UK Tech retailers are Rubbish..

[Stuart]

According to "Which?" anyway.

Which? sent undercover shoppers into various electrical retailers (ranging from the big ones, like John Lewis, Currys and Richer Sounds to independants) on 154 occasions to ask various questions.


They asked about various things, such as Digital TV. HD TV and recording TV.

In general, the staff did not know much, but used every opportunity to flog extra items, such as expensive cables and warranties.

Apparently, Currys and Comet came bottom of the list. Which? said that not one of their visits to those stores could be called "excellent".

Of the major chains, John Lewis and Richer Sounds came top, but Which? noted that even their service could be described as "hit and miss". Normally, I would rate both as good, but even they only scored 8 excellent visits out of the 154.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/201...s_not_so_good/

[Lord Nikon]

Could be subject to change, Best Buy are open in the UK and their site states all staff receive 9 weeks training in what they will be selling before being placed in shops. Also note Best Buy staff aren't on commission.

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Stuart

<snip>Normally, I would rate both as good, but even they only scored 8 excellent visits out of the 154.

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/201...s_not_so_good/

That's assuming there were 154 visits to both Richer Sounds and John Lewis. The article isn't very clear though if there were 154 visits in total, or per retailer. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 154 in total.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by danielf

That's assuming there were 154 visits to both Richer Sounds and John Lewis. The article isn't very clear though if there were 154 visits in total, or per retailer. I wouldn't be surprised if it was 154 in total.

True, I did notice that. The way the article is phrased is a little amibiguous and possibly unfair. After all, if they visited each store 154 times, then 8 excellent ratings is terrible. If they visited each store 8,9 or 10 times, than 8 excellents is, erm, excellent.

[Chris]

In other news, the pope's a catholic and bears prefer the cover of trees whilst defecating.

The one place I never expect to get meaningful advice on anything electrical is a branch of any high street store selling electrical items.

[admars]

Also note Best Buy staff aren't on commission.

Besy Buy make a big deal about that, howver Currys/PCWorld staff aren't commision any more, however, they can get bonuses if they meet/beat targets and the store meets/beats targets. It's not unheard of from sale staff to go in on their days off, unpaid, to sell items, so their profit margin per hour is greater (as they won't claim for the hours unpaid) so they have better chance of big bonus.

Does Best Buy offer similar incentives?

Saying that, my TV plater and blu ray player I bought a couple of months ago, my dvd recorder I bought a few years ago, my home cinema amp a few years before that and DVD players before that have all come from Richer Sounds along with various other bits and bobs (blank tapes years ago!), so that if I did have any queries after my internet research I had a better chance of an informed sale person answering them

I had to take 1 DVD player back years ago with an intermittent fault, and the new TV developed a fault, both issues were dealt with well by Richer Sounds staff.

I hear John Lewis is usually praised from people for prices and customer services, I haven't been in my local Best Buy yet, but my experience of local Currys and Comet isn't great. Was in Comet a while ago, and missus asked me how they managed to get picture on a tv to look so bad! It was showing a DVD but picture was snowy, guess an RF lead was piping feed round shop!

[nomadking]

If my job entailed selling certain types of items, I would feel that it was common courtesy to the customers, that I should at least try to learn something about the products.

[Theodoric]

Re Richer Sounds, on the few occasions that I've used them I've always found them better than the likes of Currys. And their prices are normally pretty good.

[Stuart]

Same here. Also, although people often complain about them, I have often had excellent service from the Central London Carphone Warehouse stores (although their regional stores can be a little flaky in my experience).

I remember one occasion where I was looking for a replacement for my phone (my N95 IIRC). The Sales assistant spent nearly 20 minutes talking to me, then she actually told me that (for my use), I would be better waiting as none of the phones available at that time would have been a significant improvement on it.

[Rockabilly Spike]

i don't think any of the major electrical retailer work off commission now.
its just best buy have decided to market this as some kind of way of setting themselves apart.
I work for Currys and to earn any kind of bonus, you need to be making around £55-75 of margin per hour worked.

what makes margin?
extended warranty/business service plan
mobile bb contracts
overpriced HDMI cables
tech services like data vault, pc setup etc

and these are the things that typically, the general public don't like the hard sell on.

as for product knowledge, I suspect that Best Buy have a similar view to the likes of Currys/Comet etc and their training will be based around selling practices rather than proper product knowledge.
i spent 3 days doing the FIVES training and the last day was all about selling attachments.
now there is a new training plan for fresh employees.

either way, the company would rather employee 2 students on part time contracts, who just wanna pay their rents and scrape through, rather than pay 1 full time expert trained staff member.

none of them want expert product knowledge, they want shark sales people who can talk and jedi mind trick people into buying the profitable services.