Where in the World: Consumer Advice FAIL

[OCD-OC]

What? At PCW, you would be charged far more for any product than here on OcUK... and at OcUK, you can ask questions like will X fit in Y... whereas at PCW, they'll always tell you yes whether it does or not.

didn't say it was cheap

I was hinting at asking for professional advice from people on minimum wage

.. and whoever mentioned HDMI Cables above .. Ridiculous isn't it

whats worse ? that Belk... the manufacturers ... came in every week and trained the sales staff into all the mumbo jumbo they repeat ...

Gold plated Digital uber super duper high fidelity better than sliced bread
!!!

utter crap ... no different to £3.50 jobby from Tescos ..

ahhh fun times ... fond memories

 

[Banzai_Joe]

Yeah, interconnects are some of thte biggest rips in the industry. Monster cables have had their day, most are wise to it now.

 

[Semple]

sorry maybe a bit harsh ..

but you do get jaded about the expectation to know 100% about every item in a store of 10,000 different items.

5 years of putting up with this attitude towards me and my staff still gets me on the defensive a little ..

You're right, making stuff up about specs on routers is bad ..

and I accept there are a few purples out there that will jsut feed you a line to get rid of the awkward techy guy that keeps asking questions

so they can get to a customer who wants to buy a laptop and internet connection and warranty and antivirus and tech support and everything else that is a target to hit.

I still stand by it, they are essentially over pressured till assistants.

I remember the sales "sales trainign course" that head office made us take

a whole bunch of rubbish questions to get all touchy feely with the customer about the laptop

"what do you LOVE about it ?"

jeesus .. that was painful !!

gotta love the good old fives training

 

[Rexton]

Yeah, interconnects are some of thte biggest rips in the industry. Monster cables have had their day, most are wise to it now.

Yeah, I'll pay a little extra for audio interconnects, speaker cable, analogue RCA etc. But when it comes to digital, it's just daylight robbery.

 

[blackn3r]

OK, where to start!

I will start by saying I worked at that craphole, I then promptly gave my notice in after 6 months due to to the way they run the place, i was THE most knowledgeable person out of 40 people that worked there and I am not exactly gods gift to technology (but i know a bits in all sectors) lol

What really tipped me over the edge is when they wanted more sales, even though i was doing my job and giving good honest advice that people appreciate and they always said they would could back to me (some did and spent thousands). But the problem was for instance when an elderly or disabled person came in asking for advice, I would spend upto and beyond half an hour with that person so they get the most out of what the need. Well, management didnt like that and said I should focus more on sales rather than explaining stuff to customers and not knowing whether they will buy anything.

I told them to stick the job right up "there"!

My mother is disabled and it was just plain wrong.

/rant

edit: sorry just realized this has not much to do with the OP :/

 

[Banzai_Joe]

Yeah, I'll pay a little extra for audio interconnects, speaker cable, analogue RCA etc. But when it comes to digital, it's just daylight robbery.

Absolutely,
was gonna buy a 10m HiSpeed with Ethernet HDMI for £22.99 which is triple shielded...so a very good price.
Got one last night from local shop for £13, same spec but not triple shielded. Used it for the 720p projector to my Onkyo AVR.....works a treat, no problems.

 

[OCD-OC]

gotta love the good old fives training

Yup .. I gots five for you .. and here's TWO extra for free !! \/..

 

[wentalong]

hahaa this is great OHH WAIT.... im doing my work experience there next month :/

apparently im going to be a sales assistant, dont know whether or not i should but in when a sale mans talking waffle and re-direct the customer to OCUK or not?

but my PCW (romford) isnt terrible, has always had someone to find and ask this and that about but i reserved a stck of PNY 2GB online and went there later to have to wait an hour for the guy to find it, in the end he gave me some integral thing and i couldnt be bothered to argue so i took it... i wanted the PNY because i already had a stick from there from AGESSSS ago and wanted it to match -.- OCD here

 

[OCD-OC]

have fun, don't take it too serious

you'll get left stacking shelves and following the "real" salesmen around ... don't learn too many bad habits

and take as many smoke breaks as you can .. they can only fire you

then go join the Army and get some real experience

 

[wentalong]

lol ill be sure to do some extensive 'testing' on the ipads dont wanna get kicked off it for reccommending other shops though will get screwed at for it

 

[spudbynight]

Whoas .. whats with all the haters ?

You guys need to look in the mirror and think a second, you're all enthusiasts who "Enjoy" messing with this stuff.. the purples are just people who took a JOB !

I'm an ex manager from there and know for a FACT that if you walk in the doors then you fit a certain type of person
You don't know what you want and need basic help
You saw a TV ad and want "That one!"
or something went wrong and you need a quick bit of akasa TM or a network cable

.. seriously going in here for enthusiat level advice ??
You get what you pay for sorry !

and these poor fools undergo 3 months of basic training to try and take all that info in,
they then get thrown in front of you types and the eedjits that wander in for a £100 laptop
(the same types who bring it back a week later to complain it doesn't run Oblivion and Crysis2 at max settings !) and its not their fault for not listening to the purples basic sense !!

and on top of that get unimaginable sales targets to achieve .. so they NEVER get paid a bonus that YOU think they get ... EVER .. .ever ever ever ! ... like .. Never
(wonder why I left ?!)

Despite all that .. knowing that the checkout girls at Tesco or what-not get better pay better training better support and a whole lot less pressure !!

You still expect everything .. and to pay nothing ... ?

get a grip

Hmm...you get what you pay for? Well if you go into the land of the purple shirts you pay more. Surely then you should get better advice than if you contacted somewhere cheaper like OCUK?

You mention Tesco which is a funny analogy as Tesco typically is cheaper

 

[milkinc13]

Yup .. I gots five for you .. and here's TWO extra for free !! \/..

That's Fantastic, have you concidererd another two for that V.

Yes i did use to work there, I saw the light and went to the indian place which is a lot better, more training (or that I found from asking collegues)

as old saying goes. Pay peanuts get monkeys. If DSG were to improve both pay and training then it would be a lot better.

 

[olivier renault]

Whoas .. whats with all the haters ?

You guys need to look in the mirror and think a second, you're all enthusiasts who "Enjoy" messing with this stuff.. the purples are just people who took a JOB !

blablabla...

get a grip

Wouldn't it be too much to enter a store and ask for some reliable advice, as advertised on TV? Isn't that the whole purpose of having 'advisers' in the first place?

I usually go in when I know what I want, but it's still interesting to ask advice on things and see what sort of reaction you get. Anything from pretty decent, to ignorance (which is fine by me), to complete snake oil salesman BS (which is really not cool). I do this not out of spite, but to see what sort of advice Joe Bloggs is likely to get, and what I would get if I asked a geniune question.

I suppose it is symptomatic of our times. It shouldn't be just a job, you should know what you are selling and advising on. Shelf stacking is just a job, selling a laptop or a £2,000 TV isn't. Hell, we're doing it for free here!

 

[cub123]

Salesmen rats, full of bs.
I feel sorry for people going in there to get ripped off big time.