| Product: |
PC World |
| Date: |
04/05/06 (1382 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: None
Disadvantages: Staff undervalued. Underpaid. Overworked.
As a current employee of DSG Ireland (Pc World, Dixons, Currys) I would like to give a detailed account of PC world from the inside.
From reading the numerous reviews, I notice that people seem dissatisfied with several things Poor customer service, Staff having little or no knowledge PC knowledge, Atrocious afer-sales service. The stoe is spit into various teams Support (cashiers x 2, customer service x 0, technicians x2 and warehouse staff x4, admin x1) Sales (well... salespeople! x16) and Managers x3.
We have four tills, 1 full time cashier and 1 part time- as we have no customer service, 1 cashier is expected to work on customer service, leaving us with with, yes 1 cashier most of the time- hadling up to 300 customers a day- thats 33 hour 1~ every 2 minutes- critically understaffed.
The support staff: In Ireland minimum wage is €7.65. Cashiers earn €7.75 an hour, customer service ~€9, techies €~12 and senior admin ~€12 in PC world. In my average day I handle up to €20,000 cash, deal with customer complaints, offer technical support to customers, handle customer service, handle cash and paper administration, rectify any mistakes made by cashiers, customers service (and espicially sales people) on Eclipse (our computerised till system). All for 1.29% (7.75) above minimum wage. Scandalous. I am not a sales person so do not recieve a cent of commission. I consistently perform at a competant and able level. Why? I wish to move onto greater things and am building up experience, reference etc. But what about my colleagues? How can they be expected to put a smile on? A pay rise is unheard of- I do not blame my co-workers at all for offering poor customer service- what motivation are they given in the first place? In fact if i packed shelves in Superquinn, I'd be €8.50 an hour now.... In appreciation was shown, acknoledgement of my work, the extra (UNPAID) hours I put in, the lunches I don't take because its too busy, I'd be happy. But that is not the case. I have been given plenty of resposibiity and no pay rise, no recognition, no appreciation. Nothing. I fee underpaid, undervalued, underappreciated and I will leave- this is THE feeling amongst 80% of our support staff.
Sales staff: Clueless about computers. Clueless. they know enough to sell them and prey on the unwary. I would strongly recommend not buying "PC Performance" many a time I have seen tears- they push and push and push- and yes they recieve the same commission on this as they do on every other product... but wait.. PC performance is pure profit, so yes they make more and are under serious pressure to sell it. As you can see from our roster, sales takes priority every time, NOT customer service.
At these rates of pay- PC world cannot attract staff with competant PC knowledge or customer service experience. Or retain staff either- this is the root of all the compaints insofar as I see, disilusioned staff are hardly going to put themselves out there for customers.
In regard to the returns policy- it is one thing I support. 70%+ of our returns are NOT faulty, and have to be sold at a discount. Why? Because customers didn't ask, research or look into the piece of complicated and sophisticated computer hardware they were buying. I can't set it up. Can I have my money back. The equivalent of me buying a car, saying I can't drive and going "where's my money eh?". Not to mention people who think that because they bought a PC, they are entitled to lessons in how to use MS word. I don't ask my car dealership for driving lessons. 'Nuff said.
PC world is streamlined to inefficiency- instead of hiring somebody quaified to staff customer service, the job is usually handle by a cashier, being paid a cashier's wage- somebody who has to handle constant abuse and irrate customers. In the last eight months, of the original 30 staff when I joined, only 5 are still here. Anybody with real ambition, knowledge or competancy has moved on. I guess throught this long winded rant, I'm trying to say:
Don't blame the staff. We are treated and paid very poorly- blame the corporate agenda of DSG. I would beseech you all not to shop in DSG's outlets.
Summary: Insider's Opinion.
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Last comments:
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- 20/08/06 Weetoon: Unions are actively discouraged when you work for DSG. If they find out you are in one, they make your life hell so you hand in your notice. A whole lot of staff went on strike in a Currys once, they were just all sacked and new staff got hired.
And from the looks of DSG Ireland, it's just as bad as DSG Anywhere on the Globe. The staff, albeit SHOULD be a lot more evenly balanced is still sales oriented. This is despite all these drives and certain other sockpuppets of the Managing Directors on this site. The support staff are left picking up the pieces when the sales staff are finished with a customer.
It is our job to send them away with a fond farewell after a good days giving us money. Fair enough, I tell folk to enjoy their PC, any problems don't launch it at my head.
Also, I like your mention of the almighty ECLIPSE system. This is a 'new' system to replace the decrepit old retail system EVERY DSG store had since the friggin late 70s. No shit. We only upgraded to Windows based systems two years ago. Beforehand it looked like MS-DOS's retarded cousin. Asides from the aesthetic upgrades, your 'new' till system has all new 'crash in the middle of a busy day' technology so oyu have to resort to pen and paper transations. This renders your innocuous nipping in for a toner cartridge spiral into half an hour on the phone to authorise your credit card. Also, the idea was to integrate new services easily into the new tills.
To book a healthcheck, the old way. You had two progams: the till one for the money changing hands, and the booking one for taking in the machine. Kinda slow, because of the command prompt interface (mostly) but it got the job done. Time taken: 5 mins.
Now: We have to log into three separate web based pages to take in a machine for healthcheck, one for the diary, one for healthcheck program's automation process and one more to confirm receipt details. Plus afterwards we log into the almighty ECLIPSE and then 'book' the machine in. Touch screen interface proves useless unless you have a really pointy and precice fingertip. Slower than a week in the jail. Time Taken: 20 mins
As per the staff comments - too damn accurate. And it turns out the customer service call centre that PC World UK has (i cannot comment for ireland) the highest turnaround in staff, rivaling those in the stores. At this rate the entire population of Sheffield has been used up for the centre.
Yes I said Sheffield, that is where the centre is based. The next person to ask if it's in India is just damn racist, and read too much Daily Mail newspapers.
Mr Insider, I applaud you on your honesty. And your tale makes me feel better knowing I'm not alone in thinking the company is BS. |
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- 23/07/06 Thank you for being honest. But I do suggest you sent this link or a copy of your review to those who will make differences, such as DSG's shareholders, chairmen, CE, etc, as well as those who deal with working conditions or employee rights. It might or might not be helpful but you don't know until you try. |
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- 04/05/06 Finally-a Very Useful 1st review |
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