Currys - they had me worried !! (Or a tale of chaos !!) (Currys)

Member Name: IainCmartin

Product:	Currys
Date:	10/10/01 (165 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: I got the TV at last !!

Disadvantages: Chaos, Lack of stock, Poor communication

I like a scam and a freebie, in fact, I like them so much that I collected enough vouchers to buy a new TV from 'Currys No Worries' !!

Lets skip how I got them, save to say that both Dooyoo and ipoints played starring roles, but I went to Currys with £145 of vouchers burning a hole in my pocket.

OK, so what was I going to get ?

Well, I had my eye on a £150, 21" Matsui, Nicam Stereo TV - seemed good to me, but even better, at Stockport they had one for only £65 !!

So what was the catch ? Well there was no remote control !! So, add in an 'All-In-One' remote for £19 and I was all set. Wrong actually !!

I handed over my money (ok, my vouchers), they were rung through the till andi awaited my TV. It arrived at checkout, with no box and with some very obvious cosmetic damage. Even with the discount, I wasn't having that. I had been told that apart from the missing remote it was in perfect condition.

So,first hurdle and we had tripped, so I told them I wouldn't accept the TV and wanted my vouchers refunded.

Second hurdle - they wanted to give me a credit note, but they weren't sure if I could use it in other stores !! So, I took it and spent it on buying gift vouchers to replace the ones I had just spent.

Third hurdle - they didn't have any gift vouchers, but they COULD and WOULD print them on the gift voucher envelopes - this had Head Office approval I was told !!

Ok, off I went to Ashton, gift vouchers again burning a hole in my pocket. The TV I desired wasn't in stock, OK, I would order one. No problem to order one, they took my details and my vouchers and set to work.

Now then, I had been given a credit note, and had purchased multiple vouchers with it. The process had been as follows, take the credit note, deduct a gift voucher purchase leaving a new credit note and a printed gift voucher. This was done until the credit note was exhausted.


So, I explained this to the staff at Ashton. However, their first step was to throw the envelopes in the bin !!
"No !! These are my gift vouchers" I told them.
"Don't worry, we'll process the details from the receipts that were inside" was the answer.

Fair enough, the order was taken and i left a happy man, all set to receive my TV the following week.

2 days later and a message was left on my answer phone !! There was a problem with my vouchers !! The internal fraud checks at Currys had reported a series of credit notes being used twice - MINE !!

The branch told me that I hadn't produced proper vouchers and I would need to bring in proper vouchers or cash or I couldn't have my TV !! I asked them to telephone Stockport, but they said it was for me to sort out !!

So, off I went to Stockport who kindly phoned Ashton and explained about the vouchers being printed on the envelopes with Head Office approval.

"Oh, we threw those away" they were told.

Off I went to Ashton to see the manager for some sort of explanation. He was, unsurprisingly, unavailable. It turned out that instead of processing my gift vouchers, they had REPROCESSED the credit note numbers that I had used to buy the gift vouchers and now had neither the gift vouchers (in the bin) or their details !!

I left the branch with the promise that the manager would telephone me later to smooth things over.

Later on, I spoke to the manager. I was to get £15 of free goods (10 % of my purchase) for the trouble, and my TV would arrive on Monday.

The end ?

Not quite !!

Monday came, I telephoned the branch, "Everything is here but your TV, sorry". Worse, "We don't know when and if your TV will come in !!"

I was, by now extremely fed up and angry !!

But, I had a solution, there was an alternative TV, £170, Samsung, 21&q
uot; Nicam Stereo, take the £150 I had paid, the £15 I had been given to spend, and if the branch would discount it by £5 I would accept that. They confered with the manager and a few minutes later I was told, yes they would do that and I could have the TV by Thursday.

So, at last I had a TV and my vouchers were spent, but not without a stressful experience at the hands of 'Currys No Worries" - a lesson I will carry with me for a long time !!

An assistant

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