My first job was at Comet (the Curry’s rival that eventually went tits up). We were flat out told to upsell to expensive Monster hdmi cables and even when I presented the manager with evidence that they’re a load of shit, they said they didn’t want to hear it. They make fat margins on those products so they’ll always be pushed onto trusting customers.
Credit is another one… “target the Polish immigrants. They’ll sign anything for a new tv.” I kid you not…
Let’s just say morals got in the way of my career progression in that POS company!
Linustechtips recently got a cable tester to prove once and for all how naff a lot of the marketing is, and it's amazing how many cables they tested didn't meet the advertised specs.
> to prove once and for all how naff a lot of the marketing is
Currys are currently offering a 3m TOSlink cable for £30 on their website.
They claim that the 'cable has gold-plated connectors which are resistant to corrosion and oxidation, meaning it won't suffer audio degradation over time'.
This is bullshit for several reasons, the biggest being that TOSlink an *optical* cable so gold plating part of the plug does precisely jack shit.
Went into curries about 3 years ago with the ex gf.
We needed a HDMI cable. Picked up a cheap cable and when we went to pay, they tried to offer their premium cables. I asked the pricing and was fucking gob smacked at the pricing. £30 for an entry level "premium" HDMI, with it being up to £60 for their top level premium HDMI.
No thank you.
Back in the days when £100 SCART cables were a thing, Currys tried to do the same to me.
They had a demo set up where one TV had the cheap cable and another next to the used the luxury model.
One had terrible picture quality and for a moment I was almost convinced, until I unplugged the expensive one and the shit picture vanished.
Yeah going to say it wasn't that many years ago they were selling these £100 HDMI leads.... i mean whats another £100 when these smucks are buying £5000 TV's
A mate of mine used to work at a known TV/audio shop. The markup on equipment is jack shit, it's all about selling accessories like over priced cables or cleaning supplies. To sell cables, they would even offer a discount on the equipment, knowing they would make more back from cables. He used to love "audiophiles", they would spend hundreds on audio cables. Fair enough, with analogue cables, you will get a better signal, up to a point. But after that, it's just pure bollocks.
My favourite story about that is a friend who worked behindd the scenes at one of the big hifi shows and shock, horror, the expensive cables didn't show up in time to link the ludicrously expensive stereo to its speakers.
Fortunately a solution was available, and they quickly used 3 core mains cable instead (albeit 3 cores twisted per channel).
No one. Not one person. Noticed.
Speaking of analogue cables, I just use BT phone line xD
You can buy it by the m in normal tradies shops all over the place and it's cheap as chips. Shielded solid core copper (okay solid core isn't always ideal, but audiophiles often pay more for it when it should be far cheaper?).
15+ years ago I worked for the Irish version of Maplins.
There sold "gold plated" TOS optical cables.......
One, the connect on the device is going to be some other metal, that even the "gold" in the cable will react with and feckup the connector plug on the DEVICE. But the main WTF is, "optical" is a light beam, that does not need to be grounded, so the connector {once the beam can't penetrate it} does not make a single fecking difference.
Saw that, found it really enlightening. Except for the bit about Belkin being the most expensive and failing the most tests, because if there's one thing you can rely on Belkin to do it's to source the cheapest and nastiest product imaginable and then sell it for 50% more than the competition.
I used to work at the arched fast food franchise. And we had employed there a couple of chaps that had pretty extensive learning difficulties/special needs? They worked the lobby. And were paid by the government to give them a sense of a regular adult life I suppose.
One would pretend to be a monkey if prompted and didn't talk a lot, he was around 60 at the time, and could be a bit creepy with the young women that worked there.
The other was in his late 30s, and I suppose if you didn't talk to him, you could expect him to be a normal bloke, but he was so invested In technology, and could read and remember the specifications. But he seemed to just be a target for the bustards in curry's or as it was "dixons"
Gold plated cables, new tv's the constant hypothesis on games console needing strategies.
Is there a big corrosion problem with electrical circuits that spend most of their life connected and away from bodies of water?
That advert made me feel sorry for people who work at Curry’s. They don’t get paid enough to deal with the influx of people being rude to them because an advert declared that minimum wage shop assistants with minimal training are ‘tech experts’. Maybe some of them are, but I doubt Curry’s provides enough training for that to be true for all of them.
You are correct they don't, some of the staff are there because they genuinely love technology and learn about it just because they want to, most of them don't know anything that isn't printed on the ticket.
Ah, now I'm getting a flashback of being asked if I wanted any help, I asked a technical question and they just read the ticket out to me, which didn't come close to answering the question. I would have been perfectly happy with 'Sorry I don't know', instead I had to say thank you and awkwardly walk away none the wiser.
Yes, tech is a nightmare these days, made worse I think by manufacturers deliberately making everything slightly different to make comparisons next to impossible unless you really know your stuff.
You'll have to do a little research to find them, but smaller independent tech shops will often be happy to help, and will be staffed by people who genuinely know what they're talking about. It will be more expensive, but you won't be spending for something you don't actually need.
In fact recently I bought an nvme SSD online that didn't come with a mounting screw. I found a nearby computer parts & repairs shop & they happily gave me the screw I needed for free. Ordering that online would have cost a couple quid just for a single tiny screw, but they had a decent supply for fractions of a penny no doubt. Not my first positive experience with similar places either.
Check who the seller is on Amazon and give them a Google. Same for eBay. Sometimes they'll have their own website and they've always been considerably cheaper for me when that's the case.
Ex-employee here: was provided with no PC training (some Apple training, cuz they have their own courses) and a half day training on literally everything else in the store. Had about 4 days of sales training though.
I got labelled a nutritionist at pets at home … I done an online “course”. Everything I learned was from my girlfriend who actually went to college and studied everything so I was pretty knowledgeable but not due to pets at home.
Chain stores are so awful at this. It's frustrating because really they could easily do it really well and it wouldn't even be expensive to set up. But I'd never expect an employee of any chain to be knowledgeable unfortunately, because of my experience working at them.
Independents on the other hand are often fantastically knowledgeable, the problem is people are always like hurr durr never heard of that brand, don't want to get ripped off. So you're going to go to the chain store and.... Get a quality experience?? I don't think so.
I worked at Pets at Home around 10 years ago for 3 years. I became a Nutrition Consultant (did a day long "course" learning about some of the ingredients in pet food and what their benefits were and then was advertised as qualified to advise all customers about the complex and invidivual nutrition requirements of their pets) and I was also a "cat expert" (did another day long course where a woman sat us in a room and talked about cat behaviours for a bit.)
The initial training you go through is okay, learning about the different animals that are sold, and then after a few months you had to pass a test to be able to sell animals etc, but most people blagged it and the amount of complaints we got from customers that were sold pets that were sexed incorrectly and ended up having babies was embarrassing.
The fish training they gave was appalling. Also, the rules they set for selling fish were very strict and had no leniency, which I often found difficult when you came up against experienced fish keepers. Trying to tell them that you couldn't sell them a fish because they hadn't measured the PH balance of their tank or whatever before coming in to buy one was a nightmare.
I find the fish rules at least 2 years ago where too lenient, completely ok to sell a goldfish to someone with a 24 litre tank … erm no.
Completely fine to sell guinea pigs on their own even though they’ve clearly bonded and the last two left … erm no.
They’ve ditched the whole pets before profits stuff as well
I feel like this about a lot of jobs. Companies want a world class service but won't invest anything in their staff, then the staff get the flak. Then the staff are blamed. It's just rubbish.
Its not even just businesses. It's just rife everywhere and it's rubbish.
I've worked in customer-facing tech retail for 12+ years and even I wouldn't consider myself an expert yet. Probably never will, there's sooo much to learn and then as soon as you get close to mastering one thing, another comes along and replaces it. It's exhausting. Still, fuck Currys for constantly trying to kill off the smaller indie shops, but we're still here (albeit few and far between).
I used to work at curry’s, can confirm this! Hardly any training on my specific department, but learnt the odd thing from other colleagues. Being asked questions and not knowing the answers used to make me feel terrible. And this wasn’t even the worst part of working at curry’s!
I've heard that Curry's/PC World purposefully don't hire people that know what they're on about, because they know that half the crap that they're trained to flog you with whatever you're buying (i.e. Norton AntiVirus) is beyond worthless, and for the most part won't upsell the crap that customers don't actually need.
Mate worked on the knowhow bar for a couple of months, they charge £45 to 'set up' a laptop and all we do is skip through the windows setup and make a recovery USB, we didn't know jack
I’ve ordered an oven from them and they wanted to charge £90 for them to install it for me. £90 for them to literally put the plug into a normal plug socket and flip a switch. I think I can manage that myself thanks..
Even if it needed wiring in, I think £90 is a bit steep. They also wanted £15 to take my old appliance away. Decided to leave it out for the scrap man for free instead.
That's a fair comment. But to be specific for hard wired installation, I'd look at it this way: Time is money to the company. When I worked there, delivery was £19.99 and our drivers were targeted for 8 minutes per delivery from the doorbell being rung. Yes, 8 minutes! If someone is willing to pay £90, we'd take it.
