* Posts by damien c

41 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jan 2011

Black Friday? Yes, tech vendors might be feeling a bit glum looking at numbers for the UK

damien c

Not Worth It

I have not bought anything during this supposed sale.

There are to many places who slowly increase prices the month or two months before, and then reduce them to the price they were months before or even still above the price they were months before.

Anything I want to buy I will buy in a few months when the prices will be lower than these current prices.

It's true – it really is grim up north, thanks to Virgin Media. ISP fined for Carlisle cable chaos

damien c

For starter's I am not saying that Virgin has no blame here because they do, they have PSE's which are supposed to check the work is completed to the required standard's but, clearly that didn't happen.

The contract company though should have done the work to the correct standard in the first place, and clearly they didn't and because of that the company that, hired them get's all the bad publicity and fines etc, which I don't care how you try and swing it, is not right.

The other problem here is that, because they use multiple contract companies throughout the country they are all smaller companies who will just get any unqualified muppet to work for them.

You wouldn't blame Ford or BMW if a mechanic did a piss poor job of replacing your breaks would you?

As for it taking a couple of week's to fix an issue, I knew what the fault was and yes a couple of weeks to sort out that issue was quick compared to what it could have been, especially since it involved the replacement of several key pieces of network infrastructure.

Either way people like to bash Virgin for any reason, and it just annoys me because unlike any other ISP in my area they actually offer a good connection, I get my full speed, with no latency issues other than the one caused by Intel, my connection doesn't drop randomly and I don't have to live within 100 meters of the exchange to get more than 0.5Mb.

Say what you want I know what is involved when it comes to the design, delivery, cost etc of these networks and I also know what the contractors are like that offer there services, to Virgin Media and BT and the only thing I can say that you will agree with is that, this will not be the last time Virgin are blamed for the incompetence of a contract company.

damien c

Oh look another person ready to bash a company because of contractors.

Virgin are taking the hit, because the contractors didn't do the job properly and you say it's because Virgin pay a pittance but the contract, companies bid for the work and if the contractors say they can do it for a value that is cheaper than another company then it makes, sense to go with them in terms of business revenue etc.

I have worked with and for contractors in the past on the Virgin network and to be honest it would be better if Virgin just got there own staff, in to do the work because at least they could be trained correctly to do the work, instead of the contractors they currently use who will just take anyone and throw them a uniform and tell them to dig or pull a cable.

I have no issue's with my VM connection, and the one time I did it was sorted inside of a couple of week's, that's not to say some people don't have issues because I know people do but thankfully I am one of those that don't, because let's face it BT and other's don't offer anywhere near the same level of connection where I live, so I would be a fool to pay the same price for a slower and less reliable connection.

If BT gets EE, it will trigger EU treasure hunt for fixed lines

damien c

Goodbye EE

If does go through then I will be cancelling both my EE contract's and will switch to either O2 or migrate them over to Virgin.

Virgin already provide the backbone for EE's 4G network, and if it switches to BT then I will cancel as BT cannot provide a decent speed even on Fibre.

Jesus phone RAISED from DEAD. Watch iPhone 6 get BURNED, DROWNED, SMASHED

damien c

Better Than Z2

Well I am impressed since it survived a higher drop than my Z2 survived, although it's still working fine.

My Z2 was knocked of the arm of the couch on to a carpet floor from a height of around 2ft to 3ft and the phone now has a massive crack down the entire back of the phone, from one corner to the other corner in a diagonal line.

These results will still not make me buy a overpriced POS from a company that likes to force people to wait for there purchase, because they want it to be "exclusive" even though they have millions of them in there warehouses.

My next phone will be a HTC as they have a decent build quality since Samsung and Sony cannot make a phone that won't break from small drops or just putting it in your pocket.

Virgin Media hit by MORE YouTube buffering glitches

damien c

No Issues

I had a issue with Youtube the other night, but then I realised that it was fine before I installed a certain Firefox add on and as soon as I removed it all the issues went a way.

I wonder how many people don't realise that they may have stuff loaded on the pc or laptop, that is actually causing poor performance???

I know I won't be using that add on in the future.

Déjà vu: Virgin Media jacks up broadband prices

damien c

Will Stick With Them

I don't really care about a £1.50 price increase or what ever it turns out to be, since they are the only provider that can give me a decent speed with 99% uptime and also a really low ping for games.

