PC World faulty items returns policy.

Just so you are aware. I used to buy regularly in PC World Swords for my other half. I wouldn't be as PC literate as my other half who is in to upgrading every 6 months or so. Last Christmas I was buying a complete new motherboard, processor, ram etc for a gift for other half.

Only when I was there I discovered that the new stuff would not 'fit' the graphics card which I had only bought about a month prior to that in the same place. I explained this to the sales person/technician. His response was, 'Has it been used?' to which I said 'Yes'. He went on to say, 'well if you bring it back in a saleable condition, we can give you back the full price paid, less 10%'.

So basically it boils down to - they take trade-ins and resell them. If you buy any of these items, they are not in sealed bags as such, just a plasticy type bag inside a box.

I will not shop there again as how am I guaranteed I am not buying second-hand goods which could be 'well used'.

G
 
Firstly, gotsomenow, never buy pc worlds components, not for the obvious reasons that are mentioned above, but basically because they are over priced and out dated, there are a great many places where these items can be sourced cheaper online. If you need any pointers I, (and i'm sure all the people here) will gladly give you any help you need.

My story, first I've had dealings with the Dixon group before and when it comes to returns they are the worst, like the OP I should have known better.

I live and work in Dublin and my aunt asked me to buy a pc for her family for christmas, (joys of being an IT graduate) I chose to buy it from the PC World website for two reasons:
1. There is a PC World beside her so if anything went wrong she could go there, I'm not home too often and honestly get sick to my teeth having to fix pc's for everyone who knows my name when I get home.
2. It was actually good value!
I ordered it in mid Oct (lots of time for christmas right?) well the cash was charged to my credit card rapidly but by the end of November there was still no sign of the pc, a full month after it was due to arrive, PC World where not answering my phone calls, the one in Blanchardstown is the only store that can handle online sales......I asked my aunt to ring them from her home phone and they answered quickly. She didn't really know what to ask so we didn't get any really answers, we weren't expecting them to answer seeing as they weren't answering to me, I never thought a company that large would screen calls.
In a fury I drove over to PC World in Blanchards town and immediately asked to see the manager, I let him know in no uncertain terms that I was not happy and that I knew they where screening my calls. He denied this, so I asked him if he had his mobile on him, he did so I asked him (while we stood in the middle of the store) if I rang would anyone answer and if they did not answer in a reasonable amount of time if he would then ring the same number from his phone to see if they'd answer it. He sheepishly said that would not be necessary, all but admitting I was right. He assured me that the pc had been specially shipped from England, I asked for the tracking numbers. It emerged that they had been shipped the previous day (from blanch) they arrived at my aunts house later that week. But they had delivered a CRT monitor not the flat screen I had ordered.

I was furious, I picked up the entire pc and brought it into blanch, plonked it down in the middle of the floor and demanded that they sort it there and then or give me my money back. They spluttered around, firstly denying that the pc I bought came with an LCD, I asked them to check it online to back up my claim but they had no internet access to check the offer online (believe that if you will) when I showed them a print out of the web page (I'm a quick learner :) and made sure I went in prepaired) listing the offer they changed their tack.
They final got me a 17" LCD, I asked it I could see it working before I left the store, they said they had no where to plug it in! I pointed at the PC displayed 2 ft away from us and asked how about there? I plugged it in and found it was littered with dead pixels so I asked for another one, after a lot of rolled eyes and huffing they got me one which turned out to be good.

I haven't stepped back in there since.

You need to be really firm with them, not agressive or shouting obviously, but let them know that you know your rights (dates and names of laws scare the crap out of them) and what you are talking about technically.

Good Luck OP, but personally I wouldn't go to the S.C.C. just yet, go back in there and don't take no for an answer.
 
I've also had a bad experience with this company.
I went to the Sandyford store to buy an ISDN modem a few years ago.
I found one but was unsure whether it was compatible with Windows ME so I asked one of their "experts" who confirmed it was. After about an hour of searching for drivers and trying to install it I rang a helpline number on the box to be told it didn't work with Windows ME. When I brought it back to PC World to explain what happened they said "no problem", of course I could have a refund minus a 30% restocking charge.
It took 10 minutes of facing the cashier and his manager down and quite a bit of ranting about the Sale of Goods Act to get my money back.
Not a pleasant experience!
 
Just to update you all on this, I do now have a working keyboard and mouse but I can only say anyone even considering dealing with these people will do so at their peril. They include PC World, Dixons and Curries in the same group so be wary of any of these.

I ended up ringing them two days in a row until I finally got another manager who was aware of the situation. After having asserting to him that the items I had returned were the ones they sold me he finally agreed to replace the keyboard with a new one but only very very reluctantly. The implication was that I was swapping a broken keyboard in to them. Obviously I'm not too pleased at being accused of such and never had this problem before.

To recap on this, they claimed that the serial on the keyboard did not match the box. In which case they must have sold me a broken keyboard.

They also claimed the keyboard had been opened up when it had not. I checked this keyboard against two other keyboards which were the EXACT same (the reason I got this keyboard in the first place is that its a good one) and noticed that they also would have looked to be opened up at some point based on their criteria.

They claimed that as the screws on the keyboard were slightly off centre someone had opened them. On the other two keyboards the same off-centre screws were in evidence also.

They told me they had to follow procedures and call head office to check if they could replace the keyboard or not.

So as far as I can see they blatantly lied to me either through ignorance or quite deliberately. I had to badger them into replacing a faulty keyboard which was all of a week old.

I did ask them to test the new keyboard before I left (and was going to tell them to check the serial against the box) but was told that would incur a charge so I left it at that.

God help anyone buying anything more expensive from them! I'm sorry to hear of your misfortune. I knew how bad they were for pcs and I would never have bought a PC from them but I thought I was safe enough with a keyboard. Lesson learned in my case. I will stick to building my own with parts from the likes of komplett (never a problem with returns) and Peats for the future.

Thanks for your suggestions and help in general.
 
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