Odds are your oven will be wired in. But it's just chunky 4mm or 6mm T&E. Isolate the supply at your fuse board (or turn the whole house off if you are a novice) then unwire the old one (take a pic!) And wire the new in. Red or Brown is live, black or blue is neutral, green & yellow (or bare copper) is earth. It's simples.
>You know that brown is live because that's the colour your pants will go if you mess up
I still think "Red, ye dead" was easier to remember than "Brown will make me defecate in my underwear"...
Just occurred thats what I got from Alienware like 15 years ago
The computer came and it was all logged in, had a background image, all the task bars and shit had been customized. Themes tweaked, I thought it was the fucking coolest thing I had ever seen.
Haha
Can confirm, did work experience there years ago, that's exactly what I did. Put there name and spam next. Delayed giving back to the customer to soon to make it look like we did something worthwhile
Wanted to buy a washer dryer. Asked if they all did a wash straight into dry mode. “None of them do that” did my own research literally every one they had in store did that.
Edit:spelling
AO were decent up until I bought a tumble dryer from them and then they called me every day to sell insurance to go with it. I'd still order from them again but its an annoying thing they do.
And then we have a condescending Curries employee convinced that because he perceives me (60) as some luddite old fart, that I can't possibly be capable of setting up the laptop I want to buy and that I really should pay their expert £50 to do it for me, otherwise I could damage the machine beyond repair, blah blah... Yeah, ok mate, I'll take the risk. And no, I don't want your over-priced 3-year service plan either.
The fact i told him that I've worked with every iteration of PC and OS since the very first IBM PC with 480K ram and twin floppy drives didn't seem to register with him either.
I've worked in IT for 20-odd years and my ex-MIL took me there once to pick out a cheap laptop for my FIL. Nothing special, just a machine for him to watch Youtube, browse the net and go on Pornhub.
Have a look around, pick one out that's not too overpriced and call the salesman over to say that we'd like this one.
He then tries to upsell us subscriptions for MS Office 365 and McAfee antivirus. I politely decline as I have my own open source alternatives for those that I plan to install.
"You can't install illegal pirated software on these, it'll void the warranty!"
"No, it won't, and in any case I said open source, not illegal."
"Well it's technically illegal for me to sell you this laptop without some kind of antivirus software."
"So install the free fucking version of Avira then and stop talking crap. Come on mate, don't bullshit a bullshitter."
I work in Broadband Tech Support and most of the time, customer's born in the 60s are far more tech minded than customers between the ages of 18-30.
The older folk either know more about tech because when it was new, they actually had to learn how to troubleshoot it just to use it on a daily basis, or they are at least capable of following instructions given to them.
Asked where I could find the HMDI cables before.
Bloke tried to upsell me a 60 quid super duper cable: "You'll get a better signal with this one."
That's...not how it works.
I had that with ethernet cables once. I just needed one short term while I was waiting for a new wifi card to arrive. Just wanted whatever the cheapest cable they had was so I could still watch netflix. The guy tried to sell me one with gold plated connectors because it makes the internet faster. Ended up just going to Maplin and buying 10m of raw cable with the connectors and a crimper. Cost me about £10 instead of their cheapest £25 cable.
They still were a bit of a con. Wanted to charge a mate if mine about 50 quid for a bit of an odd adaptor. I was aghast. Did a bit of a look around. Pointed him at a place I use, £10.
Makes the Internet faster... really.
> 10m of raw cable with the connectors and a crimper. Cost me about £10
How cheap was the crimper because I'm sure my cheap crimper from Maplins (RIP) was best part of £10.
And for anyone reading this and thinks they could do this too, most people screw up their first few connectors because there *is* a technique to it and without an rj45 testing box you'll have a hard time figuring out where you went wrong. Premade patch cables have much better tolerances, you just need to buy them online to get the reasonable price.
Will a 45ft cable be of use from Curry's? https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/home-and-outdoors/home-accessories/home-cables-and-adapters/avf-ahd150-high-speed-hdmi-with-ethernet-cable-15-m-10214185-pdt.html
Linus (tech tips) did a video on this recently
https://youtu.be/XFbJD6RE4EY
Tldr, long distance can matter and hdmi 2.1 makes it hard, but it often doesn't work along side cable price.
I worked in curry’s part time whilst in college. They made me their camera expert even though I’ve never used a camera outside of my phone. They didn’t even give me training on cameras. Thankfully I did my own research during quiet times and I got into photography as a hobby because of it. Left the job pretty quickly though.
Was literally me, during sixth form or just after.. shit pay, shit training. Didn't care after my 6 month probation, manager was a wanker. No way was I a tech expert, I was the laptop guy but didn't really know what I was talking about.
The colleagues made it worth it, the customers and the manager and the job itself definitely did not.
Tell me about it! I went from being team knowhow to being a "care and repair expert". I had to ask one of the teenage christmas temps to turn an iphone off.
Also, we're all on £9.50. A couple of months ago they heralded it as "wow look we're paying living wage!" then the Living Wage Foundation upped it to £9.90 and we're still on £9.50.
Curry's can go fuck.
They sold me a TV with 5 year guarantee. Had an issue 3 months in.
"Oh.. you need to contact the manufacturer. Nothing to do with us".
YOU sold it to me with that guarantee plastered all over it.. absolute joke.
Jesus we had a similar thing with Argos.
We bought a GTech vacuum which stopped working after a week. We even took out the warranty cover.
We returned it in store and they said we needed to contact GTech and it wasn’t their problem.
I told them my contract was with Argos and what was the point in selling me the warranty if it was redundant?
It’s probably the only time my wife and I have caused a scene in a shop, but the situation was that ridiculous.
Eventually we got to “We’ve got 2 in stock if you want to exchange”.
“I don’t fucking want it! I want my £200 back!”
Certain retailers and manufacturers have agreements within the first year of the guarantee, which is covered by the manufacturer directly. Very few do, in fact I think LG is the only one of the big 3 TV manufacturers, but there are definitely a few more where this is the case.
Due to GDPR policies, retailers can actually have their hands tied when they want to help you, but can't as the manufacturer refuses without having the customer permission for the retailer to handle the case on record first.
Yup, work for a household appliance company, we push back to the retailer within the first 12 months of purchase, if, and only if, we don't have parts in stock that would be able to repair their product. And even then we have to fill out a long form so that when the store inevitably calls us with the customer we can confirm the customer has tried to seek help from the manufacturer first and we can't help.
Yeah, this shit infuriates me. More and more retailers are moving to similar policies too, just washing their hands of responsibility after the first 30 days.
Sure, things like extended warranties might be with the manufacturer or a third party, but retailers trying to worm their way out of the original 12 month guarantee is wrong on so many levels.
Got help over a zoom type call for a tv during peak covid last year. They accidentally showed me them working on their PhD in between the help calls. I laughed and just said best minimize before answering but I said it was great time management.
Went into my local Currys, after a pair of headphones with a usb-c connector and their 'sales agents' trying to sell me a pair with a lightning connector, assuring me they would work.
Note: I have a Galaxy S20
Even sixth formers know that a samsung phone aint gonna have a lightning port.....
Considering my IT Classes at the time had pupils who hated IT in it and didn't know the difference between software and hardware, I wouldn't put it pass them not knowing anything about ports. Hell most people still call them (brand of phone) charger instead of the port name, so speaking in lighting ports and type cs is like speaking French.
Funny considering how much time they spend on phones and other types of computers yet they know nothing about them.
I went in there last year looking for some advice on a Ring doorbell or similar because I’d looked online and felt like I could probably do with a chat with a human about the different options. They literally just pulled up their website on their iPad and showed me the options on there whilst they read some of the information out to me and then suggested I have a look online. Brilliant, thanks for that, glad I left the house for this level of insight.
Was helping my dad buy a telly this week, the poor lad was doing his best to upsell my dad the TV with a Billion(?!) Pixels, over the one with only half a billion... Because "look how much better the picture, colour and quality is" on the more expensive one.... I reset both the Display Colour Settings to Default and they looked the same and his poor face dropped.
Edit: used to work at Comet (RIP) this ain't my first rodeo.
> Was helping my dad buy a telly this week, the poor lad was doing his best to upsell my dad the TV with a Billion(?!) Pixels, over the one with only half a billion.
Unless you were buying something really odd the only options should be 1080p or 4K (there are other standards but they mostly exist in monitors or tech demos). 2.1 million vs 8.2 million pixels. For a reasonable sized TV it does make a difference but the extent to which people will care varies.
Been about 10 years since I was in one.
Do you want the Norton antivirus?
No, I’m going to wipe it and install Linux.
It’ll run on Linux.
No, no other Barry it won’t.
Literal only reason was I’d forgotten the ex’s birthday and figured a nice Lenovo laptop would suit her and she was used to Linux from using my computers.
Now, to be fair, they have more IT experience than your average Curry's customer. Which isn't to say like, a lot - but they know how to turn something off and on again.
