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Original poster

to vent about feeling conned by Currys?

36 replies

MyFamilyAndOtherAnimals1 · 02/02/2019 10:02

Just bought a new laptop from a Curry's in the North East of England. I had reserved the laptop online, but went to have a look at them and then went to pick mine up. The seller, (side note- a man whom I didn't warm to) apologised, saying that there was only one left (the one which I had reserved) but it had already been set up, therefore I was required to pay a service fee of £20 (he said that he was reducing this from £60) for a service I didn't want and didn't ask for. Firstly - it can't have been the only laptop left, because according to the online catalogue, there are still some left in that store. Then, I had a quick google - this has happened at other places throughout the country, with another man saying that the service was supposed to cost him £35 but the seller had reduced it to £10 because he hadn't asked for it. I feel ripped off, and the fact that big corporate companies have the gall to do this repeatedly doesn't make me feel any better. Grumble!

Has anyone else had something like this happen to them?

OP posts:
ScreamingValenta · 02/02/2019 10:04

It sounds like a con to me. Did you pay the £20? I would have walked away.

whatsthepointthen · 02/02/2019 10:04

There stock check thing isnt true. I wanted a ps4 for my son for xmas, said there was a few available at a store about an hour away from me, travelled all the way there only to be told there was none! So he may be right when he said it was the only one.

elvis86 · 02/02/2019 10:05

I'd have been annoyed, but I'd have just said no and not bought it..?

Walkerbean16 · 02/02/2019 10:06

My husband just had this but was signed up to something monthly!

ThePinkOcelot · 02/02/2019 10:07

Doesn’t sound right to me. If I’d reserved to collect I would have expected it to be boxed, not set up. Think I would have went elsewhere.

Original poster
MyFamilyAndOtherAnimals1 · 02/02/2019 10:20

I asked him to reduce it to £10, but apparently, that wouldn't be possible. I also asked them to uninstall everything, and he said that I'd have to come back to the store the next day if that was the case. I really wanted to do this, but by this time it was snowing and I just wanted to go home with my new laptop. (Plus - I really do need it for today!)

@WhatsThePoint - fair enough, so there may have been only one. But they still shouldn't fiddle around with it and then charge you for it when you didn't ask for it!

@ThePink - it was all boxed up, but it was also charged and I didn't have to spend five minutes ticking some boxes before using it. (£20/£60 for that!!)

I'm not even sure if there's a way to leave an official review of the store?

OP posts:
ScreamingValenta · 02/02/2019 10:30

I honestly prefer to set a new laptop up myself. I spend about an hour uninstalling crap from them as it is!

ScreamingValenta · 02/02/2019 10:31

You could leave a review on Trustpilot - not official but widely used.

Bananalanacake · 02/02/2019 10:33

I thought they went bust years ago. Or was that DixonsHmm

caughtinanet · 02/02/2019 10:33

Have you spoken to the manager of the store and made it quite clear that you know it's a common con and want your money back

Bombardier25966 · 02/02/2019 10:35

If you buy from Currys you should expect this, everything is about upselling by any means possible. Vote with your feet and use a decent retailer.

ScreamingValenta · 02/02/2019 10:35

Currys PC World is part of Dixons Carphone, which used to be Dixons Store Group. The Dixons brand isn't used anymore in the UK. Most if not all the PC Worlds are now integrated into the Currys stores.

xTinkerhellx · 02/02/2019 10:37

Nope, you shouldn't have had to pay it.

Store policy is clear. The set up charge should have been reduced to £10 and then £10 discounted from the laptop so you don't pay anything. There have been numerous store communications about this, so no reason for them to be unaware.

You could go back to the store manager and complain, or if you want to really screw them over complain on social media/customer services.

It will be taken seriously because as you say, this has happened numerous times and got the company a fair whack of bad publicity.

You should have also recieved a USB stick with a copy of the windows recovery on it. If they have removed that and still charged you it's even worse.

I worked for Currys head office until fairly recently so am aware of how poorly this will be viewed by them.

ScreamingValenta · 02/02/2019 10:38

I agree with Bombardier. Though if you say firmly from the outset you don't want any extras they will usually desist. I usually lie that I am buying it for work use and my employer provides servicing etc.

MrWolfknowsthetime · 02/02/2019 10:38

A Curry’s in the North East of England refused to sell me a pair of £25 headphones unless I have them my email address. The bloke at the till claimed it was company policy and no-one could buy anything that cost £20 or over without providing an email address.

DP was at the next till at the same time, spending £60 and there was no mention of email addresses.

AwdBovril · 02/02/2019 10:39

Comet went bust a few years ago, it may be them that Bananalanacake is thinking of. Comet tried to screw me over so I wasn't that sorry for them.

ScreamingValenta · 02/02/2019 10:42

Another tip, if you are buying an item that's on the shelf, is to turn up looking scruffy. The sales people will ignore you and you can just take the item to the till yourself, reducing the opportunities for annoying add-on pitches

Lauren83 · 02/02/2019 10:45

So annoying when salespeople are dodgy, I bought a new car from Lookers recently and the guy said 'I have added GARDX on with you having the baby' it's an upholstery protector and he made it sound like it was part of the service, checked the small print after and they had billed us £300 for it I was furious

ScreamingValenta · 02/02/2019 10:48

Lauren83 If you'd known at the time, you could have said you were allergic to it, and asked for a discount to pay for having it cleaned off.

Santaclarita · 02/02/2019 10:49

AwdBovril

Aw that sucks. The comet near me was great, far better than the curry's. Was sad when they closed down.

I would take the laptop back and ask for a full refund. Wouldn't want something they have done stuff too.

Oblomov19 · 02/02/2019 10:50

I would have walked away. What a con!

Maryjoyce · 02/02/2019 10:52

Screaming. We did this. Went in to buy a American style fridge freezer and cooker and went in our farm work clothes. We got left alone fully choose what we wanted with no hassle and it was actually funny watching them avoid us.
If they get any kind of sales bonus then it went to a very young lady who finally was sent to serve us which I’m more than happy about.

Firstbornunicorn · 02/02/2019 10:52

This happened to me!! I said I wanted the laptop, but I didn't want their crappy set up service, so if they didn't have one without the set up included (BTW, I still haven't worked out what the "set up" was supposed to entail), I'd just order the same one from Amazon. The girl said she couldn't take the price of the set up off, but went to speak to her manager, who was magically able to reduce the price so that I wasn't paying for the service I didn't want.

ScreamingValenta · 02/02/2019 11:00

Maryjoyce It really works, doesn't it? No make up, hair scragged back in ponytail and old coat covered in cat hairs does the trick for me.

RevolvingBananaHaiku · 02/02/2019 11:03

I went in with DS to look at fridges and cookers. DS(9) wandered off and I waited expectantly by the cookers, trying to flag down salespeople who were all 'dealing with someone'.

Tottered off to find DS grilling a young salesman about the coffee machines(!!) and when I turned up the bloke walked off! Didn't even hear me saying 'excuse me' or 'can you help me?' apparently.

Felt like yelling 'AM I INVISIBLE' but I'm not at the embarrassing mum stage yet...