I'm sorry? Dixons is worse than I thought? Nope, not possible...!

Comets? John Lewis? Scan? Overclockers?

Dixons, Curry's & PC World rarely carry the latest models of most digital cameras and other items I am familiar with as a gadget freek. They sell models a year or two older and at prices that are the same as the latest better specified items. This is consistent across their stores. They are also slow to adopt the latest PC/Mac models. If they wish to compete with the online marketplace (Amazon etc) they need to keep their stock current and be more competitive with their pricing. Most importantly, they need to ensure popular items are IN stock. Curry's benefited form this recently. I surfed to Amazon to buy a black EEE PC 4G - none in stock. So I popped into my local Curry's and they had 5. Yes, I paid £30 more but if it breaks all I need do it take it back (no shipping hassles) and I had it within a few hours from making my purchasing decision. (I phoned in advance to check stock levels.) To be fair to bricks and mortar, it is cruel for them when consumers play with a gadget in their shops and then purchase from a competitor online. To alleviate this, retailers need to keep the latest models in stock and offer deals - just as Amazon do when they offer another complimentary item for a bargain, such as a memory card. (EEE PC is a very capable machine BTW.)

They're still going to continue trading

Paris because even she knows when to shut up shop

I used to work at PCW a long time ago (almost 10 years), in Customer Services, and moved to the Technical Dept. a year later, despite the piss pour customer services policies, most of which I ignored anyway, the company wasn't so bad back then.

The reason I left, was when they introduced "Multi-skilling", putting Technicians on the tills, and sales staff in the Technical dept. and once the sales staff had screwed up almost everything they could, they dragged us back in to fix it, it sucked, and pretty much all the competent tech. staff left the company.

The company only cared about saving money, by employing brain dead staff, and screwing over knowledgeable staff, and now they're shocked that nobody in their stores has a clue.

I don't think one of the sales staff in our store had any IT background, and wouldn't know the difference between AMD or Intel CPUs, other than Intel would get them more commission one month, and AMD the next.

For those that had a "Healthcheck" with PCW, if it was after 2000, there's a good chance you were sat with a sales advisor, who had been trained to "tick boxes" on their custom software that did, well jack.

Paris, because she knows more about IT, than the combined PCW staff worldwide.

Anyone who's been to a PC World store in the past 6 years could have forseen this! The only people who shop there are OAP's and chavs, neither of whom have any idea about computers.

For a store that charges £10 for a kettle lead, I can have no sympathy.

Paris, as I'm sure she'd like a rich OAP to mooch off (and she's very chav-like).

What a load of shit, thats balls.

Stock issues are always the problem at PC World. You go there to buy a laptop becuase you want or need one that day and its NEVER in stock. I tried 4 times last year and had to goto another store on each visit becuase it wasnt available.

Even their macs wernt in stock, the only reason I got it in another store was becuase they couldnt be arsed to stick them our on display

I used to work at PCW too, and left when the "one team" came in.. I was probably one of the rarest PCW Sales staff around, as I actually knew what products were, and how they worked.

Nowadays, it is shocking at the lack of product knowledge the staff posess. I don't think anyone in my local PCW has much knowledge of the latest gadgets, technologies, or anything like that, and only sell what is on the endcap, as it is on offer..

I remember when PCW put up huge 60x40's at the front of stores saying "Our staff don't work on comission".. well maybe it is about time to employ people who know what they sell, are enthusiastic to sell the right product, and have to know to be able to earn money to be able to do so.. !

I'm an anonymous coward too... oh well!

One of the few fun things about PCW is eavesdropping on the sales people bullshitting the customers - I heard one bloke say to a woman, and I quote, "this machine has Microsoft spreadsheet, blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah" and the woman kept nodding as if he was saying something she understood.

Made for each other.

As for 'extended warranty' the other day I was asked in another of those furniture warehouses to supply name, address, phone number and email address - to buy a bed! As if.

So I went into PC World on Tottenham Court Rd, London. Simple question: 'do you have any hard drive brackets for my PC case so I can install another drive?'