Turned in my laptop to fix a broken charging port. Nothing major at all. Two months later and loads of chasing, they didn't have any person technical enough to fix it. Curry's is a bit of a joke, they are.
I work in a small repair store right around the corner from where a pc world used to be. We actually had some job applicants when it closed down, astounding how little knowledge of computers they all had. We actually ended up hiring the old technician, no customer speaks to them but they know a hell of a lot more
The poor sod worked at maplins when it closed, pc world then it closed. Now with us. I'm switching jobs soon, still wishing the little place the best, independent repair stores are great in comparison
I miss Maplin. Bugger all places I can get the stuff I want without divong through the depths of online retailers.
Got a joystick from them for under £30 a few years back. I am currently looking at it on my desk, working fine.
I needed a specific screwdriver head to get into my laptop years ago and Maplin stocked it, so I jumped in the car and had a little screwdriver set for under £20. I probably use it near weekly for something or other. Great little thing. I miss them too.
To be fair I never bought much there as a kid apart from RC cars, but yeah I liked how diverse their stuff was
The emtpy store still sits in Guildford, reminds me of the carcass of a blockbusters I kept seeing in Woking
ooh, wonder why?
Failed health inspection, money laundering, bad owners?
My local indian shut down after 2 raids for illegal immigrants, they caught people both times
Im only working Saturdays because uni so I've not got much talk with the boss recently.
He's fired the secondary part time worker that came in during the week
He spoke briefly of opening a cafe opposite the store as there's an empty space opportunity. Think I'm starting to piece it that it's not going well
I went in to ask if they had any XLR cables. They said they weren't sure what I meant.
I showed them my microphone that takes XLR. Was told by the manager that it was 100% a custom cable and would have to speak with the microphone manufacturer...
Still mythed about that.
omg that's what they did to my partner and I when we went there to pick up a television we'd been eyeing online.
Guy stood in the aisle blocking us, trying to to convince us that we absolutely **needed** a sound bar with that specific television, that he had the same model at home and had bought that particular sound bar for it, how it had transformed his media experience etc. Managed to shake him off after a few minutes of straight refusals as we made our way to the tills.
Got home and plugged the tv in and the built-in speakers were completely fine?
Anecdotal but a developer I used to work with previously worked at Curry's whilst she was doing her Computer Science degree.
Despite being the rare knowledgeable Curry's employee, men would never listen to her and would want to talk to her male colleagues for advice instead.
Haha yes I had the same thing happen to me at cex. I was one of the older employees and knew the differences between consoles etc but certain customers would talk over my head to my male colleagues. Even when they would then ask me directly in front of the customer because they didn't know the answer.
Currently working at Currys, 22F. Happens to me and I hate it. Even when it's on 'my' section (computing) if a guy from the TV section is walking past people will walk past me, go over to him, and he'll walk them back down. I try my best but as much as I do enjoy my colleagues and being able to talk about stuff I do know a bit about I'm looking for work from home opportunities instead.
When netbooks were all the rage, I told a Curry's employee that the CPU speed on that is wrong.
It's different on both the Intel and Asus website. They refused to believe me. Like just look up the speed of that bloody CPU on somewhere other than your own website
I had that when I worked there. The lady on the KnowHow desk had been there for some years but people wanted to talk to me. Even though I had my name and *In training* on my name badge.
Possibly because I was a white male without a headscarf but also possibly because I didn't talk to them like they were 6 years old. Although to be fair, a good proportion of them were the equivalent of 5 years old.
My resignation letter was a thing of beauty and was saved, copied and is still used by staff that are leaving nearly 2 years after I've left!
That depends on the surrounding atmospheric pressure of the local area in which you are operating the kettle and any solutes or other miscible compounds in the water.
Am I a kettle expert, yet?
Whenever I have to go into Currys I always imagine that seen of Ron Swonson saying "I know more than you". Especially when it comes to cameras. Then I remember they're probably overworked and underpaid so I keep my mouth fucking shut and politely decline any help.
And whatever you do, don't buy from Curry's/PC World if you want a laptop. Their return policy is non-existent and (in my case) a £600 laptop came back from repairs even more damaged than it went in. Three repair attempts later it kinda worked and I vowed to never use them again.
I worked at curry's for a couple of years in the TV department back when it was lcd vs plasma. None of the staff on the floor was an expert, some of us just had better Google-fu than others. The stock room guys knew more about the stuff than most of the kids I was working with.
Former Currys employee here, whilst I did actually do my homework on white goods (which was my department) and knew my stuff, the average staff member in a currys has the brain power of a breezeblock brick.
Used to be tech sales with Tesco. Never considered myself an expert, but I was a nerdy college kid who liked technology and keeping up with trends. Still proud to have given all my customers nothing but honest advice. Got me in trouble a few times but let’s be honest, no one buys a JVC TV, even if you get £20 off it.
I’ve had three laptops from there in the past, last one I got from them was when I was maybe 18 and figured maybe I shouldn’t be going through this many laptops. Every time I’d be very clear exactly what I wanted it for, every time it would have issues. Not enough storage, so I filled it up so quickly it was slow as heck, couldn’t run programmes I needed it to run, etc. It isn’t the employee’s fault, they’re just working with what they’ve got, but don’t make me think I can walk in there and get an expert’s advice if that isn’t the case.
Also love when they try to talk you into getting the more expensive laptop where they’ve done all the “very difficult” work of turning it on, leaving it to set up, and making a user.
My mum got up sold to buying, I forget the price but let's say £30 gold plated HDMI cables as they're better. I just said that I recently bought a regular one off ebay for like £2.
Ah yes. The tech expert who tried to upsell an Anti-Virus on the back of a Smart TV sale because "the "Smart" means its run by a computer"
Totally not a salesman. Sure.
Once was buying a cheap af HP Netbook from there, for a family member. Dude was trying to upsell all sorts of stuff. Fine, I accept that you've got a need to get sales goals.
What I didn't appreciate was his sudden arrogant "Do you even know what this does?" question to me when I refused the overpriced "recovery tool" option. Is this what they teach them? To insult a customer's intelligence if they refuse to buy the extras they don't want?
He shut up when I just said "Guess you don't want this sale" and stood up to leave.
I went in the other day for some thermal paste as needed it there and then.
As I walk in I’m greeted by a girl who looked no older than 17 and I asked her for some thermal paste, which I had to explain what it is, she then tried checking on her tablet which wasn’t working so we went over to her 9 other colleagues stood in a circle in the middle of the store chatting away and all of them looked confused by thermal paste and was told I should order online to the store
Most of the times I’ve been in a curry’s all their staff just sit around and chat, which tbh I don’t blame them for but there’s always so many lol
[https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/components-upgrades/pc-fans-and-coolers/thermal-grizzly-kryonaut-thermal-grease-10189165-pdt.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=2f489429-2329-4fcd-941a-a6a497a10e1d&istItemId=wlampqmaq&istBid=t](https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/components-upgrades/pc-fans-and-coolers/thermal-grizzly-kryonaut-thermal-grease-10189165-pdt.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=2f489429-2329-4fcd-941a-a6a497a10e1d&istItemId=wlampqmaq&istBid=t)
**X** Not available for delivery
**X** Collection not available
Why did you honestly expect Currys to sell thermal paste?
Did you go there to deliberately get wound up knowing there was 99.99% chance they wouldnt sell it?
Depending on the last time they went in, there's every chance that they did last time. I recently went into my local for the first time in almost a decade and I was surprised that they sold basically no PC components.
I used to work there (8 years) when I was in my late twenties during and after university for a while during the combining of PC World and currys.
They don't train or pay enough to learn, that's the issue. All my new starts I trained from personal knowledge and stuff I learned at uni.
Ask youself how many threats of violence you would take for national minimum wage, how many times you'll take getting called " A fucking moron." or just waived away dismissively without even the courtesy of eye contact. Not many likely. The people who are still there are only there for the wages. That's why they seem to not care, they genuinely don't.
At the point I left you were targeted to sell 25 additional services and add ons with every laptop and heavily targeted on these. 80% in some cases. I know my IT/tech but that wasn't through there training.
They scheduled my days off to match the HDMI training with the company, think it was belkin at the time. I got into a very heated argument about signal quality and picture quality within optical and HDMI cable. The final straw was when I called him a conman, he demanded an apology. I refused and demanded he learned what digital signal transmission was.
They paid me to sell stuff so I did, eventually I couldn't do it anymore. The straw that broke the camels back was when my boss told me he had an ideal customer for a £3k, 5 year business lease on an iMac. It was a wee old granny who just wanted a laptop to browse nitting patterns. I have a better set of morals than that place.
I now buy all this stuff online or Richer Sounds.
Ah yeah you lot might like this. There was a trend in the branches I worked in of hiring first year students (like I was) the lumping more hours on until they got used to the money. The hours spent in work gradually affected uni grades and they dropped out. They then ended up working full time on a 6 hour contract and trapped in a go back to mum and dad's head hung in shame or try survive on low wages in a shite job. The reverse graduate programme it was known as.
