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DSGi Know How to kill off the Tech Guys, doll up off-site repairs

13 September 2010
By Paul Smith

Bitterwallet - Tech Guys logoAre we about to witness the death of the Tech Guys once and for all? It seems that way, from what Bitterwallet has been told by members of staff.

According to those affected, Dixons Retail Plc - the new name for the parent company of Currys and PC World as of last week - is planning to make big changes to its in-store repair service to cut costs.

Specifically, the service will disappear from stores altogether - with every customer item brought in for repair boxed up and shipped out to a central workshop in Newark. What about products still under warranty? It doesn't matter - they'll still be packed off to the East Midlands.

Our sources tell us the main concern amongst staff is that not only will the changes mean redundancy for the Tech Guy staff, but that those left to man the store and face the customers will have no control over repair times.

The news somehow manages to get worse, however. We can't confirm this rumour, but one source tells us that Dixons Retail will also be dropping couriers DPD and passing the task of delivery and collection of repair work from stores and customers homes, onto their delivery teams (who are also the field repair teams since DSGi folded the engineering team into the delivery team to save money), and that there'll be no expansion in the workforce to compensate.

It doesn't add up to a great deal for the customer, so what to do about that? How can Dixons Retail turn this frown upside down? The way all big brands dress up change - it's time for a rebrand. It seems we'll be saying goodbye to the Tech Guys, and hello to Know How - a phrase that somehow falls short of summing up any aspect of the new proposed service.

TOPICS:   High Street News   Games

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204 comments

  • Sky M.
    Same service as Comet have run for a while then?
    Reply ·
  • abbaddon
    I was one of the recent managers to be made redundant, think I missed the bullet on this one. Our tech guys where very experienced and as a result most of our customers left happy. I would expect the remaining managers to apply for crash helmets and body amour
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  • Smiff
    as someone who's not been into a PCWorld for years, i find it surprising that they had this service and even more surprising that they are scrapping it - surely one of the advantages of a physical shop is that you can put real people in it and help customers immediately. once you have to start shipping things around, what's the point of even going in there?
    Reply ·
  • ajsjdjd
    Who buys from this shit company anyway?
    Reply ·
  • BananaSplit
    Surprised they're doing this. Thought Tech Guys was a bit of a cash cow for them (as well as selling £80 HDMI cables, that is). Seem to remember they used to charge £50 for just for virus removal? Something like that.
    Reply ·
  • AJ
    as an ex tech guy i know how bad this is, we had very little control on what happened with the external repairs, i feel sorry for the guys in store, however i have a feeling my old store may get to keep its dept'
    Reply ·
  • Jonny S.
    Was about £30 just to run CCleaner (or their equivalent bollocks) on a PC if I remember rightly.
    Reply ·
  • zax
    Tech Guys >>> Best buy !
    Reply ·
  • Tech G.
    Does anyone have any more info for this to happen? This info has not been filtered down into the stores, time frame? Before or after peak!?
    Reply ·
  • Whisky
    I think the tech guy service was fine for anyone with too much money and too little knowledge, however for the rest of us it was extortionatly priced and no more use then a poor abillity to search google. Infact I remember a friend telling me he had been turned down for a job there for knowing "too much" it seems a degree in computing overqualified you. Having been in that branch prior buying something on the reserve and collect and overhearing a conversation the tech guys were having I can quite well believe it.
    Reply ·
  • klingelton
    you must elaborate on this conversation...
    Reply ·
  • Mel
    They calling the call centre Know How as well then? And what about the move?
    Reply ·
  • Ex w.
    Repairs aren't carried out under warranty in-store by the Tech Guys at the moment anyway, depending on on the product it's either a visiting engineer or it's taken to the repair centre by DPD.
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  • Tech G.
    They will still need to be in store "tech guys" because the sales staff know nothing and who is going to diagnose the jobs correctly before booking for repair? Plus you need someone to do all those setups and data transfers and general customer service crap
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  • Mel
    The call centre staff diagnose before repair. I agree with you on the data transfers though, some customers can't do that for toffee.
    Reply ·
  • Ex M.
    I cant say im surprised this was another target set by number crunchers at Head office that the stores discounted, or devalued the arse out of them (by that we would sometimes charge for a memory install at £14.99 to complete a setup which should be £29.99), the target was to get 25% of your PC/laptop sales with a tech guys service. One day DSG may realise that the only target they need to set the stores is a one for profit and also pay the staff a decent wage to deliver this. Best buy may not be the best company in the world, but there on a different level to PC World and Currys and the quicker they role out, the harder it will become for DSG to survive unless they change there ways quickly, taking away key selling points and colleagues is not the way!
    Reply ·
  • Tech G.
    The call centre's suck at diagnosing the fault, it's hard to do that over the phone, unless you have someone that knows what they are doing on the phone in the first place. I am a Tech Guy in a store and i find this situation a little worrying but also puzzling, I know for one, everyday I earn the company far more money than I am paid, by the jobs that I do and the cost we charge for them. I am planning on leaving the company any way for pastures new, but I am hoping the time scale for this is not too soon as i wasn't planning on leaving just yet.
    Reply ·
  • Tech G.
    or maybe I will just take out some PPI lol
    Reply ·
  • Tech G.
    Payment protection insurance, my bad for spamming the comments. Does anyone have any more info on this!? Can bitterwallet give us more info? I remember the last time you guys where a great source of information!
    Reply ·
  • Geoff
    Hopefully this will be the end of them ,they are flippin' useless and don't have a clue!
    Reply ·
  • Also G.
    @ Tech Guy They're dumbing down the tech role to something a half trained monkey could do. healthchecks, setups and data transfers are hardly taxing. The plan apparently is a big open space where we show customers what we're doing as we do it. "screwdriver free environment" i think one of the guys said when he got back from the meeting. The redundancy will probably be to get rid of the high wage skiled guys who would be overpaid for the job as its gonna be. time for a new job!
    Reply ·
  • Tech G.
    @also tech guy Your right, but to be honest I don't see it as a career, i just need something to pay the bills, I am only going to be there for another 6 months max, i just want to know if i will still have a job or not (minus paycut to normal CA level), I do not care if all i do is healthchecks, data transfers etc rather than the normal repairs I can do. How come someone you know was in a meeting about it!? i've heard nothing about this at all? Although I work in a small non WNR store.
    Reply ·
  • Also G.
    There was a meeting at one of the currys-pc world megastores, one of our managers was there. theres a trial store kicking it off in the next month or so (telford I think) and then it'll be rolled out to the rest of us either right before or just after peak
    Reply ·
  • zleet
    PC world tried to charge £250 for a 'repair' on a laptop that only needed a faulty battery replaced, and that it turned out could be done for free under a product recall.
    Reply ·
  • Tech G.
    @also tech guy Are there going to be many redundancies?
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  • Thomas b.
    I've spoken to Sebastian james (for those outside Dixons retail this is the groups operation manager) on his twitter account about this, I forwarded the URL and he has said this: "just the opposite. As you know very exciting services relaunch coming next year. Will need more people not less!"
    Reply ·
  • Thomas b.
    and also he doesn't like bitterwallet, hah "in true bitterwallet style totally corrupted. In fact hugely higher investment in totally transformed services plan?
    Reply ·
  • Squid
    @ Thomas Baker. Funny that, when the Management redundencies were announced (on Bitterwallet) every dog and muppet at DSGI head office said the same as what Sebastian James said.
    Reply ·
  • Thomas b.
    I think bitterwallet needs to do more investigating and provide us with more answers!!
    Reply ·
  • John
    Sebastian James - A fully fledged member of the Bullingdon Club, top hat and tails with Boris Johnstone and David Cameron. Also Mr Weasel Words, "We are not cutting our Payroll" on a recent blog. Anyone know a store that hasn't had its Payroll cut by at least 10%. "Because of fairer targeting, more colleagues will earn bonus" in head office should have been added to that. Less than 2% of stores now hit target. "We will accrue the money that we haven't paid in bonus into next quarter" and the next, and the next and pay it to head office staff. Some simple completion of his sentences. “just the opposite. As you know very exciting services relaunch coming next year. Will need more people not less!” - in Newark, not store. “in true bitterwallet style totally corrupted. In fact hugely higher investment in totally transformed services plan?" - funded by the reduction in payroll at store level. You've seen the videos, Don't trust a word the man says.
    Reply ·
  • Stephen D.
    lol yea, at least not till next year, time maybe to consider a big change, i've worked there for too long!!!
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  • The T.
    I work in a wnr store and each day we are up 20% But we have been told not to Recuit, its like a ghost town With just 1 on tills and one On customer services doing Tech and sorting customers. Infact we are asked to do extra hours free
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  • james
    Sorry but I just can't see them taking tech guys clinics out of stores. we made a DIY one in our old store just so we could sell the lucrative services. when stores are targeted so highly on tech guys and it makes the company so much money why would they strip it out? unless they are going to train all the sales staff to the same level? so they don't need tech guys to man the clinic.
    Reply ·
  • techa
    You kidding, im a techguy in store. The experts get paid more than me, and they are no experts! It was a way of stopping them leaving by saying you are promoted to expert. Techguys bring in 60% margin, and could bring in more if we did'nt have to do free healthchecks. Its a waste of time and we should charge for everything. No margin in PCs, only norton, office, macs, and tvs. Upper management don't want to listen, as at the minute its cuts, cuts, cuts. Staffing levels are about 60% of last year even though revenue is up, but I guess thats how they are paying back the money on the share issues. It would be a total mess if the stores did not have techguys as its the only reason people buy off us, as they can get free advice, data backups, virus removals. Do they really want to leave that to the van drivers or the phones?
    Reply ·
  • Dixons B.
    [...] parent company of PC World and Currys. We’d heard from independent sources that the group was axing in-store repairs, rebranding Tech Guys as Know How and other points besides. We didn’t speculate beyond what [...]
    Reply ·
  • Codify
    Will they still be ripping off punters by charging £300 for a "faulty motherboard" whenever you bring in a laptop for repair, no matter what the actual fault?
    Reply ·
  • al
    Lets define Techguys.. They are there to setup machines, do healthchecks and provide (often free) advice. They have never in my 15 years actually repaired machines instore but often will assist the customer in booking a job or even having courier collection booked from store rather than the customers home. More techguys are needed as more and more stores are refurbished to include a tech centre. Customers are more likely to replace rather than upgrade so more jobs are about data and setup than actually opening the case. That said there will always be the old school techs who want to tinker with machines all day who will post on websites that they are the most important people in the universe etc etc There is always going to be a fine balance between revenue generation and customer service... how far do you go that extra mile before we start charging for our time. Equally the cost of services are defined by the market.. we can charge what we like if the service is valuable to the customer. £229 laptop repair is excessive if all you need is a new HDD.... but if its a £1000 machine needing £500 of work then £229 is a steal.
    Reply ·
  • PC P.
    A bit of shameless self publicity but our PC PAL onsite computer support franchises are going very well. It's all about offering top class customer service at a reasonable price. Our customer love us when we come and rescue them from their computer nightmares! Find out more at pcpal.co.uk/franchise - great joining offers available for good ex-tech guys engineers.
    Reply ·
  • Genuine p.
    You know everyday I get up go to work and always want to put the customer first, even if it puts me out. If youhave had a bad experiance then thats not the companys intention, we can only move forward by doing as much as we can for the customer, within reason. So my pledge is if your a reasonable customer we can work together and fix it, its easy really. There are so many ways that can get a happy result and give a great feeling to you and a customer. Give me your issues al get them sorted, but dont do what we all do is moan about it, lets turn it around and get it done. It really is a great place to work and knowing your helping people with there problems is a buzz for me. Oh and sorry for babling on.
    Reply ·
  • Employee
    Genuine person.... Apologies if this sounds harsh, but it is no where near a good place to work. And by all means you may well be one of those employees that is willing to go above and beyond for the customer, but as a whole, this company has a hell of a lot to do just to provide a somewhat adequate customer service. A prime example for this, is the redundancies in the "Tech Guys" call centres, how is reducing the number of people available to help customers going to serve them better??
    Reply ·
  • big b.
    @ Genuine Person.... DSGi/Dixons Retail is definitely not a good place to work..... got a payrise from them today for the first time in 3 years.... 10 whole pennies.... Thanks alot sebastian, doing triple the amount of work thanks to 'payroll cuts', including key holding for 10p extra an hour
    Reply ·
  • Also G.
    @ al In our store we do repairs on non warranty desktops using off the shelf parts, and I assume this is the case in all PC World stores with halfway competent technicians (not that there are many of them, I'll give you that) Until a couple of weeks ago, the megastore in Bristol was doing non warranty laptop repairs in store too because they somehow had access to the part ordering system that the old stand alone tech guys stores used to use. (Was in there for training, they were raking it in off of this one) That got switched off for them when this know how bollocks started coming into play. Which is completely mental in my opinion because they were taking in fuckloads and now I imagine they're just turning money away left right and centre because they can't do anything without parts. FUN FACT: TTG Fixed Price Laptop repair will not repair an Acer laptop, even though that's probably one of our top 3 sold brands. They also wont repair any damage to hinges or case plastics (looked this up for a customer while I was in Bristol, parts are about £30 for most laptops? No idea why they wont do it.) Instead of this know how shite they should be training/hiring technicians of a decent standard and rolling out the part buying system to every fucking store! Goodbye to the idea that PC World don't know a goddamn thing about computers, hello shitloads of revenue. But no, company is run by fucking morons who've never spent a day in the trenches in their entire career. Eat shit Browett and co.
    Reply ·
  • ninjaa b.
    I have been telling everyone in our store the Techguys will be going for ages. I have read loads of stuff and it seems genuine. It is a crap place to work for and I cant wait to get out. I have spoken to a few managers and they all seem to see it the same way. Theres a couple of techguys that work really hard I bet they get the chop.
    Reply ·
  • Ten B.
    [...] Know How to kill off the Tech Guys, doll up off-site [...]
    Reply ·
  • Allen P.
    I worked at PCW for 12 months and in my interview the manager said "it's a good place to start your new career" - The only thing I could do was sell and work a till management promised to train me up in all areas of the store but didn't do a thing, just false promise after false promise. I feel sorry for the CA's as their on a crap wage and get shoved about by management.... I'm glad I'm working for a telecoms giant now, they really look after you here and the money is good. Hope you PCW guys get out soon
    Reply ·
  • pcplod
    I asked a tech guy where the thermal compound was - he didnt have clue what I was on about - another time I took a faulty HD back because it was blowing PSU's I told him when I handed it to him not to plug it in it had killed 3 psus - dick plugged it into a customers machine on a bench - I nearly pissed myself when I heard the pop he came back very sheepish - ok he said and replaced it straight away. I go in every now nad then to see if there are anyt bargain - sometimes you find stuff at a reasonable price. still shit if you work for these bunch of shysters
    Reply ·
  • theduck
    I jumped ship from PCW around 3 years ago, best move ever! When I left things were getting bad and now seem to be even worse! I dropped my laptop off for repair in July to have a new HDD fitted and it came back with a lesser speck CPU, no OS and a broken keyboard. To cut a long story short it was only 2 weeks ago that I had a replacement laptop after numerous damages caused to the machine by the guys in Newark, and this was only possible by a store helping me out! With this new proposal expect to see a lot more cases like mine!
    Reply ·
  • S.Wales G.
    Everyone who seems to be having an issue with 'PC World' or 'Dixons' as a whole have got the right to be pissed off because their after sales service is quite often shocking but the flip side is that there are a lot of well trained technicians in stores trying their best to help customers but we are banging our heads against the wall when the idiots at head office limit what we can do to help. Some of us really do try, and to say that nobody in PC World has a clue about anything is completely wrong. In my store if people don't know something, they send the customer to us and we then answer questions for them, for FREE. now how is that a bad service?? Yes they need to do more for customers but some of us are really trying :-)
    Reply ·
  • Independent
    Why don't people just use the local indie PC repair shop? Far better service usually I would think.
    Reply ·
  • JB
    @al "They have never in my 15 years actually repaired machines instore..." PC World stores in the late 90s (98/99) were issued engineer numbers so that jobs could be issued to the store rather than having them issued to the field engineers. The parts were securicored to the store, PC was repaired and the faulties were returned to logistics. It actually worked really well, but was knocked on the head.
    Reply ·
  • pcw
    We were told today by our GM at PCW Charlton, that we would no longer have any customer service staff to man the clinic. We have to do the customer service work and the Tech Guys work by ourselves from now on. Just two staff to do all the work. No extra wages either! Is this happening in other stores too? Or is our GM just trying to make is work until breaking point and we leave-so he is within his payroll budget? This is all he talks about. If we don't like it, what was he said....oh yeah "if you don't like it, then you are not right for the business" And the other famous quote is "it is what it is" What total bollocks!! He never leaves his office or ever helps customers, especially when a customer comes into the store with an issue, he just tells us to deal with it! Why don't he deal with it, it's his job to this. Don't you guys think so too?
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  • TechGuy S.
    KnowHow is taking over from the techguys and is going to sell services on behalf of the DSGi group plc, I know this as I work for Techguys (Currys Home Delivery). This new sector of the company will be finished and released by March 2011, they are going to eventually part from the DSGi group plc and work with Transportation and Services providing Boots and Mothercare with Logistics Services aswell as offering Washing Machine Installs, TV Walls Mounts, Warranties & Insurances, Deliveries, Electrical and Gas Cooker Installs. For you saying that TechGuy staff will be made redundant is rubbish, we are getting fully trained to work with the new brand. Also there are going to be new points to be put in place about delivery and repairs. If your delivery is late – get the delivery charge back If your delivery cannot be made after a 3rd time – get your appliance(s) for free If a repair goes away for more than 21 consecutive days or 3 times or more get a direct replacement. We are getting KnowHow Shoe Protectors and KnowHow roll out mats to provide better customer service and to look more professional They are doing this because BESTBUY have come to the UK and is opening more stores and advertising against Currys, the advert in national newspapers resulted in 3 refunds. Where a bestbuy store has opened currys have opened a superstore (currys & pcworld in one store) on the same park as them. This has resulted in Comet closing a store on the same park. I have also been told in a meeting that Bestbuy are looking to buy Comet so they have a national network. If this goes well Currys have made a good plan to keep only 1 major competitor, in near future this will only be BESTBUY.
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  • pcw
    This is bad new for our customers I work with 2 excelent tech guys in our store and they go above and beyond what they are meant to be doing. Not only that Newark keeps loosing customers laptops when they do go off for repair so how can they get rid of instore tech guys. Totally out of order yet again another mega stupid thing passed down by our glourious HO and the people who brown nosed their way into a role up there. Its so right what another coment said they all belong to the ol'boys brigade been to same uni and stuff come work in stores for a day try and cope with customer issue after customer issue. If they are all going to make us reduantant then at least give us prober notice of 90 days not this crap of new services.
    Reply ·
  • Doc
    I feel DSGI is doing the right thing in the current climate to get the best out of the business, some of the above posts have meaning, and some are a bit bold, DSGI needs to make these changes to move forward and for those of you that dont agree, thats okay too...no point in blaming, its business.
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  • a g.
    I am baffled by this and comments here, I have been a techguy at pcw for two years now, and we do repair pc's, and repair some laptops (hhd replacements, hw diag, wireless replacement, memory upgrades, keyboard replacements are all jobs Ive done in store) so some of the comments about PCW not repairing machines I can only assume that the tech guys they have worked with have been less then competent (which is unfortunate because a skilled techguy is a very large boon for a store). Best buy are making a push into the UK, have been making it for quite a time if you count carphone warehouse, why would DSGi give up a service that best buy then can go ahead and give with the geek squad. Now I understand the rumours about the laying off of managers where true, but I cannot help but think and hope that there is more to this re-branding then them making a poor job of product repairs and sacking 2 to 3 more staff from each store.
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  • @al
    "Lets define Techguys.. They are there to setup machines, do healthchecks and provide (often free) advice. They have never in my 15 years actually repaired machines instore" What about when viruses have crippled a machine and the customer doesn't want it restoring, 5-6 hours work repairing a machine right there. Or mobile broadband software that messes up, which it does very easily, customer has been on the phone for 3 hours with a call center who dont care cause their modem works fine in another machine. saying Techguys are unskilled, or dont repair machines, means you have no apreaciation of what they actually do and put up with.
