PC World

are scarily improving.

I've always got my Joysticks from there and I've had a few. But now they have Hard Drives at sensible money, I got a white box OEM Modm that flies as well, and now they have a component centre online, with some pretty good deals of 6800 cards.

Anyone else fancy actually aplauding them for trying to get rid of the cack image?

I applaud PC World. Keep at it guys, with a bit of pro advice you might crack the hardcore boys. And THAT is where the dough is:) (says Zak with a 6800 AND a Radeon9800 Pro on his desk, fighting for space with the Saitek Evo joystick)

To really get rid of the image they need to revamp the stores. Get rid of the kak pre built compaq crap. And get some staff who know what they are doing.

They are getting better but I still wouldn't consider PCW if im doing a build.

tbh if i had a mate wanting a new comp I would still say DO NOT touch 'em, ever. :inquisiti

bought a pair of wireless cards from their online component center store

I think THAT if they kept the store as it is, for the noobs out there, but made it easier for US to find what we want, both instore and online, it would fly.

The white box stuff NEEDS to be easier to track down. A white box with a Modem and a driver CD attracts me in a big way. Its £10. The Big 2 foot x 1 foot red box with 3 disks and a similar modem for £45 is for my Dad to buy ;)

Same online.....the main page shows Graphics Cards etc...but then there is a Component Centre Link, and it then has other stuff within. Its clearly a lot deeper than that BUT the potential is massive.

I'd not buy a pre built either....but if they got better I would. If the mobo and vid card and PSU were all listed and I could decide for mysef from then, I'd consider it. No doubt. My Dad/Uncle etc needs a PC for camera work, and word docs and surfing. So long as I can upgrade it in 6 months IF he wants I'dlet him buy a pre built :)

The Component Centre part of the PC World website has impressed me a lot - they seem to be the exclusive sellers of BFG products in the UK.

and BFG still makes me laugh :)

good name for a gaming card....Big F...off Gun

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Originally Posted by $h@d0w

The Component Centre part of the PC World website has impressed me a lot - they seem to be the exclusive sellers of BFG products in the UK.

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I agree, the online side I don't have issues with. The shops however, merely on personal experience, are pants. There are bargains to be had, you just have to root them out, but the staff 'tend' to be a bunch of cretins.

I dont think they were ever cack its just that the pricing never seemed to change with the hardware/software real time pricing and poorly trained staff who are just after a sale.

Ok yeah they were cack!

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Originally Posted by Eddy396

To really get rid of the image they need to revamp the stores. Get rid of the kak pre built compaq crap. And get some staff who know what they are doing.

They are getting better but I still wouldn't consider PCW if im doing a build.

tbh if i had a mate wanting a new comp I would still say DO NOT touch 'em, ever. :inquisiti

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Sorry to say but that won't happen has they won't make money, at the end of the day thy could not care less about you, all they want is your cash end of story.

Has for there techs they tend to take on dumb planks why....well they don't need techs they need people that can sell and sorry to say us techys are not that.

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Originally Posted by 0iD

I agree, the online side I don't have issues with. The shops however, merely on personal experience, are pants. There are bargains to be had, you just have to root them out, but the staff 'tend' to be a bunch of cretins.

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Yeah I agree, in store they aren't particularly helpful - I remember looking for the cheap Samsung hard drives and they just seemed like they couldn't be arsed with the customer (me!).

The stores will always be pants/orverpriced/poor staff because of the overheads involved in maintaining the premises. This is why we all love online stores :)

S'pose it's the old adage, 'If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys'.

yup

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Originally Posted by 0iD

I agree, the online side I don't have issues with. The shops however, merely on personal experience, are pants. There are bargains to be had, you just have to root them out, but the staff 'tend' to be a bunch of cretins.

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Well, I think the shops are OK, but it just depends what you are trying to pick up. Sure, you aren't going to build an enthusiast PC with bits all sourced from PCW, but then they are OK for one-off's and consummables. In the last year or so I've *quickly* needed: NICs, cables, a scanner, printer paper, CD blanks, and so on. It's been a lot less hassle to pop to my local PCW (Enfield) than it has to mess around online and then have to deal with idiot-driven delivery companies (don't get me started, I'm still having nightmares...)

The PCW staff are pretty poor, though. It's not the level of technical expertise I would criticise - on what they are getting paid, what would you expect? John Carmack? - but on their 'general' attitude. I find them very rude, lazy and quite unprofessional at times. They all seem as if they feel their job is a real chore, and you've made it worse by asking for some service. The queues to the tills can be very bad; getting assistance can be difficult; and the amount of stuff I've found mis-priced is shocking. Still, you can't have everything, I guess.

BTW, Got my 6800GT from their component center when all the 'so-called specialist web stores' here in the UK had nothing. And those specialist web stores had been promising to be first with these cards for months. So hats off to PCW online, the item was in stock (as indicated) and arrived within 24 hours. :-)

Ps. Hope this thread survives being deleted, unlike the last one which was mostly deleted when we all commented on OcUK (although it will be hypocritical if this thread does survive, IMHO.)


Nomadd

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Originally Posted by 0iD

... but the staff 'tend' to be a bunch of cretins.

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To true, and they always try to sell some dubious product that "makes the internet go faster" :inquisiti

Managed to rescue a mate of mine who was 10 secs away from being done. He was in PC world about to buy a pre-built pile of junk, and decided to give me a call. From what I can gather the salesboy was trying to flog him all sorts of rubbish. Did a custom build for him and saved him 200 squids. Also got a free meal out of him and a few ales...

I think the online thing is gonna do ok. Its value, so if the back up is good, they deserve to do ok. Let the muppets sell PC's to other muppets. Be a nice suprise if they started doing proper PC's one day though :)

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Originally Posted by Nomadd

Ps. Hope this thread survives being deleted, unlike the last one which was mostly deleted when we all commented on OcUK (although it will be hypocritical if this thread does survive, IMHO.)

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|Good point dude...it will survive cos its frank and open criticism and positive in one hit. The problme we have with OcUK debates is not the business side, cos that's there thing to deal with BUT the FOrums tend to create an atmosphere HERE because some people prefer one to the other. Lots of OcUK dudes who are NOT involved in the politics , use both, and rightly so. BUT if a thread becomes a OcUK knocking thread, it has to go cos its not worth the arse ache to us Mods. We let them build there empire, and we build ours. We dont knock them, and wont allow it.

:) damn good point, hope I explain it well enough :)

I don't think that DSG are really trying to change the stores - what they are doing is trying to expand their business into other areas of the market. iirc they recently bought Microwarehouse so it does look like they are trying to expand their non-retail business.
They've always been good for a laugh at some of the scary prices they've tried to charge even for out of date kit. on the other hand there have also been bargains to be had in the clearance areas (particularly on components).

It does look like they are trying so they get good marks for that (the components website search engine still needs some work though).