Their TV ads are for three hundred, four hundred and five hundred pound laptops. I didn’t want one of those notebooks, that’s the value of the 2008 model I’m working on now and it doesn’t have the RAM, the desktop resolution, the LED display nor the quadcore processor amongst other little bonuses. That’s why I paid £800 for a £1000 laptop, that’s why I went to PC World. After all, what’s the worst that could happen?
First up, the 3 key at the top row of my keyboard failed.
Then the power was intermittent: I traced it to a dodgy cable in the power pack.
So I took the laptop in, on the 23rd June 2011, just a few days before the manufacturer’s 12 month warranty ran out. It was to be picked up by a courier and taken to Knowhow, the repair arm of PC World/Dixons. They were once called “The Tech Guys” but now they’re called Knowhow. Are they not tech guys any more?
It came back some 10 days later with a mysterious mark across the screen. PC World said they’d rectify that for me and so, my #1 laptop went away for another 10 days.
On Friday 15th July I was called to be informed that my laptop had landed in Farnborough for the second time, 22 days after I’d originally sent it away.
I got back to the office, opened the laptop, plugged in the brand new AC adaptor and revelled in having my business computer back in my posession.
After half an hour I decided to run a process on the laptop and a nag box popped up saying Win 7 couldn’t comply since the notebook was running on battery. No it wasn’t – I’d plugged it in to the mains. I checked the extension gang – Light on. Check. I checked the AC adaptor – All connections positive. Check. AC adaptor into laptop… wobbly, VERY wobbly. That wasn’t how the machine had gone out. Now it wouldn’t charge.
I was absolutely livid to say the least – More than 3 weeks away for a keyboard and power pack, an additional scratch/mark on the screen and now, whilst they’d replaced the power pack, they’d somehow buggered up the AC in on the laptop.
I was so angry and also so busy that I left the issue for the weekend.
After 4 days of contemplation I have come to the following conclusion:
PC World, Knowhow and parent company DSG Retail are really poor businesses in my experience. I don’t know how they make money when they offer such poor customer service as this. All I’ve heard are negative comments about this lot, nobody has said a single supportive word about PC World and, by immediate association, its Knowhow brand.
I still need to work out my next moves, including a snotty letter to the CEO of DSG Retail, informing him of the poor perception I and many others have of his business. I still need to get my notebook fixed as my business is suffering too. But ultimately I have decided in the middle of all this, that I am going to go Apple next year.
Wish me luck…
Knowhow should be refered to as know nothing. I actually saw the know nothing guy wondering round the shop with the bare carcase of some poor punters laptop. A wonder he didn’t drop it and let another bemused mark step on it. I can’t spell, but I don’t pretend I can. There Sony expert couldn’t find the USB port, after two hrs still could not connect to the net. Don’t buy anything from these swine, and for Gods sack don’t expect them to repair it.