The PFY in charge of sales in their components section had no idea what I was on about but kindly pointed me in the direction of the 'tech' guys (a bit like Virgin Media's 'help' desk the job title is not only a misnomer but could result in prosecution under the trade description act).

After waiting for 10 minutes as they completed their hilariously funny internal discussion behind the counter ('heh, look at the bloke waiting for us...shall we see how long we can chat amongst ourselves before he gets really pissed off and leaves?') I explained the details of my search.

Cue scenes from a dodgy car mechanic 'How to deal with customers' manual. There was tutting, head scratching, vague monkey noises ('Oook?') and sucking of teeth.

'Yeah, I know what you mean. Nah, we don't stock 'em and don't know anyone that does. What I always do is take two pieces of wood and jam the hard drive into the case with the wood so it don't move'

And shortly afterwards PC World started it's 'The Tech Guys' support and installation service. Laugh? I nearly did...

The vulture? Cos it's RIP Dixons and good riddance....

Against my better judgement, I went to PC World for a DVI cable. They wanted £50 for it. I asked why it was so expensive, and the mouth-breather in a tie who was trying to sell it to me stared at the packaging for a minute, and then pointed to a lifetime guarantee. I bought the same cable online at Amazon for £8.31.

It's really heart-warming to see that DSG's lousy commitment to customer care i coming back to bite it in the ass.

.. are the main downfalls here.

Everyone knows DSG stores are charging around double the price for everything they sell.

Just bought a Sony 40" LCD, £700 from a local independant retailer, £1100 from all DSG stores.

All DSG stores are good for is going to view the product you're intending to buy online for cheaper.

I once returned a faulty HP desktop PC that my Uncle bought in a sale about a month after it was bought.

This is about 5 or 6 year ago at PC World. One of the senior staff/manager ? managers refused a refund on my first enquiry.

He said it would require diagnosis by their staff ... blah blah blah.

I pointed out to him that it only required a literate person to understand the machine was not booting past the BIOS screen.

I enquired if he was not literate enough to be able to read the system board failure (or similar) error message; at which point he raised his tone of voice in proportion to how much redder his face went, saying, it could be a number of things, then he tripped up by saying, it required a qualified person.

So then I asked what qualifications were required to read the message... I kid you not, he actually shouted at me (raising his voice in proportion to the colour of his face going purple) , saying he meant someone qualified to diagnose the machine, not read the message.

I asked him if what qualifications are required by the staff that will diagnose the machine (looking at the spotty teenagers in the service desk booth), he went very quiet and mumbled something about internal training course on PC systems (but no mention of needing to be literate !).

By now I was enjoying this, as the long queue for the service desk had turned into a crowd around me.

I asked him YOU are not required to know how to read ?

At which point he said of course I can read.

And I then completed the circle by asking, well in that case read this error message, give me a REFUND on this machine right now, or I will complain to your head office and trading standards.

I actually got a few claps from the crowd !

I got the refund and was actually followed by one of the security staff as left walked from the service desk counter to the exit.

You don't go to PC World to get advice, or anything particularly techie, or particularly cheap. You go to buy something that you have already researched and know exactly what you want. You go to buy something that's a mainstream computer consumer item. You go to buy something you need now, today, and are willing to pay slightly more for. You go to buy something that comes in a needlessly shiny printed and oversized box with a 100 page manual for the clueless in 8 languages inside.

On no account do you expect accurate advice on anything from the staff. You don't expect them to have components that you only ever read about on overclocking forums. And you certainly don't expect to get it cheaper than the online specialist outfit that delivers in a plain brown box containing nothing but a sealed anti-static bag and a badly photocopied slip of paper with the manufacturer's website on it.

What I don't understand is why people would ever use a PC World to buy Mac or Apple items, when there are Apple Stores and Apple Re-Sellers.

PC World staff must be some of the least trained in the world, whereas almost all Apple Store staff are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful.

