PCWORLD is Gash

[stuart_ryan]

Scenario

Laptop £600
the gash at PCworld tried to get me on £7 insurance a month to cover "accidental" break.

The laptop stays on a desk and doesnt move so i thought no need because i wont be taking it anywhere.

4months after buying i opened the lid and the screen had cracked. No idea how it happened as it doesnt move and i am the only one who uses it. heres the disgusting thing and how mcuh PCworld screw us!

Apparently it was "accidental" break - if i'd of taken out the insurance out i would have been covered! but heres the value proposition.

99 people out of 100 will never need the insurance, a good laptop will last 3 years therefore with insurance and cost of laptop my total spend would have been (for ease sake) £900.

The screen is going to cost me £230 to get fixed! therefore the insruance hasnt saved me any money what so ever. thats the gash they have a PCworld, screw us for every penny we have. if i'd of dropped it or done something to it that meant i hadnt taken care of it then i would hold my hands up. But do Pcworld not have any confidence in the stuff they sell?

Why else would they bring out an insurance deal to cover accidental break of which doesnt save us any money!!!

I WILL NEVER SHOP THERE AGAIN!

 

[Anon_F]

Something must have happened for the screen to crack, they do not crack by themselves!

Yes, PC World as others do, do sell insurance on what they sell it's all part of the selling technique they offer.
You decided to buy from PCWorld, you could have gone else where & got a better deal probably?
Most other companies offer an extended warranty at a lower cost than PCWorld.

 

[Abarbarian]

"The laptop stays on a desk and doesnt move"

Me I would have built a pc and got a 24" screen for me money.

 

[MattM]

Aye. If it was set to stay on a desk, you would have gotten more value for your money with a desktop.

Also, with the amount of negativity towards PC World, i'm always amazed how many people buy from them and then complain

I have bought 2 things from PC World.
When i was at uni, i bought my first self-owned PC from them. I was desperate and didnt have time to build. They were closest to campus and i counted on their horrendous lack of knowledge and my own haggling skills.
They were advertising a PC they didnt have in stock. I queried a similarly priced one and they offered me a unit costing £500 which they wouldn't let me see working before i bought it, so knocked it to 480. Then was told if i bought the warranty, i could have it for £350. Heaven knows what the warranty would have been, but i picked the unit up, took it to the till, declined the warranty and the cashier obviously misheard and rang it up as £300.
I got it home and found it didn't work ... why? ... because to stop people playing with it on display they had simply unplugged all internal cables. Plugged in and all fine.
A few weeks later i was in there with friends and they asked why i hadnt called them to fix it.
"why? did you knowingly sell me a dead unit?" No no we just weren't sure if you'd had any problems.
Turns out they thought they had and the manager gave me £20 compensation.
£280 for what was at the time a decent PC (HP Pavillion).

Naturally ever since, i've built my own and countless hundreds more for various business and individual.

My gf's laptop came from them again because it was a speedy resolve. she declined every addon and also the warranty. He demanded to know why and she asked me to speak to him. Im more than capable of dealing with it, plus its already covered by a manufacturers warranty. He then decided to throw up a load of scenarios which sadly for him in most cases the MF warranty covers. Those that weren't were so pathetic a 4yr old could resolve them without need of a warranty.
He also seemed strangely shocked that we didnt want Norton haha.
Again i got a very good deal AND a discount due to the manageress apologising for the salesman.

 

[Ian]

In this particular case, I can understand PC World not coughing up. If a screen cracks it would normally be because it has been dropped, so it's understandable that it wouldn't be covered under the normal warranty. Could someone else have dropped your laptop, as I can't see how it would crack without moving?

99 people out of 100 will never need the insurance

That's very true, and why it is called insurance after all I don't bother buying extra insurance for each item, as overall I'd rather run the risk and cough up myself. If it's something really, really drastic (like a flood!) my house insurance would cover it.

