There’s an entertaining piece in today’s Guardian about the joys of shopping in places like PC World[1].
There is one vital rule to entering such a store: never, under any circumstances, ask a question. The answer will be 30% repetition, 30% wild conjecture and 40% utter gibberish.
I also like the description of the sales staff:
Roving imbecile staff pick on the weak and ignore everyone else. Salesmen (they’re always men, or rather lads) that think “computing” consists solely of downloading ringtones.
The bit about them picking on the weak and ignroing everyone else rings particularly true. I always find it almost impossible to get any attention from the sales staff in PC World. Somehow they seem to sense that I’m going to ask how well this printer works under Linux.
There are, however, a few points that writer misses:
- Most technically literate avoid shopping in PC World whenever possible, prefering to do their own research and then buy (probably cheaper) online. It’s only when I need a new piece of hardware right now that I’ll even consider PC World.
- No matter how much comapnies like PC World want to believe it, shopping for a PC is not like shopping for a television or a washing machine. Most people need a lot more advice and support when buying a PC. And many of them seem disappointingly likely to accept advice from badly trained sales staff without questioning it.
- Anyone who does actually have the level of knowledge required to give useful advice to PC shoppers almost certainly won’t want to work for the kind of salaries that PC World pay their staff. But PC World won’t increase their salaries as they need to keep prices as low as possible.
So my advice is to avoid places like PC World. If you want to buy a PC or new PC hardware then find your nearest geek (everyone knows one) and offer them a few pints in return for helping you with your shopping. You’ll probably end up with a better quality system for less money. Everyone wins. Well, except PC World.
[1] PC World isn’t actually mentioned by name, but it’s obvious who the writer is talking about.
Except if you’re buying a laptop and, like me, you’re prone to doing stupid things with it. Then their warranty repairs are great: mostly they just replace it.I wouldn’t dream of buying a brand new laptop (they’re SOOO overpriced) but I know a few people who are onto their second and third laptops thanks to warranty replacements.
I know exactly how he feels !
Do you mind if we use this as a thread about the stupidest advice you’ve ever recieved from shops like that? (or heard being given).I’d like to start the ball rolling with this one. I heard an employee in Dixons tell a customer that the difference between DVD+R and DVD-R discs was that “DVD+R are better quality, that’s what the + means”.
i approached four members of staff in pc world who were standing together chatting.when i asked if one of them could assist me they they all said that they were already serving someone. i looked around me and there must have been about half a dozen customers in the shop( it was early sunday morning).bye bye pc world , your staff are a joke!