be more expensive than direct sellers and online competitors because they have greater overheads and lower scale. People use the shop fronts to inspect items and to decide if they want to buy, but then will often leave the store to buy more cheaply on-line. That’s a recipe for a broken business.

And it’s easy to knock management at times like this, but I am sure that Compustore’s management was doing its best in the face of a doomed business model. It’s really tough for employees who might have lost wages, but do you think it’s any easier for those that ran the show? The founders of the business have seen their life’s work fall apart around them, they have probably lost all the money they invested in the business and will most likely lose homes and assets saved for retirement.

I have been made redundant twice in my working life, when the companies that I worked for went broke. On both occasions I found out from colleagues and not from my employers. It would have been nice to have learned about it from my bosses, but when a company goes broke management can’t get access to employee records and phone numbers as they are usually locked out along with everyone else.

I would like to see how some of the more critical posters to this tread would go if they tried to set-up and run a business of a similar scale as Compustore.

unme · 29-10-2004 05:25PM

lachdoug wrote:

And it’s easy to knock management at times like this, but I am sure that Compustore’s management was doing its best in the face of a doomed business model.

If Compustore management didn't adopt the doomed business model, who did? I would think that the general staff or shop supervisors would have had very little input into executive decisions. Also, you can't (realistically) blame the customers either, nor can you blame the government, as it was an entirely private enterprise.

lachdoug wrote:

The founders of the business have seen their life’s work fall apart around them, they have probably lost all the money they invested in the business and will most likely lose homes and assets saved for retirement.

Why would that be likely? Limited company status protects the founders of failed companies from direct personal liability. I have heard of many companies going under, but the owners are not losing homes or personal assets. The exceptions, of course, are where the directors were totally unaware of standard company procedures, or where there was evidence of corporate malpractice or criminal behaviour.

lachdoug wrote:

It would have been nice to have learned about it from my bosses, but when a company goes broke management can’t get access to employee records and phone numbers as they are usually locked out along with everyone else.

Companies go 'broke' over a period of time. Years in some cases. It never comes as an overnight shock to the top company management. The company's accounts are a pretty good indicator that expenditure critically exceeds income, and that data is available to top directors/management. A properly managed company will also be aware of the expectation from creditors. There is no reasonable excuse for company management (and I am not talking about shop floor managers/supervisors) not letting their staff know the situation beforehand.

lachdoug wrote:

I would like to see how some of the more critical posters to this tread would go if they tried to set-up and run a business of a similar scale as Compustore.

Well, if the critical posters here failed miserably in business, but still let their staff know where they stood in reasonable time so that they could organise their lives and income, then they would have done a hell of a lot better than Compustore.

Fionn · 29-10-2004 08:27PM

Some very valid points raised in this thread!
it is regrettable that people have lost their jobs because of this. It's difficult to know exactly who is to blame, I suppose there's a lot of factors at work there. The way the company treated their workers was indeed bad. It’s probably bad that a chain of shops are now gone, even if their prices weren’t as competitive, obviously without their presence there is a little less competitiveness in this particular market.
The level of customer service and business management that passes for efficient retailing in Ireland leaves a lot to be desired.
The management model of Compustore reminds me somewhat of that used by some of Telecos that we have in this country.
I'm also reminded of some staff I've met who didn't have adequate training to sell. Recently i was in a store in waterford where i asked for thermal paste, btw i was at the "tech counter" not at the check-out but had to explain what it was and how it's used etc. to the guy there, I was thinking later if someone bought a processor and that guy was "advising" obviously he wouldn't have mentioned cooling as a potential problem.
Only today I called to a electrical store in town , looking for ink in their "computer dept" a very pleasant girl attended to me but who wouldn't know ink if it hit her between the eyes at ten paces! she passed me on to a young fella "who'd know", he advised me to go to a office supplies shop in town where I might have a better chance of getting it. I dunno if i'd have him on my sales team lol, maybe the other shop is secretly paying him!!

Again sorry to hear of the 130 jobs gone.

Stephen · 29-10-2004 09:43PM

What happens to the various franchises that aren't owned directly by compustore? Will they continue trading as compustore? Their franchise looks pretty worthless now.

heggie · 30-10-2004 12:09AM

I feel very sorry for those franchises, I know at least one (probably more/all) actually bought stock from compustore as PC suppliers require quite a long trading history before they will do business with you. So whether they can keep the name or not its tough times...

Red Alert · 30-10-2004 01:47PM

Compustore appeared to me to be an amateur outfit - when i was 12 years old i knew more than most of the muppets in the shop. Granted there were a few good people who knew their computers, but most of them didn't tend to last long. Most wouldn't know a graphics card from a joystick! Only about a month ago I purchased a Radeon 9800 128MB in Peats, and I was surprised to see a GeForce 4 64MB in Sandyford for more than the 9800! At least the staff in Sandyford seemed to be quite polite and courteous...

A totally different ball game in Stephen's Green. I'm sure anyone who ever went in there regularly remembers that annoying little eejit at the front desk who didn't know a thing and would then "batch up" 10 different customers queries before calling the equally inept store manager. That was also the store where they managed to sell me an empty box masquerading as a firewire card. I suppose I should have checked the box before leaving the store so it's half my mistake, but you wouldn't imagine having to open a packet in Superquinn to see if there were really 5 rashers in it!

Their stock was poorly managed. They only seemed interested in selling 'complete' PC's and printers. For example, I was looking for a 17" TFT display to replace an aging CRT - so I had to go to PC world instead. Secondly, it was hard to find things such as Hard Drives, Cases, PSU's - standard issue items which one finds in places like PC world. When I looked behind the counter once i realised why - their stock control system appeared to be a bit amateur, almost like it was written in microsoft access or something like that!!!

