DSGi are aiming to raise their retail game and have tempted Phones4U to open in at least 50 of their Currys and PC World stores over the coming year. The move follows a trial of the idea in a handful of the group’s megastores in recent months.

The specialist phone-flogging areas will be staffed solely by a crack team of specially-trained Phones4U staff, thereby reducing the chances of mobile phone customers being pestered to buy unnecessary HDMI cables or Norton Frigging Antivirus.

Following the announcement, new DSGi rivals Best Buy flexed their own muscles, announcing that they’re chuffed with the response to the launch of their own ‘big box’ stores. A spokesdude for partner company Carphone Warehouse said: “We are delighted with the launch of the first Best Buy stores – the customer response is excellent.” Woah!

Here at Bitterwallet, as we riffed on the Currys/PC World/Phones4U story, Mof wondered if the Phones4U mini-stores would have a Starbucks in them and then I said something about there being a Sock Shop inside the Starbucks. You know, like Russian dolls or something. It was hilarious – you should have been there.

Yes, it’s true. The company that includes Dixons, PC World and Currys has announced that it’s dropping its DSGi moniker and becoming Dixons Retail, a name that they say will ‘resonate’ more strongly with everyone. As in “You got that from Dixons? Wow, I didn’t realise they were still going – haven’t seen them on the high street for years.”

Perhaps we’re being churlish – Dixons Retail (as we now need to get used to calling them) just announced a increase in pre-tax profits – up 61 per cent at £90.5 million in the year ending May 1^st.

Impressive stuff, even if total sales in the UK & Ireland actually dropped by five per cent (£4,013.5 million down from the 2008/09 figure of £4,228.6 million), and like for like sales were down three per cent across the year.

So how are they continuing to please the shareholders? Cutting more jobs and making things tougher on their already-beleaguered staff? Maybe – we’ve heard a whisper that there’s another round of redundancies in the offing, with assistant managers and deputy managers in the firing line and a 30-day consultation period on its way.

We can’t confirm or deny the rumour as our man at DSGi hasn’t responded to our inquiry yet – perhaps he’s busy putting on his new Dixons Retail name badge. However, the group head honcho John Browett fanfared the financial results with the phrase: “Focus on our customers drives everything we do…”

Focus on the customers and leave the staff to cope with their hugely increased workload then…

[@hugh_d on Twitter] via [TwitPic]

What fresh hell is this? We’ve been telling you that along with Apple stores, DSGi outlets will be exclusively retailing the iPad from Friday at 8am. Now it appears that’s a pack of lies. There are plenty of independent retailers offering the wunderkit then, but they can’t tell you about it.

The Register reports that Apple has demanded indies do not take pre-orders or even publicise the launch until Friday morning:

An Apple dealer, speaking to us on condition of anonymity, said he was in the middle of re-merchandising his shop and training staff. Once this is complete he must email photographs to Apple for approval by 8pm on Thursday night. All being well he can then get on with selling the gadgets on Friday morning

He said enquiries from punters had outstripped any other Apple launch he had worked on, with each store getting 15-20 queries a day. He said he had a “humongous list of would-be customers” and even had people asking if they could queue overnight to ensure they’re near the front of the queue.

So it seems you’ll be able to blow your wad in plenty of places, without the need to drink the demon seed of DSGi. If you want to find an official Apple reseller, the official site has details.

[The Register]

EDIT: I’ve removed all of the Thursday/tomorrow references. The launch is, as you’ve all pointed out, on Thursday… no, Friday. I am Paul Smith and I LITERALLY don’t know what day it is!

When DSGi denied having any confirmed plans to sell the iPad in the UK, we didn’t believe them – we’d heard from a couple of sources close to the company that their PC World and Currys stores had an exclusive 60 day window to sell them. Some of the details were confirmed by a screenshot of DSGi’s intranet that appeared on Mac Rumours a couple of days ago:

Today we received a full list of all the DSGi stores that will be stocking the iPad from next Friday, which you can download here [PDF]. A quick look will tells us that not all stores will be stocking the iPad – this is important, because we’re also told that stores not stocking it are not allowed to take orders for them.

