I've never considered Currys or PC World as offering value for money. In fact quite the opposite since they seem to specialise in expensive peripherals and marked up consumer electronics. And extended warranties. At one time this high street rape might have worked, but these days even less tech savvy consumers know about the internet and sellers like Dell. DSG is going to have to adapt fast if it expects to survive.

I walked into a PC World last monday with a "sale" in full swing. For a sale there was hardly anyone in there and most of the discounts were derisory. One thing in particular caught my eye - there was a table full of LCD monitors with no manuals and no boxes. These monitors were manky and could have spent the last three months on the shop floor or could be returns (with dead pixels etc.). How much discount could you expect for purchasing one of these manky mystery devices? Ten percent off. It wasn't just pathetic, it was insulting.

PC World and Currys need a reboot because their results show that the general public might have finally figured out they can buy cheaper and better elsewhere.

Nothing to do with the fucking awful Vista I suppose?

... you'll find cheaper in a Comet, have been quite impressed by Comet since they re-did their image. If I have to shop for electronics off the high street, Comet seem to have beaten up DSG over it and won IMO.

Anyone want to bet that DSGI announce a major cost cutting, brand rationalisation and refocusing of the business in order to restore shareholder confidence and restore retail margins.

Vista isn't awful, especially when it's preinstalled. It's stable, it works and it's better than XP on machines that meet the specs. Windows Me deserved the hate, Vista doesn't. It could do with a service pack though, and more fine grain control of features such as UAC which is a clumsy clickthrough annoyance. The biggest issue with Vista is probably the realisation that it represents 20 years of bloat and not even Microsoft seem to have a clue where they're going next with the platform.

Anyway none of that has to do with DSG's problems. They're simply a crappy electronics chain that sells overpriced tat with extended warranties. Consumers may be as ignorant as they ever were but these days most of them have internet access and finally they're in a position to know when they're being ripped off. They're not even that competitive with their peers such as Comet.

you've got to be kidding me. Their service is worse than anything you could suffer at PC World - Overclockers UK is where the spotty teens go after they leave PC World!

that is being ripped off by everywhere!

I had an argument with someone from the UK distro of the Drobo hdd enclosure that was charging a stonkin £365 for one unit - the us version would have cost £270 to buy, ship and pay import duty on!

That's not even mentioning the HP tablet laptop that a guy at work bought from saudi recently for about £450... costs £1400 over here!

Another good example is the new ipod touches - the price of the 8gb model in the UK is the same as the 16gb model in the us.

The psp slim costs about £87 in japan, the uk? that'll be £130! but of course many of the stores won't even display this price and will show the "bundled" price instead, usually with games that very few people actually like!

The best thing about the net is that the UK is finally getting to see the prices other places are being charged, and I for one am disgusted by how much we pay for the same items.

Oh, and about pc world.. I was wandering around there recently and saw a little sticker attached to the price of one of their TV's - "we'll install your TV for you... for £300!!!"

the sooner the UK customer stops companies taking them for a ride the better!

I love the argument you can have with people

"I'll offer you £100 for that psp"

"I'm sorry sir, it's in our system as being £130 and we can't sell it any cheaper"

"but you can"

"we can't change the prices, I'm sorry"

"bull, you can apply discounts at various rates on your EPOS system, it is perfectly capable of having the price reduced on a per transaction basis"

*cue being turfed out of shop for telling the truth by an irate manager*

It couldn't possibly be that now every man and his dog has now got a pc and a laptop, the sales of them are falling off. PC sellers don't seem to realise what sort of a market they've been in recently.

PC's have been a must have item for years now, and the last couple of years, with the fall of laptop prices and their increase in spec's they became a must have item too and everyone started buying them. even my grandparents, who have trouble with a video recorder, bought themselves a laptop!!

the downside to this is that they've saturated the market, now, like tv's before lcd became common, people will only buy a new one if their old one dies. either that or they need one 'for the kids' . obviously the sales are going to slow down a bit (dixon groups own problems aside)

i've got a laptop that was hi-spec 4 years ago, its still good enough now to do pretty much anything, even play modern games (the only thing i've done is put a bigger hard disk in which took all of 2 mins) . Unless there's a good reason, ie it dies or something insanely new is introduced, i'm still going to be using it 4 years from now. I can't see this being much different to most other people with them.

considering the useless service, the poor prices and the disgusting stores. Not that the afore-mentioned Comet are any better. They also seem to have forgotten the value of customer service.

Give me John Lewis (or if you are lucky enough to still have one) your proper local independent electrical store anyday. In both cases the staff have a proper stake in making sure buying from them is a decent experience both for your wallet and soul. Perhaps there is a connection there....