PC World gone Mad
September 4, 2009 7:33 AM   Subscribe

Things seem to be going from bad to worse in PR terms for the Dixon Stores Group. First, PC World was voted one of the worst high-street stores in Britain. Then, their staff Facebook group reveals a lot of somewhat interesting comments abotu their customers.

"[name removed] wroteat 22:49 on 16 July 2007
im sorry, but this sort of stuff would get you into trouble if it wa leaked on the public view! remember youtube? how mad did headoffice go with that, doesnt look professional and all. my advise is, becareful of what you put, we can have a laugh, but plz dont be too silly with this!"
posted by mippy (37 comments total) 2 users marked this as a favorite
 
Remind me never to ask for a discount in PC World:
Go fuck yourself you hardfisted, smallwalleted, annoying, iggnorant [sic] tightfisted fucktard.
Or shop there, for that matter.
posted by chorltonmeateater at 7:36 AM on September 4, 2009


The thing is, a lot of parents buying computer bits for Christmas presents for kids will go there, because they have a huge High Street presence. Of course they won't know what a scarf lead or an Epsom printer is.

Every workplace that deals with outsiders (be they customers or clients) has a bitch, but so soon after the survey result this is a very silly thing to do.
posted by mippy at 7:39 AM on September 4, 2009


Some smug dong behind the counter at a computer shop thinks that they walk on water. I'm sure this is the only time that's ever happened.
posted by porn in the woods at 7:42 AM on September 4, 2009


PITW - this isn't your local computer store staffed by experienced and pungent techies, though, it's the IT equivalent of Wal-Mart paying wages to match. I've heard of people going in and asking for a Mac keyboard and the staff saying 'why do you want one of those?'
posted by mippy at 7:45 AM on September 4, 2009


Their examples of stupid questions and obnoxious customers sound pretty stupid and obnoxious (respectively) to me. I see how it breaks the pretense that customer service people (especially those on the low end of the customer spectrum) are infinitely patient and saintly and understanding, even when they're abused, attacked, vilified, and ridiculed for doing their job, but really, does anyone believe they don't swap asshole customer stories in their free time?

My theory: people hate to see this because every one of us knows that at some time, we've been that asshole customer.
posted by rusty at 7:50 AM on September 4, 2009 [1 favorite]


The only thing different about this story is that the stories are posted on a publicish forum. This stuff surprises no one who has ever worked in retail. I worked in a college textbook bookstore and had plenty of similar stories about customers who were really that dumb, trying to pull ridiculous shit off and insisting they are right.

NO! I'm not giving you the ISBN so you can buy the book elsewhere! We didn't force the professor to get the new edition of the same exact knowledge! We would rather sell you the used book at 50% of the price because we get a 25% profit margin! STOP RIPPING THE PLASTIC WRAP OFF OF IT SIR.
posted by Mach5 at 7:50 AM on September 4, 2009


I once worked in a record store when I was sent there by sixth-form for work experience - I was old enough to get a Saturday job there so it wasn't very exciting until someone asked me 'Have you got that song by that black guy' then 'There's this record, two P*kis sing it, it goes like this' and then sung to me the record by non-Asian artistes KC and JOJO.
posted by mippy at 7:55 AM on September 4, 2009 [4 favorites]


I'm gob smacked. Appalling customer service, technological ignorance and LOL. ACSTILOL.
posted by tellurian at 8:04 AM on September 4, 2009


Dixons/Currys/PC World is one of the few shops I avoid whenever I can. Their sales staff pounce the moment you enter the store. The slightest hint that you don't know exactly what you want has them wetting themselves with glee. I'm sure many of them are nice people; it's probably just the sales culture of the company that makes them come across as pushy assholes.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 8:07 AM on September 4, 2009


I spent a couple of weeks working at DSG headquarters in Hemel Hempstead, and found it to be one of the most depressing enviroments I've ever worked on. Despite being a computer store they couldn't even get us decent computers to work on, an every aspect of the projected was trimmed down to the bone in the most penny pinching manner possible , with false economies abounding. But that's retail for you.

In the end they kicked us off the project and payed millions to one of the big agencies for something hugely inferior to what we would have given them if we had a free hand. Sigh.
posted by Artw at 8:08 AM on September 4, 2009


Don't live in the UK so I don't know, maybe it's a really shitty store.

But I never get what the big deal is about "revelations" like this. As covered above, obviously retail employees talk shit about customers. Why should I care? I think it's funny. If people want to blow off steam by talking shit about me after I leave the store, how on Earth does that affect me?
posted by drjimmy11 at 8:10 AM on September 4, 2009


Go fuck yourself you hardfisted, smallwalleted, annoying, iggnorant [sic] tightfisted fucktard.

I worked retail briefly about three decades ago. We didn't have the word "fucktard" back then and "hardfisted" and "tightfisted" cancel each other out, as does "smallwalleted", I guess. But the rest checks out:

"Go fuck yourself you annoying, ignorant, tightfisted moron." Ah, the warm memories come flooding back.
posted by philip-random at 8:16 AM on September 4, 2009


LiveJournal has a few communities devoted to rants from customer service worker bees. The most popular seems to be Customers Suck.
posted by zarq at 8:18 AM on September 4, 2009


Weebl & Bob go shopping at PC World.
posted by soundofsuburbia at 8:23 AM on September 4, 2009


"added some lass on myspace.."

Pretty sure this one didn't happen.
posted by fire&wings at 8:24 AM on September 4, 2009


one person asks other employees whether they should be “legally allowed to cattle prod this [sic] arseholes!!!!”

I don't know about that, but I have often thought that the use of cattle prods on the Tube should be legalised; particularly their use on the slow-moving human-bovine hybrids who have a tendency to stand around near platform entrances, blocking the way of those not yet on the platform.
posted by acb at 8:32 AM on September 4, 2009 [2 favorites]


Meh. Having worked in retail for longer than I would have liked from middle to high end stores, from floor to management, I know these attitudes are not unusual. More like the norm. I'm just surprised it got broadcast.

However, there are always some customers that staff like and actually enjoy helping -- they're just so few and far between that one doesn't really blog about them. It's far easier to be angry.
posted by Extopalopaketle at 8:37 AM on September 4, 2009


PITW - this isn't your local computer store staffed by experienced and pungent techies, though, it's the IT equivalent of Wal-Mart paying wages to match. I've heard of people going in and asking for a Mac keyboard and the staff saying 'why do you want one of those?'

Yikes, that's pathetic. And I don't mind a bit of 'Nick, Your Company's Computer Guy' in my diet, as I work in IT and the occasional laugh about the foibles of inexperienced/asinine users come with the job, but some minimum-wage turd giving me attitude? Naah.
posted by porn in the woods at 8:40 AM on September 4, 2009


Dixons/Currys/PC World is one of the few shops I avoid whenever I can. Their sales staff pounce the moment you enter the store. The slightest hint that you don't know exactly what you want has them wetting themselves with glee. I'm sure many of them are nice people; it's probably just the sales culture of the company that makes them come across as pushy assholes.

The sales culture has a lot to answer for. A friend-of-a-friend worked on the new Dixons point-of-sale system, which revealed several interesting facts:

* Most of Dixons' money is made from selling extended warranties, insurance, unnecessary cables and batteries. Internally these are known as "fries", as in "Do you want fries with that?"

* Managers track daily how much sales are made by each clerk, and in how many of those sales they manage to convince the customer to "add fries". Drop below your quota of fries and you're out of a job. Dixons treat their staff like disposable crap.

* To rub salt into the wound, the new POS system doesn't work very well. Ever wonder why your online order got lost?

Unsurprisingly, the result is that the staff chase after their quotas. Last year, I ended up standing in a busy PCWorld with a netbook in one hand and a credit card in the other and was literally unable to buy it. Two different sales staff abandoned me after I wouldn't purchase "extended technical support". I ended up going an buying the machine elsewhere. Now, I'll actually go out of my way to avoid shopping at Dixons.
posted by outlier at 8:43 AM on September 4, 2009 [2 favorites]


It's a vicious circle: offer a terrible, standardized range of goods with salespeople who don't know much about their product, aren't enthusiasts for the field, and mainly care about foisting worthless "extended warranties" on unsuspecting customers, and you'll only attract customers who don't know any better. They'll ask stupid questions, the staff will get more angry and depressed, and the store will become shitter. And Dixons is shit. Oh, my God, is Dixons shit.
posted by game warden to the events rhino at 8:45 AM on September 4, 2009


Most of Dixons' money is made from selling extended warranties, insurance, unnecessary cables and batteries.

I was offered a £5 warranty on an £8 pair of headphones there a few years ago.

I was reading about Time Computers as well a few weeks ago - seems like the computer sales industry over here is really out to screw people.
posted by mippy at 8:51 AM on September 4, 2009


Yeah screw 'em and their extended warranties to hell and back... I never shop at Dixons / PC World.

I've also actively avoided buying anything from WH Smiths since they started trying to force an over-sized bar of Dairy Milk on you every time you bought anything. Just use it as a magazine library now, along with everyone else. I'm honestly surprised how they kept going through the recession.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 9:02 AM on September 4, 2009


with some employees branding them “retards” and “twats”.