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  • Old G.
    Glad I took the redundancy 2yrs ago. All the best techs left then. Dixons really shot themselves in the foot on this. I have been in the trade for 45yrs doing different duties and trained for higher skill levels. Pc Repair, Flat panel wallmount ,home cinemas etc etc. If you try to do service on the cheap it'll fail and customers walk seen it before.
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  • Current -.
    I find some of the comments comical, when regarded towards the cost of some of the services and what gets done, it's as if no-one knows (even apparently some tech guys, if they are tech guys that is) about the services. Just to clarify I am not "sticking up for" the tech guys, I do believe that some of the things that I have to justify charging for are a bit much, in the way of cost. HOWEVER that comment is only for services such as PC Tune Up (was called Health Check) where the equivalent effect could be brought by running CCleaner (both clean and reg), Antivirus checks and things like chkdsk, disk cleanup and defrag. Now, not everyone knows how to do these things, which is why there is Tech Friend, a considerably cheaper option than waiting on the phone for several minutes to get connected and racking up a hefty phone bill trying to get something solved, only to find out that you're talking to the wrong person. I believe that TTG (The Tech Guys) are there for 1 reason and 1 reason only, for those who do not know what they are doing/do not have the resources to do it themselves. Which means that if they believe that they should not have to pay for something that they have screwed up or have been part of an unfortunate event, then that's a bit absent minded. If you have a virus on your machine it could be for several reasons, including the absence/condition of antiviral protection (removers and firewall), and absence of common sense. Fair enough, some people will get a virus because they opened an email from a friend that they thought was legit, however that's no excuse for no protection. There are good free options for protecting your machine. So long as you are careful and do your research then you will be safe. I MAY continue this post as I find it slightly frustrating that ignorance takes SOME people by the brain and nothing else, however not right now. (i say some people because there are quite a hand full of people who respect and understand what we have to go through). Next will be talking about "repairs - they sooo don't happen in store"... that's bull, I do them (almost) every day.
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  • Current -.
    And I completely agree with this comment above: Posted by pcw | September 21st, 2010 at 2:56 pm This is bad new for our customers I work with 2 excelent tech guys in our store and they go above and beyond what they are meant to be doing. Not only that Newark keeps loosing customers laptops when they do go off for repair so how can they get rid of instore tech guys. Totally out of order yet again another mega stupid thing passed down by our glourious HO and the people who brown nosed their way into a role up there. Its so right what another coment said they all belong to the ol’boys brigade been to same uni and stuff come work in stores for a day try and cope with customer issue after customer issue. If they are all going to make us reduantant then at least give us prober notice of 90 days not this crap of new services.
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  • Not B.
    @ big bob: You're among the lucky ones... some of us are "Red Circled" by Northgate, meaning we don't get an increase this year....... Speaking of penny-pinching, anyone else having trouble opening bank accounts, etc with the new online-only payslips....?
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  • another g.
    "KnowHow is taking over from the techguys and is going to sell services on behalf of the DSGi group plc, I know this as I work for Techguys (Currys Home Delivery). This new sector of the company will be finished and released by March 2011, they are going to eventually part from the DSGi group plc and work with Transportation and Services providing Boots and Mothercare with Logistics Services aswell as offering Washing Machine Installs, TV Walls Mounts, Warranties & Insurances, Deliveries, Electrical and Gas Cooker Installs" ..How many times is dsgi going to re invent its self again and again. Get it right and leave it alone,. any good tech , if pc or old tv guys, get out now.
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  • Tech G.
    Trust me when i say, if your a pc world tech time to bail
    Reply ·
  • Long D.
    This all makes Business sense, if the company doesn't move forward, it will fail. Margins in retail are at an all time low and the old retail business model needs changing. Fewer people are shopping in stores (as opposed to on-line) so new reasons to shop with a brand are needed. Lots of Customers don't want to pay for repairs anymore, especially when prices are falling. Service is the only reason (after price) why Customers will choose one retailer over another. I know we all dislike change, but sometimes it's needed. As for in-store repairs etc. a lot of the shops had their own way of operating the Techguys area, some would do repairs, some wouldn't. I don't agree with all the things the company is doing at present and I have major concerns over the level of service we are giving to Customers. I am a degree educated Engineer and agree as a breed, Engineers do have a holier than thou attitude, maybe we all need to be a bit more open minded? There are a lot of clever shop staff who could easily cope with a lot of the 'techie' roles as well as sell products etc. So maybe they is no longer a need for an in store Engineer? Personally I believe an Engineer makes the transition to salesman more easily than vice-versa. I have friends working for both Comet and Bestbuy and they both say things are just the same there. In fact, Bestbuy in Southampton seems to be struggling and, apparently, are considering changing the use of the retail unit already. Word from DSG H.O re. Bestbuy, is that they no longer see them as threat, they may live to eat their words eh?
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  • ex g.
    engineers are a different type of person, they apply for techguys jobs because they enjoy repairing , installing pc's and not conning the genenal public into buying something just for the sake of it. like some sales staff... a engineer is a engineer and nothing else. good enginneers find another job.
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  • Dogbury
    I'm an ex techguy who worked for one of the busiest departments in the country. I think I better explain the thinking behind the pricing policy. If you're paying a technician £14k to £15k a year, (some £4k to £5k under an expected wage for similar roles elsewhere), then you can assume an overall employment cost of at least £20k but probably more. This means that each technician must be personally generating £400+ a week to break even. That's sales boys and girls. We as technicians were not only expected to effect 8 to10 repairs a day, we were expected to sell services with an average cost of £30 to the public. Frankly we rarely did this. Within the very limited view of managment we are not cost effective. In terms of the jobs we were required to undertake, yes some of what we did were setups and memory installs. A great deal more were assesment of machines under warranty prior to them being booked for repair by engineers licensed by manufacturers. However the majority of the jobs we undertook were either software issues not covered by warranty or hardware issues on machines outside warranty. For my part I did my job well as did the people I worked with in my department. We had to supply our own tools and find alternatives for the poor standard of software we were supplied with and there was always too much work but were all experienced and conscientious to the public. In fact it was often the case that we would find ourselves rectifying damage done by independant repairers who clearly didn't know what they were doing. As an example it takes me several hours to diagnose the underlying cause of a missing OS. That includes running software and soak testing components. Often independants seem to have an almost psychic ability to make diagnoses in under 5 minutes and charge customers. This is a scam. If you want to know the real problem with PC World and other retailers it's primarily the product they sell. It's cheaply made with misleading hardware specifications such as high end chips stuck in low quality mainboards that don't have an fsb to match the performance of the chip, (a classic Packard Bell scam). That's the price the consumer pays for not having to pay the prices you might have found 8 years ago in store. On top of this the floor staff are signficantly underpaid youngsters, usually in their first job who don't realise that their employment rights are treated as an inconvenience by a managment who still think this is the 1980's. Specifically in terms of price if you want to buy a long lasting, fast and reliable computer go and buy an Apple Mac. It will cost more but you'll save money in the long run. We sold on 30 a week on average and I only had to repair 4 of those in 12 months. I'd repair more Dells a day. Even better don't buy them from PC World, buy them from a Mac store. The staff are much better paid and treated with at least some dignity and respect by their employers. Sorry for the long post.
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  • Peter L.
    what a extremely silly name!!!! KNOWHOW?! techguys is such a better name, what a waste of money rebranding, feel sorry for employees of this company I really do, oh hello i`m mr silly here and i`m called knowhow??? just really daft!
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  • abullah
    well here we go again mastercare re braneced i feel the knowhow brand is wrong it depicts that customers know nothing and we know it all.not good at all negative image but then who are we to know we are small nuuts in the big flanders field. the managers all are lean on poppy seed and smoke green greass ... they will re brand currys as dixons again and then re brand knowhow to friendly tech.
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  • Ieye
    last year when DSGi announced that they are going through a turnaround.Now growth has been put to one side and cost cutting got started. Cost Cutting is good but its on the wrong end, branch managers will get sacked and obviosly some of the sales staff will lose their jobs too. giving a Best Buy will have greater chance and that could lead bestbuy to buy out DSGi they are already probably waiting for the right moment. now that Currys and PCworld has announced that they are in loss and looking the industry condition and customer behaviour change they have to go for diversification to servive. Stupid thing is that PCworld which was suposed to target mainly small business has drifted far from its actual plain of marketing strategy, thanks to compitition from internet. price competition has infected every product range now starting from Laptops, TVs and white goods to small kitchen appliances and printers. It will infect the services area too so it is probably a gamble worth taking i.e. keep rebranding so that price compititon can be avoided lol... a funny way but it might work.
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  • Ex S.
    I am a ex-tech guy and I must say this is a poor idea. Also to confirm, Instore Tech Guys did do repairs. I was in one of the lucky stores where I could do motherboard or LCD screen replacements in laptops. Great fun.
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  • Current c.
    although this sounds like a bad idea, we have been trailing this in our store for a while and the turn around time so far has ALWAYS been less then 14 days which is great and the customer gets to know a date when to expect their product back. with regards to the in store tech guys, unfortunately they have to train themselves and so the idea of only having to tutor customers and not physically fix their computers maybe a good thing for some of the newer techguys... this all goes live in MAY in stores and the field engineers and services change to know how in march
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  • Not H.
    Why Sebastian James are you getting your regional managers, to force your managers in store to not get payed for bank holidays. I worked really hard missing out on my kids for nothing! We pushed above Lfl no bonus because we all know its unrealistic. Stop this I love working for this company but to rob us from getting payed over peak is a bit below the belt. Before you talk about how we have a choice of days off instead, No it was never put to us as a choice! It was forced on us as no pay! No one has ever asked me what I wanted! You know this because it clearly reflects in the budget on boxing day. What store could pay all the managers and staff and not go over budget. Stop This Now! Please we are working hard and understand we are in hard times but this is as I said a bit below the belt!
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  • Adam
    @ Dogbury I agree totally with what your saying. I also agree with somebody else who mentioned false promises. I was promised by my manager who was an total arse, when I started, that I would start small and gain confidence (I have autism so that effects me). Nearly 3 years and I'm no further on. The company will happily take on un-qualified idiots who stand around chatting and know nothing about the products they sell, and then shit all over the dedicated and hard working staff like myself and some of you guys. I asked my manager if i could get involved with sales more, he said, you can go on some training (never had fives training when I joined), and I still havent seen anything yet. Empty false promises. Apparently product knowledge is not needed so I was told. I wanted to be involved with an Apple stand if we go WNR, but my manager said, there's a difference between selling and knowledge, yet I have loads of Apple products, it seems other colleagues that don't are more capable! Complete total bullshit. Sales tactics are terrible, I once saw a colleague sell norton to a customer who was buying a linux net book, why would you do such a thing? I also think the general public should think twice before they start slanting us off, were not all the same, just because there's a bad bunch, don't tar us all with the same brush! If DSG want to make a difference, they should have a long hard look at their staff and ask their opinion, get rid of all the useless buggers and get staff energised and motivated.
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  • Adam
    Just seen that in my above post, word was 'slagging'. Silly autocorrect!
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  • DontKnow
    Does anyone know what is happening with KnowHow yet? All we know is it's happening but they won't tell us anything about it. There are three of us 'tech guys' in my store, we do all the repairs and all customer service, will any of us be losing our jobs!?
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  • Dontknow
    What is KnowHow in the stores anyway? What does it look like and what do the KnowHow team do? Is it like the Apple Genius bar!?
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  • James l.
    Half of you guys seem to know jack all about currys or pcworld haha and if you were running a company of your own the way your talking about it would fail within a year with a shocking turn over you guys are actual loosers if you have nothing better to do haha jokers
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  • i h.
    Its just a name change. Thats it. Only minor changes, everything The TechGuys do will be the same basicly.
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  • Dontknow
    How is it just a name change? i'm told we are going screwdriverless and not allowed to open machines!?
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  • John
    Will we be given the option of taking redundancy ? Or forced to become Customer Advisors
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  • Monkeys t.
    Having worked in the national repair centre at newark i can say tech guys are doomed within the next year if they carry down this path. Essentially most of the people who work their dont have a clue, or little interest in computers and are just part fitters. Plus with them wanting 18 laptop fixes per day its forcing everyone working there just to send out shit as they havent got sufficent time to test it. Plus engineers know what qc check for afterwards so they can bodge job it and get it back to the customer fucked without it looking bad on them lol only good thing working there is the 22k salary, other than that its like a prison. Then theres the tv side which is just as bad mishandling tv's slamming them through doors, it makes you cringe. Theres no pride in your work at the national repair centre. Lucky for me i found another job :)
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  • LovingMyJob
    Its more than just a name change, having been informed today that the techguys is ending and KnowHow will be up and running within 4 weeks or so, I can say that "doomed" is far wide or the mark. Quicker turn around times, 3 faults and your unit is replaced, faulty items under £150 will be replaced in store, no sending away for repairs, just a straight swap, dropping engineers targets so its more about quality, delivery times to suit the customer, down to a 2hr time slot, wall mounting TVs and free setup, store upgrades so you can try before you buy (like the apple store). These are just a few changes which are starting soon. We are even having an open day for customers and people off the street to come along and have a look. Sounds like Monkeys with screwdrivers is one of them engineers that bodged his repairs and couldnt keep up with targets set. I agree that 16 - 18 a day is to much for some people who have no idea what they are doing (like Monkeys with screwdrivers).
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  • A G.
    I am a Tech Guy , I've been through name change after name change I started when it was pc service call, and as an engineer back then we did a good job, then they brought in changes that just brought the customer bad service, I've watched the techguys in the Tech Clinics in the store get so much shit off customer because they can’t do a simple data recovery as they have been told they can’t use the system which they were supplied with as it was to expensive to use. The engineers used to do this on a daily basis by using external hard drives and data pens, but this didn’t make money for the shops so they were told they can’t do this anymore. I'm a tech guy and from next month (march) NOTHING will be fixed in the customer house's everything will be collected and taken into the Newark repair center. I go back to so many machines that have gone back to the customer with only 1 screw holding the motherboard in. Hard drives not plugged in , heatsink fans not screwed to the motherboard, and they say 97% of our customer are happy well i must be the only engineer left in the country who goes to the other 3% that are NOT happy. Those higher up who brought this great idea think this is going to work THIS WONT WORK BECAUSE the only difference in buying your new pc from pcworld is we offer 24hour in house repair. We WONT be doing that anymore so you might as well buy your computer from Tesco's, argos or even Aldi BECAUSE BELIEVE ME THE ONLY THING YOU ARE GOING TO GET FROM THE DIXON GROUP IS EVEN MORE BAD SERVICE. FOR THE LAST 10YEARS I'VE BEEN HERE I’ve LOVED MY JOB BUT FOR THE LAST YEAR I’ve WORK FROM AN LOCAL DELIVERY CENTER WHERE THE MANAGER SPEAK TO LIKE DIRT AND HAVE NO RESPECT FOR THEIR FELLOW WORK COLLEAGUES IT’S A horrible place to work for now I look forward to the redundancy’s, but it doesn’t look like they are going to do that it just feels like they are trying to force you out with working 10 and a half hour days and traveling 250 miles a day in a dirty disgusting van which make me feel ashamed of to drive. Anyways I could go on moaning but there is one good thing worth coming to work for they pay me a stupid amount to delivery tv's, so thanks for that Dixons.
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  • vandriver
    just to reply to one of the techguy... I m a van driver (as everyone in the companie call us), probably the most qualified van driver in the world....I am as well, a plumber, an electrician, a gas fitter, a kitchen installer, a computer engineer.....doing more and more everyday, in less and less time. Currys and PC world need margin...... SELL the services... everyday, i have to give away my time as the stores don t charge the customers for all the services they expect, which leave us 30 minutes to install a TV , built up the stand, Connect the existing appliances, the new one (HTK, sky box, freesat box....)and, the most important thing....teach the customer how to work out the new Hight tech set...all my colleagues would understand exactly what i mean. Before launching anything new, they should make sure they are capable of handling what s already in place.... what about starting by the beginning and make sure the call center can take a complete address properly ? they ll might be then, able to diagnose any technical problem for our customers.
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  • DontBelieveTheHype
    @ LovingMyJob Sounds like its all rainbows and sparkly colours that they are painting over there. Take it from me, Dixons do not have the infrastructure to support a proposition like that. Doomed from the start.
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  • RoflCopter
    I have one thing to add to the whole DSGi debacle (as an ex-employee and not that long ago...) ROFL:ROFL:LOL:ROFL:ROFL ______|_____ L / \ LOL=== []\ L \______________\ | | -------------/ Yeah, I used to work for DSGi, that's WHY I shop at Best Buy!
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  • ThankgodIleft
    There are a lot of posts from staff based at stores who seem to have an issue with the call centres. When I say centres I was made redundant from the Nottingham Call Centre as I couldn't travel to Sheffield When I first started it was customer focused, our job was not made easy by some "collegues" in store ringing up on the customers behalf (BEFORE people get on their high horse read on...) without knowing the fault, nor make model and serial numbers. We didn't have crystal balls just the brilliant MCSD & Ejoke then Myraid the less said about that program the better it's eclipse only slower. Running on stupidly out of date computers. So some store staff got stropy that they couldn't book the item in ~ the system crashed without a serial number and if it didn't and we booked it in every week it would be brought to our Attention in no uncertain terms. Believe you me I would hate to work in a store where you are pushed to sell c/plan WEH and have stupid targets and on top of that angry customers to deal with. We were told not to deal with stores on customers behalf. Wrong yes That all changed when some bright spark decided it would improve call handling time and customer service to out-source the call centre to the dreaded Capita
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  • ThankgodIleft
    (continued from my post ) They then put both call centres up against each other, the stores were way down Capita's list. Customer Service went out the window in came stupidly low AHT (Average Handling Time) which all staff on the phones were measured on. They wanted a High Service Level but with the call taking no more than five minutes or less. Stats Stats and more Stats. They merged several departments, moved us into one building so the "Dixons staff" had their own space. The bonus system was impossible, we were promised a perfrmance related payrise, which no one got as by then the Recession was starting to hit. Annulised Hours were introduced, if we didn't sign we were given notice. The Team Leaders were told they all had to apply for their job roles as they were making cuts. The majority of the decent ones took VR. Which left us with a high number of them that loved Stats but were rubbish at dealing with their teams needs and requests. Dixons realised after 2 years that Capita was not Customer focused. So they took control over the two sites. Once the TUPE 12 months were up, we were told that the Nottingham Site was to Close in March 2011. We'd already figured out something was happening as no repairs were done and the building was down hill. Flee infested, filthy,leaking ceiling etc. They said they'd looked at merging Sheffield into Nottingham (doubt it as Capita signed a lease for 16 years with the purpose built shiny Sheffield one) and were merging digital into the main call centre and all customer services were being transferred to Sheffield. What was missing was COMMUNICATION between the call centres and the stores. At times it felt like we were put up against each other. That's not what customer service should be. Removing the Tech Guys from the stores, is just going to cause friction between customers and staff. As the majority of the general public, do not look at the receipt or WEH documents and take their items back to the store. When the customer realises that their tv,laptop,pc has to been set away. The poor sods in the stores bear the brunt of it, then when the customer gets home they will call in, and scream at the person on the end of the phone. Not everyone in the Contact Centre reads from a script, many know what they are talking about and do also focus on what the customer wants and needs. However the continued rebranding on top of the organisational switch around, they have lost many decent employee's from the old service centre's, Mansfield workshop, Engineers, Call Centres as well as the Stores. Rebranding to Know How, may well work, new customer promises may be bet. Isn't it a case of this has all been done before?? Remember Mastercare, PC Servicecall, Dixons branches. Customers rarely remember good service but remember bad. Coverplan was replaced by WEH and will probably change again, but the customers pre the rebranding will be dealt with according to what warrenty's they have. And the cycle of s**t will start again. Loosing my job was a shock, but It also pushed me to think about what I wanted to do. After being there years I got into a routine and couldn't be bothered to look for another job. And I made a promise to myself I will never work in a call centre again!
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  • KnowHowTECHthingy...
