PC World !!!!!!

[webman]

mcrazy04: I've also thought about doing exactly the same as well

[alonebfg]

but i have had a good experince with there bisness dept i was very shocked she was very knowlageable and told me some things i did not know and has helped me a lot get hold of origanal software. I have posted on recomended supplyers. but i do agree with you about the shop floor staff.

[eduabncs]

hehehe...you guys will love this piss take.....! :supz:

[localzuk]

Originally Posted by bishopsgarthstockton

any way the sales man had to go get some information. this is when i jumped in and explained to him that he did not need to spend such crazy amounts of money on a system that he would only use for sending emails. and that he would get a much better deal if he went else were i.e. online or a local shop.

with that they thanked me and left the shop

This is an all too common situation with computer retailers and people with low tech knowledge. It is a shame that companies haven't come up with a simple system to explain the level of functionality a computer will be able to provide. Something like a traffic light system for each type of use:

Office software: Green
Internet: Green
Games: Orange
Photo Editing: Orange
Video Editing: Red
Music: Green

Which would cover a basic entry level model.

However, it is more likely that retailers don't want such a system - it would make it less easy to get people to buy stuff they don't need.

[_Bat_]

Occasionally you get the odd person in PC World who really knows what they are doing. It is rare though admittedly and they are usually found behind the service desk if they exist. They don't work there for very long either before moving on.

I could not do what the sales people do there though. They twist words and occasionally tell downright lies (assuming they didn't believe what they were saying was true). This is something I could not do and if I believed someone would be better off downloading open office then paying £470 (pcworld prices for office 2003 a year ago) for microsoft office, I would say so. Then i'd probably get the sack for losing a sale.

[RobC]

Bat - I worked for PC World in Glasgow at the turn of the millenium as a finance filler (sales drone makes the sale, then I put their details into the comp & get them to sign the paperwork). That is precisely the reason that I didn't get a permanent job when my xmas contract ran out.

On the two occasions that I tried my hand at sales, I got absolutely bollocked because I showed the customer what would be useful to them as opposed to what the sales drones were supposed to push that week.

Also, Computing Which has already proven that the service there is poor and you will basically be ripped off.

[GrumbleDook]

From a friend who recently left a reasonably high paid job in PC World ...

When persuading people to buy a product you should always pitch to the highest application level that they want to do and then pile on the other stuff as options.. If they mention gaming you want a fast processor, lots of RAM and a huge graphics card. Than add in the options for a sound system, as large a screen as you can (good markup opportunities here) and then look at doubling it as an entertaninment system.

People who want to surf and email should always be targetted for music and videos too. Try and take the angle that if they want to communicate with family it should also be about sharing pictures and videos. Then sell them the idea of lots of music too ... this means you can increase the RAM and drive space on a low price machine. Remember to get the extended warranty on the low price machine as this is the one that is likely to be brought back in on repeated occasions. If you can get them to take a two year warranty rahter than one or three, this give the option of an extended two year warranty in two years time. A total of four years!

If people want an entertainment system then sell them a mid-range model with basic monitor and speakers, but then push them towards media centre deals that will allows us to get them to buy a HD enabled screen. This means we get the extended warranty on both the computer and the LCD/Plasma screen."

He ran me past another 30 minutes of sales training that is given to drones that show promise ... and finally told me that the only way to get a reasonable honest answer about what to buy is to use the website so you don't actually have to talk to someone. He also reckons that there are still a good number of people working for the company that will not follow this line as it is easier to do an honest sale purely due to the fact that it is quicker to tell the truth than to think up a series of plausible lies. Sell fast and move onto the next customer.

[_Bat_]

Originally Posted by RobC

Bat - I worked for PC World in Glasgow at the turn of the millenium as a finance filler (sales drone makes the sale, then I put their details into the comp & get them to sign the paperwork). That is precisely the reason that I didn't get a permanent job when my xmas contract ran out.

On the two occasions that I tried my hand at sales, I got absolutely bollocked because I showed the customer what would be useful to them as opposed to what the sales drones were supposed to push that week.

Also, Computing Which has already proven that the service there is poor and you will basically be ripped off.

Interesting article. I can possibly understand re-installing windows... often if a file is missing there is going to be more then one that has been deleted and it might be best to give a the customer a clean start. Not backing up the data first though is unforgivable, as that doesn't take long to do even if windows won't boot.

"...advising the "customer" to replace their computer"

If I had the time and money, i'd be tempted to do a survey like this myself, purely out of interest. I hope for their sake that i'd never get a reponse like that above.