I have no issues uploading or downloading, I downloaded nearly 2Tb of data last week and uploaded 45 to youtube each video was about 3.5Gb, thanks to having to use a stupidly high bit-rate to avoid the video looking like garbage, thanks to youtube compressing every video and killing the quality.

BT and others can only offer me a maximum of 37Mb down and 18Mb up, and a ping of around 45ms to game servers within the UK, on Virgin I get 120Mb down and 12Mb up every day every hour without fail and a ping of around 19ms to UK gameservers, and if I go to a server in France or Germany it increases to around 35ms which is still better than, the ping I would get on BT to UK servers.

I do know that my area is about to have allot of work done on it, so the pings and reliability will get even better, and I do know that, that work is going on round the country as one thing that LG are doing is making sure the network can handle the speeds, and then those areas get the 152Mb upgrade.

Confirmed by cockup: New iPhones will be named 5S and 5C

damien c

It's going to be so funny watching all the sheeple standing outside the apple shop to buy one of these.

Xbox One users will have to pay extra for Skype and gamer-gratifying DVR

damien c

Got to love how Microsoft are charging for stuff that is free to use.

You cannot watch Youtube videos or use Skype, or even Netflix etc without paying for a Xbox Live account.

Well that has just decided it for me, I was going to get one but since they are turning in to another Apple then I am not going to buy one.

I will instead build a media pc which will be capable of much more, and won't cost me a yearly subscription to something that shouldn't be required.

Greedy Sky admits: We crippled broadband with TOO MANY users

damien c

Lol this is the thing that all ADSL providers do.

They can put up to say 200 people on a router within the switch and instead they throw over 2000 on it, because they no that everyone will not be wanting the full amount of there bandwidth all at once.

Atleast with my Virgin connection I get my 100Mb all the time, it's just to bad I get crap gaming performance.

Bolton biz kingpin tables '7 figure' offer for Comet website

damien c

Re: Comet asked around

The warranties are being held up by the insurance company who provided them.

Still I am not sure what is going to happen if you need a new TV etc, because are they going to refund all the money or part of it though.

I would like to see how they are going to be upheld, but when I was working for Comet I was told that if they ever went under people who bought the warranties didn't, have to worry as there was a 3rd party insurer not connected to Comet as a company, other than Comet being a customer of theres.

Cashless Comet to close 41 stores, axe 500 jobs

damien c

Re: Not much of a sale

When I worked there I use to hate it when people did that sort of thing.

It actually cost our store allot of money because of people spouting on about stuff they don't know about.

You may know what you are on about, but I always found people spouting rubbish costed the company money because they have clue what they are on about.

Customers should stick to there own business and leave others alone unless they know the other customer.

I can count on 1 hand how many times I had people come back and complain about me, because simply put I didn't force people in to something they didn't want and I always got them the best they could get for there budget.

damien c

Discounts???

I went in to see what sort of discounts were being offered, on stuff and found that most of the things were reduced from say £499.99 to £495.99.

It was the same when I worked for Comet, they just nearly always refused to give discount on things.

I wanted to look at 3d tv's to grab myself a bargain, and found that I could still get a Panasonic 3d tv cheaper from the internet with a 5 year warranty than I could get it from Comet with a standard warranty.

Comet as a company only have themselves to blame, and I just feel sorry for the friends of mine that are still working there from when I was working there, but atleast I managed to get out of there.

Everything Everywhere prices up UK 4G

damien c

Re: You think the 4G network has seperate infrastructutre...

A 4G mast requires a minimum of a 1Gb connection to each Cell Site and each sell site IS getting a 1Gb connection trust me, where I work we are providing this circuit to the mast's all around the country that we can.

4G is on it's on data connection and doesn't use the same equipment as the 3G services.

Also as the article quotes that the Iphone 5 is 4G compatible, from what I have heard is that it is not 4G compatible but the 5S that comes out next year is, and those people who want a 4G compatible phone from Apple will be forced to buy a 5S.

Asus doubles up phone-slate combo's specs with Padfone 2

damien c

Oh Deap Watch Out Asus

Asus need to watch out as that phone looks similar to the Iphone and could land them in court for it looking like the Iphone.

Amazon UK leaks Windows 8 retail box, TV ads

damien c

No Start Menu = No Purchase

Until there is a Start menu and a way to disable the stupid tiled home screen I aint buying it, regardless of if it boots faster than windows 7 or adds a few extra features.

I will stick to Windows 7 with it's easy to use start menu and 20 second boot time Raided SSD's FTW!!!!

US court lifts ban on Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

damien c

Ban The Iphone 5!!!