    I currently work at the call centre on tech. Not long now. From what Iv seen the blame kinda spreads. How i do like working for the company, Knowhow is gonna fail. Part of the knowhow training they are telling us to "sort it out, no matter what it is..." with what!? we DONT have access to the same systems as other departments, we CANT log complaints, we're NOT allowed to call out to the distribution centres or the workshops.. good call. On the other hand, SOME stores are pretty usless, they dont know computer from a monkey... but you cant blame them. they are only there to sell provide a service.. but when it comes to dealing with W/h issues.. oh no.. call tech! they will SEND you a replacment.. cos its magic like that! also... some customers expect abit too much from a service. clearly states it will take 21 days. when we tell them "oh no, i wouldnt have took out the policy if that was the case".. if someone offered you £1000 to sign something.. Id kinda read the small print first..
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  • shineypencil
    i work with the above person and have to say that there are some right muppets that work with us in sheffield, i'm not going to say i'm perfect & always right as i'm not. Sometimes it can be hard as customers cannot explain what is happening if they arn't familiar with computing or technical issues so there is a bit of guess work at times but i can usually back that up that initial guess as i know what i'm doing as another set of diags will prove it & if not its another piece of the puzzle but ones step closer. The only problem is they like employing peaople with no knowlege so they will just give up & book the job so that AHT is reduced its all about the figures & not actually a first time fix, spending a decent amount of time on the phone if the customer is happy to do so & their bank account allows it to: 1. diag the fault fully & 2. resolve it without it being booked if possible. Which in the end is better service for the customer as they dont have to be without their product But the problem with employing people with no technical/computing background to the techguys means that neither of the two above get done properly and the people like myself who have studied computing and have a keen intrest and can repair electical & electronics items get penalised for trying to do the job correctly & trying to take pride in helping out the customer although our system do not help one little bit. One further thing to "Vandriver" it would help if you guys actually contacted the customers & stop telling them there entitled to loan items when they are not! You have a rant at us, we'll happily rant back as most of the shite we get from customers is because you lot havn't turned up or contacted them or in most cases not done the setup or install correctly (although could be the LDC/Hubs fault more than your own for not forwarding or checking the information we send them properly or indeed cancelling jobs through LDO that are still live on JRS) Peace!
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  • Adam
    I work at Dixons and I feel this is going to be a massie change and is going to make staff realise that Customer is King, and without the customer we cannot operate as a business, we are trying to focus on our current customer base as it is the easiest way to generate business, New sales are always great but to make sure some one is happy and confident to shop with us in the future means the world to me and working as part of an escalations team within the business I really do feel passionate about putting the customer first and at the heart of everything that I do, I am really excited about the change and I am sure it is going to give each and every customer a spectacular finish to there issues and queries. With this new area of the business it is streamlining alot of the processes and making sure that every sinlge person can deal with a customer and knows the correct way in which to research a resolve.
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  • mrs..knowhow
    i see a pattern hear alot of the ppl who are dissing the tech guys are indeed now x employees. and the ones that are not seem to have no pride in there job. im not saying working for tech guys..know how..is easy, dam from what i know there is a power strugle in the ranks. but you get that in most jobs. tech guys to know how is not the end of the world its just a rebranding thing. and as for some posts saying staff have no pride in work and its slap dash jobs well maby in the store you work in. dont tar all workers with the same dirty brush. my partner and his work mates do a fantastic job and take a grate deal of pride in there work. and i for one im verry proud.
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  • onlyvisitingthisplanet
    i cannot belive some of the crap i see on the posts here, van drivers you do a good job and you take a lot of crap, we who work in the call center also do on the whole a good job, problems are you are never given enougth time to complete full diags because you always have some someone coming over and asking why the call is taking so long and can you hurry it up. Okay so the focus should be on the customer and i for one believe that it takes as long as it takes, but the powers that be do not see it that way and that is why you often have incomplete diags done, it is not because we are monkeys with screwdrivers or because we do not know what we are doing, we do! I for one have been working with computers and fixing them for over 15 years. I have built a great number of computers for myself and other people so no we are not monkeys with screwdrivers we are very experienced people with our hands tied behind our backs, which is very frustrating when you are not allowed to do your job properly and the customer suffers,you get really pi**ed off and frustrated and on top of that you get management breathing down your neck all the time, its like being treated like a school child. I thank whoever that many of our customers are so loyal but i fear that one day we will lose our customers because of the way in which we are restricted and managed by the powers that be to deal with it as quickly as we can. This means that customers suffer and as a result due to the above you loose customers! Is this supposed to be a great business stratergy??? Also because of this you get at least 10 calls a week with the customer giving you loads of s**t over the phone and shouting their head of at you, and youve just got to sit there and take it otherwise you would get sacked!!! Its a load of s**t but its either that or the dole, so those of you out ther who slag us off for bad service you try doing this job for a year then see how you can cope with it, i bet you would not even last six months.
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  • vandriver
    Hi just to reply to shineypencil.... peace, indeed Reading comments from every departments, it just shows that no one knows what we all do on site, blaming the stores, the ldc. the fpc, the ttg, Sheffield, Newark, the drivers.... @ the end of the day, its like everywhere, you got good guys and bad guys, as you said you feel penalized for doing a good job, i do as well. I always turn up to all of my jobs, otherwise i don't get paid, i don't do 9 to 5, but 6 to 6,and i m the one who has to deal with the customer face to face, There is no unity in the company what so ever, we shout at each other when we supposed to work together as ONE team.... bullshit ! We all numbers, as long as you fit into the stats you re OK. Good or bad job, they dont give a toss...during all these years i saw valuable people being sacked and brainwashed idiots being promoted.... I wish we all could spend a day in the different departments, so we could realize what is the reality of our jobs....you re all welcome in my van for a nice 200 miles trip between 7am and 6pm...no time to stop for lunch, so take a sandwich with you, you ll have it between MR Smith greasy cooker and MRS Posh Wall mounted TV ! all good fun ! LOL
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  • H20
    Well knowhow is now live at Newark. Guess what they want 16 laptops repaired per day, so that's roughly 30 minutes to repair and test each machine. I'm sorry but it doesn't matter how experienced the engineer is, there is no time to ensure it is fixed and tested correctly. From what I have seen so far it just looks like another rebrand to frankly honest. Same old DSGI taking the piss out of their customers and work colleagues.
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  • KnowHowTECHthingy...
    Work as ONE team? I'd be more than happy to do that. But its impossible at the call centre. You get one idiot saying to book in a computer with out running diags because its just "running abit slow" and threatening to report you cos' Im saying we have to do diags first.. yes. report me for doing my JOB.. Another idiot saying its all YOUR fault before even reading the notes.. Then bringing up a excuse for both times "its the know how way" REALLY!? dont get me wrong, We're not perfect on tech, But when your just sit and taking the crap from other departments cos they had a ear full from the customer is kinda sad. its part of the Job.. DEAL with it! we're on phones all fecking day with random strangers and other departments cant talk to someone in the same buiding as you just to give you an insight of the issue.. its no wonder customers get fustrated with calling us, get a blind transfer and they say "did the other person tell you!?"... well obv not... OH THE FUN....:)
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  • shineypencil
    Yep all of the aboove is true every dept has good and bad staff, apart from top level management as they cannot see good customer service if it hit them in the face along with their long drawn out processes... and in regards to taking pride in my job i was once told not to take as much pride in resolving issues as by doing so trying to see the issue through to the end was taking too long but yet they would like a 1st time fix. Unfortunatly non of us that work in customer facing roles dont seem to have been provided with magical dsgi wands to wave but thats what they would like. More fixes in less time and unfortunatly its the customers & us that suffer for it as every one gets annoyed or should i say (and heres a knowhow phrase for you all) "in the RED". Well thats another 2 pence spent until next time in the wonderful world of knowerrmmmm!!how =)
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  • jim t.
    Any one know how to contact the know how team the number i have is 0844 561 1234 but it's always engaged ggggggggggggggrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr plz help.
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  • bigbang123
    The Knowhow number 0800 587 87 87 ................. not that you'll get much joy spend 20 + minutes to speak to idiots on the other end of the phone. I work in a Store and its just another re branding of the tech guys same old bad service no communication between stores and contact centre and delivery guys, Supposed to have a higher level of service but from what ive seen its longer waiting times... longer repair times so aless you take out the new "Knowhow Protect " service ensuring a 7 day turn around (Yeh right). They need to be more customer focused and actually speak to people on the front line at the stores and the call centre not someone sat in head office thinking oh thats a good idea ! Another EPIC failure by Dixons retail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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  • JAMES
    Thank you bigbang123 i totaly agree with you, the staff there are not helpful at all if i could find another place that doe's the same repair's but better customer servive i would take it up like a shot, my computer has been ready a week now but cant send it to me for 7 days wich i find totaly wrong if it's ready why dont they send it back to me there and then? i won't be buying from dixons retail again.
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  • bigbang123
    James..... its not the stores fault we have to handle all the situations with angry customer that have not even been caused by ourselves mainly due to the lack of service and communication with the repair centre in Newark ! we can do little more than the customers themselves !!! Finally found out all the new knowhow services which are more expensive than existing tech guys services and now have to be sent away to Newark for at least 7 days for the smallest of jobs instead of the in store technicians doing them........ how this is better customer service ill never know ! The idea of being more customer focused and going out of our way is right but we need the tools systems and communication within the company to be able to deliver this effectively !
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  • JAMES
    bigbang123 i'm not blaming the store, the stores where i live have always been helpful never had a issue with them, the reason i say i wont but from dixons retail is because off the service from the KNOW HOW team whom ever i spoke to on the phone there was very unhelpful, i want to buy a product where we get good service from the repair team. what i just can't under stand is they text you saying your laptop is ready but wont be delivered for 7 days if its ready why dont they send it overnight it was picked up overnight and when the tech guys have had it in the past i have known in back in 48hrs and when it was ready it was always sent back the next day.
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  • D
    It's a joke start to finish,work on the delivery side,and as the norm its middle management trying to justify their large paypacket.They have now MADE us do a 12 hr day (not asked) and have been told,(if you don't want tobe in the KNOWHOW,then feck off) witch is nice.They have given us 2 mins extra per customer so we can go that extra mile or them,we already do everything but wipe their bums.
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  • Ady
    I work in the retail stores and while im excited about Knowhow im also a little optomistic about it. I can do no more than support it. On paper it sounds and looks very good. Im aware that it is going to be a slow migration process. We go live in our store in a few weeks times and the hardest thing is going to have to tell people that some of the things we have previously done in the store can no longer be done. Knowhow will fail with the attitudes of some people above, however wih the right attitudes and everyone doing their job properly it should work and live to be an exciting experience. Will it work? no reason why it shoudnt as long as people are honest with customers and manage their expectations properly from both retail stores and the contact centres, the Knowhow service centre is already most of the way there they just need to get rid of the monkeys with screw drivers that have no pride in their work. Reading some of the comments above how some people managed to keep their jobs i will never Knowhow.
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  • KnowHow V.
    I was over the moon to attend an open day at KnowHow on the Newark Campus just after their launch. However all is not as it should be on that site. And it would appear, from what the public were told, that internally the staff are being run contrary to the ethos of KnowHow. First the vsiit. The cracks in DSG's management showed after the first tour. The 'orange' jacketed manager dumped their group of visitors back to the front door and made their way off. Probably a tea break. So groups of visitors were left to wander around the Campus's road system to hopefully make their way to the next building. The old 'My Customer, My Responsibility' mantra that stores were made to chant a few years ago obviously never made its way down to the warehouse! (Oh, it definitely made its way into the management - 'My Career, My Responsibuility!) Add in the fact that the management (or some 'yellow' jacketed flunkies were delegated the task) at the Campus had obviously spent some time in arranging nice banners inside the buildings and high up on both warehouses they had totally forgotten to lay out any signage outside the buildings, or signs pointing visitors in the correct direction, or even pointing to where they should park their cars. Like in a film - "Visitors arrived to the Wild West of DSG as tumble weed drifted across the windy isolated Campus." Once again DSG failed. Like it's stores it loves the fine decoration but forgets to install a motivated staff to complete the picture. What we were told. The ethos of KnowHow is to put the customers needs first. Rather than repeatedly thow out equipment that hasn't been comprehensively checked to ensure that it fuctions just as it did when the customer bought it, KnowHow were to 'put the time' into giving a comprehensive repair up front. Staff were no longer required to fix equipment in restrictive time slots. They just had to take their time and give the customer a piece of kit that was fully fuctioning. Oh dear. It seems that from the notes above staff are on the conveyor belt repair system of 30 minutes per laptop. A state of affairs that the public were expressely told would not happen any more. Rather calls into question the purpose of their Open Day, doesn't it? Pure PR. Close the doors. Back to business as usual guys. And that's the impression they were at pains to dispel. If the Ops Manager reads this, you should be ashamed. However your bonus pot should take some of that shame away. How they can get anyone to work on the windowless airless site is beyond me. They've built a super high tech center in the centre of a building. They've even put windows in it! (Next trick, paint flowers and trees on the walls opposite?) To one side they have a large repair workshop. To the other an impressive 'Development' zone where, we're assured, the best engineers work. Their purpose, to fix the unfixable. And when they fail, the customer gets a new appliance. One wierd fact. The Development area looked well lit, was very small, but seemed fairly high tech, and the staff looked cheerful. The other workshop looked dull, had benches with enormous gaps between them, looked fairly low tech, and the staff weren't exactly jumping with joy - few tools (and power screwdrivers!), monitor, small bench work area, and a stool - to each person. So if you're lucky your device will make it to the 'happy center', and get a fully comprehensive fix. If not, you get the dull side, and who knows how many return trips for your equipment! Given that the staff have to endure 12 hour shifts in that windowless airless hell hole I'm not surprised that there isn't much of a feel good factor on site. Add in atrocious management with human resource procedures that would test anyones sanity, it can't be the most pleasant place to work. Oh, if you ever get to visit, do a long car journey type game of 'Count The Orange Jacket'. You'll be horrified at the amount of managers on that site. And truly amazed at how they congrugate in little groups with (seemingly) little to actually do. It doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out that many of those in KnowHow at Newark are just about capable of using a screwdriver. Unfortunately they are called on to work as a team - the Grand Plan. How many UK citizens have at least 6 languages? That's a pretty high demand for screwdriver wielders. Why? The staff at Newark's Campus are - English (30% ish), Russian, Lithuanian, Ukrainian, Portrogeuse, Brazillian, Spanish (70% ish, many of whom are agency staff drawn from Right Recruitment, a local employment agency). Okay, the Eurpean contingent may be well educated. However increasing numbers just don't speak English. It's not surprising that it's been rumoured that immigration visit the site. Finally, the Barnby Gate syndrome. Before the Campus there was Barnby Gate in Newark. The most efficient warehousing operation in the DSG portfolio even though it was failrly rough and ready. It gave a gold standard in service terms. So how is it remembered? It's shunned by the managenment of the Campus as an embarassment. Why? Because the Campus has been a spectacular failure. The ability to get stock to the shops has been hampered by a conveyor system that just isn't up to the job. Call off times have increased. And when comparisons are made to Barnby Gate - "Mentioning that place is banned!" Blinkered isn't an accurate term. Blind to the realities of their failure is a better one. So you have a company that is full of the 'Emporors New Clothes' management. And that seems particulary prevalent in upper management. Those who are good, and a fair number are, just keep their mouths shut because the majority rule is by the 'Emporers...' and they have the ears of the top management. It's rule by the mob. On a kinder note, DSG should be a fabulous place to work. It's the UK's largest electrical and PC retailer on the High Street and out of town. The opportunities for the truly gifted should be exeptional. However that large size has led to it becoming flabby and careering out of control. And as for those opportunities, well if any failures are identified, or people are noted for their exeptional interview skills, well promote them. Not exactly the best way of recruiting your key staff, is it? Be nice to see DSG still here next year. But maybe it's been one calimity after another too many, and the writing's on the wall. With shares at less than 12p a buyer should have seen how exeptionally cheap DSG is to acquire. However no one is coming forward, are they? Maybe it's easier to set up from scratch than attempt to steer the DSG ship back on course? So when the economy eventually gets back on course, watch your back DSG. BestBuy may not be the only competitor you've got to worry over...
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  • H20
    Spot On "Know How Visitor" The major problem for the Newark site is that it is ruled by a management culture that was running the site when it was just a distribution hub/warehouse. Now the decision was made to move all repairs to Newark, so now we have warehouse managerment trying to impose logistical targets onto technical staff. They simply do not understand how to manage a technical project & they have no interest in researching it either. I have given up trying to convince them that they need to focus on quality & hiring competent staff, they wont listen, in fact if you even dare to you'll probably end up with a dozen f*word rants & told to look for somewhere else to work if you dont like it. It's a very negative place to work & until they get rid of the destructive management strategy, I don't beleive they can deliver what they set out to do.
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  • KnowHow E.
    KnowHow is wanting to part from the retail sector of the company and provide logistics, in-home services, commerical and domestic deliveries of appliances. i know they have recently signed a contract with Whirlpool providing home delivery and trade deliveries. Boots and mothercare will be soon following, the company has to move forward it can't stay as it is and sink. Comet is up in smoke this year (according to figures our manager has shown us) as its not moving forward and hasn't got state of the art repair centre and doesn't give excellent customer service. You are just visiting a plain boring Comet store. This is what has motivated the rebranding and the start of new services and contracts. A company of this size cannot be blamed for mistakes of its employees but it can be acted upon. We have been given the choice to go along and train with the brand KnowHow or just leave. I will be excited to see what KnowHow has to offer. I have found working for the LDC since the re-branding a lot less stressfull and more professional as the uniform code is very strict along with our operations, where as before you would get a delivery operative turning up at your door in tracksuit bottoms and a pair of rockports saying av got a delivery for ya m8/love. This couldn't have projected a good image on the company. I can see why DSGi wanted the re-branding and a completely new image. Good Luck DSGi and employees' with the launch of KnowHow.
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  • KnowHow E.
    i forgot to add to the above post that B&Q are looking into KnowHow also for home applicance deliveries.
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  • KnowHow V.
