PC World

PC World/Curry’s is always top of my list when purchasing electronics. Personally speaking over the years I’ve always found far better value for money here than anywhere else and for me that’s what counts.
The staff are fine, the usual mix you find in these places. Some are knowledgeable, some are pretty clueless and others are just playing Hide n’ Seek with the customers! I would’nt rely on their information and would usually research products online myself. But when it comes to purchasing their prices are hard to beat.

Tried to not give any stars at all, I was lured by the fairly low price of the GoPro Hero+ 3 silver.
Only to find out I should have spend another 80 euros and buy it elsewhere.
Why ?
I called before placing my order online, they said they have it in stock to arrive in 5 business days, all fine there.
Placed my order — All good.
an hour later I receive an email that due to the item out of stock that the business days it will take it to arrive are extended by another 5!
I emailed them that this is outrageous, at first they responded, and now they won’t answer anymore.
Silly service, DONT BUY FROM PCWORLD.

I ordered an SSD rail kit a week ago and the order is still pending with no delivery date available. I spent about € 3 on their 1890 phone number asking when it would be delivered, I was told later in the week.
2 days later there is still no email or update and the order is still pending. I sent an email asking for a refund and still no reply.
Compare that to Amazon and the order is processed within a day at the latest, and the goods are sent to you within a week. Yet PC World claim a «fast nationwide service».
If you go to their customer service section on the website, it’s abysmal. You end up going in circles as the FAQs are useless. You have to go to the tiny, «contact us» link at the bottom of the page to get through to them. That is just laughable.
And don’t bother with their 1890 number. Depending on your network it could be more than 30 cents a minute and I was on the phone to them for over 9 minutes. Waste of time and money.
I get the impression they wished all their customers were yummy mummy’s who haven’t a clue about technology and only want cosmetic techy stuff that’s overpriced, but they don’t mind paying the extra quid as they’re loaded and they take their sales assistants’ word as gospel.
If you return faulty stuff, the little bald bullies that make up their management team pair together and argue you down: 2 against 1 always works eh?
I get the impression a lot of their stock is B stock and you’re either lucky or unlucky as to how good it is. Sometimes it’s obvious it’s a returned model as there are finger prints on it and the plastic seals have been taken off.
Unbelievable.
If you’re a young, pretty girl I’m sure the male staff are very helpful, but for the rest of us who actually know what we’re talking about and don’t need their poxy insurance cover (as it’s shite) you’re better off avoiding this place.

I went into PC World to enquire about a price matching scheme they have to match their price, with the price of the same product sold by another company, if the other company’s price is cheaper. The product in question was a Samsung television. The salesperson told me that because there was no Power City in the radius of their Jervis store, they couldn’t match the price. The salesperson did mention that I could go to any PC World that’s located closer to a Power City and avail of the price match guarantee. I thought it was a little silly that they’d lose out on a sale for the sake of € 9.00. I’m going to Power City now to pick up the afore mentioned television.

Tried giving this store ¼ of a star but couldn’t. Labels on shelves containing bullet point description of tech more useful and personable than staff and definitely management. Waste of time, the online version of this store is actually pretty decent and less of a disheartening experience to use.

When you walk into the shop, you see nothing but staff members in their purple shirts, all looking busy and helpful.
You begin checking out some products, then there comes a point where you need to try the product out, or have questions about price or availability. You look up, and the purple-​shirted people are nowhere to be seen. Their huddled together, shooting the breeze. When you finally manage to get one’s attention and get him over, they call you «man» or «buddy», and seem like they’re just dying to get away from you, back to their colleagues.
I will admit that they do often have good deals — yesterday they had a 3-​in-​1 Canon printer for € 30, for example. But they are often out of stock of items that are on display, or the display model is not working, or the it’s only available in another store.
You might get lucky — you might get in, see what you want, you grab one from underneath the display shelf, you have no questions, you pay, and you get out of there.
Life is rarely that simple though.

Of all the PC World stores in Dublin, this is my least favourite. It’s small, only a fraction the size of the other stores, and usually only has a few high end items in the shop. They are often out of things like blank discs and never have any items like wireless routers or media drives in stock. Try the one at Liffey Valley or the on in Carrickmines as you more than likely won’t find what you need here.

This place is pretty well stocked with a good selection, but last time I was in there I didn’t have a good experience, I found a laptop bag that had a sign saying 35, when I brought it to the checkout the guy just grabbed it from me, scanned it, said «that’s 45 euro «, I said «but the sign by the bags said it was down to 35 euro» the guy was so rude he just said in a really arrogant manner «no thats not right» and gave it back to me. not a mention of «I’ll check or sorry there must be a mistake»…so I went back to the bag area to check myself that I hadn’t made a mistake and sure enough the sign was there and said 35 euro, brought back to another guy on checkout and said this is 35euro, but its scanning at 45euro, he politely said «one moment I’ll check» and when he saw the sign he said yeah that’s fine.
I couldn’t get over the ignorance of the first guy! That’s really bad customer service, so for that one guy it’s getting 2 stars! It’s amazing how customer experience really draws you or puts you off a place, I would be really hesitant to go there again!
But other than that you can be lucky with pricing of computers and accessories.