Perhaps this will persuade PCW to end their tragic attempts to be Staples, dump the office furniture that no-one was buying (most PCWs are near Staples stores on the same trading estates, so what's the point?), lose the flat-panel TVs (there will probably be a Currys.digital in the same estate, so why waste the floor-space?) and get back to the core business of PCs and the stuff that PCs need: software, peripherals, consumables.

It might be a smart move to change the PCWorld Business terms so that you don't need a purchase order before buying on account. One of my companies has a PCWB account we've never used, because we want to browse the stock before we buy. Are we then going to go back to the office, write up a purchase order, take it back to the store and hand it in? No. Duh. The prices that PCWB offer for some equipment are rather better than the retail side, and competitive with online retailers, so it might be worth our while shopping there once in a while, if the credit terms were actually usable.

I once saw a chav couple trying to buy one of those "monster cable" 4 bar power filtering adapters priced at 65 quid!!!

Their card was denied.

I can only thing they were trying to attempt credit card fraud, or that they were seriously stupid. Both probably.

Why would someone pay 60 quid for a 4 bar adapter??? Get it out tesco for 1 quid.

About three years ago one of our sales people was heading off for a foreign sales trip. Unfortunately his laptop died and he needed another one urgently. It seemed that the quickest way of getting a new machine would be a trip to the nearest PC World 16 miles away. Off I went with company credit card in hand to buy as good a machine as possible, price no limit really.

I arrived and had a look at all the machines available and settled on a £1200 overpriced Toshiba. I asked the spotty youth if they had any in stock and he said yes, they had 5 of them in the back. I said I'd have one and off he went to get it. A little while later with laptop box in hand and waving my company credit card I arrived at the till...

"You can't buy this", I was told.

"What ? Why not ?", I enquired.

"You are a business customer.", came the reply.

"So ? "

"So I can't sell you this laptop. You must go through the business customer department"

"But I urgently need to buy a laptop and I've got a credit card with a massive limit on it to buy it with".

"Sorry Sir. The business department will be able to help you."

Grumbling a little, off I went to the back of the shop, laptop still in hand, to the business dept.

"I'd like to buy this laptop please", I said.

"Certainly !", came the reply. "However we can't sell you THAT laptop. We have to order one and have it sent to you. It'll be delivered within a week."

"What ?!?!?!?! I need to buy a laptop NOW and you have 4 of them in the back plus this one. That's why I'm here. If I wanted to wait a week I'd buy a Dell like we always do. Your prices are too high in comparison and if we have to wait as long for you to deliver then we may as well not use you. The whole point of a shop is that you walk in, buy something, and leave with the something you've bought. I need a laptop NOW and I'm willing to pay your inflated price to get it.", I said.

"Sorry Sir. We don't sell direct to business customers in store", he replied.

"Well, here's your laptop.", I said. "I won't be ordering one thanks. I don't want a business account thank you. I can't believe you're turning away a £1200 sale. I won't be back. Bye!"

No wonder DSG are going down the drain if they actually turn down guaranteed sales like that. Luckily, our sales guy managed to postpone his trip and we bought him a more powerful Dell for the same money.

"If I want stationary, I'll go to a stationary shop"

I think you'll find that most shops are stationary..... ;-)

Except paper shops which are "stationery" as well as stationary!

Mine's the one with "Pedant" on the back.

I tend to only go there when I need something *now* and the online stock checker has already told me they have it AND their price is at least close to the same price including delivery from elsewhere. I've had a few items I've had to return, although all within a day or two of purchase, and I've had a reasonable experience with that. Certainly it was no more difficult than getting a refund out of one of the big internet brands.

If all of these conditions are satisfied and you realise that you'll have to fend off the clueless morons trying to sell you stuff you don't want, then it's actually quite handy to be able to get replacement parts on a sunday afternoon.

"training and incentives will be improved for all store colleagues."

It's the incentives that are ruining the company. The last thing they need is improving!

I know they want to become profitable but if they removed the incentives and just trained the staff then the customer would get the product that is actually right for them and they'd be able to develop a decent product range.

Of course, the ability to use common sense seems to decrease the higher up the management of DSGi you get.