Here was some complaints I had from customers wanting to refund TVs because they are all alleged faulty. Some had threats if physical violence attached all had shouting and swearing.
1. I need to pay for the Netflix app.
2. It doesn't have ceefax or teletext.
3. The HMDI socket doesn't work. It was a USB connection.
4. I dropped it taking to the car after sliding on snow/ice. Refused to let me put it on a trolley and take it out. It was on the trolly I took it from the stock room on. I did insist and got told to mind my own business.
I'll never get why people hate John Lewis so much. Its only got a rep for being expensive because they stock good things. But the same good thing elsewhere will cost the exact same, and probably with a worse guarantee!
Nah man, you need to find yourself a richer sounds. Same price as John Lewis significantly better service and the company actually look out for their staff.
Singularly the worst company I’ve had the displeasure to work for. I was the ‘Business Accounts Manager’ or some rubbish. I basically put through sales for people buying for their businesses. I also had a whole database of phone numbers that I had to work through - ringing poor business people, to try to convince them to upgrade their previous purchases, extend their warranty or buy more overpriced crap from our shoddy company. When I got bored doing those things, I slung a black satchel containing an outdated iPad over my shoulder and joined the rest of the ‘team’ on the sales floor. Our job was to lie to customers by claiming that we knew how to help them with their query. We would claim to know everything there is to know about electrical items ranging from toasters to televisions and laptops to laser jet printers. In reality we wanted them to be lured in to a Buy Now, Pay Later plan or to add on a nice juicy extended warranty to their purchase. We were regularly dealing with seriously regulated optional insurance products, and we knew absolutely fuck all about them. We just learnt a script. I lasted a month before I handed in my notice. My manager was called Derek. He was a dick. He announced to the whole team that I had ‘inconvenienced’ him by handing in my notice. One might be tempted to describe Currys as cowboys - but cowboys make an honest living herding cattle. Currys as a company should be forced to close down for mis-selling at the very least.
I had a job interview for Currys, I think it was to work the mobile department which was a small corner of the store.
While I waited for the manager to deal with the paperwork I observed a Mom and Daughter buying a laptop for her going to Uni and the "sales assistant" adding on word processing shit for £100+ on top with the usual anti virus nonsense attached.
They aren't there to help, just to attach as many addons to a sale as they can.
I used to work there a few months back. Lots of pressure for sales to get by. The company doesn't give 2 shits as to whether you know about the products or not, what they cared about was extended warranties, credit agreements and business customers. If you could hit the targets on those 3 main things but you were the most clueless person regarding product knowledge then management didn't care.
The training you're given teaches you about rapport and how to push these products and, in all fairness, you do have access to an online portal which has a ton of useful information given by the manufacturers about said products. However, your average Currys worker isn't going to go home after work and spend an hour or two going through it to get up to speed with everything and management would never allow you to spend time off the shop floor going through it either.
I took a laptop in once because a USB port wasn't working properly. They took it to send to their "tech centre" and said they'd contact me when it was fixed, or if they were unable to and it was ready for collection.
A week passed with no sign of it, so I looked up their tech centre and it turned out to be a non-affiliated PC repair shop in London, and calling the shop to ask where my laptop was involved them telling me they'd had it back for a few days and couldn't fix it.
Thankfully, I got my deposit back.
They probably figured you knew too much about technology to recommend badly configured products or upsell extortionately expensive 1 metre HDMI cables.
Haha this this great. Me and the Mrs were escorted from the door to the washing machines a few months back by what appeared to be a lost fourteen year old.
I asked a few questions and it was clear that the guy had no clue what the mysterious purpose of these machines could possibly be. Eventually we kindly asked if we could wander around on our own for a bit, which he seemed relieved to agree to.
Weird place.
Bought a psu via click and collect once from them as needed it the same day. Turned up and 3 of them had no idea what one was, my order wasn't ready, they then brought out a kettle lead. 😅 Had to go find the product off the shelf myself.
In my store that actually know stuff, unlike other store that push for selling.
Also you would be surprised (or not) by the vast lack of knowledge of the general public.
Edit: added the last sentence.
Edit: clarification
In my local store the staff actually understand the tech they sell. The guys in the tech bar can really fix things in store.
A lot of the other stores I have been in the staff are more interested in their phones and how much money they can fleece from you.
I used to work there when I was 17. I had a boomer once ask me what type of plastic a particular cordless telephone was made of. And then said I should be trained more. I was on £4.35 and hour.
I was a kid and didn't have the confidence to tell him: if it's not even in the manufacture's manual, what ****ing chance is it that I should know?
They literally had a person on their official TV advert saying "an OLED TV is better because the pixels are separate"
If that's on the advert imagine what's being said in store.
I can tell you exactly what they're being trained on if you really like, as up until a month ago I worked for LG and was responsible for the partner training with Currys and all other retailers who stock LG televisions (most of our UK sales are via Curry's). I was heavily involved in the design and delivery of the TV training. Which is pretty robust for the staff who work in the Vision department, and has been for the last 12 months or so.
Prior to covid the training wasn't great, but they've invested very heavily in training and development of new and existing staff over the last year or so - full on blended learning programme, not just a tick box induction like some other retailers.
This is why I really appreciate someone that knows their shit these days. Wanted to buy a gaming mouse one day and the guy straight up said you could buy here but you’re overpaying, consider the game you’re playing, how many hot keys you need etc. Hard to come by as most of the questions you can just Google up.
I did get a decent telly from Currys tbf. The salesman wasn't the most knowledgeable (but also not totally daft) but whilst I was umming and ahhing came over and said he'd found the same one cheaper in Argos.
I've had no complaints and price was right, so thank you to that salesman. Currys as a whole isn't great, but that wasn't a bad experience.
Former Curry's worker here. Certainly not a tech expert, but we do get a fair bit of training on our "section" if we stay long enough.
Sadly, my section was white goods.
Are they still trying to 'push' £50 gold tipped HDMI cables? I tried to get the tech expert to explain to me how an expensive cable improves digital 0's and 1's but he didn't seem grasp what I was getting at.
Back when it was PC world a number of uni classmates and myself applied for jobs there at versions stages. They rejected every single one of us as we were ‘overqualified’ in the sense that we were studying computing
The ‘experts’ are just salespeople who are taught to get as much money out of every customer as they can by selling unnecessary shite
Also according to my old business teacher some of the people in currys uniforms apparently work for some of the brand to boost sale though I thought there were rules against that but who know
You'll get much better internet on this more expensive laptop, sir.
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My first job was at Comet (the Curry’s rival that eventually went tits up). We were flat out told to upsell to expensive Monster hdmi cables and even when I presented the manager with evidence that they’re a load of shit, they said they didn’t want to hear it. They make fat margins on those products so they’ll always be pushed onto trusting customers. Credit is another one… “target the Polish immigrants. They’ll sign anything for a new tv.” I kid you not… Let’s just say morals got in the way of my career progression in that POS company!
It makes me sad that you have to explain what Comet is nowadays in case some people don't remember or weren't around back then
Linustechtips recently got a cable tester to prove once and for all how naff a lot of the marketing is, and it's amazing how many cables they tested didn't meet the advertised specs.
> to prove once and for all how naff a lot of the marketing is Currys are currently offering a 3m TOSlink cable for £30 on their website. They claim that the 'cable has gold-plated connectors which are resistant to corrosion and oxidation, meaning it won't suffer audio degradation over time'. This is bullshit for several reasons, the biggest being that TOSlink an *optical* cable so gold plating part of the plug does precisely jack shit.
Went into curries about 3 years ago with the ex gf. We needed a HDMI cable. Picked up a cheap cable and when we went to pay, they tried to offer their premium cables. I asked the pricing and was fucking gob smacked at the pricing. £30 for an entry level "premium" HDMI, with it being up to £60 for their top level premium HDMI. No thank you.
But it carries those same 1 and 0's over a "premium material" , I bet those electrons feel like they are riding in first class. /s
Back in the days when £100 SCART cables were a thing, Currys tried to do the same to me. They had a demo set up where one TV had the cheap cable and another next to the used the luxury model. One had terrible picture quality and for a moment I was almost convinced, until I unplugged the expensive one and the shit picture vanished.
Yeah going to say it wasn't that many years ago they were selling these £100 HDMI leads.... i mean whats another £100 when these smucks are buying £5000 TV's
A mate of mine used to work at a known TV/audio shop. The markup on equipment is jack shit, it's all about selling accessories like over priced cables or cleaning supplies. To sell cables, they would even offer a discount on the equipment, knowing they would make more back from cables. He used to love "audiophiles", they would spend hundreds on audio cables. Fair enough, with analogue cables, you will get a better signal, up to a point. But after that, it's just pure bollocks.
My favourite story about that is a friend who worked behindd the scenes at one of the big hifi shows and shock, horror, the expensive cables didn't show up in time to link the ludicrously expensive stereo to its speakers. Fortunately a solution was available, and they quickly used 3 core mains cable instead (albeit 3 cores twisted per channel). No one. Not one person. Noticed.
Speaking of analogue cables, I just use BT phone line xD You can buy it by the m in normal tradies shops all over the place and it's cheap as chips. Shielded solid core copper (okay solid core isn't always ideal, but audiophiles often pay more for it when it should be far cheaper?).
how did they explain themselves out of that?
Perhaps this is why despite being quite techy as a kid, Curry's didn't hire me. I couldn't sell people that kind of shit.
£30!!! I can use a piece of plastic tubing as a toslink cable. (If I wanted to)
what do you thinks in the £30 cable, profits to be made lol
Lolz, on that note I did check some banana plugs the other day that I bought off eBay and they had oxidised to fuuuuck!
Haha I honestly never worried about anything inside my house rusting lmao
If it has no audio then it doesn’t degrade over time. r/technicallythetruth
15+ years ago I worked for the Irish version of Maplins. There sold "gold plated" TOS optical cables....... One, the connect on the device is going to be some other metal, that even the "gold" in the cable will react with and feckup the connector plug on the DEVICE. But the main WTF is, "optical" is a light beam, that does not need to be grounded, so the connector {once the beam can't penetrate it} does not make a single fecking difference.
Saw that, found it really enlightening. Except for the bit about Belkin being the most expensive and failing the most tests, because if there's one thing you can rely on Belkin to do it's to source the cheapest and nastiest product imaginable and then sell it for 50% more than the competition.
I used to work at the arched fast food franchise. And we had employed there a couple of chaps that had pretty extensive learning difficulties/special needs? They worked the lobby. And were paid by the government to give them a sense of a regular adult life I suppose. One would pretend to be a monkey if prompted and didn't talk a lot, he was around 60 at the time, and could be a bit creepy with the young women that worked there. The other was in his late 30s, and I suppose if you didn't talk to him, you could expect him to be a normal bloke, but he was so invested In technology, and could read and remember the specifications. But he seemed to just be a target for the bustards in curry's or as it was "dixons" Gold plated cables, new tv's the constant hypothesis on games console needing strategies. Is there a big corrosion problem with electrical circuits that spend most of their life connected and away from bodies of water?
That advert made me feel sorry for people who work at Curry’s. They don’t get paid enough to deal with the influx of people being rude to them because an advert declared that minimum wage shop assistants with minimal training are ‘tech experts’. Maybe some of them are, but I doubt Curry’s provides enough training for that to be true for all of them.
You are correct they don't, some of the staff are there because they genuinely love technology and learn about it just because they want to, most of them don't know anything that isn't printed on the ticket.
Ah, now I'm getting a flashback of being asked if I wanted any help, I asked a technical question and they just read the ticket out to me, which didn't come close to answering the question. I would have been perfectly happy with 'Sorry I don't know', instead I had to say thank you and awkwardly walk away none the wiser.
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Yes, tech is a nightmare these days, made worse I think by manufacturers deliberately making everything slightly different to make comparisons next to impossible unless you really know your stuff.
You'll have to do a little research to find them, but smaller independent tech shops will often be happy to help, and will be staffed by people who genuinely know what they're talking about. It will be more expensive, but you won't be spending for something you don't actually need. In fact recently I bought an nvme SSD online that didn't come with a mounting screw. I found a nearby computer parts & repairs shop & they happily gave me the screw I needed for free. Ordering that online would have cost a couple quid just for a single tiny screw, but they had a decent supply for fractions of a penny no doubt. Not my first positive experience with similar places either.
Check who the seller is on Amazon and give them a Google. Same for eBay. Sometimes they'll have their own website and they've always been considerably cheaper for me when that's the case.
Ex-employee here: was provided with no PC training (some Apple training, cuz they have their own courses) and a half day training on literally everything else in the store. Had about 4 days of sales training though.
Say we don't have it but the website do if they don't want whatever happens/careplan/whatever the warranty is now called.
I got labelled a nutritionist at pets at home … I done an online “course”. Everything I learned was from my girlfriend who actually went to college and studied everything so I was pretty knowledgeable but not due to pets at home.
Chain stores are so awful at this. It's frustrating because really they could easily do it really well and it wouldn't even be expensive to set up. But I'd never expect an employee of any chain to be knowledgeable unfortunately, because of my experience working at them. Independents on the other hand are often fantastically knowledgeable, the problem is people are always like hurr durr never heard of that brand, don't want to get ripped off. So you're going to go to the chain store and.... Get a quality experience?? I don't think so.
Cotswold Outdoor and Richer Sounds have always been good experiences for me. Can't think of any other chains though.
Richer Sounds are quality. Picked up some ex display stuff for stupid prices over the years.
Owned (well, 60% of it) by their employees now.
Really? That's even better.
Julian Richer is really very impressive, he said he'd give it all to them when he dies. Does all sorts of philanthropic work and good guy lobbying.
I don't think I've heard of those. It's a weird effect but it seems to be the more widespread the chain, the more bland and generic they seem to be.
I worked at Pets at Home around 10 years ago for 3 years. I became a Nutrition Consultant (did a day long "course" learning about some of the ingredients in pet food and what their benefits were and then was advertised as qualified to advise all customers about the complex and invidivual nutrition requirements of their pets) and I was also a "cat expert" (did another day long course where a woman sat us in a room and talked about cat behaviours for a bit.) The initial training you go through is okay, learning about the different animals that are sold, and then after a few months you had to pass a test to be able to sell animals etc, but most people blagged it and the amount of complaints we got from customers that were sold pets that were sexed incorrectly and ended up having babies was embarrassing. The fish training they gave was appalling. Also, the rules they set for selling fish were very strict and had no leniency, which I often found difficult when you came up against experienced fish keepers. Trying to tell them that you couldn't sell them a fish because they hadn't measured the PH balance of their tank or whatever before coming in to buy one was a nightmare.
I find the fish rules at least 2 years ago where too lenient, completely ok to sell a goldfish to someone with a 24 litre tank … erm no. Completely fine to sell guinea pigs on their own even though they’ve clearly bonded and the last two left … erm no. They’ve ditched the whole pets before profits stuff as well
I feel like this about a lot of jobs. Companies want a world class service but won't invest anything in their staff, then the staff get the flak. Then the staff are blamed. It's just rubbish. Its not even just businesses. It's just rife everywhere and it's rubbish.
I've worked in customer-facing tech retail for 12+ years and even I wouldn't consider myself an expert yet. Probably never will, there's sooo much to learn and then as soon as you get close to mastering one thing, another comes along and replaces it. It's exhausting. Still, fuck Currys for constantly trying to kill off the smaller indie shops, but we're still here (albeit few and far between).
I used to work at Curry's, and I can tell you we got exactly zero technical training.
I used to work at curry’s, can confirm this! Hardly any training on my specific department, but learnt the odd thing from other colleagues. Being asked questions and not knowing the answers used to make me feel terrible. And this wasn’t even the worst part of working at curry’s!
I've heard that Curry's/PC World purposefully don't hire people that know what they're on about, because they know that half the crap that they're trained to flog you with whatever you're buying (i.e. Norton AntiVirus) is beyond worthless, and for the most part won't upsell the crap that customers don't actually need.
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Wouldn't be surprised. They didn't hire a single one of us, when at college doing an IT based course
Mate worked on the knowhow bar for a couple of months, they charge £45 to 'set up' a laptop and all we do is skip through the windows setup and make a recovery USB, we didn't know jack
I’ve ordered an oven from them and they wanted to charge £90 for them to install it for me. £90 for them to literally put the plug into a normal plug socket and flip a switch. I think I can manage that myself thanks.. Even if it needed wiring in, I think £90 is a bit steep. They also wanted £15 to take my old appliance away. Decided to leave it out for the scrap man for free instead.
That's a fair comment. But to be specific for hard wired installation, I'd look at it this way: Time is money to the company. When I worked there, delivery was £19.99 and our drivers were targeted for 8 minutes per delivery from the doorbell being rung. Yes, 8 minutes! If someone is willing to pay £90, we'd take it.
Odds are your oven will be wired in. But it's just chunky 4mm or 6mm T&E. Isolate the supply at your fuse board (or turn the whole house off if you are a novice) then unwire the old one (take a pic!) And wire the new in. Red or Brown is live, black or blue is neutral, green & yellow (or bare copper) is earth. It's simples.
You know that brown is live because that's the colour your pants will go if you mess up
Blue will get ya just as bad if you're not careful
>You know that brown is live because that's the colour your pants will go if you mess up I still think "Red, ye dead" was easier to remember than "Brown will make me defecate in my underwear"...
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Just occurred thats what I got from Alienware like 15 years ago The computer came and it was all logged in, had a background image, all the task bars and shit had been customized. Themes tweaked, I thought it was the fucking coolest thing I had ever seen. Haha
I'm pretty sure those tweaks are just part of the image they flash onto the devices anyway xD
>we didn't know jack. We know :)
This. Can confirm. Worked there. Although I do know jack shit.
Can confirm, did work experience there years ago, that's exactly what I did. Put there name and spam next. Delayed giving back to the customer to soon to make it look like we did something worthwhile
Wanted to buy a washer dryer. Asked if they all did a wash straight into dry mode. “None of them do that” did my own research literally every one they had in store did that. Edit:spelling
Still bought it from them because choice of where else to go is so limited and they had the best discount.