After buying a printer and spare ink cartridges from this store I discovered months later (when the original starter cartridges ran out) that they didn’t fit my model of printer. That’s fair enough I thought, might have been my own fault for not double checking the model number. I returned to the store wishing merely for a swap for the right cartridges. I should clarify that a member of staff had told me they were the right ones when I bought them originally.
The manager who dealt with me told me I needed to bring in one of my empty cartridges to compare them. He said it was the right cartridge and it should fit. If it didn’t fit they would need the technicians to take a look at it.
Hang on, back right up there. First off, I know the bloody thing doesn’t fit! The half hour I spent cursing as I tried to install the cartridges in the printer told me this pretty definitively. The other glaring sign might have been the differing model numbers on the packaging. The last thing that struck me as odd was the word technicians. Why?! A twelve year old could tell you why they don’t fit!
Many of the staff either don’t seem to have a clue about the products they’re selling or they just don’t have the enthusiasm to bother. I have a theory that many of them are jaded IT graduates who can’t get a graduate level job because of the recession.

Fine if you don’t have genuine questions or problems with the merchandise. I doubt I’d ever return.
I spend an embarrassing amount of money on computers, electronics, and media. I’ve been to many such shops in Europe, Australia, and the US — I have a lot to compare against. Sadly, PC World falls to the bottom of the list.
While the prices are OK — you can easily get cheaper online.
I needed a laptop cooler for my laptop. There were two models available at PC World. I enlisted staff for help and they made a recommendation. I was repeatedly advised that if I had the receipt and it was not to satisfaction, just bring it back. Grand. Without that ‘guarantee’ I’d no intention of purchasing it, as the item was not even out on display.
I brought it home and the cooler, rather than being made of aluminium like the employee suggested, it was mostly plastic. I returned to the store to return the product.
I was directed to the back of the store, where the customer service area is. The initial clerk that assisted me was receptive and polite, however he had to swap customers because one clerk did not know how to handle vouchers. Regrettably, the new clerk was not as polite and not in the humour of doing a refund. He plugged the device into his computer and said ‘it works, I’m not giving a refund.‘
I was annoyed and asked for a manager. He refused to get one. He pointed toward the front of the store and said ‘He’s out there, he’s the one that is bald.’ I told him I didn’t want to search for the manager and to have him paged. He refused, saying managers don’t want to be paged. I requested again. His co-​worker complied.
The manager came to me and told me that he will back whatever the customer service people stated. I informed him of what the previous employee said and the manager gave indication that it does not matter. It also did not matter that I had my packaging or receipt.
The manager was very wishy-​washy on the position, he stated that it is a judgement call on whether the customer service clerks will take something back. It’s up to them. This bothered me, because it is inconsistent and based on luck of who you receive. I began to think that if I wouldn’t of had the clerks change places on me, I’d of had no hassle. He said that may of been the case and then did a shrug. He told me if the item had been broken, I’d get my refund, but since it works, not a chance.
He posed the most irritating question to me as well «How would you like to own a store and have a customer return an open product that you can not resell?» I responded with I lived in America for a few years and they have (and do) very successful and wealthy retail markets that accept open returns. You’d be hard-​pressed to find a reputable shop in America that does not take returns — some even take them without a sales receipt.
I was ready to leave the store, as the manager was being quite wishy-​washy and giving a load of lame excuses, he changed his tune when I indicated I was going to write to his headquarters about my experience. He assured me he wasn’t ‘weak’ and wasn’t over-​riding the customer service position because I was ‘writing HQ’, but did so for the purpose of customer relations.
This was all fine and good, but it shouldn’t of ate up 20 minutes of my time. I took my refund and went down the road and got an actual cooler (which I’m using right now) for 3 Euro more. At that shop, the manager guaranteed that I could come back in a few days if it wasn’t working right. He even wrote it on the sales slip — now THAT is decent customer service.

Apple users might have to wait a long time until we get a proper Apple store in Dublin, but until then we have to settle for PC World. It’s the only place I’ve found that sells Mac computers (are there any others? I’d love to know!) and Mac accessories.
They’re having a big clearing sale at the moment (unfortunately not off Apple products), but as the store is stuffed with cameras, camcorders, software and accessories such as webcams, cables, laptop bags and hard-​drives, you can make some good deals. You name it, they’ll have it.

As more and more computer companies are selling directly online, it’s nice to go into a shop and actually ask someone who knows something about computers and electronics questions in person.
PC world seems to have every cable, camera, Hi-​fi, Mac and PC on the market. I end up having to visit PC World probably once a month for some cable, usb stick or other piece of electronic miscellany.
It’s still a bit more expensive than buying stuff online, but if you need that SD card pronto, PC World is yer only man.

PC Wolrd is a guy’s fantasy. All those computers, mobile phones, MP3 players, digital recorders and LCD TVs beckon men into the shop.
There are more salespeople than customers but this is a good thing. Unlike the sales assistants in clothing shops who are useless props, the people in PC World are walking encyclopeadias. They’re vital to your purchase. They can tell you everything about what you’re looking at and how to work it once you buy it.
Because most of the price tags are high, they are used to people taking the time to think about it. They don’t get mad at you for not parting with your money. PC World carries all the major brands of electronics so you can shop and compare.