Paris could probably do a better job than the sales staff at these places. Maybe her next series will include a stint at PC World.

I went into the shop just before and Christmas, not because I love PC World but because my old job gave me a gift certificate which was greatly appreciated as I got a Wii charger and something else, cannot remember what.

If I did not have the cert I would not have gone in.

I am a bit of a geek although I would not classify myself as an uber-geek although my colleagues do.

I have only ever purchased an item there on two seperate occassions as they were in a cheapy bin, about 2 years ago got a Epson 240R printer for 35£ and when I got home there was no power cable and the print out taped on the box stated a power cable. Went back complained and got a 10£ discount. The other time I purchase a 120GB SATA HDD about 3 years ago for 30£ which was not a bad price. No issues and still use, although now as an external.

But if you need help you are stuck, the people are useless in thier training.

If you want knowledgeable staff it is best to talk to a friend as I find most stores the staff are there to sell and can only repeat what they memorized in training.

Will do when all the real shops close?

Whilst saying I wouldn't buy from PC worlds as they are crap I can understand, saying I go there just to play with the goods, then leave and get elsewhere really gets my goat. They are more expenssive due to the fact that you can go there. I use two shops for my digital camera needs. One is cheap, but non personal and almost no useful information is available. The other is expensive, but knows me by sight, gives a lot of time and expertise away for free and when I use that I'll spend the extra 10% on the item in his shop as I have had more than that back in his advice. Recently I thought there was a problem, he had the camera overnight and printed lots of photo's at expensive sizes to view the results - he told me there wasn't a problem - saved me spending money for no reason - and didn't charge for the work he put in. If everyone just uses him for the expertise and buys online he's going to close - then see where you are when you have a problem.

Like I said, PCW is crap and I wouldn't use them, but I also wouldn't use them to play with the toys just to buy somewhere else either!

Dead bird as that's where more and more shops are going.

Yeah, we had a "special" experience with PC world three years ago.

The office PC had died and we needed to replace it RIGHT THEN, Next day wasn't an option. Grudgingly went down to PC world, and the token competent assistant helped us pick a machine, and said there were twelve in stock.

When we decided to buy it, the GNVQ reject said there weren't any in stock, when pressed he admitted that yes, they WERE in stock, but he couldn't be bothered to find them.

Yes, we asked to see the manager, No he couldn't be bothered to find the machine either.

When your own manager can't be bothered to get off his arse to sell £800 of kit, then you are, well, fucked.

It's PC-World... WTF has that got to do with I.T.?

the reason you buy mac products from Idiot World (my pet name for PC World that is), is you go in just when Apple have launched the new range, and buy the previous range at knock down prices..

i picked up a MBPro, about 3 weeks previous range, for £899, rather than £1299 for the new one...

luckily, i don't need advice..

Poor Poor Poor DSGI staff !! how must it feel for them now ? Put yourself in their shoes, they work for a company that has no idea how to treat their staff i wonder what the coming months will bring for us.. I mean them ...ha ha Wake up and smell the coffee they are all doomed ... no seriously good luck staff.. hope it works out for you ..

I ordered 2 switches from pcworld business arm last november when they didn't turn up as promised I ordered them from elsewhere.

They arrived last week.

The thing that always killed me about PCWorld is the gold plated USB cables for £30. WTF do you need a gold plated one for ????

If they refuse to stock the basics at basic prices, you'll always shop elsewhere.

It would be like Tesco's selling Milk and bread at a 9000% markup, you'd just go to the smaller independant retailler down the road selling a crusty loaf for £1 and if per chance he was selling some fancy deli goods at a premium, then you may be tempted.

PCWorld have always had this arseways and until they change they deserve everything they get.

Suggestion for PCWorld.

Fill the tills with eastern european lovelies. ( english is not required- just a big smile )

Sell the everyday stuff that IT orientated people ( your target customer base ... remember ) need at competative prices.

Hold outdoor sessions of Pay-per-Flog beatings of TechGuys staff ( Big crowd winner )

Move into the 'Pile em high', 'sell em cheap' mode

Watch your customer base grow.