PCWorld being clowns

I am probably going to send an email to trading standards now they are just wind up merchants. They have a big advert in the daily mail claiming to be the UK's cheapest on many products. Such things are:

A Samsung 17" TFT monitor PCWORLD price £199, identical unit at Microdirect £154 INC VAT yet PCWORLD boldy claim its the UK's cheapest price. Also Microdirect is a shop just like PCWORLD, mail order is just apart of MD's business.

An LG DVD ReWriter PCWORLD (UK's cheapest price) £49.99, Microdirect £34.00 inc VAT

Also PCWORLD claiming their 512MB USB memory sticks for £59.99 is the UK's cheapest price

Slightly off topic but still regarding the same company, Curry's are charging £7.99 for a TV coaxial fly lead, these should cost well less than £2, they cost me 60p to make and they are better quality than the crap they are charging £7.99 for.

This PCWORLD advert is simply full of blatent lies.

 

yup, sadly, I have bought from pc world, and probably will continue, but I only get bits when the sale is on....I got a nice printer 1/2 price and a dig camera with £50 off.

but in general, they are about as bad as dfs, how irritating are they?

I think pc worlds cheapest usb is about a tenner, yet you can get from farnell for around £2 rip off extraordinare pc world, chinese made, costs pennies I bet.
rip off britain yet again....

 

You mean USB cables? Last time I checked they were more than that, £14.99 I think but I could be wrong. Like you say £2 is the normal price and they do cost pennies to make.

I once bought a Firewire card on boxing day in there as I got a DV camcorder for christmas so I had to link it up, it was in the sale at £14.99 and included the DV cable. The joke was seperatly the cable cost more than the package I bought.

I suppose I am lucky living not to far from Aria and Microdirect, there are always price wares between those to companies meaning they are about the cheapest computer shops inthe country.

 

it gets worse:

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2005/04/20/dsg_sold_old_computers_as_new/

 

PC World is a fine retail outlet with friendly, well informed staff with a vast amount of knowledge at their disposal. Also they are part of the Dixons group which means that staff training and after care service are second to none. I'd recommend one of their ever so reasonable extended guarantees....

 

Yes, do they have that fantastic clause like dixons where if anything breaks and you've had it for more than five minutes you have to get it sorted yourself? I bought a dvd player in the Dixons sale and the scart out packed in, I tried to take it back for a replacement or failing that, refund, apparantly because I'd bought it over two weeks ago (by about 2 days) 'they couldn't replace it instore' and gave me a print out with the website address for pioneer on?!? WTF kind of bull shit service is that? I'm sure it can't be legal either.
Virgin do a similar 30 day thing on ipods. They tried to refuse me a refund but I kicked up a fuss so they panicked and gave me money back. The guy serving me had already given me the cash though, it was only when someone else interefered that they started saying no. Its not like I was going to give the cash back though, they had the ipod.

 

I can't remember but I its either 14 or 30 days and they have to offer a full refund or give a direct replacement. I have a feeling its 30 days.

One thing I can say about Richer Sounds is that when I have taken stuff back under warranty there they have always been speedy and offered great service. My old Senhieser head phones blew becuase my amp probably wasn't poweful enough for them at the time (it kept cutting out with the head phones on) they sent them back to Senheiser in Ireland, and also gave me a spare lead. A week later they were returned from the factory fully repaired.

So many people don't seem to have a kind word for DSG how can they still be in business?

 

They have the money to cover it up and generally sell to people who don't know any better

 

Yep, I think a lot of people think just becuase a brand is advertised in the local press or on TV it must be good, most of us however realise that is all perception and to believe any hype created by marketing.

 

My friend bought a laptop from PC World after seeing one of their TV adverts. What they failed to mention in their brief advert is that the 256mb of RAM is integrated, i.e. the graphics card takes 64mb of that RAM, and that the laptop's manufacturer has an agreement with Microsoft so that you don't get the full amount of functionality from Windows XP, like the ability to send faxes.

 

I once worked for a computer building company which was slave labour its why I decided to go to college and then university in the end.

Anyway they were building PCs with 32MB RAM this was in 2000 and installing Windows ME on them, the PCs also had 8MB buillt in graphics which mean't they had 24MB RAM. I said to my boss why do we build useless PCs, he said what the customers don't know won't hurt them.

When I was working there 2 employes left, I followed a week later, the company did go bust in the end but is still trading under a different company.

What the big companies like to do is stick cheap crap inside good quality cases, its all for show. This why I will ever build my own PCs.

I reckon my PC will outperform any sub £600 PCWORLD PC and my PC is quite ancient now.

 

Indeed, but isn't it funny how people always mention dell prices when comapring with imacs.

Yet the dells have the same problem, a strangled OS and graphics memory taken from the paltry RAM.

Its like anything in life, you get what you pay for.

 

And you certainly pay for it at Dell

 

Well, if people are too lazy to shop around and do research into prices for themselves, they deserve to be ripped off on things like co-axial leads and USB. I can build coax - it's a piece of piss. Get some cable and two connectors, and 2 minutes later you're done.

Anything to do with Dixons is always a bit iffy in my opinion; I got an ex-display Sony telly from them, and the motherboard had faulty firmware. At least they replaced the mobo in-house, and the telly (touch wood) is still going strong 8 years later. All the same though, their extended guarantees are a rip compared to Richer Sounds. If we had a John Lewis in Exeter or Devon I'd buy all my white goods and TV stuff from them - they'll pricematch anywhere and you get a very good free extended guarantee.

 

do you have shares, ATS?

I think the idea is that people would trust a high street store with established outlets rather than a shady unknown in a computer mag.

That's understandable, I would myself.

I tell you what bugs me about my local pc world, its totally disorientating, on purpose, the idea is that you spend longer looking and buy more stuff.Its one of the tricks big shops use, they are obsessed with psychological store sales techniques like that. There is an industry sadly devoted to underhand getting cash offa you

All I want really is a logical layout so i can find what I am after, not to get lost and confused. I am the sort of type who knows what he is after and won't buy what I don't need/want. I think they must think people are stupid, which probably, a lot are.

Shops don't have a duty to refund stuff if its not faulty, some do as a goodwill, and most give an exchange, but not for less cash.
Richers has tightened up, I don't go there anymore but have tried to take things back in the latter days, and they don't refund as easily now.

Mail order/internet goods are covered by the distance selling regs. which means you can get a refund if you don't like within 7 or 10 days no quibble, on the idea you havn'et seen them in the flesh.
bit of a pain for small businesses tho if everything gets sent back, just on trial, poor guy can't stay in business that way.

 

Maybe it's the cynic in me, but I read ats's post as being heavily sarcastic rather than an endorsement of PCW.

 

Yeah ATS comments where very sarcastic the bit about the extended warranties gave it away.

And yes the distance selling regulations are a real pain for small businesses.

Its why it annoys me when huge companies like DSG are blatently breaking consumer laws.

 

I believe Dell have a deal with Samsung, Samsung supplies below par RAM to dell which could not be considered fast enough for custom built PCs so no computer shops will sell it.

Dell have only recently started to include AGP slots on all their desktop PCs. And like DSG they only seem to supply Intel.

The probem is Dom though is that people trust DSG they believe that £8 for a coax lead is a fair price as they know nothing about electronics, they have no reason to believe its well over priced.