Their stores also looked a bit haphazard - a bit like the manager didn't do a good walk-around each morning. And the staff morale didn't seem great - some didn't seem to get on with one another at all.

Secondly, a lot of their staff didn't know the basics at all. I used to work in a youth-oriented designer outlet in Grafton Street, where most of us were temporary staff in the 16-22 age bracket. The first time I worked there, I knew nothing about clothes at all, bar as a shopper - quite a common thing especially among the lads who worked there. The store manager knew this, so she put people in places where they wouldn't be faced with advising customers for the first few weeks, such as the fitting room or helping to wrap stuff at the tills. The way people were rostered in sections, there'd always be someone who'd been there a while quite near you so you'd be able to get help if you couldn't answer a question. Secondly, she made it clear that she expected everyone to approach & acknowledge each customer, say hello to everyone coming into your section (but not jump on them and ask "can i help you?"), and very importantly to be well-presented and to know exactly what was going on in other departments. For example, although I worked in the Children's department she expected me to be aware of what was going on in the womens/mens departments so i could answer any questions that might arise. She used to regularly check the store throughout the day to make sure standards were being upheld and that the little things were being done right, e.g. that the register desks were clean, that the right videos were on in each tv, that the store was the right temperature and that the music system was at the correct sound level. At the same time, there was a great atmosphere there - everyone knew everyone and got on really well. CompuStore seemed to have various randomers as store managers who knew feck all - if they'd had the woman i worked for they might have had some chance.

ElNino · 31-10-2004 02:14AM

Stephen wrote:

What happens to the various franchises that aren't owned directly by compustore? Will they continue trading as compustore? Their franchise looks pretty worthless now.

The owmer of one of them was quoted in the papers as saying that he would be changing his store's name. Smart move because the Compustore name is a liability now.

Red Alert · 31-10-2004 12:52PM

The compustore name was always a liability.

Titan_soul · 01-11-2004 01:08AM

Do they sell apples

forbairt · 01-11-2004 10:25AM

no they were a computer store not a fruit and veg ... *joke*

[edit]: although I sometimes's wondered [/edit]

don't think I ever saw any apples on sale in there. .. but maybe that was just galway

Azza · 01-11-2004 10:37AM

My first computer was from compustore. Think I got it the Dublin branch on the Nass Road. Still goign strong got it back in 1998 was a PII and a voodoo two graphics card. Used in a video store now gets at least 10 hours use a day.Never and issue. Having said that other visits to compustore have been less productive.

milltown · 03-11-2004 07:06AM

Commiserations to the new members of the dole queue, that really is a sucky way to get bad news.

I was always led to believe the govt./taxman would be the last to get paid in such situations. The banks will be top of the list as any future ventures will need funding of some sort. I hope you guys get what you're owed.

I too am surprised at how long it took for this to happen from a financial POV. Around this time last year Compustore were being inundated with orders from HP staff (they ran our staff purchase scheme) for Christmas but practically nobody was getting what they ordered. Turns out that Clarity, who supplied Compustore, had been burnt by another customer going bust and had tightened up their credit control to the point where Compustore could not place any more orders until the account was bang up to date. Bear in mind that the HP staff business was worth over €1m a year and you begin to wonder how a company with a bulging order book and a captive audience cannot secure finance to fill these orders and collect the profit on the sales. The banks obviously smelled a rat a year ago and weren't taking any more risks.

In order to ensure their staff got their orders, HP issued a bond to Clarity to guarantee them payment for all HP staff orders should Compustore default in any way. That was the final straw for HP, who have since relieved Compustore of their duties as staff store concessionnaires.

On a personal note, I was never impressed with the Longmile rd. shop (my local) even disregarding the fact that it was head office. It always looked run down, the shelves were usually untidy and it wouldn't have killed them to have someone run around the car park and pick up the papers blowing around once or twice a day.

Staff wise I've had good and bad experiences with them. I bought a €140 printer which failed after less than a month. I don't blame Compustore for the failure but for such a low value item I expected to be handed a replacement off the shelf while they dealt with the warranty. The guy at the repair counter, with the stained shirt armpits that left you in no doubt where the rank odour of BO was coming from, had me stand there choking while he filled in the form which would be sent to the UK with the printer which would be inspected a week later. And could I call him back then to find out what the story was. Another month passed before I had my printer back. (If any of the ex staff reading this were on the repair counter in Longmile and have/had a ponytail, I hope to god you have a shower and wash your shirt before you go to any interviews!)

Happy story is about a TFT I bought which after an hour developed a row of dead pixels from top to bottom. When I let the sales guy (the only compustore salesperson I had ever had return a phone call!) know about it he apologised and said that as it was still usable I could hang onto it while he waited for the replacement to arrive. Alan S. should have no bother landing a better job if he was there to the end.

blorg · 03-11-2004 12:02PM

heggie wrote:

I feel very sorry for those franchises, I know at least one (probably more/all) actually bought stock from compustore as PC suppliers require quite a long trading history before they will do business with you. So whether they can keep the name or not its tough times...

I don't think this is actually true; we have found it trivially easy to open accounts with any of the Irish distributors even though the selling of computer bits to our customers is a tiny part of our operation.*

*EDIT: This is however on a cash basis, getting credit with the distributors is indeed far more difficult and would require a trading history.

blorg · 03-11-2004 12:10PM

Titan_soul wrote:

Do they sell apples

The one in Stephen's Green used to have an Apple-only shop at the back, with the entrance on Kildare St.

Adama · 04-11-2004 12:51AM

Well, in case any of the (ex)employees havn't seen these, here are the photos of the night out (where everyone got well and truly liquidated!).

And yes that is a Compustore name pin embedded in the head of a very drunk ex cashier!!!

http://public.fotki.com/nomorecompustore/compustore_staff/

Compustore

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