Currys lies

[admin_exported]

Went in to my local Currys to see about an all in one cinema system for the house, saw a nice Pioneer tallboy system which said 5.1 on the label, but i didn't see a centre speaker. Asked the guy once I had hunted him down (like you have to do in there). He said it didn't need the speaker, thats why they had heavily discounted it by £15 from its usual price, that made me turn my head in the way dogs do when they hear a strange sound. Then when i had recovered from this i went over to a Samsung 2.1 system (X200) whch by the word 2.1 would signify a subwoofer, there wasn't one so I asked him where it was, he lifted the main unit, turned it upside down and then proclaimed it didn't have one, just the two speakers, by this time my trusty Pixon had called up the model on the web with a black sub in the picture, that was an extra he said. OK I said, i'm leaving now, goodbye.

If I was being treated in this way by these people and I had an idea what I was looking for, what does Mr. Average get fobbed off with??

Has anyone else had this type of treatment from these people or in PC World?

 

[The_Lhc]

To be honest, going into Currys and expecting expert help is a little silly. If you know what the products are just tell them what you want. You'll be getting an unopened boxed one anyway, which will have everything in it, they're not opening the boxes and removing bits from them.

I was in our local Currys a couple of weeks ago and walked past the area that all these systems on display, nothing was where it should be, they'd mixed up all the speakers, so you had Pioneer speakers sitting with a Panasonic main unit, whilst the Pioneer unit was up the other end of the display with the Samsung speakers, hopeless!ÿ

 

[aliEnRIK]

Currys and comet staff dont know what day it is so your wasting your time asking or any 'advice' off them

On the other hand ive personally had quite a few problems with staff talking rubbish to me from Richer Sounds. They know not to now though

 

[Qwalme]

lol well I guess they are just sales people so they are trying to do what they can with what they got in front of them. I know people in sales in different industries and a lot of the time you talk rubbish, but if you do it with confidence then most of the time you get away with it.

Its not great but meh...

 

[Frank Harvey]

the_lhc: To be honest, going into Currys and expecting expert help is a little silly. But people still do it.....

 

[Anonymous]

Used to work in one of the stores and I think I was one of the only ppl in the store who knew what they were talking about most of the time. The rest used a lot of bull.

 

[Anonymous]

the_lhc:To be honest, going into Currys and expecting expert help is a little silly. If you know what the products are just tell them what you want. I don't think expecting them to know how many speakers a package comes with can be classes as expert by any stretch. Although the only time i went in to somewhere like that recently and didn't know exactly what i wanted was when buying a cooker... and i wont get started on the mess that turned out to be!

 

[JamesOK]

Qwalme:
lol well I guess they are just sales people so they are trying to do what they can with what they got in front of them. I know people in sales in different industries and a lot of the time you talk rubbish, but if you do it with confidence then most of the time you get away with it.

Its not great but meh...

In my opinion the fact that theyre doing what they can with what theyve got in front of them makes it even worse. One of the excuses the big chains use for selling their stock at a higher price than you will find online is that you have sales people there to guide you! In my experience of those stores, I go in, ask them for example "does this TV have 1080p resolution", the sales person then goes "er, oh, well" looks on the label on the shelf, and if it says 1080p then says "yes it does".

 

[D.J.KRIME]

If they pay their staff peanuts what do you expect to get?

 

[Anonymous]

I agree what as been said buying home cinema from the likes of Currys Comet etc is nothing short of a lottery. But I went into the new Currys Mega store in Wednesbury Jun 9 M6 West Midlands they have a dedicated room for demos and very knowlegable staff a real gem. They have loads of stock and fix a demo in no time. Well done Currys on this one

 

[idc]

I have had a look at the Currys website and there is no mention of knowledgeable staff, so they are not deceiving anyone.

 

[chebby]

hilly10:I agree what as been said buying home cinema from the likes of Currys Comet etc is nothing short of a lottery. But I went into the new Currys Mega store in Wednesbury Jun 9 M6 West Midlands they have a dedicated room for demos and very knowlegable staff a real gem. They have loads of stock and fix a demo in no time. Well done Currys on this one

That won't last.

I remember years ago when my local Jessops was staffed by keen photographers. (One even taught evening classes in photography at a local college)

The last time I went in there I asked a question about a 25mm 4/3 format prime lens that I wanted to buy and was met with a blank stare. I had to go and point at an Olympus 4/3 SLR before the 'child' I was talking to even believed there was such a thing!

Needless to say I will be buying from someone else.

John Lewis aren't too bad - as high street 'non-specialist' AV dealers go - and their guarantees are excellent (anywhere between 2 - 5 years free depending on product) and they deliver exactly when they say they will with a phone call 30 minutes before they are due to turn up!