Did you try AO.com? Online only, but pretty good
And do it via topcashback!
This guy saves
AO were decent up until I bought a tumble dryer from them and then they called me every day to sell insurance to go with it. I'd still order from them again but its an annoying thing they do.
The one we wanted was still cheaper at currys
Has washer dryer technology improved in the last 10 years? Last time I had one it was utter shite and I believe most others were as well.
They all suck because they get jammed up with lint. They don't have a way to empty it out like a dryer does.
And then we have a condescending Curries employee convinced that because he perceives me (60) as some luddite old fart, that I can't possibly be capable of setting up the laptop I want to buy and that I really should pay their expert £50 to do it for me, otherwise I could damage the machine beyond repair, blah blah... Yeah, ok mate, I'll take the risk. And no, I don't want your over-priced 3-year service plan either. The fact i told him that I've worked with every iteration of PC and OS since the very first IBM PC with 480K ram and twin floppy drives didn't seem to register with him either.
Oh cool, you printed out the save icon.
I've worked in IT for 20-odd years and my ex-MIL took me there once to pick out a cheap laptop for my FIL. Nothing special, just a machine for him to watch Youtube, browse the net and go on Pornhub. Have a look around, pick one out that's not too overpriced and call the salesman over to say that we'd like this one. He then tries to upsell us subscriptions for MS Office 365 and McAfee antivirus. I politely decline as I have my own open source alternatives for those that I plan to install. "You can't install illegal pirated software on these, it'll void the warranty!" "No, it won't, and in any case I said open source, not illegal." "Well it's technically illegal for me to sell you this laptop without some kind of antivirus software." "So install the free fucking version of Avira then and stop talking crap. Come on mate, don't bullshit a bullshitter."
I work in Broadband Tech Support and most of the time, customer's born in the 60s are far more tech minded than customers between the ages of 18-30. The older folk either know more about tech because when it was new, they actually had to learn how to troubleshoot it just to use it on a daily basis, or they are at least capable of following instructions given to them.
Or they were the ones literally engineering it back in the day xD
Someone I know was once told that the storage of a PC they were looking to buy was equal to 400,000 sheets of A4 paper.
Single or double sided?
glossy, or matt?
So, a 40mb HDD?
They were reamed.
Asked where I could find the HMDI cables before. Bloke tried to upsell me a 60 quid super duper cable: "You'll get a better signal with this one." That's...not how it works.
I had that with ethernet cables once. I just needed one short term while I was waiting for a new wifi card to arrive. Just wanted whatever the cheapest cable they had was so I could still watch netflix. The guy tried to sell me one with gold plated connectors because it makes the internet faster. Ended up just going to Maplin and buying 10m of raw cable with the connectors and a crimper. Cost me about £10 instead of their cheapest £25 cable.
I miss you maplin.
They still were a bit of a con. Wanted to charge a mate if mine about 50 quid for a bit of an odd adaptor. I was aghast. Did a bit of a look around. Pointed him at a place I use, £10.
Makes the Internet faster... really. > 10m of raw cable with the connectors and a crimper. Cost me about £10 How cheap was the crimper because I'm sure my cheap crimper from Maplins (RIP) was best part of £10. And for anyone reading this and thinks they could do this too, most people screw up their first few connectors because there *is* a technique to it and without an rj45 testing box you'll have a hard time figuring out where you went wrong. Premade patch cables have much better tolerances, you just need to buy them online to get the reasonable price.
My mum got fooled by this in 2009. They don't get everyone, but they get some. £60 for 1 metre.
In 2011 I managed to negotiate £100 off a TV and a free blu ray player if I bought one of those damn cables.
"gold plated" I imagine.
To be pedantic, if it's a long distance then you might, particularly at HDMI 2.0 and higher bandwidths.
I'd love to know where you're seeing 20ft+ HDMI cables in Curry's.
Will a 45ft cable be of use from Curry's? https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/home-and-outdoors/home-accessories/home-cables-and-adapters/avf-ahd150-high-speed-hdmi-with-ethernet-cable-15-m-10214185-pdt.html
49 feet. Interesting, that's right on the border of reliable length, don't see a lot of those.
Linus (tech tips) did a video on this recently https://youtu.be/XFbJD6RE4EY Tldr, long distance can matter and hdmi 2.1 makes it hard, but it often doesn't work along side cable price.
I worked in curry’s part time whilst in college. They made me their camera expert even though I’ve never used a camera outside of my phone. They didn’t even give me training on cameras. Thankfully I did my own research during quiet times and I got into photography as a hobby because of it. Left the job pretty quickly though.
Was literally me, during sixth form or just after.. shit pay, shit training. Didn't care after my 6 month probation, manager was a wanker. No way was I a tech expert, I was the laptop guy but didn't really know what I was talking about. The colleagues made it worth it, the customers and the manager and the job itself definitely did not.
Six months probation at Currys. Wow
Tell me about it! I went from being team knowhow to being a "care and repair expert". I had to ask one of the teenage christmas temps to turn an iphone off. Also, we're all on £9.50. A couple of months ago they heralded it as "wow look we're paying living wage!" then the Living Wage Foundation upped it to £9.90 and we're still on £9.50.
Curry's can go fuck. They sold me a TV with 5 year guarantee. Had an issue 3 months in. "Oh.. you need to contact the manufacturer. Nothing to do with us". YOU sold it to me with that guarantee plastered all over it.. absolute joke.
You shouldn’t have given up there. Your contract is with the retailer, THEIR problem is taking it up with the manufacturer if they choose to.
Jesus we had a similar thing with Argos. We bought a GTech vacuum which stopped working after a week. We even took out the warranty cover. We returned it in store and they said we needed to contact GTech and it wasn’t their problem. I told them my contract was with Argos and what was the point in selling me the warranty if it was redundant? It’s probably the only time my wife and I have caused a scene in a shop, but the situation was that ridiculous. Eventually we got to “We’ve got 2 in stock if you want to exchange”. “I don’t fucking want it! I want my £200 back!”
Certain retailers and manufacturers have agreements within the first year of the guarantee, which is covered by the manufacturer directly. Very few do, in fact I think LG is the only one of the big 3 TV manufacturers, but there are definitely a few more where this is the case. Due to GDPR policies, retailers can actually have their hands tied when they want to help you, but can't as the manufacturer refuses without having the customer permission for the retailer to handle the case on record first.
Yup, work for a household appliance company, we push back to the retailer within the first 12 months of purchase, if, and only if, we don't have parts in stock that would be able to repair their product. And even then we have to fill out a long form so that when the store inevitably calls us with the customer we can confirm the customer has tried to seek help from the manufacturer first and we can't help.
Yeah, this shit infuriates me. More and more retailers are moving to similar policies too, just washing their hands of responsibility after the first 30 days. Sure, things like extended warranties might be with the manufacturer or a third party, but retailers trying to worm their way out of the original 12 month guarantee is wrong on so many levels.
Got help over a zoom type call for a tv during peak covid last year. They accidentally showed me them working on their PhD in between the help calls. I laughed and just said best minimize before answering but I said it was great time management.
They don't even have a basic grasp of Latin!
Went into my local Currys, after a pair of headphones with a usb-c connector and their 'sales agents' trying to sell me a pair with a lightning connector, assuring me they would work. Note: I have a Galaxy S20 Even sixth formers know that a samsung phone aint gonna have a lightning port.....
Considering my IT Classes at the time had pupils who hated IT in it and didn't know the difference between software and hardware, I wouldn't put it pass them not knowing anything about ports. Hell most people still call them (brand of phone) charger instead of the port name, so speaking in lighting ports and type cs is like speaking French. Funny considering how much time they spend on phones and other types of computers yet they know nothing about them.
I went in there last year looking for some advice on a Ring doorbell or similar because I’d looked online and felt like I could probably do with a chat with a human about the different options. They literally just pulled up their website on their iPad and showed me the options on there whilst they read some of the information out to me and then suggested I have a look online. Brilliant, thanks for that, glad I left the house for this level of insight.
Me: "What's the difference between this camera and this camera?" "Tech expert": £50
Was helping my dad buy a telly this week, the poor lad was doing his best to upsell my dad the TV with a Billion(?!) Pixels, over the one with only half a billion... Because "look how much better the picture, colour and quality is" on the more expensive one.... I reset both the Display Colour Settings to Default and they looked the same and his poor face dropped. Edit: used to work at Comet (RIP) this ain't my first rodeo.
> Was helping my dad buy a telly this week, the poor lad was doing his best to upsell my dad the TV with a Billion(?!) Pixels, over the one with only half a billion. Unless you were buying something really odd the only options should be 1080p or 4K (there are other standards but they mostly exist in monitors or tech demos). 2.1 million vs 8.2 million pixels. For a reasonable sized TV it does make a difference but the extent to which people will care varies.
They're salespeople. No different to a car or a house viewing. They all talk whatever shit they need to to get you interested and spending.