    One only needed to read the Telegraph Questor column to see where the big investors see DSGs future. A leading broker has recommended that Dixons closes its UK business and concentrates on the overseas operation. That may be a bit harsh. However there only seems to be room enough for one bricks-and-mortar electricals retailer in the UK, so either DSG or Comet will have to pull the plug. And one must ask the questions, "Is Currys/PCWorld just too big?" and "As a consequence of its stores footprint are the crippling overheads the real cause for the companies demise?" Over 5 years ago I remember conversations with low grade employees where the topic was "Why not merge the stores into one? It would save a shed load of cash." Pity that DSGs management can only ever listen to their own ideas, or listen to others ideas only when they have been fooled into believing that they had an original thought. The best way to get things accomplished at DSG? Prod your manager into thinking up an idea by telling him one indirectly so he thinks he thought of it himself/herself. Then split your sides with laughter, and your buddies, when your marvellous idea is instigated. It'll be a success becuase the workforce know full well where it came from, and are naturally behind it. And another feckless useless manager will rise up the greasy pole. Funny how DSGs management are blamed for so much. When you know how they got to those elevated positions it's not surprising that the company is in such an unholy mess. And as they encourage competative behaviour, each department competes against another, and consequently screws up each others mission. Of course, it's in no-ones interest to shake the management tree as that would reveal the true chaos, and some managers may fall from grace when the reality of the situation is revealed. The Emperors New Clothes springs to mind. I remember an interview with Sir Stanley Kalms on his retirement where he was asked the question "If you were setting the business up today would you do anything differently?" His simple answer was "No stores". He realized that the Internet was such a dominant selling tool that stores were a liability. Yet BestBuy still saw fit to enter the UK market by providing a few stores and an Internet offering. Why the stores? Perhaps their management are steeped in the old traditions of a bricks-and-mortar presence? So maybe the malise in British electrical retailing is because the management is severely out of date. Ebuyer were just awarded 1st place as electrical retailer of choice. They invested in a massive new logistics center with a full on-site testing facility to assess all returned goods - reverse logistics, to those in the field. Now they can offer B and C grade items through a mass of Ebay identities. No wonder that they continue the march forward to dominate the electricals and computing market. And, over 5 years ago, they were just a blip on DSGs radar, only just appearing as a threat as they'd just broken into the white and brown goods markets. Now they appear to be a leader. And DSG is limping behind! When you consider that DSG squandered over £2 billion on its expansion into Europe, incedentally funded by the floatation of FreeServe, perhaps someone in the City should ask the question - "What capital assets, at current valuations, still exist from this expansion?" I'm sure the embarassing answer would be very little. Remember the £10 million loss from PCCity's warehouse in France? Result, the closure of PCCity. And the sale of their Polish concern for 1 euro? And now they've announced the closure of their Spanish concern. Add in the failed partnership with Russia's No 1 electricals chain (they dispatched a DSG manager there to the equivalent of DSG Siberia), and I wonder just how much of their shareholders cash they have squandered? Surely the City's eyes are open? Surely they will start to ask questions? At DSGs peak it was a pretty good place to work. And at one point it appeared high up The Times top places to work, with career progression asured to the best. All the staff shared in fabulous share option saving schemes, some taking home £30k in profits. Now those fabulous benefits have disappeared. And the wage rises are an insult considering that their management still see fit to award themselves generous bonuses. If they would just take a leaf out of Timson's management book and adopt upside-down management they'd realise how the small minority of managers are causing the most damage to their business. Listen to the guys on the floor and stop dreaming up PR laden excuses for poor service, such as the roll out of KnowHow (an admission that TechGuys was unfixable after being fatally wounded by press reports). To be frank your management will tell you what you want to hear. It's in their interest to be loved, and hopefully promoted by you. But your staff can be brutally honest. And you ignore them at your peril. Congratulations to all of those DSG staff on here who feel brave enough to comment on the situation. And to those full of positive vibes, will you have enough energy and committment to persuade your colleagues? Finally one pertinent quotation for DSGs management - "The aim of an argument or discussion should not be victory, but progress." Joseph Joubert, French Philosopher, 1754-1824. Discuss, or argue, with the guys on the floor, but come away with the philosophy that you'll listen and enact their ideas, and that you'll return to present them and discuss and argue them, and as a consequence arrive at something that everyone has been involved in. At the moment you seek affirmation for your own ideas, and select those comments from your staff that support them rather than listening to what is being said, analysing it, and re-appraising your schemes. No wonder that so many oppose your grand plans. Just imagine the power of a workforce that felt it had truly contributed to your plans and were completely behind you. DSGs future would be assured in a blink. Rather than being linked to blinkered managers!
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  • lishin
    I have worked for dixons for around 3 years now, and have been one of the top one hundred sales colleagues. Techguys were great however the entire system lacked communication. If this problem is eliminated we should be fine. For those complaining about DSGI as "knowlegeless and shit" we are sent to Erith once every 3 years for training. !!!!!!!!!!!!!
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  • Box S.
    What pisses me off is that management are more worried about their KPI's than the amount of money being made by the sales team. I've worked at PC World for quite some time now and from week1 to the end of the financial year I produced over £900K in sales which is top in my store, yet my GM tells me to pull my finger out and start performing better if I want to go places. One Saturday I had sold 13 units when the rest of the sales team done no more than 5 but the GM was more happy with them because their strike rate was better than mine, I was just below store avg. apart from AV & Tech attach for the day and my GM laughed at me "your doing the worst out of the whole store, remember to pull your socks up because it's the good sales guy that goes places, not the under performers". Well I think it's time to move on and go to a company where my peroframnce is valued and career options are realistic.
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  • sales c.
    Box shifter . I've only been in the company for a few months and it didn't take me. Very long to realise that its not about how much you sell its about getting attachments. If you can't use your fives and hit your strikes then you're no better than a checkout monkey. Volume means nothing if you don't get the quality that's just the way. It is. As for knowhow its just techguys with a different name. Even the pricing is the same. The whole point of it is there is no margin in product anymore , so they're trying to jazz up the services as they can make more money off services than product .nothing to do with customer satisfaction just the almighty dollar
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  • Ex G.
    I have been in the trade for 0ver 40years starting with valves and black and white TV. I trained to be a Tv engineer, which lead on to Colour TV ,VCR's CD Sytems. Then DVD arrived no problem .More Training. Flat Panel TV comes along. Trained as an Installer to fit Wall mounts, the computer repaiors were added to the mix, Home cinemas and streaming music networks. Then they had a bright idea give everyone 90 days notice and reapply for the job you had already been doing. But it wasn't the same job. Terms and conditions were changed to such a degree that in December the best Technicias they had all said Goodbye and walked. So here we have Tech guys understrength under trained and guess what the standards dropped. The cars went and now you have van drivers. They keep papering over the cracks but can't deliver the strength of service we were giving. The treatment of the technical staff has been an insult to their skill level and expertise.
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  • TECHIE
    I agree with Ex Tech Guy, I have been with PC World since the mid 90's, the Technical Team now are glorified Customer Service Staff. Operate in the black!! Send everything to 3866 Newark or Mercom where "Know How (tm)" will repair it, yeah right! Since the official launch in store on Wednesday 11th May, I have had four machines returned back to us in worse condition than they left!! Mercom or DPD have dropped/played football with them or whatever, now they have to go back for recasing etc, the 28 day rule applies and we in store have to suffer the cost on our bos! Simon Jones/Hon. Sebastion James/John Browett etc should leave Hemel and chat with the ordinary shop floor staff, NOT the Management, Experts or SIMS who repeat sales weh stuff etc without caring about the Clinic or front of house!! The people in black will tell them the real truth not the claptrap the Management discuss in "conference calls". Ok, this will never happen!! Back to reality another shift beckons in a few hours!
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  • DSG K.
    I agree with most other DSG employees on here when I say that whilst KnowHow is a fantastic 'new' business running individual, supposedly, it has its poor spots - maybe more of them that good ones. You may think you have a smart, intelligent (you would hope) delivery man turning up in a nice newly painted KnowHow lorry to delivery your TV or Kitchen appliance - the opposite applies. When looking at their charts, their shift starts at 8 and ends at, you guessed it, 8. They travel miles per day not only dealing with customer jobs such as installing a washing machine but collecting and delivery repairs to all stores in the region. They are over stretched! - no wonder why your deliveries are never on time, or your machine is not back in store when the text message states. We had a KnowHow logistics team member in store collecting repair jobs from us at 12:00 and he had to be 40 miles away installing an oven, of which needed to be collected from a local Curry's store and be installed by 12:25, unless he can make his lorry fly - that wasn't going to happen; especially as he didn't know where the curry's store was. On a plus note, they said that the company is employing more KnowHow Logistics staff, so that time should decrease - thank goodness. Additionally, call centres are now in-house resulting in a much faster call response (10 minutes max for us in-store and its the same in most occasions for customer now too) - word of advice, they're all human - treat them with respect and you get it back - the customer is NOT always right - trust me, I mean that - 40 minutes with a customer moaning to them realise his text message was wrong, cracks me up - but made my day HELL, you can't win when you where the company colours. Moreover, Mercom, third-party repairers are also being phased out - Hoorah! - most damaged or uncompleted returns are usually from the inconsiderate monkey's that are Mercom and this should now result in faster turn arounds. Rant Over! - I think. KH Employee.
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  • Advent U.
    They closed the techguys website and had absolutely no tech support for their own brand Advent notebooks and desktops in place on Knowhow. Terrifyingly bad and shows that they do not care a jot about customer support. The robots on the end of the 0844 phone lines have no idea how to deal with enquiries like "where do I get drivers for my Advent modena or where is the firmware update for DVD drives with the iTunes 2131 error". It is a monumental disaster.
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  • now e.
    they have no safety as well no isolating transformers on any benches to protect engineers/untrained agency staff working on tvs
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  • Knowhow M.
    I have worked for Pcworld as an engineer for 8 years almost, and knowhow was a very interesting move by the company. We have been Knowhow live for the past month. We were all briefed out our main focus is on delivering better customer services and our focus was to be primary on customers. What has this meant for instore Knowhow staff members? Well our GM and Clinic Manager has made this rule very CLEAR, we no longer have engineers or the role of Technicians/Engineers instore, everyone that works in the Clinic or in Support and for Knowhow have the same job role, that is to give customers the main focus and service above all else. So how is this working out currently in our store? Well we no longer offer the popular services instore that generated majority of our profit in services day in that day out, no more System Restores, no more PC Repairs, No more Laptop Repairs, everything is simply sent to newark for repair.... doesnt even matter if its a graphic card installation or a hdd install or to reload the operating system. Naturally the engineers and myself being one are not happy with this at all, and the Front desk counter staff are not happy either since they have to take more complaints about not being able to offer the repair in store, I too am getting the complaints but again this is now the new process and Knowhow. And how has this effected our customers that valued our Services in store ? Well they have simply walked away to find someone who can do the job within a day or 2.... Customers dont like to be told its going to take a week or 2 to have there system restored or a graphics card installed in there pc or a data recovery. Currently as it stands our staff in the store understand the frustration by the customers, and since we no longer have Technicians instore repairing desktops, laptops and doing there job in the back of the clinic generating the revenue and money were all just customer focused on keeping the ques down at the front Counter. Has knowhow helped instore staff ? A little so far, telephone calls for booking in repairs have improved, the person on the call center is more polite and more willing to book in your pc for repair where as before they were not. Turn around times have improved a bit better were getting laptops/Pcs back within 1.5-2.5 weeks on average where as before it might have been 2.5-3.5 weeks on average. Now comes the one snag, we are getting laptops/desktops back from repair with no reports or paperwork.... repairs have not even been bothered, and the quality control has clearly not been done. And they have still not fixed the "I have recieved a text message saying to collect the repaired laptop instore" and they arrive instore only to find NO laptop and its due in 5 days time, Well done newark this problem has only been ongoing daily instores for the past 3 months ! And again its instore staff that end up getting the joy of dealing with the customers.... Knowhow failed on its 1st day of launch when they decided to tell several customers to come into the store for Data Recovery, in fact we get 4-8 customers daily being advised to simply come into the store to have there laptop checked over or data recovered.... interesting considering we no longer offer repairs in stores or have anyone doing the role of technician. We of course offer Pc tune ups (healthchecks), Data tranfers and ram upgrades instore. Our managers and GM have advised myself and the engineer to train existing knowhow front desk staff to carry out Pc setups/tuneups and data transfers and memory installs and of course the technicians role is now dead so we have to give our expertise and serve customers at the front. And these are just a few of the issues, pretty clear too see Knowhow will not last long.... theres no way Customers are going to come to us if we are not the ones repairing or fixing there pc right there and then. We have taken a major nose dive for Service revenue. Its quite clear once again you can change the name but if you dont get it right from the core its going to be the same services that the customers will recieve. We definatly need to go back to our roots, give us back our super large Clinics with more space, have more Engineers being engineers and repairing customers pcs/laptops instore sooner rather then later this way we can get it done right from the beginning. We need to Start offering more Services instore including laptop/dekstop Repairs and more data recovery services and more importantly offer instore services that customers require daily which are not even offered as a chargable service since were missing out on alot of revenue already. Im really surprised we went backwards and personaly see Knowhow a big step backwards, it would have been so much nicer if a customer came to us for help be it in warranty, insurance or 3rd party (brought else where) and we simply helped the customer straight away and made the customer happy, and made money in the process but I guess this is not Knowhow.
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  • Knownowt
    Same as above. They brought in sales people off the shop floor with no technical knowledge, or very little (The people that sold your TV now fit graphics in your pc, if we don't send it away). And now engineers are meant to compete with these sales staff on service sales. Plus they keep saying mercom are going, but they need them as there is so much stuff to fix. Alot of the time it comes back within the allocated time, but not fixed.
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  • Mike
    Knowhow collected my Samsung PS50C680 under warranty repair. I carefully wrapped it and placed it in the original box with the stand which comprises of a silver leg and a black back plate connecting to the TV. The silver stand and remote were returned to us but the black back plate was left in the box. I emailed and called Dixons/Knowhow on the same day and was informed that everything that was in the box would be returned back together. Received a Text that TV was repaired but had to wait five days for delivery! When the TV was returned it was sent wrapped in a protective plastic bag. My original box was missing and, guess what, the black stand was lost as well. Obviously, I put the TV on the stand. The TV was sent back (delivery refused) and am now still waiting on Knowhow. FYI, I carefully kept my TV (plastic film was still on the frame, and the box was kept well). It was returned in an appalling state (not as sent), with missing box and missing stand. The knowhow delivery guy had the gut to ask me "what do you need the box for", well, I politely replied, I want my TV repaired and in the same condition as sent.
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  • knowhow c.
    I work in the knowhow customer service center. At first it was great. Take care of the customer from start to finish. Spend time with the customer and get their issues resolved. Now, it's your spending too much time on calls. Cut your call times down or else. CS was allowed and average of 260 seconds on a call but now they have cut them down to 230. They want us to deal with the customers in a Knowhow way, but if we take the time needed to do it, we get punished.
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  • Andrew M.
    I worked for DSG for 7 years – joined when they were PCServicecall. I remember being in a team meeting when they announced “The Techguys” There was a collective groan when we heard the new brand name. It was like, you’re joking aren’t you? Nothing really changed, just the name and uniform so we had Mercom sending back unfixed parts and Crapita, sorry Capita’s call centre staff presumably on drugs – as this is the only excuse I could make for the poor diagnosis. Not listening to customers and generally being rude. “There must me an air bubble in your PC”. Several years later I took redundancy after being kindly offered an interview for job I had been doing for 5 years. No thanks! Most of the experienced technical guys left but I know those that have stayed have been relegated to delivery drivers. Yes, I’m a Comptia and Microsoft certified engineer – but I deliver cookers and fridges! One thing is clear, “higher” management have no idea what’s going on – or they don’t want to know and middle management didn’t want to rock the boat. I made lists of close to a 1000 misdiagnosis and general errors – mostly by Capita – it didn’t matter though because they were hitting their performance figures by answering the phones. The major losers were the customers. It doesn’t matter how many times DSG rebrand the company, (next one due in 4 years) underneath it has the same fundamental flaws – I feel sorry for the good staff that have to work for them.
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  • Tech 7.
    Well, Knowhow,just another name conjoured up to satisfy shareholders maybe. and to get Government grants,, We in Cumbernauld have a few Trainees, APRENTICES\,to the management, they get £13000 per annum. they now this week, are on a exam and training course, followed by a College course september ish, after the course, they have visions of a £5000 a year pay rise, to bring them into line with the £18000 wage earners who are totally pissed off because of the loads and stresses put on them, i do Freesat,for which i and a few others dont get paid any extra for and have been asked to do built in appliances, without any training. or extra pay,, i start at 7am, usually in for 6.30 am, to get truck checked, loaded with tools, and usual 10 tv tainers, couple dozen laptop boxes,, , minimum 25 drops all over scotland, avg of 10 installs, usually 15..Sunday evening i clocked off at ten pm, from 6.30 am in the morning,, everyone else is the same, totally pissed off, no investment in employees, as in pay rise or any incentives, the quality of the new black overalls is mince, 2 pair trousers,which have to be washed every day, a jacket which is neither rain proof or warm,shirts which make you sweat....we laff at comet, we laff at best buys, but you can bet they cry with lafter at us... overtime, paid 8 weeks in arrears, times how many 1000s of employees, times how much interest Dsg make on our money,of which we dont see any. Health and safety, we have all given up on that,," yankee fridge", 76 steps to punters door, you will do it or else it will mess up the right first time pish, is the managements answer,, 2 mins " know how time".. mmm,, " right missus, thats ur 3d tv up n running, i will give u a wee shufty how it works,, " after 10 mins trying to explain how you turn it on,another 5 mins is spent,with the remote controls Press the source button, and move the pad to the right and select Hdmi 1." "No, not 3, tap left to hdmi 1,,, thats it, now press the sky box to 217, no, u cant use the tv remote for that,, ok, now turn specs on, and press the 3d button on remote, and tap tp right for 2d to 3d,, and so on...........Know how,,soon Know how to murder folk at this rate we must have a drivers blog somewhere on line ??? anywhere??
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  • Knowhow M.
    I agree with the above comments, only since I hear it daily when knowhow come to collect 10 laptops and 10 drops off instore daily.... its terrible the way there treated and the overtime hours and workload and time they are given. Thats why as a knowhow staff member (ex techguy) instore I do my best to rush and get the laptops within 5 minutes... This week we had our manager come over several times a day to address Customers complaints on why there laptop/pc repair or Pc setup service has not been done or started ? My manager then asked me do we not have anyone doing any work here or any organisation at all in this department ? I replied, we no longer have engineers instores to do jobs and knowhow has made it clear our role is at the front of the store to serve customers.... Dsgi H/O really need to understand the basics and common sense, if you take away techguys/engineers role from the store.... there is no one left to do that job ! To consider we have 2 engineers in our store getting paid £11+ per hour, with 10 years I.T experience in Laptop/Desktop repairs, and our role is now to serve customers and refunds/exchanges and technical advise on the front desk, this is a role a staff member on £6 per hour could be doing. Why dont we get Manangers on £11-25+ per hour to stop working as Manangers and have them now work on Tills, see how long that last ! The other ex-techguy in my store has said samething exactly, we leave the pc setups/repairs since there is no longer a techguy/engineer role in the store, we simply let the pcs/laptops pile up till the customers complain, worst part is we are still doing pc setups and repairs in stores but obviously we cannot focus 100% on them like before since our knowhow role has changed us to now serve customers on the front desk/Shopfloor rather then us doing repairs that generated revenue and profit. So as it stands we have a few knowhow staff members running franticly around our department all of us doing everything, one member of staff could start a pc setup service.... and then get stuck on front counter serving other customers, its chaos and disorganisation. Its the same in other stores also since I have spoken to ex-techguy staff in other stores. knowhow is definatly a major step backwards, even techguys was better and even then it was terrible !
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  • Mister N.
    Mr Browett knows about this article. Lets see if he responds. Or if he really doesn't give a damm.
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  • Knowhow M.
    I will give a breakdown of Knowhow issues for staff & customers I still see on a daily basis * No payrise yet for knowhow staff dispite being bumped to knowhow expert, where is it?! * Repairs need to be quality checked, diagnosed correctly- 1 to 1 repore between newark engineer and customer would solve alot of the issues and force them to actually work/do a proper repair! * re-introduce store services- Is our focus not to keep customers smiling and happy? * Offer instore Services (ie the ones engineers/staff did daily yet no chargable sku existed) * Re-introduce Role of technicians, engineers in-stores, you cannot expect a TV Sales staff or Customer adviser to be an engineer overnight. * If you dont want the role of engineers/services back instores Introduce a proper training scheme, it should only take a few months for experts/CAs to learn about Pc/laptop repairs. * Give instore knowhow staff more power, we are the ones that deal with the customer in front of us on a daily basis, why should we not be able to write off a laptop thats been repaired 4x within 6 months for the same fault? < I get this issue at least weekly ! * Replace Pc medics team ! Seriously is there answer for solving customers issues to simply put you onto knowhow repair line ?! Would be nice if they actually did something. * Returns policy needs to be more detailed on whats covered and what is not via garrantee and insurance, We still get customers coming into the store every day saying my emails dont work or my hotmail or internet is not working and they expect it to be repaired free, boundries do need to be set since they never have been, and customers are not going to pay for a techfriend or call the support number they expect software issues to be resolved free instore ! * Stop newark texting service, there still texting customers to collect there now repaired and dropped off laptop, when the laptops not even been repaired let alone dropped off at the store, fire works occur when customers turn up and its knowhow staff/managers that deal with it! Theres proberly 100s more things, most have been outlined above and from other posters here, Knowhow hasnt been too bad this week we had a system update allowing us to book in repairs directly from the system, this is going to cut hours and work load for us and by far this is the biggest improvement for staff and customers ! Its just a shame I mentioned this 2-3 years ago and its taken this long to get it onto the system!
