PC World has what it calls a Collect@Store deal for some of its offers. When I tried to pick up a Toshiba A300-1bz laptop, it turned out that the only laptops the offer applies to are ex-display or refurbished. The Currys website says that: the PC World website doesn’t, which is sharp practice at least and I’d call it dishonest.
Complaining to PC World’s Customer Services was, of course, a huge waste of time; if they bother training their staff at all, they train them to stonewall potential customers.
The company has a history of being found guilty of misleading the public. The Advertising Standards Authority upheld a complaint that PC World was advertising a notebook that it couldn’t supply, which is somewhat similar the problem I had today - their Customer Service department agreed that there wasn’t a single retail outlet in the UK that had one of these laptops in stock as new; and again, PC World’s parent company was found guilty of mis-selling computer equipment after a case brought by the Trading Standards Authority in which secondhand laptops were sold as new.
PC World is in the bottom10 in a survey asking shoppers to name the worst high street shops in the UK, according to The Independent.
So I bought a better laptop elsewhwere, paying several hundred pounds more - the price was never my only concern - and I’ll never, ever buy anything at all from PC World, Dixons, or Currys again. I’d advise everyone else not to deal with them while they do business in this way.
2 Comments
I have also been after this laptop at PC World. The situation is a bit more complicated than you discovered, and is not a scam but simple bad management. If you really poke around on the PC World website, and specifically look for a refurbished laptop, they are selling the A300-1BZ at £499.99 on Home Delivery. However, if you go to the main laptop area, where they only list new ones, the same computer appears at £499.97 (note the price difference) as a “collect at store” item. The trouble is, when you try to buy it you find that all your local stores are out of stock so you can’t actually buy it. Eventually, I tracked it down to the Swansea store, and phoned them. They have one A300-1BZ, but it is flood-damaged and therefore not actually for sale, but since it hasn’t been sold the main PC World computer shows it as in stock, and will do until they can get it updated. My experience of PC World is that they are not dishonest, but the business seems to be highly decentralised with inadequate information systems, so that the centre (and the website) does not really know what is out there.
For their misleading advertising PC World deserve prosecuting to the fullest extent. For months I’ve been checking availability of a particular model of laptop…..it’s never in stock at any of their stores. Why keep advertising the product if they simply don’t have them in stock? I’m in no desperate rush for the laptop as it’s just a 2nd model for home email and internet, but still, I’d hate to be a customer who’s set his sights on acquiring this product and was expecting a quick turnaround on his order.