So hopefully Apple will have the Iphone 5 banned from sale until the patent claim by Samsung is resolved, because let's be fair if Apple can have the Galaxy Tab banned for how ever long, why shouldn't Samsung be able to have the same thing happen.

I still think Samsung should just refuse to allow Apple to use the CPU in the Iphone considering it's Samsung who makes it, and demand all offending products be removed from sale and watch Apple squirm to try and find something to replace, it with as they don't make there own chips and instead just rebrand the Samsung chips.

Everything Everywhere bags 4G monopoly in UK - for now

damien c

Not really interested in this considering Orange cannot even give me a 1 bar 3g connection on my phone and I live, less that 1 mile from my nearest mast.

Change to Virgin Mobile and I get full signal on the H+ connection.

What was even funnier though is, I had abit of time the other day before a survey had to be done so I sat in my car eating my lunch and thought I would watch TVcatchup on my brand new S3, with a Orange sim card in it and it gave me a full H+ connection but, I couldn't surf the net let alone watch tv, but my Desire on Virgin on a H connection would allow me to, and now my Micro Sim has arrived from Virgin I can watch it on my S3 at nearly anywhere but on Orange I couldn't.

Last time I had a issue with Orange they told me the nearest 3g mast to my house was faulty but, that they were not going to fix it because I was the only person complaining.

If it was not for a decent deal being given to me by Orange for the S3 I would not have upgraded and instead would have cancelled the contract.

As for the other operators complaining about not having 4g yet well maybe they should have worked abit harder and faster to get it working.

Samsung: 'You want $2.5bn? WRONG, Apple, you OWE us $420m!'

damien c
Thumb Up

Smartphone CPU

I hope Samsung just turn round to Apple and stop them using the chip's that Apple use in there phones and tablets considering it is made by Samsung.

I wonder how long it will take for Apple to design and fab there own chip lol.

Come on Samsung stop Apple from producing anymore phones and tabs until they get there own chip.

Windows 8: Download it, then speak YOUR brains

damien c

Until there is a way to get rid of that tablet interface I am not even touching windows 8 regardless of what MS do.

I would rather loose out on being able to play all my games and move to Linux than turn my pc in to a tablet.

Apple granted patent for in-cell touchscreen display tech

damien c

so I wonder how long it will be before Apple start dragging every company that makes touch screen monitors and phones in to court saying "they have copied our idea".

Apple make me sick, they won't be happy until they are the only company left on the planet.

I am still waiting for the day that the people behind the Space Odyseey film from around 1979 or whenever it was made, to take Apple to court for copying there idea behind a tablet sized device for watching video etc as per the film, or for Archos and other companies who made such devices before the Iphone and Ipad were made popular by the Isheep people, who queue for hours and hours for something that is no different than the previous device.

I will stick to companies who bring fresh ideas and devices to the table, rather than a copy and paste of the previous version with 1 or 2 changes.

TiVo plunges into Swedes after penetrating Virgin Media

damien c

Virgin Being Flamed Again For Doing Something Better Than Sky.

Sky are to blame for them not having and from what I remember never being able to have Tivo and it's simply because of there own stupidity and greed, because of what they were demanding and trying to force the developers of Tivo to do which Tivo would not agree with and therefore said no you cannot have Tivo and never will.

I have Tivo and I don't mind paying the extra each month, for it because of the dedicated modem for the likes of Youtube and Iplayer etc meaning that if I wanted to watch something on either of those services I don't have to worry about it affecting the broadband in the house for everyone else.

As for the person saying VM are making the V+ etc service poor so they are forced to go over to a Tivo box, have you ever thought that it may not be that Virgin are forcing it to be poor but rather the fact that Virgins network improvements require newer and better software that, only the Tivo boxes can handle.

Also with the fact that the improvements are not only based around the broadband, but also on delivering a better picture quality etc for the tv service that they could be changing the codec that is used for transmitting the tv channels, meaning they can add more channels whilst using the same amount of bandwidth over the network, or keeping the same amount of channels but using less bandwidth meaning broadband can become faster, because there will not be as much bandwidth usage on the main backbone for the services throughout the country.

People are quick to flame Virgin for something that is intended to improve there experience on the services, and then when they are offered something for free like the current FREE!!! speed increases they say nothing good but then, when something goes wrong or Virgin change something they are instantly flaming them again.