In other words, if your local PC World or Currys isn’t stocking them, and you don’t have a local Apple store, you’ll have to order your iPad online – and that currently means waiting until after 7 June.

You, the avid Bitterwallet reader, may have as much use for an iPad as a girl from Donny has for chip pan fat, but UK sales appear to be going through the roof. On Friday, Apple quietly pushed back the pre-order shipping date for iPads to 7 June:

Anyone who ordered their iPad with the pre-order date of 28 May will still receive it then – everyone else will have to queue up at Apple and DSGi stores to get theirs earlier than 7 June. But that won’t be you, will it?

Last week saw the much trumpeted launch of Best Buy UK, in the capitalist centre of the country – Thurrock Retail Park. We were expecting the new kids in town to dish out some überdeals and generally undercut the competition wherever possible, and we asked for your reviews and views on the new store. Which mostly went as follows:

“On Sunday, I drove to Lakeside before 10.00am to try and bag ourselves a deal at Best Buys and we were absolutely taken aback with the masses of people queuing outside the store in the pouring rain. We were going to join the queue, but we were told by a Best Buy employee that all the TVs on special offer had been sold. We were also told that there was a two hour queue outside the store.” Scott

“What a crock! I went yesterday, the wait was about an hour to get in the store itself! Inside it was pretty much like any other out of town electronics store, the prices weren’t anything special, to be honest it was just plain pathetic really. I so expected bigger discounts across the store… don’t bother going if you’re expecting to bag a bargain, as they can’t beat amazon of play.com and most of their stuff is the same price as Comet and Currys.” Dan

“Less than 100 of the Logitech Harmony remotes. Waste of time, all gone in minutes, and the awful ticket system was not explained to those queuing. I went just for the chance of a riot and left disappointed.” Veronica

Has Best Buy got a hope of beating the intermaweb, or making an impact on DSGi? If you’re an an experienced Currys and Comet veteran with the scars to prove it, have you been and what do you make of it?

We receive a lot of rumours and half-truths through the email. Some of them are utter nonsense from the first word, others less so.

Here’s an anonymous email we received a couple of days ago, and despite our best attempts to verify it, we can’t. There may a good reason for that, but at the same time it makes sense considering the US launch of Apple’s iPad. We’re going to share it anyway, since it does no harm for you know about it:

Thought you might like to know that DSGi will have the exclusive on the iPad for 60 days after launch. No official dates as yet though.

This was told to me by a senior store manager, so a reliable source. I also know that the night before launch there will be an out-of-hours merchandising operation in place to fit the demo stock into the specific stores.

It won’t be all stores, but rather the ones that have Apple store in store or in-line solutions (mainly the bigger, refurbished stores). The intention is that store staff will have training on them before the public get them and that these stores will have stock in place to take away.

In the US where the iPad is already available, it can be purchased from either Apple or Best Buy, so it makes sense for Apple to seek a UK retailer to partner with.

Both the WiFi and 3G iPads are expected to go on sale in the UK at the end of May, and initially we couldn’t imagine any mobile provider agreeing to supply data services and not the product. That said, AT&T, the mobile service provider for the iPad 3G data services in the US, isn’t selling any version of the device, despite it being available on pre-order from Apple. In fact, AT&T have nothing to do with the sale of their own data tariffs – a customer buys a 3G data bundles through their iPad, not AT&T. Apple seem keen for the iPad to be considered a computer rather than a larger, grown-up mobile device, which may be why mobile retailers won’t be asked to sell the iPad.

We asked DSGi what their current plans to stock the iPad upon its release at the end of May, and whether a deal had already been struck with Apple to sell the iPad yet. A spokesperson told us:

“You’ll have to ask Apple about their launch plans. All we can tell you is we’re very excited about this product and we’re confident customers will love it!”

