Originally Posted by arizonagroove
- Prices in store are higher than on their website. I once asked why and was told 'the website has lower overheads'. I pointed out that stuff ordered online is shipped from the warehouse at the back of the store, the exact same place where the sales guy goes to fetch anything you buy in store. The guy just kinda shrugged.
The prices are the same on-line and in-store now. They do surcharge Credit Cards though.
Originally Posted by arizonagroove
- Their service is so slow. So so slow. When you eventually get to the counter and say what you want the guy disappears to the warehouse and gets it. This can take a surprisingly long time. Then he rings it up. computer. Then you pay for it. Then he takes it out back again to 'scan it out of the system'. This too can take a surprisingly long time. Apparently no one has thought of connecting the point of sale system to the stock control system.
Basically, they don't have a stock-control system so they have to go and physically find it before taking your money. This is pretty poor. If they had a working stock system they could probably process 3 or 4 times as many customers.
Originally Posted by arizonagroove
- One of the sales guys once asked me 'Is IEEE1394 the same as Firewire then?'. (This after he told me they didn't sell Firewire harddisk enclosures because he was looking at their website where it says IEEE1394.)
There are good, bad and indifferent sales people there, but on the whole I think they are better than PC World.
Originally Posted by arizonagroove
- They want to know who you are, even if you're paying in cash. This is because 'we have to put a name on the invoice'. My name is Bob Smith.
Again, I bought a motherboard for cash there last week and they did not ask for any details at all.
Originally Posted by arizonagroove
- I've known several people who've worked there at various times. None of them had anything good to say about it.
I've worked for various famous multi-nationals and I wouldn't recommend the experience either. It tends to be that unhappy people leave.
I only buy in-store and it's about a 2-hour drive from home (I travel up the M6 a lot) so I cannot comment on their on-line customer service but I now have a pretty reasonable relationship with the fatter of the two guys on the Returns desk, but that's only after convincing him that I had a better working knowledge of retail sales legislation than he did. Once he accepted that he had to fix things, or offer me a refund if it didn't work etc. etc. we got on famously. The Asian guy (ASEAN rather than Indian-Asian) does know what he's talking about and he has repeatedly steered me onto better kit than I would have bought, saving me money at least twice.