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  • TECHIE
    Hmmm, We instore Techs are struggling under the new regime. In our store oop north lol we are being decimated from 4 Techs this time last year to one, moi! One can only wonder where it will end. Front desk queries (normally while they wait, Management insists!), returns and refunds, collect at store, repairs ie: express jobs,complete jobs booked on Diary Management, setups, job chase, book jobs with 3rd party ie: Dell, book jobs onto Diary Management, send to Eclipse, complete PDQ, ah paperwork, print out the reports instore and new visiting engineer/3rd party, (there goes another rainforest), receive returned laptops/pcs from Newark and Mercom, check aforementioned units, book jobs and rebook some of the aforementioned jobs as invariably there will be issues with the repaired units with the Call Centre, complete amended Tech Audit which is almost impossible to pass, (transferred less than 28 days? What about Coverplan 42 days or Fault & Fix which have no timescale you numpties at HO), training on the Edge and have lunch! How is one person supposed to this daily (bar Tech Audit which is weekly!) Get real HO, this has been a massive mistake, "Operate in the Black" yeah right! Assign Front Desk Support evenly, let us do chargeable jobs again, give us back our official Tech grades 1 - 6, the Specialists and Experts are lumped together with no difference between a Sales/Service/Technician, what a mess! Some Specialists and Experts do not know the difference between SATA and PATA!! Thanks for reading, back to work in a few hours!!
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  • Knowhow M.
    In the middle of doing all the above, you will also have dpd with 3-4 pink boxes awaiting you to get the collections, knowhow standing there with 10 black boxes awaiting for collections, Yodel holding 2-3 sheets of GA collections, UPS awaiting for you to get the faulty HP printer from the back, one random casual looking Customer bloke awaiting for you to get the dell or sony laptop oh and dhl are waiting to collect the camera or tomtom thats been rebooked in twice already. Oh and dont forget the 4 pc setups that have just come that are going to take you each 3-4hrs to do due to recovery disc creations, oh and dont forget that your now Knowhow.... you priority is not the above but the customers thats waiting at the front desk for a refund or assistance. We use to have 4 full time engineers but 2 left 3 months ago, so the 2 engineers left are basicly doing there work load. No payrise or appreciation.... this is why the other senior engineer has said ignor making the company any service revenue, were not engineers anymore just concentrate on setups and serving customers on the desk, does not matter if customers come back and complain there pc tunes up not started or there repairs not done thats for managers ! Im following suite because its impossible for 1 person to do 3-4 peoples work load, especially when we were informed of a pay rise, I doubt £1 per hour would cut doing 3-4 peoples work load anyhow ! knowhow needs serious refining to bring back profit/services back to stores.... I like the idea but the implementation and organisation was not done properly, customers are certainly not happy when we inform them we no longer repair instore but it will be sent away and may take 1-3 weeks. They were doing quite well though with techguys, engineers in the far back.... left to be the doctors in the house and repair the sick patients. CAs at front to handle refunds/exchanges and bookings in. Engineers had there own desk and drawers and had large sized clinics to work in we even had that glass shield at the front for privacy so we could do our jobs! it was certainly a good feeling to come into work and say yes we will actually help fix your pc today make some service revenue and to keep the customers happy and smiling, but sadly Knowhow is just the opposite.
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  • Disgruntled M.
    My friend is now fighting for his job after appearing "disinterested" in the pathetic knowhow brainwashing session they call training. He's a grown man, being taught to storm off in a huff at the first sign of stress, to "get out of the red" Sorry but based on what I have heard about this "course" I think everyone involved in this ridiculous farce should have their sanity brought into question.
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  • an e.
    yes,,insanity based instruction,, brain washed for a day, coming out crosseyed and drained of all memorys of familys n friends
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  • another e.
    have you seen Seb odd sock,s new plan? buy at 7pm and get it delivered at 7am nx morn check out his twitters
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  • STATE_OF_THE_ART_REPAIR_CENTRE
    On the launch of Knowhow we all been told that there will be no silly targets anymore, completely different approach to repairs, quality instead of quantity bla bla bla... Bullshit ! Now just couple of months after everything came back to normal, sorry it looks even worse than before, They now launching apparenticeship programme. Start your great career in Dixons retail. Nice idea you will say. But there is probably other reason. They launching this programme to get some extra cheap workforce as they recently sacked most of agency staff and since then backlog of units awaiting repair is building up in front of repair lab. This of course means magic number "Knowhow promise ratio" is dropping down. http://youtu.be/EvINRlQMUnA check this out this is their beautiful official video! Over 1200 laptop repairs per day and only 120 benches that's amazing ! After simple calculation that's 10 laptops a day per engineer, but hey ! they expecting 18 completes a day to keep Knowhow Promise Ratio as high as possible - Total madness ! That's the way KNOWHOW works! Numbers, numbers, numbers, Costomer satisfaction guaranteed !
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  • KnowHow V.
    I doubt Seb is listening. He's still out smashing up a restaurant or bar somewhere. Perhaps the Burlington background reveals his true ability - a drunken wrecker. He wrecked bars as a student. He now wrecks businesses. The incredible confidence of this type of educated fool soon turns into arrogance if no one brings him to account. Unlike the Burlington Lunch club who paid the damages bill after their binge, we are the ones, as shareholders, who’ll pay for his excesses. His, tell them anything as long as it looks convincing, attitude is crippling the business. I heard that he was ‘all ears open’ at a Newark meeting telling the audience that he was available for questions after the briefing. So, what was next act? To disappear from the premises as fat as his feet could carry him. If you don't back up your words with your actions no one has any confidence in you. Stay. Take the flack. Maybe, for the first time in your life, you'll learn what is really going on. You're up against a management that deals with the situation just like you do – brief, flee, and hide. And why shouldn't they? You've set an example for them to follow. You only hear what you want to hear. And that type of closed management style is killing the TechGuys/KnowHow operation. Good management isn't that complex (1) Listen to the frontline. (Note: Ever heard of the Chinese Whispers game - you should have, DSG used it in their training courses - where the information passed between people changed along the way until the original message was so confused it had no bearing at all on what had initially been said. Sound familiar? Ask yourself this burning question. Is the message I'm getting fourth hand - from an ops manager on site - and very often ninth person removed - G8+ - the true account of what was said in the first place?) (2) Analyse their reservations and commendations. (3) Revise your processes/procedures. (4) Enact them - simple because you're addressing the concerns of the guys that you're currently winding up. (5) Wait. (6) Review. (7) And follow up with the same process any shortcomings. Seven simple steps. By the look of the chaos being caused at the moment they’re probably following the 7 Deadly Sins management style – Lust, Glottony, Greed, Sloth, Wrath, Envy, and Pride! As the popular TV advertisement says, 'Simples!' Far better than the current plan - Fabulous (£30 million) roll out, a rigid plan, foist it on everyone, back slapping congratulations at board meeting, watch the wheels slowly come off, back up super board approved plan with banter and bluff, add in minor revisions due to infallibility of super plan, maintain stance that it's staff resistance that's to blame for the plans failure to reach its goals - in particular draw the boards attention to this blog, keep head down, and if all goes to plan everything will sort itself out, or if it fails spectacularly walk away with a pat on the head, golden handshake, and a press statement along the lines of 'following an inspired re-juvination of the business Seb has decided to pursue other business interests. The board wish him well in whatever pursuits he turns his excellent talents to.' You've read it before, and I've no doubt you'll be reading it again and again. Endemic culture of bad management Are the onsite management to blame? Well, if you've witnessed the regular culls at Newark, followed by the regular recruitment of further managers, then the answer is, yes. One particular manager was culled, well, saw the writing on the wall and jumped. They returned as agency labour. Now they occupy a grade higher than the one they left on. If that doesn't signify a dumbing down of the management on site, what does? There is a sea of orange jackets (worn by the managers after they took a dislike to blue jackets), which frequently congregate in groups (there must be a collective noun for that?). Why so many? Come on Seb, what's the ratio of managers to head count? If it's higher than a class teacher then there's something up. You're not controlling a classroom full of kids. Your shop floor workers are adults who seek nothing greater than continuity of employment and good well-balanced direction from one manager who is able to balance the needs of the business with the needs, ability, and resources placed in the hands of his/her team. If the 'needs, ability, and resources' are insufficient he/she should be able to communicate this directly to you. It's fairly obvious, from this boards comments on the good and bad of KnowHow, that all three of these areas need adjustment. "You can't flog a dead horse." - morale is at an all time low. How are you going to breathe life back into KnowHow? "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink." Belief in the new rollout is fading, fast, even showing in its inception. How are you going to re-invigorate the team? Remember, the troops fight the battle, not the generals. The First World War suffered from the lack of a leadership that was experiencing the frontline for itself - witnessing the carnage would probably have changed the course of the war. Fast-forward 90 years and that same style remains in large companies. Do we never learn? Fight the competition, not yourselves Why is DSG ultimately doomed to failure? I've had the rewarding opportunity of talking to people from all areas of the business, and others who've never worked for them but have talked with employees. The overall impression: A company beset with inner warfare. As it grew each department took on an identity of its own and a mission to succeed, whatever the consequences to other departments. It's not difficult to see that each department owes some of its operating profits to the destruction of profits in other departments. The end sum is ‘Zero.’ But, what if the business was run as one large entity and the culture of pass-the-hot-potato eradicated? Efficiency drives cannot be department centric. Why? They drive the 'puck' onto another department, then that department comes under an efficiency drive, and so on, and so on. Jobs for the boys, comes to mind. Creating a dynamic well-managed business from scratch is far easier than plugging the leaks in a mammoth concern. Well, DSG hierarchy, you've got no option but to plug the leaks! But, let's be frank, taking a whole business approach to new ideas, and weighing up the benefits and consequences of your 'super roll-out' would pay dividends. Your culture is so darn competitive that the aforementioned analysis just never takes place. Remember! - Your competition is Tesco, Aldi, Richer Sounds, John Lewis, and a growing number of retailers who've noticed the profit potential of electrical products versus cans of baked beans. From the words of the contributions on this board your competition seems to be yourselves! The competition are laughing their collective socks off, creaming off the lucrative elements of the electrical business, and you only notice that the customers are flowing their way at the last moment. And you counter this with what? Copy what everyone else is doing. Where's your innovation gone? DSG used to lead news stories. DSG used to command the respect (and often fear) of its suppliers. Now it’s a news joke. And suppliers tell you to tow the line. What a reversal of roles! Why copying the competition isn’t the way forward Currys is still the name on anyone’s lips when you mention buying electrical items. The range is huge. But is that extensive range a liability? The supermarkets cream off the top 10. Currys uses the top 10 to prop up the rest of its offering. Small profits, fast volume, small sales area V Large profits, slower volume, vast sales area. Currys just can't compete. It's not a level playing field. So what do they do? Eradicate the one customer centered advantage they have - In store service, set-up, and repair. That is, join the box shifters in the supermarket game. The management idea - "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em!" From electrical retail leaders, who defined the electrical product market for well over 40 years, to following in the wake created by fast moving supermarket chains snipping off the lucrative top 10. What’s your customer delivery demographic? Is it vastly different to your overall customer base? Now, let’s address the plight of a delivery driver. Do you see his major problem? The top management have analysed the demographic of their customer base and concluded “they’re all young tykes with loads of knowledge, often much more than the staff, and as a consequence the ‘deliver and dump’ quick-quick is the way forward. Didn’t all those WatchDog, and other sniping comments, show that our customers are a very knowledgeble bunch?” Fortunately the delivery driver lives in the real world. He knows, from his day to day experience, that the knowledgable buyer has defected to the Internet and he/she expects the item to be dumped, the seller to scarper, and that the price difference is down to him/her fitting and setting the appliance up themselves. Seb, who buys the installation service? Someone who has no idea of how to set the item up, and even less idea on how to use it. Can that level of detail be sufficiently covered in the restrictive delivery window, and if not, what are the consequences on after-care call centres when the customer makes frequent calls for advice? Well, if it’s a premium rated line, you make profits. That is, until they see the telephone bill. Result. Another customer lost. And very probably to the independent sector, such as Euronics, who are now the UK’s biggest buyer of electrical products from the manufacturers. Amazing growth. And more so when you consider that DSG has been issuing lame excuses for profit decline for well over 3 years! But back to that demographic. Your delivery driver tells it all. The ‘installs’ customer needs a lot of attention. If you really want to cater for customers needs then perhaps an ‘advanced install’ pack is required. A premium product where “one of our manufacturer trained personnel talks you through your new product and simplifies, or gives advanced, training on its use, in the comfort of your own home”. Add in a “drop-in problem buster” (a few minutes to call and solve), who is in reality the delivery driver who is passing by, and you have a comprehensive after-care pack for the technophobic. Do you really think that a technophobe is going to be able to handle a telephone description on how to overcome a problem? Some can’t even find the on/off switch. When you get a bonus for that gem of an idea I’d like a cut! And, a final word It’s always astonished me the Charles Dunstone, the founder of CarPhone WareHouse, has become so incredibly wealthy, to the tune of £1 Billion. And that’s from selling mobile phones. (Ever remember the downfall of The Link, DSG’s effort to dominate the telephone market?) I wonder how the BestBuy proposition, under his company’s leadership, will prosper? A manager on the Newark site (who though he was out of my earshot) was only too happy to crow that BestBuy were losing millions through their distribution operation. “Much, much more than DSG.” With modern tracking techniques why are either losing product? Theft cannot be that high, can it? Or are all the electrical retailers following the same business strategy. Sell in volume, add in premium priced leads and accessories at the point of closing a sale, ramp up the profit, and that alone will iron out the distribution inefficiencies? Why, I ask myself, push for a low buy price when you’re only too willing to throw that away with the inefficiency of your distribution operation? The supermarkets claim that their product buying to checkout operations represent the best, most efficient practice, and that’s how they achieve such spectacular results from such low margin lines. Are their falling sales and profits beginning to reveal that all is not as it appears? Is an expansion into other product lines the only way to iron out back room inefficiency? Are the Stobarts masters of the distribution model? And should all businesses look to out sourcing their distribution to the best in that businesses arena? Marks and Spencer tried but found that due to a lack of control it lead to inefficiencies. So outsourcing may not be the panacea it appeared to be. Just look at Santanders decision to bring call centres back to the UK. If you don’t have direct control over the quality of service by owning it you may suffer at the hands, and voices, of your defecting customers. So KnowHow’s policy of bringing it all back in-house is a good one. And, having had a direct involvement with DSG’s distribution force, I know that it was once class leading. What went so wrong? For one, the idea of a super sized distribution centre was a major management mistake. Just look at Amazon’s warehouse/distribution centre expansion announcement. They are to build a number of centres around the country all of a size that can be managed through the processes and procedures they have honed at similar sized sites – true plug-and-play distribution whenever, and wherever, you need it. They are the biggest. But they know full well that small steps lead to success rather than mammoth warehouse projects that are the folly of headline seeking executives. How DSG get out of this chaos is anyone’s guess. I just hope it’s devoted frontline staff lead a revolt against the management they so despise and that the company is turned around from the bottom up. The mid management seem to devote their attentions to the bottom, but unfortunately their attentions aren’t those that produce results for everyone. That’s a big hint as to where their attentions are aimed most of the time! Wink… Hope this fuels some revolutionary changes at DSG. It's high time you guys at the coal face were heard, and taken notice of. A business depends on its people. Well, that's what the management keeps telling everyone. If only they believed in the bile they spout!
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  • Not 5.
    Well done the above Share holder... We, as driver installers are now being made to work from 7am to 9- 10pm, even later. 35 to 45 Deliverys and large numbers of installations,starting with Washing machines by the dozen, disconnecting the old one, getting full of s**te and mucky water out of it. 6 hours later, you knock at mrs Smiths door, looking like a Tramp begging, in ur now smelly black "Know how" shirt and trousers, smellin of the cheap deo you bring with you to avert any smells from stagnant water out of washing m/c,s, and dishwashers ,,. "Hello Mrs.Smith , were here to do your tv on the wall mount,not a nice view from the customers point of view..Pay rise,,never had one which amounted to anything you could boast about..overtime, paid 8 weeks in the past,and they never seem to get it correct,, when you ask an FLM,, they say, "oh such abody did it, ask them,,and they are usually on holiday, and know nothing of it. i am as others are, expected to do and install built in appliances, without training or any extra incentives, so , " sorry madam,some one will call in later and do it", in short, we are getting fed up,,Most of the "Mastercare breed, who now have to do white goods deliverys are on the pat n mick,, too heavy, hurt my back and my neck,, investment in the ones who do the job is what is needed, not Seblikes,and black spray paint...
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  • STATE_OF_THE_ART_REPAIR_CENTRE
    Myriad notes......... CMR - Hello My daughter accidently damaged tv with wii remote. CALL CENTRE - Please unplug tv from mains for a minute or two, then plug it back and see if it cured the problem. CMR - There is impact damage to the screen ! CALLCENTRE - Advised about data loss. Some more product training guys !!!!!!!!!
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  • woody
    Took my laptop back to pcworld for a repair on the 1st july . knowhow phoned on the 15th to say they would not fix it, after 25 mins on phone they then agreed that it was covered ,is only 7 months old . kept tracking it online, was ready on the 19th july ,went to pcworld after work only to find out that the work they done replacing the screen they had cracked the corner of the screen surround. tried very hard not to shout at the guy behind the desk as not his fault ,but he could tell i was not a happy chap. so had to be sent back , phoned knowhow to find out how much longer it would take ,but they could not tell me. emailed them today for a delivery date and also imformation on there 28 day policy. Never had this problem with anyone else.
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  • TECHIE
    Hmmm, I have to agree with woody above on line 6 about not being our fault. 99.9% of the time we, the Instore Knowhow (tm) Specialists and Experts take the brunt of the anger of the customer as we are on the front desk. Due to the fact that we are customer facing we have no option but to stand there apologizing for the work the morons at Newark do. They cause more issues by doing shoddy work and lying to customers and us when they (the customers) and us try to get any answers from them! The txt system is a joke, your laptop will be delivered on xxx date at xxx time. They never arrive on time, when you try to ring the LDC (local distribution centre), they are always engaged, all three lines, try the escalation route on Compass. First level mobile rings out, second level number is engaged, centre manager's phone always rings out and finally the local area manager's mobile is switched off. Eventually you get through, the LDO is given, sorry he is running late or the unit has been misplaced or my fav so far we forgot to load the item on the van!! The head honchos at HO in Hemel and Newark need to see what is happening to this once great company, I fear for our livelihood, As an aside, I note that banking is now done weekly as HO are having a cashflow problem and need the cash in the bank!! This does not bode well for the future of Dixons Retail! Thanks for reading!
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  • Knowhow M.
    Can also confirm the above 3 post are true After 8 years of working instore and taking the brunt of customers dissatisfaction over there repair on there laptop, I dont take it personal when a customer is having a go at me for not repairing the laptop properly. I always explain to the customer were not the actual ones that repaired it and we dont ever repair laptops in the store. It always surprises me when I inform customers of this before they book in there repair and upon collection they still feel the need to complain to you, but this is not the customers fault. Having a repair center in the store gives a false representation of what we actually do instore, even having people in the back handling laptops and desktops is giving the illusion there "repairing" your laptop and computer in the back, when were not. This is also the reason why customers are not going to be ever happy, especially if we inform them repairs can take up to 28 days/42 days maxinum repair time, also explains why customers complain more to us behind the knowhow desk since they think we are either fixing it or we can repair there issue there and then we can not. Its a shame no one has wrote it down in black and white, or made this point ever clear its very dishonest to customers in my view and unfair to knowhow staff instore. Techguys 6 months ago got so fed up of us ringing every hour about why a customers got a text asking to collect the laptop instore when it has not even been dispatched let alone repaired! It got so bad they gave us the delivery hubs direct line and even newarks direct line! took us 8 years to get it but we did ! at least with them we can get a straight answer now and real time frame of delivery and repair ! Even after 3-4 months we still get this issue sadly. Anyhow its quite clear with internet shopping becoming more popular due to much cheaper prices then instore, the futures online and not instores we no doubt will see some major changes within retail in the near future.
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  • TECHIE
    Hmmmm, Once again, existing Colleagues are writing in complaining (not operating in the black!) about the debacle that is Knowhow(tm). One only has to read the comments listed above to realise that feelings are running high in the various Tech Centres in the country. One suspects that shortly on Cool when John and Seb have their weekly insight on the world, they will state that we cannot voice our opinions outside of work! I note that a couple of weeks ago, on Cool there was an item stating all media requests pertaining to the company need to be addressed to the Press Office in Hemel. Hmmm! If the Management are reading this then may I suggest that on the ESS they have another question, does Knowhow(tm) work in your store? Yes/No. I am certain the vast majority of negative responses from working Colleagues may make them recognize that they have made a terrible mistake! Knowhow ex-engineer Staff Member poster is spot on with his/her recent posts about the state of the Tech Centres. One hopes that the retail changes he/she sees in the future in all aspects of the business does not mean that Dixons Retail is concentrating on the Internet, bricks & mortar places are still required!! Thanks for reading!
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  • harrogate r.
    I like the valuable information you provide to your articles. I will bookmark your blog and check again right here regularly. I'm reasonably certain I?ll be informed many new stuff right right here! Good luck for the following!
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  • notherknowhow
    above,, get nowt off me lad,,
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  • mr c.
    So does anyone have anything good to say at all ?. It would seem all they are doing at the place is lieng constantly in the job and over all, the bad situation you describe has spread, and most have been getting away with it for far to long, and if this is all true. Sounds like one big sess pit of lies, and everyone turns a blind eye to most things. yet you call your self professionals, how can that be. DOES ANYONE ACTUALLY ENJOY THE JOB, IM TRYING TO GET ANOTHER SIDE TO JOB AT NEWARK REPAIR CENTRE. to me i see silly targets set based on a rush rush attitude and no actaul logical thinking on the actual time ti takes to fault find and then the repair would actually take place and not before, so to me you have got it all wrong. What if it was soft related and not hardware, both need to be trouble shooted so to speak, that is double the time to do that. So are you saying that every time say adecco supply workers, to work at teh newark. Most either leave or are sacked, if that is the case then. Clearly you are abusing workers rights in the work place, taking on educated people and using them for what you want and then dumping them just before the 13 weeks are up for full time, is that what is really going at dixons. In other words they are not providing that which said they would on the job advertisement and are breaking the law. There must be another side to all , this as all i can see is very bad feedback or experience on this new center or just plain abuse in the job, by setting targets which is more like running a marathon than going to work. which would lead to high stress and high mistakes which suggests this is going very clearly and evidently on a big scale, but covering it all up by fancy tv adverts and advertising, so basically you providing manipulated service and lieing to the public to get profit, that is very poor for big business. shame on you.
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  • another e.
    good to say? not really, now being given more deliverys than time does allow, plus using non employees as second men..no pay rise, there is no wow factor in the job any more, plus they want you to do more for less. fed up, as are everyone else in the company it seems.. my opinion is, when all the stores are revamped, Best Buys will offer .50p a share.. and give us a decent set of uniforms to wear,,
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  • AngelLaHash
    The Company dose need a Face Life with Managers and then the staff. Personaly i think they try and cram too much information and expect too much form the staff, need to direct persons to the correct people with the information. I dont know it all, but can look it up and read about or ask someone else I think that might. Personaly I think we shouldnt be KnowHow, but Honest. This needs to start at the stores, know a little about each area and one or two people on a set area, so they can talk to people on the companys view points on said products, than just selling banter. Personaly I would like a Customer to buy a item and never see them again till they want to replace it, for them to be that happy and for it not to have any faults, and from that will want to buy other electrical items from us with are view point on it.. Ive gone for a fall time job at KnowHow (keep wanting to call it Currys) so I cant say my name, but if i get in and alowed to go up the ranks .. i will do my best to make it a Company people will wnat to work for and give good service.. PRIDE for the staff is a MUST
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  • AngelLaHash
    Right mm (sorry for some of my spelling and how i do type i am human ) Woody Sorry to hear about the Laptop, and yes must of been done at Knowhow Hub, they should have QA people on now on every type of laptop, so with hope this will not happy, but never say never as Human error will always be there, Crack on the screen is BAD a screw is easy to miss. Another Employee, well i was one of them lot who got thanked for being 2nd sum agency and then kicked out, in these times maybe having a job is better than the poor agecys who only come in now and then for your £9/hr rate, and personaly i wouldnt give you that rate, as a lot of the so called Engieers just replace parts thats it. If there is a fault that they dont know or is a mistory then a engieer should look at it, fix it and record it, faults should be .. if so then do this or this or this, Dr of Laptops. Mr Chips, seems you work there as you know how it is, wouldnt say you all educationed tho lol, all i can say.. Stand up and be counted, scream with in, BE SPARTCUS, i may even get a load of Hi Vis with IM Spartcus..
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  • knowbetter
    My heart bleeds for the poor inoccent customers who have to endure this illiterate lot to attempt a repair on their malfunctioning equipment. Dixons Retail have replaced good qualified and experienced TV and PC engineers with panel changing zombies in the guise of Dont-KnowHow. They will be tits up in the water very soon unfortunately, due to dreadful management decisions.
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  • AngelLaHash
    Water!! we aint had drinking water for a week nearly now.. Adecco Better Work, Better Life you think i can sue under the trades discription act Adecco you may be paid correction you may not you may work you may not .... we will call you names and swear at you rob and steal wages off you where we can, and change the rules on you where we can we will say sorry and not pay you and you have to beg for your money every dam week like the dogs you are.. And Welcome to Adecco
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  • AngelLaHash
    Right when it all comes down to it all, the only thing you can do with DIXONS and its companies is no one by from them, they aint the cheapest they aint the best so there is no reason to buy from them. I know my Parents wont buy from them, i wont. and i hope Friends and Family wont ever after the years of treatment I've had from the companie.
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  • REDDOG (.
    i suppose people will read these comments and think, it cant be that bad. well as someone who has worked there for a long time i can tell you its all true. this company will never succeed while john browett is in control. the last 5 years dixons have spiralled out of control....the share price is now rock bottom. at anytime the whole company could be shut down and hunreds lose there jobs... ( most now are agency staff ) but still mr browett gets paid 1.5million a year + bonus. this company is being run by a small group of people who are being paid vast sums of money....while the majority of staff earn just over the minimum wage. to the outside world dixons stores and warehouses are being presented as ideal work places.......when we all know they are nothing but sweatshops vastly under paid ( and told...if you dont like it leave ). in my opinion theres only one option .....a takeover ! soon as possible.
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  • tell i.
    I work at know how (((( newark ))))), it is a very badly run company. Most supervisors don,t care, why well because they see agency staff as bad bad people and we dont know what we are dooing. Well your wrong, i do know what i am doing. An example, i tried to get parts for a laptop ie a mother board, i kept asking and asking and asking, they line leader ie supervisor just arrogantly smiled in my face and went i don,t know, you need to speak to some one else, like it did,nt matter we were all there doing the same job, i thought that was a crazy response for you to say as a line leader, even thow they are on £16 an hour, yes excactly that is what i was thinking also. They don,t give a shit about the job really, there is a few that do, but most dont do there jobs. I have observed once in a while a guy will come round and say, " how are we all doing ". I told a certain person that i could,nt get the screen to work i just needed a little help, he just looked at me like i was shit in his shoe and walked away. I then needed a keyboard and a palm rest for a laptop i put the order in for it at 6.30pm on a afternoon shift it turned up at 9.45 pm, over that time i asked him over 10 times, so why did he ignore me, what is there problem at knowhow, they dont seem to give shit about anything, the best thing that makes me laugh is the fact that it says on the outside of the repair lab, Europes biggest repair lab, yeh right run by monkeys and people who dont want to do there job, and come into work to do noting except sit at a desk making out they are using a computer but really i can see they are not, it seems there is a badly badly badly managed team a know how pc world tech guys it,s all the same to me, i dont see anyone doing a good job. There is a lot of lies going on, again nothing is done about it, parts dont turn up, hours go by when a dismantled machine justs sits there for parts, then some idiot thicko asks the most dumbest question, why has this one not be done, well mr line leader you should know i keep asking you for parts to build it back up and repair it. Seriously guys dont work for adecco or know how, these people are really fucking up the running of this business, they have no clue how to do there job right, and most are guessing as they have took it upon them selves to be arrongant tossers, i never asked to be treated this way, dixons, currys, comet, pc world, tech guys, dixons master care, know how can you see the chain of events thats keeps happening with this company, they keep failing and failing, all they see is profit backed up by really shitty crappy service to repairs and proffeseional work, they dont give a shit about engineers at all. One of the worst terrible companies i have ever wroked for, they are unrealistic in there ideas and approach to it all. The supervisors talk to you like shit, i once told one guy " dont speak to me like im shit on your shoe mate ", i dont do it to you and expect the same from you. He looked gob smacked but the message was driven home, he changed his attitude almost over night, so you see there is an air of wrong doing in this company and i feel if you dig in the right corners you will find a lot lieing and wrong doing in the job. yep i am looking for another job right now, DONT WORK FOR KNOW HOW, you will find out it really is a badly run company, this massive site is completely upside down and there is a false enviroment to it all, you feel it when you walk in, all covered up by people who can,t or won,t do there job. I know and have seen software being used in such a way that i heard them say this is instant sacking offence, and then said bu fuck it they don,t know. SERIOUSLY GUYS DON,T WORK FOR THIS COMPANY THAT IS THE TRUTH. badly run, things dont get put right, mad targets, cherry picking the work, line leaders who treat you like a slave and they do just that, no one wants to help really, you see they are dong all they can to get out of it, supervisors who say ill get back to you but dont,t parts that never turn up, wrong parts sent, picked wrong, people who diagnose the laptops are useless, it always end ups in bits and parts broken and bits missing and worng screws, yet again no one wants to here about it. yet they say they deliver an excellent service ------- bollocks do you, you lieing gits. pc world tv advert ------ telling you lies people --------- there is a side you have not seen people. know how /// tech guys is terrible //// they are not good as engineers and half of them should be sacked for what they are being paid, they do poor work and are not proffessional at all, THE TOP MANAGEMENT NEEDS TO BE SACKED AS THEY ARE NOT MANAGERS, WHAT THEY ARE IS SHOWBOATERS IE THEY MAKE OUT THEY CAN DO THE JOB, BUT REALLY DON,T HAVE A BLOODY CLUE WHAT IS GOING ON, ON THE SHOP FLOOR RIGHT UNDER THERE NOSE. the supervisors need sacking that is for sure, if the top brass knew what was really going on in the repair lab, they would have a field day at know how, believe you and me. its a terrible enviroment, its a terrible place to work, no wonder its going down hill and fast, shops have closed, all on one site now, its just failing right now its failing i can see what you can,t. I know what is going on, on the shift right at work. you would be gob smacked. yes i know you will say, surely it can,t be that bad, well guess what wake up and smell the roses. BECAUSE KNOW HOW ----- IE TECH GUYS --------- IS THAT BAD--------VERY SHOCKING. CAN,T WAIT TO LEAVE THIS DUMP, ITS LIKE A MAFIA SHOP FRONT, BUT IN THE BACK THE COMPANY IS MASSIVELY OUT OF TOUCH AND BADLY RUN AND OVER STRETECHED BY MILES, SO I SAY NO THANKS I DONT WANT A JOB LIKE THAT AND THEY DONT DESERVE MY EXPERTISE IN KNOWLEDGE OR OTHERWISE. AGAIN DONT WORK FOR THEM GUY, YOU WILL REGRET IT.
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  • AngelLaHash
    Dont you KnowHow Guys only work 6am-5:30/4:30pm if your any later your dam quiet up there, normaly every one can hear your walking around. as for me.. Ive been with the company for 15years and seen how its fallen, waisting time on jobs that aint even there and promisted to the guys already, why bother with interviewing any one when you dont intend to give the jobs out in the first place.. personaly i wouldnt pay all you FITTERS of keyboards and like £9/hr
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  • me
    more prentices,, 13,500,, after 18 month, upto 22000... where do i sign?
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  • Paul R.
    I had to return a laptop to my local PC World store for a replacement keyboard and power pack. About 10 days later it came back with a damaged screen. Another 10 days later it came back with a new power fault at the board. I was so behind on my work from missing my laptop for 3+ weeks that I had to work my butt off to catch up and didn't even have time to write a snotty letter to Dixons/ PC World/ KnowHow. When I finally found time to complain in writing, some 5 weeks later, they repsonded saying they'd contact me within 72 hours and 5 days later I still haven't heard a thing from them. The PC World staff were very helpful and friendly but Know How are an absolute disaster area. As for customer service, I don't think Dixons really give a shit. Full story is here http://paulmackenzieross.com/an-open-letter-to-the-ceo-of-dixons-grouppc-world/ (and the CEO didn't even bother to acknowledge my letter nor write back)
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  • ex c.
    As a recently redundant Comet tv tech with 40 years ex they are going same destructive way.14 workshops shut down 2 large hubs built feedback complete mess numbers numbers numbers Too many managers doing duplicate jobs lying about figures constantly. If you right off plasma you get first time success and figures look great No wonder they are in shit and will probably be ived off seems exact same as Knowhow.Comet now called Oncall you couldnt make it up
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  • Mr R.
    Well i have worked at KNOW HOW at the newark site for nearly 11 weeks now. Well what can i say about this firm, very very very poor. Line leaders seem to have a big problem with doing there job, i carefully observed how they treat people, most keep saying things such as, you need to speak to so and so and then you go and ask them, and its oh you need to see so and so. A lot of engineers there, cannot believe how bad this company really is. For instance the amount of time we waste waiting for parts, on many occasions i have been waiting for over 4 hours and 6 hours for parts from a warehouse, which is just the other side of the repair lab wall in the same building, and yet i can,t get the parts to rebuild the pc. When i ask, the line leaders don,t give a dam, you can see it in there attitude and the way they speak. MASTER CARE / PC WORLD / KNOW HOW / CURRYS / DIXONS / COMET are all very very very very poor business,s indeed. From what i have seen, they also employ people how don,t know the first thing about laptops, you should see some of the things i have seen of which they call a repair, if you people out there who have purchased a recovery plan, please be very very warned, i will tell you the truth that many how work here do not. It is very poor service, most don,t give a dam. The line leaders should be sacked, not all of them, because they just for the most part of the shift sit around doing nothing at all, not bad when you consider the fact they are on huge wages and just had a pay rise also. The line leaders look at agency staff like we are not human or don,t have mothers and fathers and basically we are shit on there shoe. There are some so called 3 rd level engineers who don,t realise what qaulifications we have and we out strip them in what we actaully know, they have never once asked to see qualifications at know how. Addeco the job agency are a complete joke, they really are people who are employed but can,t actually do there job, all they do is talk in that silly snotty tone of voice that would otherwise have you believe they are good at there job. Then you try getting wages correct from them, try getting fuel allowance back from them, try getting them to return calls, try getting the right information at all, you will find out different people. Be warned they are a terrible agency and badly run, with a fancy porfessional looking website but really the nature of the beast is, they don,t really care at all. Going back to the above, i have tried to get parts night after night. Line leaders even walk off from you on the shop floor, how crazy is that. This is not just me, but other perosnal. We actually said are they on the same planet to me or did we speak in another language. They are very obtuse and arrogant and look at you like shit on there shoe. They don,t even get the tools right for the shift, they never have space to work when you clock on the shift. We actually work 2 men to 1 bench and also we have done 3 men to a bench that was for 1 man, how stupid is that, always waiting for work, 1 line leader to 30 - 40 engineers, so you can imagine you can,t get help for hours some times becaue you are always standing at your bench waiting for a line leader for well over hour some times. Then we have the dumbest question form a 3rd level engineer in meetings on score sheets that is how many laptop repairs you have done, they say why was your score sheet so low, well excuse me mr line leader if you can,t be arsed to find out where the parts are and why they have not come yet, you keep telling us we can,t order parts. So it is the line leaders responsibility to get this done isn,t mr CEO Manager of KNOW HOW. Where are you when all this going on, what are you actually doing to make it work in the repair lab, because you don,t seem to even check up on these people or your in on it. Either way we / people should no the truth of what really goes on THIS JOKE OF REPAIR CENTRE AT NEWARK, i can clearly see why DIXONS MASTER CARE FAILED / I CAN SEE WHY TECH GUYS FAILED / I CAN SEE WHY KNOW HOW IS GOING TO FAIL BIG TIME / you created this problem your selves, as you dont want to carry out the right actions in the job, if you refuse to see that in business then you are really that dumb and full of it. NO one wants to help at the repari lab, i can,t even say that with out laughing. Yep it actually says Europes biggest repair lab, it really is perfectic to have that above the doors, you don,t deserve it at all in any way shape at all. KNOW HOW IS TERRIBLE TERRIBLE BUSINESS, TO ALL PROFESSIONAL COMPUTER ENGINEERS, DO NOT APPLY FOR A JOB AT THIS PLACE, SERIOUSLY GUYS AND GALS YOU WILL REGRET IT. It is the people running the place there who i believe are on a fiddle with the actually numbers they put out the building. They don,t care about anything else, they took on this attitude of arrogancy and it is them to blame. Yes addeco your fooling the applicant into thinking know how is a fantastic working place and enviroment, it is not. Addeco have lied there arse,s off, because they know they are just employing -- john from down the road who can,t actually repair computers, you will recieve training -- yeh right - the 3rd engineers don,t even know about the operting systems on windows, 2 guys did,nt even know the kernel or boot sector on the hdd and they were in charge. So i had to show the poor little line leaders how to do it, i think i upset hime as i can see i pissed him right off, but some times you have make these people see, the truth. So showed him about the boot manager and advanced start ups ect, guys seriously you should of seen how he looked at me, so i stood my ground and explained about the COMP TIA / MCSE training and the way it had been shown to me and in lab exercises, he still insisted i was wrong even when it actually worked, i was totally amazed at his blindness and attitude to this, and this was a 3rd level engineer. And here i was running circles around him, so again it proves they can,t do there job at KNOW HOW, and no one there is actually making sure the job is being done correctly at all. It clearly shows from the top down, this place is disaster in the making. Tech guys got a bad name and KNOW HOW has it even worse, ill be leaing this dump soon. DONT BUY FROM PC WORLD OR THERE COVER PLAN, ITS A JOKE. SERIOUSLY GUYS YOU DO HAVE A CHOICE TO. I work for them, its time they were showed up for what they actually are at pc world and know how and coment and dixons / tech guys its one big bed of lies and miss trust of manipulation of rules and regulations and working practice. And all because you can,t be bothered to do your job correctly, that is what is going to make it self implode, i gaurantee it.
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  • ex-Knowhow M.
    While this thread is clearly a place to simply vent about the issues from both customers and staff it seems, It does certainly feel good to get rid of the issues and hey no one else within Dixons is listening. Anyhow I was forced recently to leave Knowhow as a Service engineer instore, I knew when Knowhow was coming into place early 2011 in pcworld stores that Dixons no longer wanted techguys/Engineers or anyone qualified instore to provide good customer services to its customers. This was made more clear when they reduced the instore engineers work load and diverted most pc and laptop repairs to newark, effectivly making our jobs redundant. As my Manager has said to me, as a knowhow engineer its my new role to teach other knowhow members to repair and diagnose laptops/pcs and to serve customers at the front. Obviously this is disorganised and not possible especially when it took me 10+ years just to become a computer engineer and expert myself, besides I thought Dixons wanted more knowhow service revenue since thats whats keeping this company afloat right now, hows this going to work if the engineers are not completing the Repairs correctly and on time? Becomes even more clear when you take into the fact that the Truck drivers that come to collect the faulty laptops instores are actual ex-techguys some with 15-20 years electronic/pc repair experience. This is a final insult....I belive someone mentioned this already! Just In case if any staff member at Currys/Pcworld is reading this, and you are wondering why recently you are doing multiple jobs in different departments, this is because h/o have come up with a new work scheme, I belive its called something like "Right people, right place and right time" it basicly means a Manager or Expert can put you on the tills, then Warehouse.... then knowhow desk to run a healthchecks and do refunds.... then on the shop floor to sell a laptop.... then Security since the security guard needs his 1hour lunch and theres no one to cover him.... This has started recently instores, this applies to everyone instore working at Pcworld and Currys does not matter if you are a knowhow engineer or been working in the Warehouse for 10 years, your new job role is to be flexible and able to work in all departments effectivly doing 5-6 different job roles. I belive this is part of the new dixons plans we have already had the "availability form" forcing many staff to now work Weekends and well if they object to it they get there hours/days reduced since they can give it to others to work there shifts. I have seen so many staff being transfered to other stores or forced to resign or find other jobs its unbelivable ! I guess this is recession times and were 10% down like for like from last year so its all about taking the money from the customers wallet, its a numbers game afterall. Also just if things could not get any better I belive Pcworld/Currys, Knowhow is going to be on Watchdog this thursday show. Are we soon to go the same way Best buy and Comet have gone ?
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  • A B.
    I am a 75 year old pensioner , experiencing all the above. My 5/6 year old tv unrepairable, after numerous telephonecall still no joy ,to replace it with another,usual will ring 72 hours,3 weeks later still nothing,had to buy a second hand one to replace it? cancelled my direct monthly debit.1st time purchased from pc world NEVER AGAIN
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  • Annoymous M.
    Funny 'Mr Rom', I also work at the Newark site, and I cannot believe you are qualified in any way, that passage was so badly written and so full of spelling mistakes, I find it had to believe you even have G.C.S.E's! Yes, I agree the agency staff haven't got it terribly good, but having spent years working under the tech guys at their ex-nottingham call centre, this is a BIG improvement on what the tech guys was. Quite a lot of us do a good job, and a lot of the management team do their best to get things sorted out for you, my manager and support staff definitely do their best to assist in getting things done for the customer. Anyway, i'd watch where you rant, someone might find it and decide to release you from 'this dump', leaving you even less employable than you are now! Don't take one bad experience and tarnish and disrespect the good work of others, even if you do have a vendetta against the company, you're just making yourself look futile and petulant and putting the livelihoods of honest individuals at stake! Jeez, get a life!
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  • Scotty B.
    Annoymous M you are abit full of yourself. This company is not the best place to work in the slightest in fact it is a pretty rubbish place to work. I work for KnowHow and i think that the way people are treated is atrocious. Don't think its very mature to threaten someone on here the way you threatened Mr Rom. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and everyone is free to air those opinions so why don't you wind your neck in and leave people to say as they feel. You obviously have it easier than some other employees (possibly because your nose is up your managers arse) but the majority of people don't have it easy.
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  • Guess w.
    I agree with Annoymous M, I also work at knowhow and i believe there is a massive improvement to the old Tech Guys etc... And everyone is trying their best.
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  • notherknowhow
    Well,,it is slowly improving over the tech guy syndrome,, some bits could be better, i.e, no pda,s on stock vans,, takes tooooo long,,.. ok on customer runs tho. essential wall mount brackets should be binned, especially the one with the 2 strings, which come off when u try to remove tv from wall... ..as should be the logic ones with 2 holes for fixing to walls..// now,, xmas and new year rotas are being changed, so u wont get your bank holiday time n half or double time,, instead a extra day off.......................................... franchisees,, mm, well recently there was a spate of cant connect missus, valves faulty hose wont fit.. the reasons for this is simple,if the driver gets 80 -100 qwid a day, he wants finished quick, the less hours he is out, more he thinks he earns,, if he is out 13-15 hours a day,, well its not worth it, so he cuts corners,, not all are the same, but lots are Peak is coming, without the bang this year, unless samsung give you a free something or other . everyone is skint buyin" i" this n that recently.. Merry Xmas all n sundry
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  • ex-Knowhow M.
    Did anyone watch Watchdog last week? I would advise watching it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/watchdog/2011/10/knowhow.html Sums up everything mentioned from the employees/customers above comments. While we do discuss the bad things it is good to point out there have been a few improvements instore and at the repair centers, but certainly not nearly enough. Its quite clear we need a new face lift and name change and to repair the bad name Knowhow is. Perhaps they can ask the employees and Customers what they want this time round ? Mastercare>Pcservicecall>techguys>knowhow> ? Obvious pattern emerging over the years.... It is a great shame Knowhow did not get the basic good customer services correct the 1st time round, I was a staff member and I can confirm Watchdogs quote of "99% are getting good service and 1% got the bad service" there is sadly no such truth to this especially when a customer is complaining at you on a daily basis, there laptops been gone for 3 weeks and at one point they said they could not trace it ! They require to go back to the way it was before and take the best parts from techguys/knowhow/pcservicecall and recreate what made them once great. Why make a customer wait 3 weeks in 1st place,? send a replacement harddrive+recovery disc to the store the next day....cut it down from 3 weeks to 3 hrs repair time! Save money and time, bring back engineers instore, bring back engineers coming to store to repair pcs/laptops and back to there homes to repair it.
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  • TECHIE
    Hmmmm, Once again Watchdog have slated us, DSG have sorted out all the issues in the programme, however for all the other customers who we have to deal with on a daily basis, there is no knight in shining armour from HO to sort out the mess!! Some aspects were true; miscommunication, "being economical with the truth", misplaced laptops and poor customer service, however, the piece with the removing of the peel off sticker was nonsensical, I can honestly say hand on heart, I have never used a chisel, blowtorch or a grinder to remove a sticker from a laptop. This bit of tongue in cheek humour detracted somewhat the seriousness of the complaints. In my store we are over FTE in the Clinic, I am the only fulltime member of staff (Level 6 ex- engineer expert) on 40 hours, however that is all that is required according to Right Places b&*^%$x, so no front desk support etc. The other 30 hours we are open no staff is required, the Clinic can run itself. Great news! Do any of the HO office team ever visit a store? Do they realise how c$£p morale in stores is at the moment? ESS scores sub 7 in many stores? That speaks volumes! After 14 years service, I am seriously considering leaving for pastures new, however there is not a lot out there so for the time being, I am staying in a job I used to love to just to pay off the mortgage, each morning I dread going to work in the Clinic as I know I will be confronted with irate customers complaining about the poor service and having no support from the management team! Thanks for reading!
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  • carlsberg
    Hi pc world is holding on with its finger nails ( just ). I have seen repairs, where the so called engineer has just left it in bits, parts missing, wrong laptos on wrong boxes, wrong serial numbers on the actual wrong computer, cherry picking of work, to bump up the numbers to get managers to think hey this guy is good, but reallly the took on people who can swap a new hhd that is very simple, why well my 8 year old girl did it with flying colours, and that is not an engineer at work not by any way. All you do is take off a plastic cover, undo some screws, remove the cradle holding the hdd disk drive, disconnet the cable, and do everything in reverse, very very very simple, 10 mins top side. I have seen laptops put back together wrong, i have seen cases smashed and broken, i have seen some ones laptop just thrown around in the lab, which is jut a big room, know how over charge massively for the repair service, i seen many computers diagnosed wrong, many times that happens, cmos battery fault is not a new motherboard, i have seen people working on laptops whilst it is running and keyboards being attached, that is a certain and a given to fry the motherboard, but hey what do i know right, that is what they want me to say right, so why not give it to them, its there business right. They don,t have the right staff, 3rd level engineers have openly admitted it. They have been on watchdog AGAIN, you get wrong parts constantly, wrong parts in the wrong bins in the warehouse, i know they took some on on i will protect his name first hand, he was a plumber. he no pc experience at all and yet they employed him, even he was shocked and we both had a giggle about that process of what happend that day, hello know how he works with WATER - not electronic hello . Dear oh Dear oh Dear, how a company as big as it is, make so many mistakes in this way. It has been going on for years, that is why they keep changing the company name to stay business, like comet is now ( ON CALL ), yep i have worked there to, they throw fridges and tv,s about like it was ok to do so, even when you have paid 400 / 500 / 600 / 1000 for goods, you should not be doing this but that goes on all the time, did you know when comet or on call drivers and personal have taken your old appliance away, if it is not down for collection, they will take it anyway when they are not suppose to, and stop off one the way back to nottingham and sell it to the second hand shops you see everywhere in town centers. Yep just another scheme going on. A depot manager was sacked at the distribution centre for stealing the goods, how nuts is that. Greed is know how,s actual name. Yep they will threaten you with this and that, but the fact is the tuth hurts them, but they are forgetting one thing, it is them who is in business them who set up the business, and know this goes on but it is still not put right years after. This company had gone right down hill fast, all those fancy adverts bah humbug it is nothing like that at all not by any standard at all, they have much to learn on the word HONESTY. i guess they are afraid of truth here, i don, t think they even know how to be honest at know how, i know tell many many lies at the newark site by use of a political tongue in cheek approach to hide the truth, ie the devil with the smile approach. glad i dont work there anymore, my new place is miles ahead of this company and the service is much much much better. well good look to you guys, i hope it does,nt fold there. but it does,nt look to good for know how right now, there is complaint after complaint, the facts are all there, you have even been back on Watchdog AGAIN, what does that tell mr bloggs in the street, you are loosing custom left right and centre, everyone is seeing they can get a better service for a better price and in better time schedule, you have bitten off more than you can chew.
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  • ExComet2
    CURRYS, COMET, KNOWHOW, ONCALL, The similarities raised within this topic since it started regarding these two major players to state the obvious has been frightening . Total dismantling of their UK Service Centres , creating so called super Hubs for all workshop based repairs, in Comets case 14 service centres closed in the UK three Hubs created, Harlow for the South, Skelmsdale for the North, (yes thats where your 50 inch Plasma will appear eventually if you live in Inverness) and a Grey Hub in Leeds for all Laptop /Pc repairs. Both have managed to get rid of their best Expert Technical staff who were Service Centre or Retail Store based to the dole queue many with 30-40 years experience as relocation was not an option. Both have managed to replace these Technical Staff with lower graded staff many with only the basic skills required, Both are bursting at the seams with Non Technical middle management who know nothing of the customer service industry and how to provide a "Real Customer Service" which every customer is entitled to. Both are driven by figures and statistics as their main goal and these must be acheived at all costs unfortunately customer service is not in this equation. Both have frontline Retail Staff living on the edge and spending a good part of their day dealing with unhappy customers and trying to add to the basket on every sale (yes madam your new Tv will not work correctly unless you purchase an £85.00 MONSTER (tm) HDMI Cable. Both think everything in their garden is rosey and have senior management back slapping each other about how great their ideas and plans are going forward. Both are in for a retail culture shock very soon !
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  • ExComet2
    Accounts reference date: 30/04 Last registered accounts: 30/04/2011* Accounts next due: 31/10/2012 Accounts overdue: no Accounts category: FULL Accounts document available: yes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Annual turnover: £1,594,240,000.00 Annual profit: £-7,837,000.00 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Turnover per employee: £160,289.56 Profit per employee: £-787.95 The above is an extract from the last posted accounts from COMET it makes grim reading a turnover of nearly £1.6 billion which turns into a loss of nearly £8 million !! Every employee manages to turnover £160,289.56 but in reality they put them in the red by £787.95 . No wonder parent company KESA wants rid of them, but who would buy them ? (Watch this space) These are figures they cannot fudge and Senior Management must take the blame although some have jumped ship already or were they pushed ? Allbeit a big bit to late. COMET are now following the same path as DSG (if thats still their name) what they always do anyway no matter what in the hope of an amazing turnaround obviously none of the decision makers have read any of the comments in this particular thread by people on the coal face so to speak, maybe another rebranding exercise on the way by both guilty partys. No wonder Joe Public cannot differentiate between either of them.
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  • ExComet2
    Posted by ex comet •September 26, 2011 at 12:26 pm "As a recently redundant Comet tv tech with 40 years ex they are going same destructive way.14 workshops shut down 2 large hubs built feedback complete mess numbers numbers numbers Too many managers doing duplicate jobs lying about figures constantly. If you right off plasma you get first time success and figures look great No wonder they are in shit and will probably be ived off seems exact same as Knowhow.Comet now called Oncall you couldnt make it up" Exactly, keep banging the drum!
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  • ExComet2
    Yes , and like me "ex comet" you will be barred for life from the "oncall"forum where everything is wonderfull and everything is fixed via a USB stick !! >>>>>> going forward in never never land !
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  • Guess (.
    to ExComet2 thats not true at all at the call center our main targets are FCR (first contact resolution) this means the customer is getting the best service possible so they do not have to call back! also we have a survey which every customer has a chance to take part in to tell about their experience on a score rating system of knowledge, care and know how all of our team of about 16 call agents score 8 or 9 out of 10! and thats whats the customers saying also their are times where laptops are not repaired and i do agree i beleive the store staff need to realise we are all one company and not trying to fob them and tell them lies when where trying to give advice. also the repair center their is the odd bumps and stuff which really needs to be sorted out they need to take money off employees for every laptop repaired what is not repaired correctly and offer bonus for FCR in the workshop as much as the call center! this would be great.
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  • ExComet2
    Hi Guess who, The clue is in my name I have never worked for MasterCare, Techguys or KnowHow but I have worked for COMET as an engineer. I stated in my first post the similarities between these two companies as far as the majority of comments in this particular topic to say the least are frightening . This is with regard to the number of negative comments from Engineers, Installers and Retail staff alike , the majority who work or have worked with Currys,Pc World,TechGuys, or Knowhow and also a few customers. I would mabe suggest you read the majority of the previous 164 comments to see where I am coming from. We also have a call centre who can quote the same fantastic figures as you mentioned where anything less than 85% is deemed a failure (which they make sure never happens anyway) , but then again you can make figures say anything just ask the Goverment as an example. (yes crime and unemployment figures are going down) A good point raised with regards to Engineers or indeed delivery/installers paying from their wages for a failed repair ,damage to a customers product ect ect, but I think you would find most would have little or no wages at the end of the month if this was the case. COMET replaces FCR with FTS (First Time Success !) or in other words figure fudging or number crunching it means the same for both companies. Please dont tell me your call centre also posts out a USB stick with the latest Firmware on it to every SAMSUNG customer regardless of the customers complaint and calls this "FCR" even when there is a vertical line down the screen or the set is stuck in standbye. My last question would be "to ExComet2 thats not true at all" To what comment I made would that be ?
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  • ExComet2
    Just to add a major point regarding Bonus for Engineers completed workshop repairs, especially large screen Tv these products are getting bounced all round the country if they do not arrive smashed to bits when they arrive into the Service Hub there is a good chance they are damaged when the customer gets their product back. I have replaced many a £600.00 Plasma display in a product tested it and dispatched it back to the customer only for it to arrive at the customers house with the new display smashed to bits. This is of course now a failed delivery and thats where figures and statistics go out the window so no FTS for me NO BONUS cost per job through the roof the product written off in most cases . Customer raging ,does get a new Tv eventually but this one job has now cost in the region of £2000 now when all costs are taken into consideration. For some strange reason both companies want these products collected and sent hundreds of miles away to be repaired at a Service Hub, (For customers in Scotland and Wales their product is sent to a different country for repair !) thus increasing the damage risk cosmetic or otherwise. When in reality the majority of these products could be repaired on site by using skilled staff to carry out the repair in the customers home where possible and getting it right first time this real FTS . Unfortunately both companies do not want many Expert skilled staff nowadays. The field guys who are left do a great job in extreme circumstances driving most days over 200 miles and are alocated 30 mins or so per job which is not on when they are getting 12 -14 jobs per day no wonder they are fed up also. I must add they are expected to repair the product most times with a wrong prediagnosed part ordered by a call centre who achieve fantastic figures regarding FTS.
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  • 36yrs/Co-op/Currys S.
    Bestbuy sent packing back to the USA, can I have my job back now Mr Browett ?
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  • ExComet2
    Bestbuy Bye Bye! Only Two to Go now.............................
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  • Know a.
    Know how! What a bunch of jokers. Perhaps if the staff spent less time on here moaning then all of this disgruntled consumers would get products back in a timely fashion. Out of interest why does a company with so called "technical experts" seem unable to even see my product on your systems and database? Do your call centre staff even have a PC o any sort in front of them? From my experience it certainely does not contain any information about my products, the repair required or even if someone is bothering to pick it up or call me! I shall continue waiting I guess... I'll watch the DSG share price fall in the meantime that's always fun.
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  • Ed
    Because they sacked all the engineering staff a couple of years back and now you have van drivers installing your white goods, eastern block characters fixing you pc with all your personal info still on them. and temps repairing you 50" state of the art tv. But hay hoo it could be worse it could be fully trained engineers with real apprenticeships and years of experiance doing it. But Mr Bowels thinks the british public will live with crap so he gives you crap. Image taking your brand new car to the main agent for a simple repair and finding out they let some dodgy back street place do the work with no knowledge of the car, but still charged you full wack for the job. Welcome to the world of DSG Retail. And before you ask yes I used to work for DSG. And no I'm not bitter, just wished they lived up to their promises and had some balls.
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  • ExComet2
    Great post Ed , great answer to " Know how? Know bugger all.s " question regarding his missing pc. Who really should be raising his complaints elsewhere as the topic concerns " DSGi Know How to kill off the Tech Guys, doll up off-site repairs " The topic does apply to COMET who have gone down the exactly the same route . They have just got rid of nearly 100 of their best skilled engineers that were based in their now no longer UK regional service centres , most with 30-40 years experience . These engineers have NOT been replaced with the equivalent skilled staff either. Ed,s car analogy has similar ringtones here also. COMET do have a chance to survive after the recent fire sale but is it little to late for a massive turnaround and at what further cost regarding the all important " Customer Service "
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  • ex-Knowhow M.
    Great post Ed It ties in with everything I have mentioned above. That has been the the overall issue regarding customer services at my pcworld store since I started. I knew from day one as soon as I gave up the grey uniform of techguys, and exchanged it for a black uniform it made ZERO sense, are we to believe the 6 knowhow staff members in our know how department are qualified engineers that know what there really doing ? Every day I hear Knowhow staff advising customers incorrectly about the repair or service on there PC, but you know what its not there fault I cannot give 15 years of I.T skills and qualifications and experience to knowhow staff overnight ! A engineer is an engineer he has to be left to do his job and make sure the laptop/PC is serviced to the best of his ability. This is not what Knowhow is, but guess that's fine as my GM of my store put it your job is no longer a engineer he doesn't want to see me in the back with a screwdriver opening up a PC, he wants me at the front desk selling boxed services and training other knowhow staff how to be a PC engineer.... That is why I when I see a knowhow staff member on the front trying to force Ram inside a laptop and I see the front lights flashing I just let him/her install the Ram while its still in hibernation mode.... Anyhow times have changed, let customers continue to complain to watchdog and let sales advisors and knowhow advisors sell Cloud and 24/7 support to every customer even though they don't need it, our business is changing and so is its needs let them have guys driving knowhow vans with 15year+ experience/skills in repair work and let ex-techguys get sacked or forced to leave cos there on 'slightly' higher wages then other knowhow staff, its all heading in one direction defiantly time to find a new job !
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  • DontWantToKnowHow
    The Knowhow Con. The adverts look very good, when they talk about quality service but in reality they are a delivery company that sells added value services. The engineers that are left, are being de-skilled and are glorified van drivers and sales people. Any repairs required are carried out at a major workshop that's not very good ie. lots of failed repairs but that doesn't matter; because if you are a delivery company you get paid to deliver and collect boxes and the more boxes you move, the more you get paid but who is paying for it? As for free deliveries, if there is very little profit in the goods we sell and deliver free of charge, then how do we make any money?
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  • knowhow e.
    I read a lot of these posts, then got sick of reading the same things been repeated in a different manner. I do work for Knowhow as an engineer. I worked my way up from Agency, like many of the "Eastern European characters" mentioned. I feel very proud of my achievement, I appreciated that everyone must get through the agency stage, and treat it more like a challenge and opportunity to prove myself. Many of the engineers in the lab have their own formal qualifications, knowhow informal training.. and unfortunately there are some that have no qualifications at all, but perhaps experience. Experience on the job is also something many people use to sharpen their skills, but essentially the job is not engineering, but more diagnosing and part fitting. To the disgruntled "Mr ROM"... You're clearly very young and have very little experience of unemployment, or appreciation for a good income. It seems you have a problem with initiative and expect your job to be easier than it is. To the many unfortunate and unhappy customers.. No apology will help, but please let me explain, or at least try to explain where things are going wrong. Through the doors of the lab each and every day pass around 250-350 flat panel TVs, and between 900-2000 laptops, usually averaging around 1500. The engineers are pushed (like any other business with a plan to succeed) are pushed to be as productive as possible. However, the emphasis from managers is firmly on quality, not quantity. This is not Tech Guys. Where I believe it goes wrong is in the smaller parts that bring the whole operation together. For instance, the call centres feeding back incorrect information that is paramount to customer satisfaction long term, and not short term while they're on the phone. The couriers.. the amount of units that come in transit damaged is truly shocking. The minority of customers who use the service to get a new unit, and in turn tarnish the outlook of the engineers who become hardened to "accidental damage". The management.. who on occasions, through pressures higher than they, just don't get it right. They are often spread to thinly, and often have no management skills/training, nor any particular technical skills that warrant their position. This filters down to tools, work spaces, and a general over crowding of the lab, all with the aim of increasing productivity to "Keep The Promise". Which brings me to "The Promise"... I don't believe you will find many companies that work harder to Keep the 7/5 day promise. It's regularly at 90% or above and is a huge priority in this company and with each engineer. I personally recommend Knowhow, I believe its value for money, its fast and efficient, and on the whole its very effective.
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  • peas
    in all honesty, it isn't that difficult to replace hardware in a laptop Or to even fix other hardware\software issues. There's no need for all these ridiculous 3 year or what ever apprenticeships. A manuel would do the trick, including any bios issues and in fact anything. The only useful people are programmers and engineers who make the things in the first place. There will be less and less of a need for people who repair computers, as everyone will be able to do it by themselves anyway.
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  • ExComet2
    Good Post " knowhow employee " You are definately heading up the DSG ladder to greater things if you are not there already. Senior Manager or indeed board member. You miss the many points raised during this topic from the many ex skilled staff throughout the UK who have either lost their jobs or have been downgraded by many levels on a take it or leave it basis. Once again the all important figures , productivity , and volumes are mentioned in a post. Obviously you live very near the Newark site and are indeed gratefull to have such an awarding job , but please spare a thought for the many Skilled Engineers who have now lost their jobs due to these Service Hubs being built both by DSG and COMET as relocating was not an option due to the dismantling of their UK service structure by both companies. On a happier note I am about to complete a 6 month training course at a local college and look forward to beginning my new career as a Competent Brain Surgeon at a nearby specialised Hospital. I guess its just like changing memory in a laptop anyway.
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  • ex-Knowhow M.
    There are far too many flaws within dixons retails sadly Lets take last week I walked past our till girl, what is she doing on the tills.... shes on the Dixons edge training website and you know what shes learned boys and girls ? Shes learned how to alt + tab and google for the answers.... Welcome to Dixons 14,000 trained Currys and Pcworld staff I have worked there for many years and received very limited REAL training, we use to have workshops once a week about 4-5 years ago but sadly no staff signed up for it cos we do not get paid for attending it and quite frankly after a 8-9hr shift your ready to drop ! Last year our store was packed towards the end of November, this year we have more staff then customers and we got 9 days to go till Xmas, whats our Manager say to us to motivate us? If we do not have a good Xmas and sell Whatever happens and Knowhow Services to every Customer this Xmas, then we will simply cut Jobs and wages for Jan/Feb 2012. While what I have stated is the truth it should be noted during this double dip recession that most retail companies maybe doing similar and if your not game to work 7 days and any hours per week and work any department be it a till operator or a warehouse assistant then retails not the job for you. I predict Dixons will have its worst Xmas figures this year, we simply cannot compete with Online companies like Amazon and people have figured out how to save lots of money simply by googling it, and we can not compete with Best buys closing down sale where 40% of laptops/pcs and computer gear, we just cant compete this year. Merry Xmas and have a happy New Year
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  • Ex G.
    I was one of the lucky guys who took the redundancy money 3years ago and ran. I have been in thes trade from the age of 16 working up from black and white 2 channel TVs to todays hi tec plasma/LCD/LED tvs computers etc. When the super plan was envisaged 3 yrs ago all the experienced engineers knew what was happening and left. I am a high;y skilled pc engineer also Apple trained who did not want to become a van driver humping washing machines. Customer repairs take time and a skill level Dixons no longer want to pay for. Good luck for 2012 you're going to need it.
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  • ExComet2
    Great Post " Ex Mastercare/Tech Guy " Which sums everything up in a nutshell , " Customer repairs take time and a skill level Dixons no longer want to pay for " and neither do COMET . That is one of the main reasons standards and Customer Service are going down faster than a lead balloon by both.
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  • A c.
    I have been awaiting a reply from a manager, this after my laptop has been in and out of the repair centre some 4 times inside 12 months. In my humble opinion their customer services has to be the worst I have ever experienced, they really do not care Can anyone out there supply me with a phone number for the Customer Service dept. so I can get in touch rather than using their website contact info.
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  • Name h.
    08708503333 this is dixons headoffice switchboard.
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  • An E.
    Try 0800 587 8787 this is for Know How and is FREE!!
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  • Ex G.
    Over 40yrs in the trade and i worked for yrs for Radio Rentals. We repaired 90% of equipment within 1 working day major repairs requiring workshop action produced either a loan set or a swap out for exactly the same model. We had happy customers most of t the time. Local workshops controlled the service. Then local workshops were closed down are workshops appeared. service levels dropped. Areaworkshops closed regional workshops appeared service levels dropped lower. customers left in droves, engineering levels fell firm went bust Sound familiar
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  • mr i.
    Before any of you start to judge me on my spelling or badly written typing. yes i was rubbish as this at school, and i found it hard to grasp ok. Anyway, any plumbers want to work at know how, Apply right now at the newark Adecco office where they will lie to you openly at the interview and use every dirty trick in the book to use you for a few weeks, and then fuck you off and discard you like an old sweet wrapper. Know How, as i have personally seen over years seen them change there name from Master Care / Dixons / Comet / The Tech Guys / ect ect ect ect but only when there sales start to go down the tubes and then they go to the powers that be to change the company name to stop them from going under, just a bankrupt can step down from the position and if some one else steps in the business can carry on as per norm. Ill never buy from these companies every again, i have worked it out. And i have loads of other great services on the internet that out do these idiots totally. They are cheaper, the servie is better and fully explained, and unlike Know How they have,nt took on an impossible task, this company is imploding big time, its shows from the top down to the warehouse to the repair lab, to big an operation for this market, this is what happens when repair insurance policiy greed takes over a quality servie, but instead it is replaced by how many numbers they have pushed out the door in as quick as possilbe time. I have seen adecco employ people, who have told me personally i don,t know the first thing about computers, and yet they employed them anyway. MMMmmmmmmmmm so much for getting a Compt TIA A + certification / Or Microsoft Pre Cert / Or N + . I was so surprised, when i have seen the tv advertisement tellng the publick your in safe hands with pc world or tech guys or know how. Nothing could be further from the truth, most will agree why are you telling lies on such a scale, what have you become in terms of your job at work, think about that. Its a service, but from what i have seen. Most don,t give a dam about doing a good job, thye cut corners like no one,s business in that repair lab, the line leaders go on like they are Adolf Hitler on there soap box. Simply because they talk to people in that repair lab so badly, i don,t understand why you would go out of your way to do that to others, it could be so good at this job. But everything they are doing is really bad, and highly covered up by lies and political speech cover ups. And certainly to much backroom talk for a certain few, to miss lead the working force. There is a pattern going on with this so called company that keeps changing its name every year, they provide a bad service and no one seems to give a dam about it, or even want to do some thing about it, as of yet. I still can,t belive how bad this place is, and my view on the entire group now, is one where i find my self not buying from them. Besides i now go else where for goods and services, and they go it right first time and even took the time to show good paitence and what the problem was, the payment was much much less and the parts cheaper way cheaper than Know How, now i can see they are using insurance policy to fiddle the customer,s for greedy profit gain. Don,t buy from these idiots, go on the internet there are way better companies to which you can get a better service and price completely, don,t let soft touch words and silly sales people, try to talk you into buying some thing you don,t need. They are ripping you off, trust me. Do some research and go to sites that have written about these companies, and investigated them. You will find they have many black marks in the book against them. i know there ae going to be the moaners, who try to make me out to be an under educated person or my english is bad, may be your are right. But still you are reading this are,nt you. But i won,t stand by and watch you rip people off, in terrible service. One day Know How are going to be brought out and shown up for what they really are, they are getting worse and worse. The reason they took on this silly route of bending rules and telling lies and covering up the truth in yoru own work place, simple as.
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  • Ex G.
    As has been said before. The Multi-Skilled Engineers that were the backbone of what had become an efficient service organisation Took a look at the proposed restructuring 3yrs ago and most of em like myself said no thanks took the money and ran. We told em it wouldnt work and you know what it didn't. They keep trying to keep it going but for quality service you need to spend money and the don't have the money to spend. May I point out that Comet service is nothing to do with Dixons/Currys/PC World.
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  • An E.
    Hi New developments unfold, effective forthworth GM (General Managers) have to wear a Know How (c) shirt and "observe" in the ex clinic. One suspects they are readying the business for a cull of the "well paid" staff who as ex technicians are the backbone of many stores. I feel as one of the above that my position in store has diminished to one of Counter Support Staff and I no longer envisage a further career within the company. Therefore I suspect that I will resign in the non too distant future and seek employment elsewhere! What a waste of 16 yrs, all the promises, A+, MCSE training etc all pie in the sky. Like John Browett leaving, the Dixons that I knew is finished, all they care about is ripping off the customer, I charged £50.00 for an oem install, installing a disc and reading the key of the bottom of the case, downloading drivers, took about an hour, what a rip off!! Adios for now!
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  • An E.
    Hi ExComet2 & Ex Mastercare/Tech Guy were right about Comet! HUNDREDS of jobs are being axed by the new owners of COMET in a last-ditch bid to keep the electricals chain on the high street. At least 450 repair staff and support workers were given their marching orders yesterday. And sources claimed Comet is also transforming the way it delivers to households across the country to slash costs. Delivery work will now be "franchised" with drivers effectively working for themselves. An insider said that Comet aims to close three of its 12 distribution depots — triggering more cuts. Yesterday's stunning move comes just days after private equity group OPCAPITA took control. One worker told Sun City: "We've just had a meeting. All the field sales engineers have been put on three-month consultation. "All the work is going to third parties. They say they're doing it to save the business." What's next for retail?
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  • Ex G.
    Well after disposing of most of the technical expertise and claiming customer service was improved. John Browett has flown the coup and going to work his magic with Apple. Why am I not impressed. Why will senior managers not listen to the grunts on the ground doing the work. Concentrating all the expertise in a dedicated service facility is not improving the customer service. Its done to save MONEY!!!!
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  • agency s.
    I have just been reading some of the responses left on this site and i feel i must add mine. I have been an engineer for nearly 30 years but due to the financial climate i was made redundant.I,along with approx 300 people attended an interview via Addeco to repair lap tops.I should have listened to my alarm bells when it seemed we were all taken on regardless of our skills.I found it is all about numbers, even though we were told we were looking after the customer. We were treated as the lowest form of life alot of the time, constantly being told if we didnt get the ouput we would be sacked.If we didnt put the correct data in the log out computer we would be sacked, if we didnt order the right parts we would be sacked etc etc.I have always in my working life treated customers equipment as if it was my own, but here they just want the lap tops booked out as quick as possible.We are told , for instance we are told to make sure all the screws are put back in the units, and yet there are numerous dishes all over the work bences full of screws etc . Not just one or two , hundreds which have been left out of the lap tops. If the company is a lot better now than it was, thank god i never worked her when it was worse! There are some people that work here that do care, and if they feel like i did they must feel so down heartened . People outside of this company would never believe how poor this place is. As for Addeco, they are also just about numbers.Set just about any one on, as what the heck, if they turn out to be no good, just set some more on,they have been paid by knowhow already for the staff they set on,so makes no odds. You feel so under valued no mater how hard you work, and in the end you start cutting corners as the others do as it is the only way to get the output they want. I could go on for ever writing about this company but just look at its past history and you will also see the future. If you have any feelings , and care about customers dont work for them.
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  • Ooohh d.
    Wold on the grapevine is Know how are going to start repairing white goods in the field. Can anyone say lawsuit. Here's a thought... oh no my washing machine is smoking and I need help... two Know how Engineers (very loose with word) turn up. Have not a clue. so now you have a knackered washing machine, a possible earthing issue on a metal framed appliance and more than likely ripped lino, scratch floor. flooded kitchen/util room. What then... It takes years for someone to learn there trade not flipping days or weeks. Just remember when they tried to get van drivers to fix pc/tv's and then downgraded the real engineers into lugging American Fridge freezers up flights of stairs. They really need to take a step back and think how do we fix this long term, not make a quick buck then move on.
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  • ExComet2
    Its a funny old world , Comet now under the Opcapita umbrella , now with an ex DSG chief exec in place as the new chairman playing the Pied Piper within 1 week decided they no longer needed a further 450 skilled engineers on their books . These guys are now added to all their ex skilled service centre engineers that got the boot some months back. These guys are now working their notice , with a minimum redundacy payment to look forward to very soon. With no disrespect to the Oncall Van drivers who have a hard time of it anyway it looks like these guys are going to be the new Technical arm of Comet for the time being (before they vanish ) Or is the master plan manufactures to repair all the goods that Comet sells , that could never work either . As a have said before the similarities between these two major players regarding customer service is alarming to say the least and the treatment of their ex skilled work force a disgrace . The simple answer here is shop elswhere when it comes to white and brown goods . The quicker they both pack in the better and the days of the £90.00 "monster" HDMI and SCART cables will be over as well . Comet have Two Service Hubs based along the same lines as Newark , they are also figure driven and crammed with semi skilled at best staff , they all play the numbers game also. Just lock the doors and throw away the keys enough is enough .
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  • old e.
    ONE WORD - JOKERS.. I was an agency delivery driver / mate for a franchise company for only 6 months. The whole place was a fucking joke ! Ive seen drivers removing tacho cards as they ran out of driving hours , you were forced too honest. 35 plus deliverys per day often working from 6.30am till well past 9pm only to be told yes your still fucking useless ! A manager from wlf transport by the name of simon batty ( complete cunt ) who clearly had no ideas ref people and communication skills. Certain drivers getting a real good run sheet with few installs and then others getting the worst fucking nightmare possible. Been told to eat your lunch whilst doing an install to catch up on time , yeah can i have a coffee with my sarnie luv ! So glad to be out of that shithole.
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  • miss m.
    I have just stopped my dd to pay the cover on my PC as i have made to phone calls to the guys and still have a trouble with my PC. I did want someone to come out to my house to sort it out to be told i got to take just my tower back to any curry's was not happy about this so didn't do it OK thanks. If u need to get in touch with me please use the Emil address i have given.
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  • Ex G.
    As I said before. They want numbers not completed repairs. When I was an In-store Technician we got a bonus for repairs but this could be reclaimed if the unit came back in for the same problem within 4 weeks. My skill level has been attained by constant training and study and 40yrs experience in customer service. Dealing with all customer problems both technical and operational. you cannot produce a skilled engineer with 2 days training and a handbook. IT DOESN'T WORK!
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  • Andy
    Know how - sold to us as the perfect solution - 'covers everything'. TV is now on the blink and we find they want to take it away and work on it for 2 weeks, and NO REPLACEMENT TELLY!!!! I was told in store by the manager that we would get a replacement. Clearly a downright lie - I'm going to the store to ask for a replacement for the TV. Surely I have a right to that? Will let you know what happens......
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  • Andy
    Well - after lots of arguing at the shop they intervened to confirm we would only have to wait one week, and said we would get a courtesy TV loan ' as a favour'. Guess what? They picked up the TV today for repair BUT no loan telly - apparently we're top of the list and they hope to get us one by next Thursday!!!!!! It's so stupid it's ludicrous! It'll probably be delivered back with our original telly!!!!! P.S. They said they couldn't replace a TV with obviously broken screen in Currys - they'd have to get a Samsung engineer to check it and that might take a month! What a shower!!!! I'm not 100% certain, but I think this is against UK Trading Law. We'll see if they can repair an unrepairable TV and see what happens......
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  • Sales C.
    Too many customers just buying the KnowHow service to get an upgrade in a couple of years time by "accidentally" damaging their unit. This is going to annoy the KnowHow engineers to no end! But the problem is, if our "strike rate" is looking below 10% then sometimes me (and many, many other colleagues) will usually drop hints and say "perhaps in 6 months' time there will be the second model coming out and if you accidentally damaged your unit more than 3 times or the parts can't be found then we would have to give you the next best thing". Times are tough and I don't want to be unemployed.
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  • Ex G.
    When we walked 3 yrs ago I think it was the death knell of the service industry, Now Comet service is going to. I was a member of the last of the TV engineers. When Colour appeared on the late 60's we were revered as gods almost. Come to fix the Errant Colour TV. Now we're lumped in with installers as a bloody nuisance that needs to be disposed of ASAP
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  • EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEL L.
    The problem is, ie this day and age, you have all got into a rat race of going faster, and going faster and faster in the work place, got to push my health into the gutter attitude for a job. That is crazy, now the problem is you are at a sticking point, why well simple there is a sticking point, you are having to remind your self every single day to rush around and work harder and harder, eventually its going to get the better of you in the end. There is a speed a human being can,t go beyound, and you guys have reached it, that is why you are always being pressed very hard and no one gives a toss about your wellfare really, they just laugh at you, like its a joke. But in the end the joke is on them, because even they know it will fail, knowhow have got a very bad name for its self, it did as pc world, also as dixons mastercare, i know as one of my old jobs they had the building next door, its was shocking how employess talked about there company and what went on. You see its the management that is not bothering to put things right, all they see making huge profits and nothing else, so the worst paid get hit hard for there arrogant business ways, you at the bottom get used for just what they want and they get all the credit and congrats and bonus, the real hard workers get nothing at all. England business has got its look on life very very very wrong these days, you are treating workers with such disrespect, is it any wonder most are leaving to go abroad, can,t blame them one bit. attitude in the workplace is a shambles. no one speaks. if you say hello, you get ignored. so i guess im not a human being. or they must be paranoid. the don,t give a dam about you or anyone esle attitude. thats not a life is it. thats a wear you down situtation, and still they won,t give a shit about you.
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  • tch
    Glad i saw coment fall. worked for them a terrible company, don,t care about you at all. Don,t even care if you are still out on the road or not, terrible communications. There drivers from what i saw at the nottingham depot, near a police station just down the road, and some when i had been with them, had smasked peoples mirrors off cars and carried on driving, i pulled them up on that and they just said oh just don,t worry abou it. i saw peoples goods thrown around like it was nothing, washing machines dropped to the flloor from hight. and driver working on thre tachon breaks and certain mangers telling them to do so, even when the driver is suppose to be on a break, this is ilegal. and we all deserve breaks, not running into the ground and expected to drive on top of that also. and doing electtical installations rushing around like a mad man to get the job done and thrashing the hell out the vehical to get to other 30 + jobs. Its a joke, glad they foldered. know is the same, at newark at nottingham, i worked there for a while on the laptops, what a joke that place is, i saw a plumber employed at there site, i know i could,nt belive too. i saw your items thrown around like it was just a piece of crap, they just found. i saw laptops go missing, i saw laptops rebuilt with wrong items in them, and wrong screws in the them, breaking of surrounds. wrong parts in wrong cases, not enought tools to do the job, not enough space to do the job, gettting parts is a joke too, hours can go buy and then they say oh just start stome thing else, then that needs parts, then its oh just put that under your bench and start some thing else. before you know it, you bench is full of laptops all waiting on parts that still have,nt arrived, hence the term KNOW HOW -------------- really not from what i have seen. you are just insurance policy money maker, getting people to take out policies for the bigger picture, which leads to other profits for you, and charging stupid over the top money for this. YOUR BEING RIPPED OFF PEOPLE --------------- WAKE UP. THEY HAVE BEEN ON WATCH DONGS MANY TIMES ALSO, BUT AS YOU CAN IMAGINE ITS PC WORLD / TECH GUYS / MASTER PARTS / CURRYS MASTER CARE ALL TEH SAME PEOPLE. JUST KEEP RENAMING THE BUSINESS FOR A GET OUT OF JAIL FREE CARD. TYPICAL OF KNOW HOW, YOU WATCH IT WILL CHANGE AGAIN IN A FEW YEARS YET AGAIN, COME FOLKS WHEN YOU GONNA STOP THROWING YOU MONEY AWAY.
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