Second win for Apple as Galaxy Nexus sales banned in US

damien c

What A Joke

I find it really annoying and funny at the same time that a judge would ban the sale of a product without the product being found, to infringe on any of the patents etc and only ban it for 1 of the companies within the court case.

I really think that until this is resolved then both parties products should be banned from being sold, because as I see it apple are gaining sales because people have really no other option because the best tablets around the same price range are banned from sale, because apple know if they don't stop them being sold most people would rather buy a samsung tablet than a ipad.

I would love to see the person who decided to portray the use a tablet styled device in 2001: A Space Odyssey take, every company to court over the fact that they own the copyrights to such a device regardless of the fact of whether it worked or not.

All this sueing people over the way "it looks & feels" is complete nonsense, I mean what is next are apple going to sue the creaters of the eye pads that are used for covering your eyes after a operation or something, because eye pad sounds the same as ipad.

Virgin Media wipes out websites with routing blackhole

damien c

I had issues with my connection but only when trying to use Google mainly.

Makes me laugh people saying it's because VM are about to hit us with some nasty suprise, and even makes me laugh when people say choose a real provider.

I would ask them who would that be then, that is going to provide me with more than 80Mb download speed and no usuage cap other than a speed reduction, and who actually has the capabillity to offer more than 200Mb on the current equipment sat in most peoples houses.

I see most people who complain are the ones who think it's ok to leave torrents running at there full speed all day and all night, and it's those people who cause the problems and are the 1st to complain when something goes wrong.

I am happy with my 100Mb connection soon to be 120Mb, I have no issues on normal use or gaming etc and to be honest I know what's in the pipeline so I am happy and will stick with them simply because NO OTHER ISP OFFERS A BETTER CONNECTION.

Biologists create synthetic DNA capable of EVOLUTION

damien c

anyone else think that the who DNA - ANA - FNA - TNA thing sounds just like different forms of wrestling?

'Real time' PAYE pilot goes live at HMRC

damien c

I was self employed at one point and hated filling out the tax returns.

My problem with the whole tax system is that they just cannot get it right.

My tax code for 2011/12 was changed 8 times through out the year, and then they claim that I have paid the accurate amount of tax, but how can they be sure considering it changed so many times.

The other thing that annoys me about it is that, 1 person I work with is on the same wages as me, has the same company car etc same age but he pays less tax than me and our circumstances are the same, both of us have a girlfriend with no kid's etc but he pays less than me and the tax office think it's correct but I cannot figure out how it can be correct.

Ice Cream Sandwich gives Android mobes brainfreeze – Sony

damien c
FAIL

Well I have it on my Samsung Galaxy S 2, and I will be ripping it off soon thank's to the phone constantly loosing connection to wireless routers.

Unable to use Youtube on Wi-Fi or Mobile data network.

Signal level has dropped, as I am no longer getting H+ on my phone anymore instead I can only get 3G and it's nothing to do with my provider as I can put my sim in my HTC Desire which has, not be upgraded yet and it instantly gives me H+.

Windows 8: Thrown into a multi-tasking mosh pit

damien c

Not Getting Touched

Window's 8 for me is just not worth it.

If I wanted to use a touch interface and tablet styled interface then I would simply buy a tablet, which I did when I got a Android tablet.

Apparently from what I have seen if you install Windows 8, when released and you are using a UEFI bios then you won't be able to install any other operating system including older Window's OS's, without paying Microsoft a license fee but I may be wrong about that.

I will simply stick to Window's 7.

Virgin Media finally turns an annual profit

damien c
Thumb Up

Great time to be a customer.

Can't wait for my FREE speed increase and cost reduction on my 100Mb connection.

As for the Super Hub's not having modem mode, have you actually logged in and gone down to the bottom, on the left hand side and clicked Modem Mode?

As for other companies providing a comparable product it won't happen.

BT lol "yeah you can have Fibre and up to 100Mb but you will actually only get about 20Mb - 30Mb some people may achieve more than 80Mb but those people have to live in the exchange"

VM can go from 100Mb to 400Mb with a few changes, and then with a expensive change they can go to 1gb down and 1gb up by changing to Docsis 4.0 and providing the modem's to do it, which they use on Business at the moment.

I have been with Virgin for along time now and will stay with them because the service is excellent, no other company compares in my mind.

The only thing I don't like is the off shore call centres but you get that with most companies so, I just deal with it.

All the VM staff should be proud of what they have done.

Megaupload master loses Call of Duty crown

damien c

Some people have no lives racking up that amount of time already on a game that only came out 2 months ago.