As you worked in PC World, you probably know more about how they work then the rest of us. Is there any other info you can give us about them that is interesting at all?

[_Bat_]

Originally Posted by GrumbleDook

it is quicker to tell the truth than to think up a series of plausible lies

The one they told to my aunt could have been considered a "plausible lie" I guess. The one about not being possible to have a home network on a dialup internet connection, therefore she needs broadband if she is going to share the internet between the two computer. While broadband may be advantageous, they didn't give her the option of sticking with her current dialup connection. They wanted her to sign up with one of their sponsers.

[Lee_K_81]

One of our teachers had a load of trouble with PC World. His PC would read CD's but only after about 10 times of trying to run a game would it work, they said there was nothing wrong with it, and that it was a software issue (after keeping it for a week). He bought it in and gave it to me to look at, after 30 mins i diagnosed that the DVD-drive was faulty and not getting up to speed, only after a number of attempts was it finally going fast enough to run the game. He took it back to them, gave them my diagnosis, they kept it for another week, before accepting there was a problem and replacing the drive. Jerks!

[RobC]

Originally Posted by _Bat_

I can possibly understand re-installing windows... often if a file is missing there is going to be more then one that has been deleted

To tell you the truth, my job is now with an independant training/IT company and a LOT of my time is taken up by repairs. Basically, it is possible to fix a single/multiple missing file problem by doing a repair install of Windows and this is something that PC World's staff should most certainly be trained in (repair installs are also applicable to OEM machines with recovery partitions, such as Packard Hells as you can simply use a standard Windows CD). The only time we do a complete rebuild from scratch of the OS is if it is too badly infected with spyware/viruses, etc. to fix.

On the training side, I instruct the CompTIA A+ course which covers all of this information and much more and to be honest, this is the sort of level of expertise I would expect a large company such as PC World to insist on simply in order to do a good job. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

As far as networking on a dial-up connection, Windows comes with Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) which is more than adequate for networking multiple machines together in order to share a dial-up connection. Again, as a reputable retailer, this is an option I would have given the customer rather than simply moving wholesale to DSL. I personally know several people who will spend less in a quarter on dial-up charges than they would in a month on DSL fees and they are more than happy to keep it that way.

To be perfectly honest, most of my company's business comes now from our building signage and word-of-mouth. I like to think that our customers are so happy with the work/advice that we give them that they wouldn't even think of going elsewhere.

Originally Posted by _Bat_

As you worked in PC World, you probably know more about how they work then the rest of us. Is there any other info you can give us about them that is interesting at all?

Unfortunately, I can't really provide any further info as that is all I know regarding the company. I wasn't really prepared to hang around when my contract was up. I will say though, that Grumbledook's description of their sales training is the real deal as that is exactly how they acted with the customers in the store I worked in.

[phreak]

He he. Funny clip eduabncs. Weebl and bob are great!

Anyway, I really freaking hate Pc world. In my younger more foolish years I used to work for Tiny computers and they were just as bad. I only wish that Pc world had gone bust like Tiny did. We actually had a few guys who used to work at PW come and work at Tiny and some of the stories they used to tell were very frightening from a customer point of view, but I was not the customer so I laughed. :P

Actually ha a good result at PC World last night. I went with a friend who was buying me a copy of Vista Ultimate as payment for doing a load of work for him and his family. When we went to pay I was asked if it was for business or home use and my friend for a laugh said it was my business and so they set up a business account for with with them and we ended up getting just over £40 of the price

[seanmh]

When I was a student I worked at PC World for a short time.

I can confirm that they are a nightmare to work for and have unethical sales practices with many people leaving the store with inappropriate kit for what they need it for.

Their biggest "Money spinner" was the "serivce level agreement" (now called "whatever happens" I believe. Sales staff where bullied by management into pushing this (which was extortionate with loads of "get out of jail free" clauses for PC World) at all costs, as they make more on this than the actual kit.

PC World is useful if you just want to go and have a play with some kit and then go off and buy elsewhere.

[bishopsgarthstockton]

one of our IT teacher was having problems with his computer recently, it would shut off after couple of minutes running time. so he called out PC work engineer. Blow the fluff and dust out of the CPU heat sink and fan started it up worked fine. charged him £90!

Any way he told me his story about how he was robbed in his own home and then went on to explain that the computer still wasnt working to great. I felt sorry for him and asked him to bring it in to school and i would take a quick look. He had a nice virus on his machine hidden in the documents and setting folder, romoved that, updated his anti virus did a good tidy up of his files etc....took me a day in between doing work etc. I got a nice bottle of red wine for my efforts, which i gave to my girl friend in turn i got an even better reward