Argos it? (Argos)

Member Name: laurabella

Product:	Argos
Date:	23/05/08 (120 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nice range and good prices, friendly staff

Disadvantages: Having to queue twice, not being able to get a cash refund

I have a confession to make. I absolutely love looking through the Argos catalogue, to the point where I can't wait for the newest one to come out so I can rush into town and take one home, then proceed to go through highlighting every single thing I like in the catalogue, I'm just a big kid, and very, very sad, I get that. However, when it comes to actually shopping at Argos it's a whole different matter, I hate it with a passion!

The basic idea of Argos is that rather than looking at the actual items in a shop, you look in the catalogue, either at home or in the store. You can check whether the item is in stock or not at the computerised displays that are by the in-store catalogues. You then write down the item numbers on a little slip of paper and take it to the checkouts where you pay for your item. Once you've paid you are given a collection point number/letter, where you can collect your items from.

What this means in reality is that you have to queue up twice, and potentially wait twice as long to get your item as you would do in a normal shop. I absolutely hate queuing as it is, so why some genius decided that making people queue twice was the way forward, I'll never know!

The good thing about Argos is that the prices are generally really good, and they often have some really nice products which are exclusive to them so you can't buy them anywhere else. They stock everything from furniture, garden items and electricals, to beauty, jewellery and toys. They do have a nice range, and there's never a catalogue comes out that doesn't have loads of stuff that I'd want to buy in it. If only I was rich eh?

My local store has a few electricals on display, like TV's and cd players, and a jewellery counter where you can ask to look at anything before deciding whether to purchase it, but for most items you just have to hope that it's as good as it looks in the catalogue because you can't look at it in the flesh until you've paid for it. Some of the items are quite poor quality but you can not tell this from looking at the picture in the catalogue, though in fairness to them that's no different than buying from any mail order company or online.

Another problem I've encountered is that when returning items, even when they're faulty, they refuse to give cash refunds, insisting instead that you can only have the money back in Argos vouchers, or a replacement product. I'm not sure if this is the same in every store, but I find this very annoying and highly unfair. If they've supplied me with a faulty product they should refund me in whatever way I choose, and I should not be bound to buying more products from them.

After reading this far you may think I have nothing good to say about them, but actually I do. I have always found their staff to be friendly and helpful within the constraints of what they're 'allowed' to do. The stores always seem clean and tidy, and they very nearly always have what I want in stock.

All in all, I think Argos is a good place to find some nice items at good prices, but I think from now on I'll be buying from their website rather than spending all day standing in queues in their stores!

Summary: Love the catalouge, hate the stores!