Billions of potentially populated planets in the galaxy

damien c
Alien

There has to be life out there

I believe that there is life out there somewhere, because if you think about it if life on this planet started because of a comet bringing water to this planet then it has to have happened somewhere else as well.

I think though that maybe the life which I am sure is out there, is somewhat wondering like us if they are alone and they are trying to figure out how to make it so they can travel to other planets and galaxies etc, without needing to spend years in the ship.

I don't think I will see anything happen in my life in regard's to travelling to other planets to meet a alien species but at some point, people will no doubt be able to do that sort of thing unless they come to us 1st and either wipe us all out or decide to help us get to the same level as they are.

Problem is with the way us humans are with war etc if we developed a way to travel to other planets how long would it be before, we wiped a country of the face of the planet or destroyed the planet to stop some country from being able to do something similar.

Cupertino lawyers mull 'driPhone' name ban

damien c

What would be funny is if the writers of the film 2001 A Space Odyssey I think it was sued Apple for copying something they had in the film aka apparently from what I have, been told there was a section where the pilot's of a space ship we using something that looked like a Ipad when the film was released, well before the Ipad ever came in to existence.

This whole thing with Apple and sueing companies for thing's like this are a joke.

I just hope that someone one day takes Apple to the cleaners.

I won't buy anything that is developed by Apple or that has the Apple name on it now on the basis that they are sueing everyone over everything they possibly can.

Virgin Media broadband in two-day wobble

damien c

Worked fine for me

Well my Virgin Media connection (100mb) worked fine all weekend, and has done ever since it was installed.

While my dad's 50mb connection was down as well as the test modem's we have as well.

It was affecting people in the North as well not just the South.

Comet can't sell anything, including itself

damien c

What a shame

Title not being sarcastic simply true.

I worked at Comet for 3 year's and to be honest I had never worked for a company that was so easy to work for really.

Where I work now is the best place I have ever worked but Comet is not really that far behind.

I will only buy from Comet, won't buy from Curry's and PCworld because of there attitude to me when buying stuff or returning faulty item's.

Everything I have bought from Comet since working there has had a Extended Warranty bought on it because they are worth the money I THINK, don't give me abuse about that as it's true in my case.

32" £300 tv goes faulty get it replaced with a 37" £500, that goes faulty and choose to downgrade to a 32" and get a PS3 at the same time all cost me £800 in total as the Warranty does not transfer to the new TV because I got the money for each TV back.

Currently have a 42" which has a Warranty on it and have had the TV for 18 month's, and it's still going strong but if it break's I get £650 back, to buy a new TV with and also I still have my 32" as well which will give me another £300.

I just feel sorry for people buying thing's as online you get very little information regarding what they are like, unless you trust Which Magazine who give the product's a review relating to the amount they spent, on advertising in the mag.

I also feel sorry for the people who work there considering they may be out of a job because of this.

As for people mentioning price why not look at Dixon's I remember flying out to Cyprus while I was working for Comet, and I went in to the Dixon's in the airport and found a TV made by LG for sale in there at a discounted price of £1500 from £2000 at, the same time Comet were selling the exact same model of TV for £700.

I have alway's found Comet's price to be fair on TV's etc compared to other companies who stock the exact same model.

Oh and good luck if something goes faulty after buying it online heard to many horror stories about online retailers.

BT's fibre-to-the-premises trials hit duct roadblock

damien c

Fibre lol

To bad for BT.

Glad I am with Virgin atleast I don't need fibre in my house to get 100mb.

Maybe if BT did something like what Virgin did all them years ago they wouldn't have half the trouble with crap speed's.

Atleast with cable we can get up to a maximum of 1gb using the current system with a few enhancement's to the equipment before they would, have to look at putting Fibre in to peoples houses, and trust me 1gb is perfectly fine for anything you could think of doing.

Maybe also when Docsis sort out the issue that means you can only get a upload speed of 10% of the download speed Virgin will get even better.

Don't like ADSL and don't see the need for fibre to the home as it is not worth it for the speed's that are able to be given over a coax cable.

X-Prize offers $10m for working Trek tricorder

damien c
WTF?

$10m not enough

Sorry but $10m or £6.5m is not enough for someone to develop this piece of hardware as they could make a hell of allot more than that, by patenting it and selling it to Hospital's and Doctor's

By the time you have paid the tax on that money you will be able to live of it with no problem's but you would have thought it would be more like, $100m or £65m to actually make it worth it fully considering what advances this could bring to the medical proffesion in the future and dealing with illness.