I would not even buy batteries from Currys.

 

[idc]

chebby:

John Lewis aren't too bad - as high street 'non-specialist' AV dealers go - and their guarantees are excellent (anywhere between 2 - 5 years free depending on product) and they deliver exactly when they say they will with a phone call 30 minutes before they are due to turn up!

I would also rate John Lewis as the best non hifi, hifi shop for staff knowledge and service. The one in Glasgow has a very good range, a listening room and the internet site is excellent.

 

[VoodooDoctor]

I have always enjoyed having the shelf labels read to me by the staff whenever I ask a question. I know some people think that we shouldn't expect much from these staff but surely they should have some pride in their work and actually do a little reading/exploring of the products they are selling?

 

[mikey2008]

I would also say JL are great. Fantastic service, even if they're not the cheapest.

 

[Anonymous]

Don't blame the staff,their just trying to pay their rent/morgage like the rest of us.It's the companies who just treat their staff like a disposable resource and won't invest money into trainning them.

 

[Anonymous]

As a Currys employee myself I can mostly agree with what is said unfortunately. Many staff don't really know much, and I think the problem is that the staff are expected to know about everything in the shop because they don't have enough staff in to always have somebody who knows about TVs, somebody who knows about washing machines etc.

I and some other staff I know do take an interest in what we sell (which is why I'm here!) but many don't and will read tickets all day long which is embarassing to see. In my opinion they really need to focus more on training staff with product knowlage rather than spending all the time and money teaching selling techniques which are completely un natural.

 

[Anonymous]

alwatson:

In my opinion they really need to focus more on training staff with product knowlage rather than spending all the time and money teaching selling techniques which are completely un natural.

Lets hope Currys act on that statement. I think not

 

[professorhat]

D.J.KRIME:If they pay their staff peanuts what do you expect to get?

Elephants?

 

[Anonymous]

4biddenplanet:Don't blame the staff,their just trying to pay their rent/morgage like the rest of us.It's the companies who just treat their staff like a disposable resource and won't invest money into trainning them.

Not true, staff have to take some responsibility, take pride in what they do by doing it well. A little reading up on their subject isn't too much to ask. The "don't blame me, I just work here" approach isn't an acceptable excuse for lack of product knowledge, if you're going to take the money at the end of each month then it is appropriate that you should put in a decent amount of effort to ensure the company thrives which in turn will keep you in money for mortgages/rent/bills etc.

 

[Anonymous]

Unless the time to learn/train regarding products is built into the staffs paid shifts it's unreasonable to expect them to study in their own time,these are minnimum wage (or there abouts) jobs.

If staff do take an interest and learn in their own time that's comendable but shouldn't be mandatory.

 

[Big Aura]

4biddenplanet:Unless the time to learn/train regarding products is built into the staffs paid shifts it's unreasonable to expect them to study in their own time,these are minnimum wage (or there abouts) jobs. If staff do take an interest and learn in their own time that's comendable but shouldn't be mandatory.

The staff generally work to targets and are incentivised to exceed those targets. A basic understanding will enable them to sell more, so they should be self-motivated to learn.

 

[henxuk]

If you want to here a real story of ineptitude listen to this.

So after much umming and arring I found the tv I wanted: the panasonic 42 thpz81b

with hd freesat etc, I found one in currys for £800 (It was the last one and about to be put on display and a bargain) SO I

say to the manager I would like to buy it, he says fine, then things start going wrong. One of the currys minions

went downstairs to get the tv all fine, BUT they have lost the remote control! Manager says "how about £50 off?"

hmm I think, theres nothing I like doing more than changing the tv channel by hand on the tv itself.

anyway they then say they can order on in, OK i think that will do, I suppose, BUT WAIT THERES MORE INEPTITUDE TO COME,

They are about hand over the tv when I say "wheres the stand?" OH ummmmmmmmmm (blank looks from currys staff) ummm oh uhhh dunno, YEP you guessed it they had lost the stand too............

needless to say I walked out

 

[John Duncan]

D.J.KRIME:If they pay their staff peanuts what do you expect to get?

Or in my son's case, hives.

 

[Anonymous]

To update you, I went into Richer sounds, had a chat with a pleasant guy and got what I wanted, no fuss and no lost pieces. Why can't Curry's send a manager into one of these stores and realise that the guys who know what they want will spend alot of money getting the right kit and love the staff knowing what you want and not fobbing you off with rubbish. For example in Currys its £15 for a sub-standard scart lead or USB cable, I don't think so.