PC World .... just goes to show .....

[Lucio]

PC World has it's place in the market, it offers brand assurance for people who might not otherwise understand computers. Yes, you pay more but you're buying into the idea that no matter what goes wrong, you'll get sorted.

Case in point, my wife wanted a new PC, as her old one had died a sudden death. Going into PC World meant whilst she paid more for the item, she could take it away there and then and it was covered. 18 months later, when we discovered it was the wrong item (due to a dead graphics card and getting sent the one from the sales reciept rather than the unit we had), we got the price difference refunded (about £200, handed out in cash on the strength of the reciept and finance agreement).

So yeah, maybe not the best or the cheapest, but they still definately have a place.

[staffsMike]

That's a recreation on my last build with an enermax PSU but I got my cable from maplins as you tried and peter managed.

They sell a non branded one at my local store and a different store were selling the akasa one you no doubt have.

I use PC World from time to time though, the reserve online is handy (although picking them up isn't always so smooth). They have reasonable prices often enough and as you say, when it's a Sunday or any day and you're a little desperate they are very handy

[Hesky]

I will never forget the day I walked into my local PC world store and from 50 yards away noticed a bright blue DFI Landparty Ultra-D motherboard box on the PC component shelf with a reduced sticker and £50 marker pened on it. The retail back then on one was £122! needless to say I grabbed it an ran all the way home
was an absolutely great board, still going strong SLI modded in an ebayer's PC apparently

Have to say PC-world are odd, sometimes they had some stonking deals online that I would reserve and pick-up but lately they are rubbish on hardware prices, even their PC game prices are rubbish.

At least their online shop is now run by pc world themselves, I had a pretty nasty run in with there old PC worlds component shop when it was run by a 3rd party.

[Blastuk]

i bought a router from them a long time ago and it kicked the bucket about 11 months in.. took it into pc world and they just checked the reciept and told us to pick another one off the shelf.. no fuss at all
they can be awesome for stuff like that

[Saracen]

That's a recreation on my last build with an enermax PSU but I got my cable from maplins as you tried and peter managed.

They sell a non branded one at my local store and a different store were selling the akasa one you no doubt have.

I've just spent a few minutes trying to find it on their website, and none of the obvious search criteria I could think of bring it up, though I did get a 4-pin to 8-pin adapter show. Maybe they used to do it and don't any more?

[Stringent]

You can get bargins in there, especially if they have summer offers on, they were selling external hard disks (maxtor) for a good £10 cheaper than Scan were. PC World are really a 'get it if you need it now' card for me. Last thing I bought in there must have been an extra Wii remote and nunchuck!

[wombar]

Yep, it's like everyone else has said. If you know what you want, and what you should be paying, PC world is no worse than any other shop. In fact the couple of times I've had to return stuff there has been far more pleasurable than returning stuff to my local PC shop. It's rare to find a PC world employee who actually knows what they're talking about, but that's not why any of us go in is it?

I buy stuff from there on a semi-regular basis because I tend to go for the collect at store web specials, which can sometimes be a very good deal. Plus they're saved me a load of hassle on a Sunday when my PSU has died and I need my machine back up and working on Monday for work.

[kalniel]

*shrugs* it's just like most retail shops. Sometimes they're expensive, sometimes they're cheap.

When building the gfs computer PC world were by far and away the cheapest place to buy the right kind of RAM from - I mean, we saved £40 over the likes of SCAN. I've seen similar bargains on things like hard drives, networking equipment etc.

The stocking system of a retail store obviously has differences to an etailer, but that can work in your favour too. I just bought a camera and while all the etailers were out of stock for the lens I wanted, the store had it still, and in the end gave me a far better bargain than I could get online for the bundle.

[CaseyV9]

PC World are evil.

A big rule with them I have is to only shop from them if I know exactly what I want. And if it is on the shelf that I can physically pick up and take to the till.
And ask them nothing.

The ammount of times I have gone in there and felt ripped off or unsatisfied.

[Zak33]

Caveat emptor guys Caveat emptor

I've had joysticks, laptops, HDD's and a few other things from them, part convenience, and part price.

But they do offer another service which you're all missing totally.

Entertainment. Oh.. I don't mean big TV's and audio systems. I mean on a quiet Sunday, when you're bored, you can wander around laughing hysterically at Monster Audio HDMI cables for vast sums of money, gold plated USB printer cables to speed up your printer data, and some top top giggles from the rows of TV's all running off one tv aerial ,fitted in 1987 with one booster box... fuzzy wuzzy anyone?

[CaseyV9]

Caveat emptor guys Caveat emptor

I've had joysticks, laptops, HDD's and a few other things from them, part convenience, and part price.

But they do offer another service which you're all missing totally.

Entertainment. Oh.. I don't mean big TV's and audio systems. I mean on a quiet Sunday, when you're bored, you can wander around laughing hysterically at Monster Audio HDMI cables for vast sums of money, gold plated USB printer cables to speed up your printer data, and some top top giggles from the rows of TV's all running off one tv aerial ,fitted in 1987 with one booster box... fuzzy wuzzy anyone?

For added entertainment you could ask them for a product that is not on the shelf. They'll check on their computers if it is in stock. Their computers tell them they have many in stock and yet they cannot find the bloody things.

And ask them if their monitors are HDCP ready. I found that funny.

[Dareos]

I love asking the sales guys techy questions, pure entertainment, and i used to work there lol

My favourite ever was when i was picking up an Advent base unit from the Glasgow store for a mate (back before i built my own) and they had stock errors, so didnt have the unit I wanted, and the sales girl tried to sell me another model. I explained that it was for gaming, and the graphics card really didnt cut it in the model she was pushing, at which point she tried to tell me that PCI graphics were much better than AGP, and AGP was on the way out.

some of them are clueless, completely

[Hesky]

PCI gfx cards are damn expensive! therefore they are great

She must of been a little confused and got the later PCI-Express mixed up with the old 32-bit PCI slots. TBH I would have let her off if she was cute

[Steve]

I wanted a 2GB Jaz cartridge.

Fantastic, another member of the Iomega club.

[mamboboy]

I bought a printer from them a couple of years back. I'd ALWAYS shop online for one, but I needed it that evening. The printer didn't come with a printer cable so he told me they have some in the store...I asked how much...and it was something like &#163;19.99! It was painful handing over twenty quid for something that's what? &#163;2 on ebay? >,<

[Georgy291]

did anyone look at my links? theres a beutiful comparison for you lot