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PC trade group accuses PC World of dirty tricks

by Scott Bicheno on 10 June 2009, 12:06

Tags: PC World (LON:DXNS), ITACS

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Fighting dirty?

ITACS, which first brought the story to our attention, was more strident in its reaction. "This customer was sent by our member to the chain because they wanted the best deal for the customer who was happy to give the rest of his business to his local supplier," said chairman Matthew Wooley.

"We hope that these dirty tricks are a one-off and not representative of a new aggressive sales policy at this big chain retailer. It's a tough marketplace right now, but these sharp practices further threaten a weakened but vital independent IT sector. Our members have vast experience and provide an essential service which the big boys can't match. Instead they're fighting dirty on price."

Among the software concerned was Microsoft Office Home and Student, which Dix sells for £69.76, compared to £99.95 at PC World. So the potential good news for consumers is that if this is standard PC World policy, you can get pretty dramatic price reductions just by doing a bit of homework before you go in.

It turns out this is standard policy at PC World. Its website has a section entitled Price Match Plus, in which is promises "If you find a lower price for the same product and offer, we'll reduce our price by 110% of the difference - even up to 7 days after purchase!"

Finally we spoke to Mark Webb, head of media relations at DSGi and he gave us the following statement on the matter: "We do operate a price match policy, which is popular with customers. Obviously this occasionally requires us to call competitors to verify prices. We can only apologise if this has been misconstrued in any way."

Do you think the PC World sales assistant stepped over the mark or was he just doing his job? Do you agree that the independent IT sector is vital? Did you know about this price matching policy and will you now be putting it to the test? Let us know in the HEXUS.community discussion forums.

 



HEXUS Forums :: 20 Comments

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Tricky one, really. It sounds like the whole thing was done without PC World explaining to the customer that they offer price-matching, and it was presented rather aggressively. More of a problem with customer service than with policy, I guess. It's hard to complain about a price match policy! There are, however, definitely better ways to implement it than this…
article
Dix sells for £69.76, compared to $99.95 at PC World
Currency fail? :)
I work at PC World as a sales assistant aswell. The problem is the pressure we are put under to perform, to sell Office, to sell Norton, to sell Services and the infamous PC Performance. Some people take it better than others, some are honest some resort to tricks like these, so they can keep they're jobs. If you perform well its a breeze of a job, if you dont you are either bullied until you do well or quit. If neither of those happen then you are pushed to work in the warehouse or the till.

Just hope that sheds some light on why this particular colleague might have done what he did :).
He should have bought the laptop at cost price himself rather than send someone to PC World where they will do anything to get you to buy other bits with a laptop. Shot himself in the foot really.
My father recently bought a laptop from currys and was told that his warranty wouldn't be valid if he didn't buy some anti virus software with it. He didn't know any better and bought some at an additional cost of £30. This is just plain dishonesty.