I don't have the knowledge to actually make this but I would of though it would be a long time before it was even thought about, considering the amount of thing's that would be needed in such a device.

But good luck to whoever tries and actually does it.

Sony’s sorry saga snowballs

damien c

Sony not worth the money!!!!

Well a PC is better for everything that the PS3 does, plays more games and with better graphic's and better controls.

Panasonic and Pioneer make better TV's and Audio equipment.

When I say I am not buying Sony products I mean it simply because I prefer to buy better stuff for half the price.

My 42" 1080p Panasonic tv gives a better picture than any of the Sony tv's that are around for nearly twice as much in price.

With Sony your paying 25% (rough estimate) of the price for the hardware and the rest is for the name.

damien c

Sony will loose allot because of this!!!!

Well I for one will not be buying another Sony console and have not bought a Sony TV ever after seeing how, poor they went over the last few years compared to what they were like when I was growing up.

This is going to cost them allot more than $1 billion with all the lawsuit's etc that are no doubt coming there way, and all the free content they say they are going to give to people.

What I cannot understand though is how a company of this size have such a open network and leave all the data on a server, and not encrypt it properly it is a joke.

Maybe next time they will learn from Apple with the fact that as far as I am aware they have never gone after the guy who, originally cracked the Iphone and developed the Jailbreaking software as they are aware of this type of thing happening if they did.

Sony's money grabbing is there downfall yes they are a business but they can make money without being as stupid as they were.

Virgin Media Superhub customers still hitting big speed bump

damien c

No Problem's

I have a 50mb superhub and a 50mb modem which does not use the superhub.

I never have any issues with mine but to be honest I don't use Bit torrent's and I rarely stream video from Youtube but when I do it work's fine.

UK tech retailers are rubbish

damien c

Ex Comet Worker

How can you say there stuff is out of date when most of the stores get there equipment at the same time as web retailer's and phone retailer's?

Overpriced is because of them having store's and employing sale's staff granted that may not know much about what you want, but other than the general spec what would you do if you needed to actually try it 1st or see it working?

Oh wait you would go in to a store and waste there time just to buy it online now do you see why they are more expensive than the website's who are normally only ran, by a warehouse with people in it and then probably only about 10 people answering email's and phone, and taking order's.

I refuse to buy of websites because if it goes faulty then you have to send it to them, then wait for it to come back which is the same as a store you take it to them and wait.

But online you have to do everything by the phone or email only you can't go in and speak to someone.

You do also realise that the profit that the companies make on the stuff they sell is small really compared to a web only retailer because of the store's and the staff.

What would you do if all the store's wouldn't tell you any information etc because they were not there, for you to try or see something before you buy it?

You would be screwed really because then you would have to buy it and then send it back because it doesn't do what you wanted and then buy another one and try that.

People can say what they want about store's but thank's to kid's coming out of school with no knowledge of anything, not having to clean up after themselves or wash anything because they mummy and daddy does it all for them, then thing's are going to get worse.

I'm 25 year's old and learned how to cook and wash my clothes at the age of 10 years old, I learned how to Iron clothes at the age of 12 years old. I learned how to build computers at the age of 10 years old because my parents said it was for my own good and thank's to them I have more knowledge of general everyday electronics than 99% of people my age, hence why Comet did not want me to leave but they refused to match the wages I am on now in my current job.

damien c

Ex Comet Worker

I use to work at Comet and I know what they are like.

The store I worked in had no one who knew anything about PC's until I came in, I had to try to give training to people who were straight out of school.

We were targeted on selling £100 cable's and extension lead's, and if we didn't reach that target then our hourly rate would stay at the minium wage.

We got no commision on the actual sales it was all based on the cable's and warranties.

We were targeted on selling warranties.

Regardless of what people think even before and after I was working for them I alway's took the warranties, simply because I know they are worth it I have a number of thing's go faulty after the 12 month's warranty had ran out and I ended up with better stuff thank's to the extended warranty.

The training given to the staff is worthless really.

I even went in to Curry's and PC World when I worked for Comet to see how there sales staff did what they did, so I could adapt it to suit my self but after I was told that shared graphic's on a pc is better than dedicated graphic's, just because the laptop they wanted me to buy was £800 but the one I was looking at was £600 and was better than the £800 model.

I am not suprised by these result's and to be honest people saying by it of the internet instead of from a store, because it is cheaper well carry on doing it but watch what happen's if that company goes bust.