Santa brings Dixons £31m profits as ghost of Comet is laid to rest Christmas has come early for the bosses of Dixons Retail Group, which has announced an encouraging boost in profits and sales. Dixons, which also owns Currys and PC World, said its sales were up thanks to steady cutting of less profitable subsidiaries. In the UK and Ireland, operating profits surged up to £31.4m, five times …
"customer satisfaction and profitability up considerably year on year"
...Customer satisfaction reaches positive numbers
I popped into PC World last week in need of a set of precision screw drivers so I could swap a laptop hard drive.
"Sorry sir, we don't sell screw drivers of any description" was the response.
Goes without saying that had I bought the hard drive from them then I would have been going straight to the tills for a refund
There is a lot of hatred on here for Dixons/PC World, but I've bought several items from them in the last few months as their prices are quite reasonable these days for a lot of items compared to the total rip off prices they used to charge.
I've discovered the secret is:
1) Research what you want online.
2) Walk into store, do not make eye contact with anyone.
3) Grab item
4) Walk to till, do not make eye contact with anyone.
5) Pay for item, do not make eye contact with anyone.
6) Leave.
And you will have a pleasant buying experience.
1) Far less choice of items let alone stock
2) Salesdroids constantly asking 'Can I help you?'
3) Lots of empty space in stores
4) Some stores are now a lot smaller than before
5) Even reserving an item via their website will not guarantee that it won't be sold before you get there to collect it.
6) Don't even think of asking a droid a techy question even if the answer is on the product desctription
7) Don't try to interrupt a group of droids who are busy discussing last night footy/sexual conquests. If you do you will be rewarded with even more of a shity experience than ever before.
8) Want something like a screwdriver? Forget it and head to B&Q, Maplins or even Argos.
I agree with you about the prices though.
Have to agree with others on their prices, not as bad as they used to be. I wanted to buy an ASUS MemoPad to replace the wife's aging Dell Netbook, PC World were the cheapest bar none.
I went in to the appallingly stocked store and while looking at the device and checking out some of the others while I was there, I overheard a salesdroid and a customer trying to figure out the type of each port on a tablet. I couldn't see the ports they were pointing at and debating on HDMI or USB and whether or not it could be used to connect the tablet to a TV, but as I could see the back, where the ports were handily labelled, I can inform you that they were referring to the Micro-USB port, not that I told them that...
I then hastily left, ensuring not to make eye contact with anyone and politely rebuked the 17 offers of extended warranties from the till-droid before leaving as fast as I possibly could.
You can remove point 3 and replace with
3a) Use their free in store WiFi to log into Quidco from your phone
3b) Reserve and collect the item to get 1-3% cashback
3c) Wander round the TV department for 10 mins (or pop into the obligatory carpet shop next door) whilst waiting for the robot to come out from the staff room, collect the item you we looking at and take it to the front of the store for you.
As you'll need to keep your eyes on the till, to make sure they aren't signing you up to a support contract for what you are buying, without telling you!!
Did it to me a few years ago, told me it was a warranty. I should have read it, but as it had taken them 45 mins to get the bloody laptop through the till in the first place, I'd lost the will to live. They lost about £2000 a year of custom for that one...
"CEO warns 'we remain cautious' despite festive cheer'".. ahh so no pay rises then for the poor plebs working the shop floor. The business world is the same no matter what country you work in, good news is always backed up with "proceed with caution" or "difficult times" speeches, just in case someone wants to point out the workforce could use a few extra quid to help pay for all the cost of living rises that have eaten away at the value of salaries.
Went in there twice last month. Once to 'consider' their laptop service, the second what laptop options were available in terms of replacement.
Got short shrift and vague promise of 10 day turnaround plus a fixed diagnostic fee. Said no thanks and sauntered over to available laptops. Many were switched off, non-touch models had no mouse attached to play around with and all carried Windows 8. No-one even appeared remotely interested in selling me anything even though I genuinely appeared keen.
Walked out, went into a local Laptop repair shop who repaired and serviced my five year old Acer Aspire. This involved re-loading Vista, replacing the fan, testing and all with a four hour turn-around for less than £100.
Cost cutting divesting and the demise of Comet has helped them - but will not sustain them.
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