Which didn’t really answer our question. Listen, if it does turn out to be true, you read it here first. If it doesn’t, nobody died.

This morning we told you that all DSGi stores – including PC World and Currys – are unable to offer credit to customers, from the end of today and for up to the next six weeks. That means no payment plans will be available on any products, and all sales much be completed at the till, on the day.

We requested a statement from DSGi on our story, which we received this afternoon:

Our business and our Transformation programme is driven by our customers and their needs. We are constantly reviewing the value to our customers of all of our products and services through feedback and extensive research.

As a part of this ongoing process, we are moving to a new credit provider, with better and more flexible finance options for customers going forward.

DSGi also responded to comments from ourselves and readers regarding what impact the lack of credit facilities is likely to have on their business:

In-store consumer credit is taken up by a relatively small number of customers. After a trial we ran in recent weeks in selected stores, we know that of these, many customers opt to pay by different means. We therefore saw little or no impact on sales.

Is DSGi honestly saying that being unable to offer payment plans to customers for the next six weeks will not affect sales in any way? That customers who can only afford to pay for new goods by monthly installment will wait until June, rather than walk next door to Comet or John Lewis?

In the same week that Best Buy opens its first UK outlet, Bitterwallet has learnt that all DSGi stores – Currys, PC World and Currys Digital - will not be able to offer payment plans for purchases, for up to six weeks. Two sources at the electrical retailers have independently confirmed that customers will not be offered credit for the time being, after the company’s retail sales agreement with HFC Bank was ended.

In other words, all goods bought at DSGi stores must be paid for in full by the customer at the tills, until the issue is resolved.

According to our initial source, a member of staff at PC World, an internal memo was circulated on the company intranet stating it would take up to six weeks to be able to provide credit through a new provider; upgrades are required to the Eclipse till system used in DSGi stores, and staff will need to be retrained to use the new online systems.

A member of staff at Currys Digital has since confirmed the story, stating that after trading ends today, the retailers will only be able to accept payment in full for any goods purchased, and that this would be the situation “for at least four weeks, until the new credit proposition is in place.”

The implications for DSGi are serious; the company will lose a substantial amount of its revenue normally derived from credit agreements, on top of consumers deserting their stores in favour of the likes of Comet and John Lewis, where they can still purchase larger items on credit.

Big fat cigar-chomping Yank electrical retailers Best Buy are coming to the UK – and even though there’s no planes and everyone is contemplating a return to a rustic, non-electric lifestyle, it’s going to happen sooner than we thought.

They’ve brought forward the opening date of their first store, in Thurrock, Essex to Friday 30^th April – a week earlier than originally announced. They’re promising a ‘four-day launch festival’ with amazing deals and no doubt, some party poppers and balloons.

As it stands, Best Buy, who are operating in the UK in conjunction with Carphone Warehouse, plan to open between 70 and 80 UK stores by 2013. Or do they?

Speculation in the financial press (well, the Mail) suggests that Best Buy have put together a shopping list of potential acquisitions… with DSGi at the top of the list.

Rather than take on the Currys and PC World competition, could Best Buy just be plotting to buy them out? The Mail believes that a friendly £2.2 billion bid could be in the offing. Now what do you all think about THAT sack of plums?

If you’re a well known brand, there’s no such thing as dipping your toe in the world of social media – you either do it or you don’t. DSGi have suffered at the hands of Facebook in the past, although it was admittedly at the hands of their staff. Now they’re trying to embrace the network with an official Facebook page for online brand Dixons. It has nearly 1,000… well, ‘fans’ is the technical term for people following them, but it’d stretching the truth somewhat.

Everything seemed to start out reasonably well; as expected, customers joined to vent their spleen but were promptly greeted by online representatives who attempted to solve their issues. That was until the beginning of February; for the past two months, customer service reps have abandoned the page.