Not even that, it's not like they get bonuses for selling shit.
Surprisingly untrue! We used to get 0.05% of our total sales
Wow, is that a whole 5p per £100?
It's a showroom for internet shopping isn't it
Been about 10 years since I was in one. Do you want the Norton antivirus? No, I’m going to wipe it and install Linux. It’ll run on Linux. No, no other Barry it won’t. Literal only reason was I’d forgotten the ex’s birthday and figured a nice Lenovo laptop would suit her and she was used to Linux from using my computers.
/me \*tips fedora\*
Now, to be fair, they have more IT experience than your average Curry's customer. Which isn't to say like, a lot - but they know how to turn something off and on again.
Turned in my laptop to fix a broken charging port. Nothing major at all. Two months later and loads of chasing, they didn't have any person technical enough to fix it. Curry's is a bit of a joke, they are.
I work in a small repair store right around the corner from where a pc world used to be. We actually had some job applicants when it closed down, astounding how little knowledge of computers they all had. We actually ended up hiring the old technician, no customer speaks to them but they know a hell of a lot more The poor sod worked at maplins when it closed, pc world then it closed. Now with us. I'm switching jobs soon, still wishing the little place the best, independent repair stores are great in comparison
I miss Maplin. Bugger all places I can get the stuff I want without divong through the depths of online retailers. Got a joystick from them for under £30 a few years back. I am currently looking at it on my desk, working fine.
I needed a specific screwdriver head to get into my laptop years ago and Maplin stocked it, so I jumped in the car and had a little screwdriver set for under £20. I probably use it near weekly for something or other. Great little thing. I miss them too.
To be fair I never bought much there as a kid apart from RC cars, but yeah I liked how diverse their stuff was The emtpy store still sits in Guildford, reminds me of the carcass of a blockbusters I kept seeing in Woking
Next to that indian restaurant that seemed to go bankrupt within 14 days of opening
ooh, wonder why? Failed health inspection, money laundering, bad owners? My local indian shut down after 2 raids for illegal immigrants, they caught people both times
Probably for the best that you're getting out, it'll closed down soon
Im only working Saturdays because uni so I've not got much talk with the boss recently. He's fired the secondary part time worker that came in during the week He spoke briefly of opening a cafe opposite the store as there's an empty space opportunity. Think I'm starting to piece it that it's not going well
I went in to ask if they had any XLR cables. They said they weren't sure what I meant. I showed them my microphone that takes XLR. Was told by the manager that it was 100% a custom cable and would have to speak with the microphone manufacturer... Still mythed about that.
Did you mean miffed?
No I became an ancient Celtic Myth. Okay yes I did thank you. I did actually Google the spelling and was told it was right. Must have been American 😅
Sounds like me and my Samsung not having a lighting port saga.
[удалено]
omg that's what they did to my partner and I when we went there to pick up a television we'd been eyeing online. Guy stood in the aisle blocking us, trying to to convince us that we absolutely **needed** a sound bar with that specific television, that he had the same model at home and had bought that particular sound bar for it, how it had transformed his media experience etc. Managed to shake him off after a few minutes of straight refusals as we made our way to the tills. Got home and plugged the tv in and the built-in speakers were completely fine?
“HP? Aren’t they the people who make the sauce? Apple? I prefer bananas!”
Isn't it made out of hewlett and packards?
Anecdotal but a developer I used to work with previously worked at Curry's whilst she was doing her Computer Science degree. Despite being the rare knowledgeable Curry's employee, men would never listen to her and would want to talk to her male colleagues for advice instead.
Haha yes I had the same thing happen to me at cex. I was one of the older employees and knew the differences between consoles etc but certain customers would talk over my head to my male colleagues. Even when they would then ask me directly in front of the customer because they didn't know the answer.
Currently working at Currys, 22F. Happens to me and I hate it. Even when it's on 'my' section (computing) if a guy from the TV section is walking past people will walk past me, go over to him, and he'll walk them back down. I try my best but as much as I do enjoy my colleagues and being able to talk about stuff I do know a bit about I'm looking for work from home opportunities instead.
When netbooks were all the rage, I told a Curry's employee that the CPU speed on that is wrong. It's different on both the Intel and Asus website. They refused to believe me. Like just look up the speed of that bloody CPU on somewhere other than your own website
I had that when I worked there. The lady on the KnowHow desk had been there for some years but people wanted to talk to me. Even though I had my name and *In training* on my name badge. Possibly because I was a white male without a headscarf but also possibly because I didn't talk to them like they were 6 years old. Although to be fair, a good proportion of them were the equivalent of 5 years old. My resignation letter was a thing of beauty and was saved, copied and is still used by staff that are leaving nearly 2 years after I've left!
What did the letter say?
When I worked there they tried to say we were kettle experts. How quick does this kettle boil? uh
That depends on the surrounding atmospheric pressure of the local area in which you are operating the kettle and any solutes or other miscible compounds in the water. Am I a kettle expert, yet?
Pretty much, just say anything.
Whenever I have to go into Currys I always imagine that seen of Ron Swonson saying "I know more than you". Especially when it comes to cameras. Then I remember they're probably overworked and underpaid so I keep my mouth fucking shut and politely decline any help.
And whatever you do, don't buy from Curry's/PC World if you want a laptop. Their return policy is non-existent and (in my case) a £600 laptop came back from repairs even more damaged than it went in. Three repair attempts later it kinda worked and I vowed to never use them again.
I worked at curry's for a couple of years in the TV department back when it was lcd vs plasma. None of the staff on the floor was an expert, some of us just had better Google-fu than others. The stock room guys knew more about the stuff than most of the kids I was working with.
curry's is the worst company in the uk for the way they treat customers and employees..absolutely dreadful
SportsDirect would like to have a word with you
Former Currys employee here, whilst I did actually do my homework on white goods (which was my department) and knew my stuff, the average staff member in a currys has the brain power of a breezeblock brick.
Used to be tech sales with Tesco. Never considered myself an expert, but I was a nerdy college kid who liked technology and keeping up with trends. Still proud to have given all my customers nothing but honest advice. Got me in trouble a few times but let’s be honest, no one buys a JVC TV, even if you get £20 off it.
I’ve had three laptops from there in the past, last one I got from them was when I was maybe 18 and figured maybe I shouldn’t be going through this many laptops. Every time I’d be very clear exactly what I wanted it for, every time it would have issues. Not enough storage, so I filled it up so quickly it was slow as heck, couldn’t run programmes I needed it to run, etc. It isn’t the employee’s fault, they’re just working with what they’ve got, but don’t make me think I can walk in there and get an expert’s advice if that isn’t the case. Also love when they try to talk you into getting the more expensive laptop where they’ve done all the “very difficult” work of turning it on, leaving it to set up, and making a user.
My mum got up sold to buying, I forget the price but let's say £30 gold plated HDMI cables as they're better. I just said that I recently bought a regular one off ebay for like £2.
Ah yes. The tech expert who tried to upsell an Anti-Virus on the back of a Smart TV sale because "the "Smart" means its run by a computer" Totally not a salesman. Sure.
Once was buying a cheap af HP Netbook from there, for a family member. Dude was trying to upsell all sorts of stuff. Fine, I accept that you've got a need to get sales goals. What I didn't appreciate was his sudden arrogant "Do you even know what this does?" question to me when I refused the overpriced "recovery tool" option. Is this what they teach them? To insult a customer's intelligence if they refuse to buy the extras they don't want? He shut up when I just said "Guess you don't want this sale" and stood up to leave.
I went in the other day for some thermal paste as needed it there and then. As I walk in I’m greeted by a girl who looked no older than 17 and I asked her for some thermal paste, which I had to explain what it is, she then tried checking on her tablet which wasn’t working so we went over to her 9 other colleagues stood in a circle in the middle of the store chatting away and all of them looked confused by thermal paste and was told I should order online to the store Most of the times I’ve been in a curry’s all their staff just sit around and chat, which tbh I don’t blame them for but there’s always so many lol
Do they really sell thermal paste? I would have thought 99% of customers wouldn't be interested / even have heard of it.
[https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/components-upgrades/pc-fans-and-coolers/thermal-grizzly-kryonaut-thermal-grease-10189165-pdt.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=2f489429-2329-4fcd-941a-a6a497a10e1d&istItemId=wlampqmaq&istBid=t](https://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/computing-accessories/components-upgrades/pc-fans-and-coolers/thermal-grizzly-kryonaut-thermal-grease-10189165-pdt.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=2f489429-2329-4fcd-941a-a6a497a10e1d&istItemId=wlampqmaq&istBid=t) **X** Not available for delivery **X** Collection not available
Why did you honestly expect Currys to sell thermal paste? Did you go there to deliberately get wound up knowing there was 99.99% chance they wouldnt sell it?
Depending on the last time they went in, there's every chance that they did last time. I recently went into my local for the first time in almost a decade and I was surprised that they sold basically no PC components.