 

[Anon_F]

When i bought my Toshiba direct from Toshiba i got 1 years free insurance with it as a promotional offer.
If it had cost me it would not have been more that £100, OK laptop was only £550, but you have to decide if it's worth it!
And PC World sales staff get commission on every policy they sell!!

 

[stuart_ryan]

i already have a desktop and the laptop is something that stays in my bedroom. Im just angry that it can cost so much for a screen to be fixed when i know how much this things cost to manufacture and the ease to which they can be changed!

I really thought PC World had improved but they should take a look at other companies that develop win win siituations rather than win loose. As a loyal customer to PC world I will not be returning to them because i am disgusted at being condemned into paying the insurance for something that quite frankly i shouldnt have to pay if the things are reliable.

Dont get me wrong a crack is a crack im just as angry at the crack appearing but if these thing break so easily (shutting the lid) then why sell them. It is an Acer laptop so i will be writing to them too pleading for them to design and manufacturer reliable products. Apart from the whole cracked screen i am actually very pleased with the laptop but very angry at PCworld for taking advantage of situation. i dont mind paying for a repair the price of it is what shocked me and even when you do the maths you dont actually save any money what so ever!

 

[Anon_F]

Have you thought of taking it to another Acer re-seller & see if you can get it done cheaper?
Lots of adverts for laptop repairs in Micro Mart out on a Thursday at all good newsagents/supermarkets.

 

[stuart_ryan]

yeah i certainly will.

Value proposition at PCWORLD

£600 laptop, on average a laptop last 3 years £7 a month for the insurance gives £252 more on the orignial cost of the laptop. This is assuming you take the insurance out.

Then you have an accident of which will cost £230. We still dont save money!

The reason for my post is to make people aware of it before the purchase a product at PCWorld, a lot of the time i bought from them because of convenience. I will not be doing this now I personally believe buying power has now arrived in our hands when it comes to PC's / Computers etc we are a lot more sophisticated / educated in buying the right thing. where as in the past we were not that educated in making the right decision.

I work with computers all day long and can pretty much know when i have been screwed, I've been screwed!! at the end of the day ill get it fixed and not return.

 

[MattM]

Last time i dealt with a cracked screen on an acer for a client, it was done direct through acer. Didn't cost anywhere near that much. In general with the screens though i've ordered the bits and done it myself.

Bear in mind PCW will buy the bits, charge a a fee on top to cover parts, delivery and time etc, then they'll charge you to have one of their guys (i would say expert, but that would be controversial), to actually do the work. Thus the charge is going to be high. I was once told that the amount the charge for one of their guys is actually huge because they base it on an hourly rate. So, either they're deliberately slow to eke it out, or they're really not sure what they're doing thus it takes longer

 

[Madxgraphics]

Last time i dealt with a cracked screen on an acer for a client, it was done direct through acer. Didn't cost anywhere near that much.

Nope they don't cost near that much...Lets see from memory if you were to replace the screen on an Aspire 3680 and bought it direct from Acer it would cost you around £58....I know I worked for them for many years..
PC World will buy the parts in, mark them up and the rest is labour...And as half the numb nut techs at PC world have nothing more than an A+ qualification, this is where all the money goes..

 

[Anon_F]

(i would say expert, but that would be controversial)

They do like to take their time doing a job!
RAM Memory upgrade & fitting for my sister was quoted at £120 at PC World.

I bought the RAM at Crucial.
Drove to the West Country & back in a day and total cost was £55 including petrol.
Oh and got to have walk over the Brendon Hills before going home!!

 

[muckshifter]

Household insurance ...

 

[Abarbarian]

Nowt wrong with PC World. The usb mouse I bought from them does exactly what it said on the tin. Mind you that is the only thing I have ever bought from them.

