PC World's adventure shopping experience

When you buy something in a shop what do you expect?

If I've picked it up from a normal full-price display, I expect a brand new item with everything included, priced as advertised.
Apparently this is not what you should expect at PC World.

Nope, according to PC World, in Kensington High Street, you can possibly expect items that have been returned to the shop and items with crucial parts missing, and it is up to the customer to discover these hidden amid normal full-price items and then ask for some money off.

This daredevil attempt to turn traditional shopping on its head came to light when I went into the nearby PC World to buy a wireless router for my broadband connection.

To be honest, I knew I shouldn't go into PC World. Mainly because it has a weird guard tower style arrangement, where a man sits up on a pedestal with his back to the doors watching each criminal...sorry customer...as they walk round the store.

But I've been meaning to sort out wireless internet for ages and it was convenient, so I went in.

I found the display, chose my router and took it to the till, where the cashier tried to scan the barcode. It didn't work, so he continued trying to scan it repeatedly for about three minutes.
Eventually, I said: 'Shall I go get another one from the shelf?'.
He nodded in agreement and at this point I noticed there was a new barcode label stuck over the original on the box. Helpfully, he said: 'Maybe this one doesn't work because it's been returned.'
I said: 'What do you mean returned?'
Pointing casually at the new label, he said: 'Maybe someone brought it back, they didn't want it or something.'

So, I went and picked up another box and then realised it also had a new label stuck on. Written on this one in tiny letters in biro was 'power cable missing'. I chose yet another and helpfully took the 'power cable missing' box back to the till, where I said it had probably been put on the shelf by mistake.

It was only now that PC World's brave new shopping world was revealed. It wasn't a mistake - it was meant to be there. A customer could find it and ask for some money off. Being a bit slow, I questioned this, saying surely you can't just put it on the shelf with all the other full-price items, hoping a customer notices? Wrong again. The cashier kindly explained this was a shop and they could do what they like.

At this point a supervisor ambled over and - still being a bit slow - I explained the problem. Luckily, he set me straight and explained the cashier was correct.
I left without buying anything.

So, if you're into adventure shopping with guard towers, lucky dip purchases and the possibility of discovering vital bits of kit missing, I can recommend PC World on Kensington High Street - and maybe elsewhere in the UK. Otherwise, perhaps it's best to give it a miss.

- Simon Lambert, This is Money

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Comments

[Xave]

Hi,

I've had so many bad experiences with PC World , I don't even know where to start. I have now decided to boycott PC World and other brands of the same group. Their tactic is not to put any price tags on some of the products they sell... and when you ask for the price, they tell you to ask the cashier.

Right, so I take the 5 laptop bags with me, wait 10mn in the line, to get the price, I asked the supervisor. His answer was to tell to do what I wanted. Then I told him that surely the law required them to put price tags. At this point the supervisor started to yell at me. I left the shop never to come back again.

[Brian]

To be fair the retsurned items will have a return label on the box and one can request some money of the purchase price, usually 10%.

All new items will not have this return/exchange label on it.

To be honest a lot of consumers do not know what they are buying and buy a item and then return the item after opening the packaging.

[Kay the PC doctor]

I am surprized that this happened. You can usually tell when an item is returned, its missing the shrink wrapping, but even this is not an accurate guide to whether its returned. As far I know Argos do not sell items that have been returned. These are usually returned to the manufacturer and then resold in third party channels such as Ebay or even exported to other countries.

In any case, I am surprized folks are choosing to buy online where this type of sale would be illegal