PC World: Not good! (PC World)

Member Name: polydeuces

Product:	PC World
Date:	12/06/08 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: k

Disadvantages: k

When PC World first started they were the first in the market to combine computer products and the warehouse concept together on the high street. The market has moved on now and PC World have recently bought their major competitors - Byte. PC World are now probably the only PC retailer which has PC's, equipment, games, and peripherals all together and their competition now comes from PC suppliers like Time, Tiny etc, shops which sell software like Game, Virgin, HMV etc and the stationery suppliers like Office World and Staples.

PC World does come in for a lot of criticism on pricing and some of this is clearly justified. However in their defence PC World does carry more stock and choice than many of their competitors and this does lead to higher costs. Computer products do also have notoriously short shelf lives and this too can be problematic. Selling the appropriate specification CD-R,CD-RW,CD-ROM at the right price at the right time is a lot harder than selling baked beans or Mars bars.
Similar positions occur in peripherals like printers. Again there is far more choice but prices tend to be a little higher than other places.

For software I would not normally buy games from PC World. The choice is no better than the media shops like HMV or Virgin and they tend to be £5 per game dearer at PC World. For educational software though PC World has the best choice and no offline shop can compete for choice.
In its advertising PC World makes great claims for its assistance. This is not as good as it claims and many PC related problems have to be left with them. They are no cheaper and no better than many of the one-man PC repair businesses you see in the towns nowadays.

PC World is generally good but could be cheaper. They are to computers what Homebase is to DIY, everything might be under one roof but do you want everything at once?

Summary: k