 

[captain zed]

Where do start

Well lads i'm just back from PC World with a brand new replacement for me dodgy Laptop(HP Pavilion).
They only had the very latest model, so it's slightly different to the old(jan24th) one.So here's what i got....instead of 250GB i now have 320....instead of 256 thingy's i now have 512, its also got Athlon instead of Turion and dont forget the Lightscribe addition.....man they are sick in that shop today. In total i took 3 visits to pcw. First to report the problem and to get a replacement receipt cos i misplaced the first receipt.At this visit they gave me their techy number which i rang and got no help. the insisted that for back up probs i had to go back to HP. Hp said go back to pcw. 2nd visit, i went into the shop like a bull and ate the head off the fella behind the counter...believe it or not he didnt work there...he was fixing the phones or summat. It was emotional to say the least.
Anyway, i got the manager he made a stack of excuses as i explained to him my rights which i had read on PCR(where else?). At the end of that visit i agreed to take the pc home and take off my personal info and installs and do a system recovery which would wipe the HD and it would relaunch, this time the probs would be gone. this i did and the pc went bonkers.
So today back i went and just walked and demanded my money back saying i'd been onto my solicitor,loss of earnings yadda yadda. I walked out 25 mins later with a new masheen under my arm.Personally speaking i will never buy from pc world again. They tried to charge me 40 notes for an ethernet cable. I dont how much they are but they aint 40quid. Believe this or not as i was leaving the shop a younger dude was going in with a laptop under his arm and i asked was it a HP and he said yes it was his 3rd laptop and the screen was mysteriously broken.....do do do dee do.
This was the biggest post i ever did.
Zzzzz

 

[floppybootstomp]

Well what can I say?

PC World and Acer? Together in one sentence?

Recipe for disaster.

Sorry, but that's how I see it.

Tell ya what though, swapping sides for a moment, if I was representing PC World I would not accept a crack just appeared on a laptop. But then I guess it is just feasible it may happen but I'm extremely doubtful.

And Stuart, as for making people aware PC World are rubbish, you're preaching to the converted

PC World have their uses, handy for components sometimes, but generally speaking they're a bit rubbish. And there was me thinking everybody knew that Silly me.

 

[floppybootstomp]

2nd visit, i went into the shop like a bull and ate the head off the fella behind the counter...believe it or not he didnt work there...he was fixing the phones or summat. It was emotional to say the least.

Classic.

 

[MattM]

They tried to charge me 40 notes for an ethernet cable. I dont how much they are but they aint 40quid.

PC World have their uses, handy for components sometimes, but generally speaking they're a bit rubbish.

Handy for components if you want to be ripped off?

I tend to use Maplin if i need something quick and dont have time to scour the net.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Handy for components if you want to be ripped off?

I tend to use Maplin if i need something quick and dont have time to scour the net.

Depends if you know what you're shopping for and are aware of current prices.

Their components range is quite ok. I've seen brand name hard disks in PC World cheaper than, say, E-Buyer. And their range of Jeantech PSU's are surprisingly good.

I've bought optical drives; hard disks; PSU's; network cards and other items from PC World and on a few occasions where any item has gone faulty within twelve months they've refunded or exchanged with no quibble.

And you can order items at net prices and collect from store.

As I said, depends on if you know your components and prices or not. I do.

However, I would never be so foolsih as to buy something major from them nor would I enter into one of their insurance or extended warranty plans, complete waste of money imo.

As for Maplins, I remember them when they were a semi-serious electronics component supplier, used to be able to buy a full range of semiconductors and passive components. But not any more, to me they just seem like a glorified toy shop now, they seriously sell so much crap.

And a lot of it is overpriced, many items being more expensive than RS components even. I only ever use Maplins as a last resort.

This is neither a recommendation for PC World nor a total putdown for Maplins, rather it's advice to say understand your suppliers rather than blindly slagging one off whilst singing the praises of another.

Understanding

 

[Anon_F]

I helped a family friend recently buy a PC from PCWorld recently.
They wanted to buy from a High Street shop even though i advised other wise.
My brief was to get the best deal possible for as little amount of £££.
Told the salesman that we were not after & hard sell & that i knew more about PC's than he probably did!!
Got a good PC at a good price & saved £££.
It will do everything that it was bought for, mostly going on the internet & looking at family photos.
Set it all up for them at home & they have not had any problems since buying it.