GAME... are they one of the worst retailers in the UK? Probably not. Sadly.

camf

Honestly, I'm not a gamer but just wanted to buy a gift for someone. I thought I'd try and avoid Amazon and support the little guy. What a waste of time. Didn't get my gift, can't get into an account to cancel the order and can't even get a verification code sent through. I'll be fine and I'll get my money back but I feel really sorry for any young kids being ripped off for their pocket money or gift tokens by grasping companies that seem to go out of there way to make if difficult for users. It's not hard to see why Amazon are wiping the floor with companies like these.  

skunkwerx

Havent bought anything from them in years, but I think Mike Ashley has something to do with Game now too.. so no surprise its gone to shit. 

camf

Ah. That would explain it. 

jellyroll

Nah. Evans Cycles. Three times I walked into my local branch. Three times I was ignored, walked out and bought three bikes from another store down the road. 

Strat_a_tat_tat

jellyroll said:

Nah. Evans Cycles. 

Errr... one more company owned by Frasers Group (which used to be called Sports Direct).... so, again, we invite a certain Mr Mike Ashley to step forward and take a bow.

boogieman

jellyroll said:

Nah. Evans Cycles. Three times I walked into my local branch. Three times I was ignored, walked out and bought three bikes from another store down the road. 

Similar here, although I’m a fat bloke so I assume that’s why they ignored me in favour of chatting to their whippet-like mate about gear cartridges and the like. I did eventually get served though. 

camf

Wow, Ashley seems to have mastered making retail suck. Thankfully he hasn’t extended his appalling influence into other areas... 

FarleyUK

20 odd years ago, I worked for GAME. They were absolute shit then, and I can only imagine things have got worse.

I also did some IT work for them around 8 years ago at their head office. Unsurprisingly, nobody there had a clue what they were doing, or what their audience wanted. It was basically "Buy any old cheap tat in, mark it up, and the masses will buy it".

LooseMoose

Currys / PC World.

Abhorrent sales practises, I’ll-informed staff and ‘because COVID’ apparently means hour long wait times for ‘customer service’ a year later, is somehow acceptable?

Total shower of sh*t that won’t be missed by the consumer when it eventually goes bust. 

camf

The UK consumer does seem to have to tolorate shite customer service. But it never seems to change, does it?

skunkwerx

LooseMoose said:

Currys / PC World.

Abhorrent sales practises, I’ll-informed staff and ‘because COVID’ apparently means hour long wait times for ‘customer service’ a year later, is somehow acceptable?

Total shower of sh*t that won’t be missed by the consumer when it eventually goes bust. 

About 7 years ago I went into my local one to buy a laptop. 

Found the thing on display, checked the specs on its display spiel, said it had an nvidia graphics card and a backlit keyboard among other things.  

Checked Currys website to make sure its full spec was what I wanted, and it was. Currys website also had it listed as having a backlit keyboard and an nvidia graphics card. 

So I bought it, get home and it doesnt have a dedicated graphics card at all, and doesnt have a backlit keyboard either. 

Went back to the store, spoke to the till people, explained the issue, showed them the adverts they are using for the product on their website and the display card in store incorrectly advertising what spec it has, and I asked for a refund. 

No they said. Its not faulty and its been opened. 

So I asked for the manager. 

Honestly, this real young guy who  looked about 19-20 appeared, and basically said no as well.

I said look, this was not as described so are all of this model the same or have I got a lemon?
 

He said that this model just did not come with a dedicated graphics card and backlit keyboard. 

I said ok so its incorrectly advertised/not as described so I’ll have a refund. 

He said no because its been opened and its not faulty and therefore not their policy. 

I was actually pissed. I asked him to explain how that was legal under my statutory rights and the consumer rights act, which supersedes Currys store policy, being y’kno the law and all. 

I said legally I have the right to return this as faulty because its breached one of the consumer rights act rules being ‘not as described’. 

I said, you’re obliged to give me either a replacement, repair or refund. 

You cant replace it unless you give me a different model with those specs. You cant repair ot unless you can install a graphics card and backlit keyboard.. so you’re going to have to refund. 

The guy clearly had never heard of these laws and started stuttering away ‘no, our policy says this’ etc etc and backing off as if slipping away from the conversation, which he then did. 