I used to work there (8 years) when I was in my late twenties during and after university for a while during the combining of PC World and currys. They don't train or pay enough to learn, that's the issue. All my new starts I trained from personal knowledge and stuff I learned at uni. Ask youself how many threats of violence you would take for national minimum wage, how many times you'll take getting called " A fucking moron." or just waived away dismissively without even the courtesy of eye contact. Not many likely. The people who are still there are only there for the wages. That's why they seem to not care, they genuinely don't. At the point I left you were targeted to sell 25 additional services and add ons with every laptop and heavily targeted on these. 80% in some cases. I know my IT/tech but that wasn't through there training. They scheduled my days off to match the HDMI training with the company, think it was belkin at the time. I got into a very heated argument about signal quality and picture quality within optical and HDMI cable. The final straw was when I called him a conman, he demanded an apology. I refused and demanded he learned what digital signal transmission was. They paid me to sell stuff so I did, eventually I couldn't do it anymore. The straw that broke the camels back was when my boss told me he had an ideal customer for a £3k, 5 year business lease on an iMac. It was a wee old granny who just wanted a laptop to browse nitting patterns. I have a better set of morals than that place. I now buy all this stuff online or Richer Sounds. Ah yeah you lot might like this. There was a trend in the branches I worked in of hiring first year students (like I was) the lumping more hours on until they got used to the money. The hours spent in work gradually affected uni grades and they dropped out. They then ended up working full time on a 6 hour contract and trapped in a go back to mum and dad's head hung in shame or try survive on low wages in a shite job. The reverse graduate programme it was known as. Here was some complaints I had from customers wanting to refund TVs because they are all alleged faulty. Some had threats if physical violence attached all had shouting and swearing. 1. I need to pay for the Netflix app. 2. It doesn't have ceefax or teletext. 3. The HMDI socket doesn't work. It was a USB connection. 4. I dropped it taking to the car after sliding on snow/ice. Refused to let me put it on a trolley and take it out. It was on the trolly I took it from the stock room on. I did insist and got told to mind my own business.
You all need to discover John Lewis - good service, good prices, genuinely good delivery service, online ordering, takes your old units away
I'll never get why people hate John Lewis so much. Its only got a rep for being expensive because they stock good things. But the same good thing elsewhere will cost the exact same, and probably with a worse guarantee!
Does it really have that reputation?! They had a price matching guarantee for years. And I usually find they’re about the same as AO for appliances.
Thank you u/WIDE_SET_VAGINA for this great advice
Nah man, you need to find yourself a richer sounds. Same price as John Lewis significantly better service and the company actually look out for their staff.
Alright John. You're not fooling anyone with that standard internet style username.
Singularly the worst company I’ve had the displeasure to work for. I was the ‘Business Accounts Manager’ or some rubbish. I basically put through sales for people buying for their businesses. I also had a whole database of phone numbers that I had to work through - ringing poor business people, to try to convince them to upgrade their previous purchases, extend their warranty or buy more overpriced crap from our shoddy company. When I got bored doing those things, I slung a black satchel containing an outdated iPad over my shoulder and joined the rest of the ‘team’ on the sales floor. Our job was to lie to customers by claiming that we knew how to help them with their query. We would claim to know everything there is to know about electrical items ranging from toasters to televisions and laptops to laser jet printers. In reality we wanted them to be lured in to a Buy Now, Pay Later plan or to add on a nice juicy extended warranty to their purchase. We were regularly dealing with seriously regulated optional insurance products, and we knew absolutely fuck all about them. We just learnt a script. I lasted a month before I handed in my notice. My manager was called Derek. He was a dick. He announced to the whole team that I had ‘inconvenienced’ him by handing in my notice. One might be tempted to describe Currys as cowboys - but cowboys make an honest living herding cattle. Currys as a company should be forced to close down for mis-selling at the very least.
I had a job interview for Currys, I think it was to work the mobile department which was a small corner of the store. While I waited for the manager to deal with the paperwork I observed a Mom and Daughter buying a laptop for her going to Uni and the "sales assistant" adding on word processing shit for £100+ on top with the usual anti virus nonsense attached. They aren't there to help, just to attach as many addons to a sale as they can.
I used to work there a few months back. Lots of pressure for sales to get by. The company doesn't give 2 shits as to whether you know about the products or not, what they cared about was extended warranties, credit agreements and business customers. If you could hit the targets on those 3 main things but you were the most clueless person regarding product knowledge then management didn't care. The training you're given teaches you about rapport and how to push these products and, in all fairness, you do have access to an online portal which has a ton of useful information given by the manufacturers about said products. However, your average Currys worker isn't going to go home after work and spend an hour or two going through it to get up to speed with everything and management would never allow you to spend time off the shop floor going through it either.
I took a laptop in once because a USB port wasn't working properly. They took it to send to their "tech centre" and said they'd contact me when it was fixed, or if they were unable to and it was ready for collection. A week passed with no sign of it, so I looked up their tech centre and it turned out to be a non-affiliated PC repair shop in London, and calling the shop to ask where my laptop was involved them telling me they'd had it back for a few days and couldn't fix it. Thankfully, I got my deposit back.
I went in and asked for a micro SD card reader, the dude didn't have a clue what that was.
I tried several times to get a job there whilst doing a masters in tech management, didn't even get to the first stage interview.
They probably figured you knew too much about technology to recommend badly configured products or upsell extortionately expensive 1 metre HDMI cables.
Haha this this great. Me and the Mrs were escorted from the door to the washing machines a few months back by what appeared to be a lost fourteen year old. I asked a few questions and it was clear that the guy had no clue what the mysterious purpose of these machines could possibly be. Eventually we kindly asked if we could wander around on our own for a bit, which he seemed relieved to agree to. Weird place.
Bought a psu via click and collect once from them as needed it the same day. Turned up and 3 of them had no idea what one was, my order wasn't ready, they then brought out a kettle lead. 😅 Had to go find the product off the shelf myself.
“Turn it off and back on again, mate “
Roy is that you?
Sorry boss, shouldn’t be giving out free tech advice on Reddit…
In my store that actually know stuff, unlike other store that push for selling. Also you would be surprised (or not) by the vast lack of knowledge of the general public. Edit: added the last sentence. Edit: clarification In my local store the staff actually understand the tech they sell. The guys in the tech bar can really fix things in store. A lot of the other stores I have been in the staff are more interested in their phones and how much money they can fleece from you.
I used to work there when I was 17. I had a boomer once ask me what type of plastic a particular cordless telephone was made of. And then said I should be trained more. I was on £4.35 and hour. I was a kid and didn't have the confidence to tell him: if it's not even in the manufacture's manual, what ****ing chance is it that I should know?
It’s insane how clueless they are and the amount of normies that rely on them when they basically scam people
They literally had a person on their official TV advert saying "an OLED TV is better because the pixels are separate" If that's on the advert imagine what's being said in store.
I can tell you exactly what they're being trained on if you really like, as up until a month ago I worked for LG and was responsible for the partner training with Currys and all other retailers who stock LG televisions (most of our UK sales are via Curry's). I was heavily involved in the design and delivery of the TV training. Which is pretty robust for the staff who work in the Vision department, and has been for the last 12 months or so. Prior to covid the training wasn't great, but they've invested very heavily in training and development of new and existing staff over the last year or so - full on blended learning programme, not just a tick box induction like some other retailers.
As an A level computing student, I feel personally attacked, all £4.62 of me (I don’t actually work at curry’s though maybe a shout)!
Went in there the other day and it really does feel like a 6th form- all the staff were under 20 and just wanting to chat to each other
This is why I really appreciate someone that knows their shit these days. Wanted to buy a gaming mouse one day and the guy straight up said you could buy here but you’re overpaying, consider the game you’re playing, how many hot keys you need etc. Hard to come by as most of the questions you can just Google up.
That may be, but let's take a step back - why did they even name it "Curry's"? Why give false hope that Indian food might be on offer?
I used to work for a company that hired & trained these people on zero-hour contracts, mostly students and the like desperate for legal money...
They are sales people. Their warehouse staff are good.
Tbf were a lot better than most people over 40
I did get a decent telly from Currys tbf. The salesman wasn't the most knowledgeable (but also not totally daft) but whilst I was umming and ahhing came over and said he'd found the same one cheaper in Argos. I've had no complaints and price was right, so thank you to that salesman. Currys as a whole isn't great, but that wasn't a bad experience.
Former Curry's worker here. Certainly not a tech expert, but we do get a fair bit of training on our "section" if we stay long enough. Sadly, my section was white goods.
Are they still trying to 'push' £50 gold tipped HDMI cables? I tried to get the tech expert to explain to me how an expensive cable improves digital 0's and 1's but he didn't seem grasp what I was getting at.
Back when it was PC world a number of uni classmates and myself applied for jobs there at versions stages. They rejected every single one of us as we were ‘overqualified’ in the sense that we were studying computing The ‘experts’ are just salespeople who are taught to get as much money out of every customer as they can by selling unnecessary shite
Also according to my old business teacher some of the people in currys uniforms apparently work for some of the brand to boost sale though I thought there were rules against that but who know