What I've learned from reading Metafilter is that if they had just called them "idiots" and "douches" that this would all be a non-starter.
posted by Devils Rancher at 9:05 AM on September 4, 2009


The big PC World scam seems to be the practice of advertising some super-cheap laptop on national TV, then allocating only one per store. This happened when my mother tried to buy one earlier this year. Every store we visited had only one machine of the model advertised, and it was the display machine, so it wasn't for sale. Staff would make a pantomime of going to the stock-room to fetch one, then come back, apologise and try to upsell us to some other laptop. We only found what was going on when (at the third store) a student who was only there for a few weeks clued us in on what was going on. "Don't expect to get one of those." he said, "They're just to get you to into the store."
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 9:08 AM on September 4, 2009 [1 favorite]


Now, that's interesting as I work for a company that regulates TV advertising. I don't do PC World ads but would imagine we would get the company to verify that there is a reasonable level of stock available. Something fishy is going on somewhere.
posted by mippy at 9:14 AM on September 4, 2009


PCWorld is a horrible place. About the only thing I use them for is to poke and prod various peripherals before I go and buy them online.

fearfulsymmetry - I was about to say that they're held up by their newspaper delivery arm, but apparently they spun that out in 2006...
posted by twine42 at 9:26 AM on September 4, 2009


"Go fuck yourself you annoying, ignorant, tightfisted moron." Ah, the warm memories come flooding back.

I worked a bit of retail and I totally don't get this. I mean, it's not like you're working a restaurant and he's stiffing you on a tip. You're not the owner; you're not getting a cut of the profits. When I worked at a bookstore and someone said to me "Hey, this hardcover is $28! How soon do you think the paperback will come out?" I don't think to myself, or say to my co-workers, "What a cheap asshole." If anything, I think (and say) "Don't blame you. Come back in a few months, if you can wait, and you'll have your choice of the paperback for $10 or a pile of these hardbacks for $4.99 each."

I mean, stupid: often. But cheap? They're customers. They know it doesn't cost what you're charging, as do you.

Disclaimer: no experience with this particular chain.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 9:36 AM on September 4, 2009


You're not the owner; you're not getting a cut of the profits.

Apparently some retail chains monitor how much upselling each register monkey does, and if they don't do enough of it, they get fired. This explains the keening desperation of the people who ask me if I need any socks today, or if I'd like to open a store credit card.
posted by Sidhedevil at 9:56 AM on September 4, 2009


Ah, that makes sense then. Thanks. And yeah, that explains a few head-scratching moments for me, too.
posted by Durn Bronzefist at 10:16 AM on September 4, 2009


The people who have it the worst are the big box cashiers who are required to ask me if I want to purchase a two-year protection plan for the 12-foot patch cable I just bought. While they ask, they look at me with sunken eyes as if to say "Yes, I know, I'm sorry, but they beat me if I don't ask." I look back with equally sunken eyes as if to say "Yes, I know, and I'm sorry too."
posted by Spatch at 10:56 AM on September 4, 2009 [3 favorites]


Some smug dong behind the counter

Shit, now I want 'smug dong' for a username.
posted by spicynuts at 11:30 AM on September 4, 2009


Their sales staff pounce the moment you enter the store. The slightest hint that you don't know exactly what you want has them wetting themselves with glee.

Ah, so it's a commission sales position, then?
posted by rokusan at 12:00 PM on September 4, 2009


Meh. Having worked in retail for longer than I would have liked from middle to high end stores, from floor to management, I know these attitudes are not unusual. More like the norm. I'm just surprised it got broadcast.

I worked in retail for a decade, and could not then, nor now, stand that attitude. Yes, customers can be idiots. That's the very fact that causes you to have a job. If they weren't, the whole world could be served by vendo-mats, and nobody would ever be required to do customer service.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:09 PM on September 4, 2009 [1 favorite]


I was hoping for something scandalous. This is pretty standard after-work letting off some steam.
posted by small_ruminant at 1:24 PM on September 4, 2009


Well, its founder is quite an unpleasant character already, so all of this is rather unsurprising.
posted by Skeptic at 2:22 PM on September 4, 2009


They 'price match' other companies (subject to t&cs). The differences can be 30-40%+. Most of the staff are fine about honoring the offer, but just now and again you get one who thinks it's his money (it's not) or he's there to make strategic decisions (leave that to head office, Einstein), and tries to wriggle out of it. The experience can be magical.
posted by StephenB at 3:29 PM on September 4, 2009


I remember back in the day of PDAs of the Handspring and Palm vareity, visiting my local PC World to shop for a new one.

As usual they were all bolted to the counter. I wanted to check the weight of one, so I called over a sales assistant. I asked if I could feel the weight of the unit and pointed out it was fastened to the counter. He took a long look at it....tried to pick it up....and then told me that it appeared to be fasted to the counter. He waddled off to find a colleague to help out.

She came over, tried to pick several up, and informed me they were fastened to the counter. She then went to find her manager, who was able to tell me that they were infact, fastened to the counter.

Dixons, Comet, Currys, PC World - they all have so much potential - yet they are so incredibly slag it makes me sick.
posted by lemonfridge at 5:23 PM on September 4, 2009 [2 favorites]


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