Bod

I know that overall their villians, but it's the reason so many people use Amazon - they have their customer service nailed in my experience.

boogieman

Amazon have got worse since Covid, although they were definitely a victim of their own success even before that. I’d say about a third of the things I order as a prime member don’t arrive the next day as they used to promise. A lot of stuff is “fulfilled by Amazon” now too rather than sent direct, although that’s not always clear until you get to the delivery page and discover it’s coming from China.

I had a delivery scheduled for yesterday. The delivery tracking on Amazon showed a problem with “DHL being unable to find my address, please contact DHL”. Errr, the delivery is your issue not mine.  It turned up later anyway, via Parcelforce! 

Bod

I've had no problems here, and can even get same-day on some items as promised.  I am close to two distribution centres though so that might be why.

Sassafras

Now I'm feeling marginalised, I've normally had fairly satisfactory dealings with retailers.
Which is unfortunate for someone who loves a good angry whinge.

dano

camf said:

Wow, Ashley seems to have mastered making retail suck. Thankfully he hasn’t extended his appalling influence into other areas... 

Luckily he hasn't got into the Sex Industry and brothels as he'd make them suck... oh wait that's the idea

MattBanshee

"Support the little guy"

Buys from Mike Ashley, the biggest nasty c*nt in the whole retail industry.

MattBanshee

skunkwerx said:

LooseMoose said:

Currys / PC World.

Abhorrent sales practises, I’ll-informed staff and ‘because COVID’ apparently means hour long wait times for ‘customer service’ a year later, is somehow acceptable?

Total shower of sh*t that won’t be missed by the consumer when it eventually goes bust. 

About 7 years ago I went into my local one to buy a laptop. 

Found the thing on display, checked the specs on its display spiel, said it had an nvidia graphics card and a backlit keyboard among other things.  

Checked Currys website to make sure its full spec was what I wanted, and it was. Currys website also had it listed as having a backlit keyboard and an nvidia graphics card. 

So I bought it, get home and it doesnt have a dedicated graphics card at all, and doesnt have a backlit keyboard either. 

Went back to the store, spoke to the till people, explained the issue, showed them the adverts they are using for the product on their website and the display card in store incorrectly advertising what spec it has, and I asked for a refund. 

No they said. Its not faulty and its been opened. 

So I asked for the manager. 

Honestly, this real young guy who  looked about 19-20 appeared, and basically said no as well.

I said look, this was not as described so are all of this model the same or have I got a lemon?
 

He said that this model just did not come with a dedicated graphics card and backlit keyboard. 

I said ok so its incorrectly advertised/not as described so I’ll have a refund. 

He said no because its been opened and its not faulty and therefore not their policy. 

I was actually pissed. I asked him to explain how that was legal under my statutory rights and the consumer rights act, which supersedes Currys store policy, being y’kno the law and all. 

I said legally I have the right to return this as faulty because its breached one of the consumer rights act rules being ‘not as described’. 

I said, you’re obliged to give me either a replacement, repair or refund. 

You cant replace it unless you give me a different model with those specs. You cant repair ot unless you can install a graphics card and backlit keyboard.. so you’re going to have to refund. 

The guy clearly had never heard of these laws and started stuttering away ‘no, our policy says this’ etc etc and backing off as if slipping away from the conversation, which he then did. 

Not all Nvidia laptop graphics cards are dedicated. A lot are integrated.

Axe_meister

The problem big retail is generally run by an old guard who are so stuck in their ways they did not see or acknowledge the threat from the internet.
They were successful because they were ruthless when it came to profit margins and efficiency, hence staff training was never a priority. These old time arrogant and quite nasty characters are now falling on their swords.
I do a lot of work in the retail sector, it's amazing when chatting to upper management, when you hear.
"Amazon are becoming a threat, we need to improve in store efficiency and reduce costs by double digits to survive"
I often have to hold back from saying. "They have been taking your business for years and your stores are so crap I never want to set foot in one again. Moving your systems to cloud to save costs ain't gonna help you survive."

camf

MattBanshee said:

"Support the little guy"

Buys from Mike Ashley, the biggest nasty c*nt in the whole retail industry.

Yep. Unfortunately, I sometimes forget to properly research all the retailers I buy from. It’s a unforgivable failing. Had I known...

skunkwerx

MattBanshee said:

"Support the little guy"

Buys from Mike Ashley, the biggest nasty c*nt in the whole retail industry.

I’ve renamed my bumhole Mike Ashley, because it’s tight and full of shit.