The result is that it’s turned into a bit of a dog’s dinner; there are one or two customers praising Dixons, but otherwise it’s a long stream of complaints about their appalling customer service, a perception reinforced by the lack of any customer service whatsoever:

Here at Bitterwallet, we’ve got a bit of history with whistleblowers from within DSGi’s pleasuredome. Last year, news of store restructuring and redundancies made its way here before many of the staff were aware of what was going on.

We’ve had another whisper from within DSGi’s pleasuredome, and if it’s true, then more job cuts could be on the way.

We’re told that Equanet, the parent company of PC World Business will shortly be sold to Misco, meaning the end of PC World Business; in future, business customers will only be able to purchase from the retail selection of goods instore.

It doesn’t take a genius to work out what this will mean for the dedicated business staff within the company’s stores. The closure of Equanet’s Surbiton office was announced in December, with 18 staff told they had a month’s consultation period in which to find other posts in the group.

If our source is on the money, that could also be the case for scores of PC World Business account developers in the not-too-distant future.

DSGi have categorically denied the allegations and told Bitterwallet: “There have been no conversations with Misco.”

Sure, it’s 2010 now but there’s no reason why we can’t still party like it’s 2009. That’s what we’re up to for the next couple of minutes as our countdown of the most viewed Bitterwallet stories of the past year stumbles towards its ugly climax.

4: Breaking news: DSGi emergency meetings, store restructuring

Has there ever been a more exciting headline in the history of word-writing? Possibly not. This one harks back to January 2009, a time when PC World and Currys staff were living in fear of store closures and redundancies.

A DSGi insider tipped us off about some top secret meetings among the top brass at the company and Bitterwallet went into meltdown as PC World and Currys staff used this place as an impromptu forum. Do the stores still exist these days? We should know, but to be completely honest, we haven’t got a clue.

See – we’re not just all about swearing and showing you pictures of funny signage.

3: Brutal honesty on the NY subway

Fucking hell – this was a corker as well! Supposedly a customer sign on the New York subway although we suspect that pranksters may have been at play with this one.

We’re confused though, because surely watching rodents on the track is bonus entertainment – the Pet Shop Boys got an entire video out of it in 2003!

Come back tomorrow to find out the top two of 2009 and check out the rest of the chart here…

EDIT: After studying our reports of voting patterns, we have learned that the results of the second semi-final were tainted by multiple votes for DSGi, a stunt that was probably pulled by a paedophile or someone with an unfeasibly tiny penis, like a chipolata as viewed through the wrong end of a telescope.

As a result, the DSGi votes have been disregarded and Paypal and Orange have been put forward into Monday’s final. Bitterwallet’s decision is final so don’t even bother not shutting the fuck up about it. This is not Tehran – democracy will prevail.

Welcome, dear reader, to the second semi-final in our Bitterwallet Worst Company in Britain 2009 spectacular, with the remaining TWO places in the grand final up for grabs from today’s contenders.

We would like to apologise again for yesterday’s cock-up which saw the voting scrapped shortly before noon after it was discovered that Barclays had mistakenly snuck into the draw instead of Royal Mail. Voting has been extended until noon today if you’d still like to join in.

So, with all mistakes behind us, we look forward to today’s juicy tear-up between the four other companies who have staggered through rounds one and two – namely Clarks shoe shops, Marlboro, Cheltenham Town FC and Echo & The Bunnymen.

Hang on – that’s not quite right. In actual fact, you can choose between Orange, DSGi, Sky and Paypal. A motley crew and no mistake, and, unless some kind of unseen screw-up is spotted, the voting will end at midnight tonight. Remember, the two highest-polling companies will reach the final.

The final will commence on Monday and voting will go on for the whole of 2010. Not really. You can check out who the victors of the first semi-final were here from noon and go down memory lane with all of the results so far here.

Well – what are you waiting for? START VOTING, YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARDS!