Currys & PC World – Do they have the Knowhow?
Dixons Retail, the company responsible for Currys and PC World, has launched the new service, Knowhow. The Which? Tech team has put the desktop and laptop repairs aspect of it to the test, to see how it compares with the previous Tech Guys offering, and other high street electrical stores.
Knowhow desktop and laptop repairs investigation
Laptop repairs
As with the undercover investigation we conducted in November 2010, PC World and Currys were unable to repair any of the three laptops we had introduced easy-to-fix faults to.
One of our four-year-old laptops was immediately dismissed for being too old. Instead, on this occasion, staff recommended an £80 data-retrieval service* for any lost personal files on the hard drive.
Staff took £50 payments for the other two models and kept hold of them for between seven and 19 days. Upon collection of these two laptops we were refunded our £50, and after telling us that the machines couldn’t be fixed, the staff then suggested a £700 data-retrieval service*.
Desktop PC repairs
Two of the desktop PCs were repaired satisfactorily, and one we consider to have been partially fixed.
We were charged £30 for reparation of the first desktop and £40 for the second. The first was repaired within a day, while the second was ready the very same afternoon – the staff even offered to carry the desktop to the car.
We were charged £94.99 for the work carried out on the third desktop PC. Upon collection we were told that a new hard drive had been installed, and while the old hard drive was returned, no offer was made to retrieve our personal data from it.
The results
Here you can see how the recent Knowhow test compares with the Tech Guys test from the previous year. You can also see how the results compare with the services offered by Best Buy, Carphone Warehouse and Comet.
Click on the image to enlarge it.
You can read the results from our initial high street PC repairs investigation here.
Our conclusions
The faults we introduced to the laptops and desktops were easy to repair. We’d simply disconnected the hard drive and the DVD drive on the desktops, and introduced a minor software fault to the laptops that could be repaired using a Windows installation disc – something all PC repair centres should have.
PC World and Currys were placed a lowly 98th and 70th respectively in the 2011 Which? high street shop satisfaction survey, and they appear to be attempting to address this with the launch of the Knowhow service. PC repairs is only a small part of the new service, but is key to many computer owners. It seems that Knowhow still needs to up its game further if it wants to keep its customers satisfied.
Share your experiences with Knowhow
We want to hear about your good and bad experiences with the Knowhow service from Currys and PC World. Which? member, Tony Gornall, has shared his:
My wife has a Toshiba laptop which crashed in April 2011. It was returned to PC World, and they told us they would save our data. We called several times for a progress report, and then out of the blue we got a letter saying ‘if we have not heard from you within 14 days of the date of this letter we will take the necessary steps to dispose of your property.’ When we eventually got the computer back it had been wiped clean of all my wife’s work. In August the laptop crashed again.
Please share with us your experiences in the comments below.
Best PC repair services
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- Check out our computer repair top tips advice guide
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- Which brand of desktop PCs is the best? Which four bands do we consider Best Buys?
*The price discrepancy for Knowhow’s data-retrieval service is down to two services being offered. Knowhow charges £80 for data retrieved from an undamaged hard drive and £700 for a damaged hard drive. This wasn’t explained to our mystery shoppers.
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Scott
Sent my laptop off as it wouldn’t switch on, and when it did it would just get stuck on the windows start-up screen. I thought no problem they know what they’re doing. I constantly checked the new “repair tracking wheel” which was never updated at stated that it would be at every step of the laptops repair. I rang pc world and asked them they said not to worry the laptop had been taking to the repair centre in Newark and would be completed in under 10 days. The pinwheel still hasn’t changed. And I’m still waiting on the delivery of my laptop. Roll on the 21st day when I can demand a replacement laptop!
Christopher White
This started last year in 2011.. only had my desktop 2 years and started acting funny. so i sent it off . they later confirmed it was a power fault. How ever after two weeks they sent it back stated it was fixed. when It came back by there Currier it was completely smashed .. Bit’s of plastic all over the inside of the case they sent back. So i dint signed for the parcel like most people do when they don’t revive the good’s properly as it was sent in the condition. It was sent back to pc world Newark on Trent knohow. Instead of them sending a total new pc back they calmed they repaired it and its on it way back under a week. Took about another week.. with in a few days it started acting funny again.. so i sent it off… confirmed again another power fault. so they changed the power supply. upgraded my graphics card and i asked if they go it sorted I pay for ram upgraded’s also. Well after two weeks they said its been fixed again said it was the power supply being faulty and replaced the parts.. also upgraded two new crossfire H 6890 2 gig ddr 5 ram graphics card 2x and upgraded the ram to 1333mhz ddr2 8 gig of ram maxing the system out. well when I got it back the pc was fine for about 3 months. It got sent back in end of March this year (2012). Well its being going back and forth for a while now. Knowing they said its a power fault parts have been replaced . I asked them two weeks ago to test it in the shop before i take it home. The assistant for knowhow plugged the system up .. NO power it was dead as a brick, tried another power supply . same again sent back of, according to there systems its only been sent back on the 9th july 2012 and wont give me a replacement machine knowing all the parts and my mother in her 60′s is still paying for it because I’m not the only person in my family using this pc. She also been paying knowhow per month to fix this pc, and there not doing it… its taking so many times and so long for them to fix it and it still not 100%.. the money they have wasted on it they could have built me a brand new pc 4 times over easily. How ever they said if its not repaired after 42 days there going to send a voucher off… again i think this is disgusting because we wont get the full vaule of our pc with upgrades it be something like 400 quid knocked of the new pc. And not the money back we have payed out for the upgraded which we dint need and not the full money back for paying knowhow to fix if it fails.. Personaly I think knowhow ( techguys ) are still the same they should rename it to KNOWFUKALL. I angry with the whole company as I swear its a company still running aiming to defraud customers and rip them off there own earned cash and rob them further with all the contracts. No one online news review I have read gave them a positive feed back and defiantly no one told me they got a full refunded or brought out a whole new pc and cost them nothing for it in replacement. This isn’t the first pc we got of them and we will never get another. this pc is the 3rd after so many problems we have had since 2003. Couple of mates of mine as were in the IT sector studding for CNNA. even they think pc world must build pc’s to fail, or already preset software with vrius’s / malware to bring the systems down after so long just so they can claim its fixed or con you out of more money
Phil
Learn to spell!!!!!!!
Lewis
KNOW HOW IS A RIPP OFF !!!!!! they dont repair anything and the bloke that has failed to fix my laptop 8 times cant even spell his own name!!!!!!!!!!!. When i handed it in last they had told me after spending 300+ quid on insurance i could stop it instead of allowing it to be rolled on an as it had been booked in before that date it was covered. ive just been told that there sending it back and there not doing anything to it because the insurance has run out.
it says in my policy your covered for system restore and data retrieval which the manager at leamington spa currys laughed in my face and walked off in a smug way as he wasnt trying to get money off me anymore.
There sending it back it doesnt work and it cant even connect to the internet as they have lost the software/internal adapter.
the kid in the shop has more knowledge about computers and couldnt understand why it had even been sent back in the condition it is in.
what makes me laugh is it has been sent in because it doesnt work and they have replaced the key board and given me HALF a new charger (no plug) how does that help me? i still cant use it lmao !!!
LEAMINGTON SPA CURRYS (STAY AWAY)
mudya
I’ve been crying like an idiot today. This is the 3rd time I have rang knowhow without any progress.
It all began when I damaged my headphone jack and cracked my case right near the charging slot. My laptop was working perfectly fine in that there were no hardware and software issues. To me the repair seemed straight forward so I gave my laptop in without a second thought.
I gave in my laptop on the 6th of July but was told that it would be sent to their repair centre on the 9th. I was told it would take anywhere from 7 to 10 days. I regularly tracked the repair online and on the 7th or 8th day they updated the progress with something like: ‘while we try and stock 95% of all parts…’ Basically they didn’t have mine in stock. They said they would be in touch if there was going to be a delay. Sure enough they left me a voice mail saying there was going to a delay.
Last week I rang to see what was going on – it had been 3 weeks, I had every right!! They said they were waiting for Acer to dispatch the upper and lower case and had been for ages. I was so disappointed, why is it taking so long. I was scared that they have damaged my laptop or something and are not being honest with me. The repairs themselves do not require the technicians to start my laptop up, but I left the guest account on just in case. Its been 4 weeks and 2 days since they have had my laptop and nothing has happened.
With the delay already I don’t see me getting my laptop back till the end of August, which is so disappointing. I wish I hadn’t gone with the service, they money gone out of my account every month does not justfy the cost or repair itself – my laptop was functional, so what if it had a crack near the charging slot? So what if the headphone jack was faulty?
I rang today and they told me the exact same thing as the previous times – we are still waiting for the parts. I also emailed them to save on having to call their number – no reply.
I’m worried that when I do get my laptop back that something will be wrong with it… Like I said it had no hardware problems so I am pretty worried. Especially after reading the comments here.
I told them I would wait 1 more week and then ask for my laptop to be sent back – but I have been waiting for so long and I don’t want to give up!
With the long wait and still no progress on my repair I have to say that knowhow are the worst service ever.
keith
Well, I can tell you alot about this company PC world and Currys, Beware of the Techguys now changed too KnowHow? Do you like being Ripped off? I know i don’t want to be ripped off, well if you are buying a new computer they offer you add ons be warned you don’t need the extra crap they are selling you.
They will offer you to buy an AntiVirus worth £29.99 you can download free Microsoft Secuirty Essentails just as good and yet it free.
They offer you Microsoft Office 2010 for £69.99 buy Norton AntiVirus or Mcafee for £99.98 you can buy all these’s but you can all this for free
Download Openoffice.org its free just as good as the rest
be careful of there after care service called.
WhatEverHappens, what you get for this well 21 days repairs and a free yearly Healthcheck and accidental damage,
well you get 12 month manufactures warranty for 12 months and basic online support so no need to buy 24/7 or techfriends because there are people all over the country who can remove all or setup ur computer for a small fee, i can tell you what they are offering you is rubbish if you went to the stores they will selling you anything to gain extra bonus.
Did you know there’s about 98% of the Techguys or Knowhow Technicians am not even qualified, some don’t have Microsoft Certified certificates or Comptia A+ quantification these people are self taught they just learnt the basics at home or in there spare time, Now would you have someone mess with your computers who aren’t even qualified, well they looked at mine 1 month ago, they deleted all my personal data which i paid for them to backup to my externals hdd they charged me £90 and they reset my computer and gave it back to me
My daughter computer home work was deleted my work and photo wasn’t backed up all they did was restore my computer, so all my family have lost my whole history and files in seconds i did manage to back up some stuff to another exteranl harddrive but when they charged me for data recovery they wanted to make me pay a further £80 they said they would send off to another store or locations.
You been warned keep away from currys and Pcworld they aren’t qualified and don’t have a glue about computers. If you need a reliable repair engineer look around before hand, there are many so please please don’t but anything currys they will rip you off and loose your files
from keith
SUnny
You should have backed up your files, your dumb!
mark
sometimes people cant back data up if the windows are not running normal you have to plug it into other source to get the data dummer (sunny)
Phil
learn to spell before you rant and rave.
stephen
i bought 2 notebook laptop nov 2011, I was sold knowhow premier insurance, they told me anything goes wrong with the machines they would repair them in 8 days, GREAT, one of the notebooks got stood on a couple of weeks ago and sent off for repair, it took 12 days to come back to me, the screen was changed as it was cracked but the frame around the screen had been straightened by hand then sent back to me, I was not happy with the repair as the frame around the screen was still buckled and dented, and it was sent straight back with a request of a right off which was advised by rob pc world staff at the swansea store. 10 days have passed and I went to my local pc world store to find out what was happening and i was told they were sending it back to me as it is, as its only cosmetic damage, I was not happy with this as i pay £14 per month on 2 notebooks, the insurance does not cover cosmetic damage, if I was told this when I was sold the insurance that it does not cover this, i would not of taken out the insurance, where do i go from here, i have lost all faith in the insurance and do not want the noteboock back until it is repaired to a satisfactory condition,if i had a cradh in my car i would expect it to come back with no dents not just made road worthy, as they say the cosmetic damage dont effect the running of the notebook,
kym
Me and my husband went to buy a surround from currys on ashton retail park on the 13/09/2012 we got a lovely looking one whch has already been repaired by another customer we was humming & harring then we decided to see if another store had the same one new, the lady said yes oldham so we went straight there while she said she would keep ringing them to hold it for us we got there they didnt have it so back to ashton we went and eventually bought the one from the shelf which has no box or instructions & no remote “we’ll order the remote to store, staff said “okay we was fine with that!! got the product home no power cable go back to currys they couldnt find it yet it was there before closing last night,we’ll order it in aswel, i am so annoyed that ive spend £179.91p on a surround i cannot use until monday (thats if it turns up in store) i will not be shopping there again this is wrong they offered no price drop on the product and no appoligy disgusted i am.
sefgrt
Hey Kym, I have just read your post. I work in the Oldham branch and Surround Sound systems were my section of the store (Until today when I moved onto PC World)! Can I just apologise on behalf of both Oldham & Ashton stores respectively for the inconvenience you have had with us.
I have dealt with a lot of problems where parts are to be ordered in and it is a real pain sometimes when the supplier let’s us down, ultimately meaning we let you down. I usually phone the customer to give them regular updates when there is a problem – something not many (from what I’ve read above) do.
If you do ever need to purchase anything from us again, come to Oldham store (on Elk Mill) and ask for me and I will do my best to help you where possible, because I hate seeing people having a bad experience! –
Cheer.
Seb
Peter bishop
WHATEVER happens we will pull your trousers down!! ….
im
i broke my laptop screen and knowhow repaired for free as i had insurance but after i had got it back, there was a number of issues with it which were caused by them. after i noted down the issues i had it repaired by them again. after that was fixed i still found problems like my earphone jack was no longer working so now i’m going to get it repaired again but hopefully, this will be the last time
elsie dixon
I had a problem with tuning in our new t.v. as well as losing sky channels. One of the assistants at Currys in Berwick called DION took the time to explain in detail as well as drawing diagrames for me ,he was very professional, gave quality time, nothing I asked was a bother to him ,I can only take my hat off to who ever trained him , and sincerely hope `curry`s recognise this young man is one in a million , some assistants I have met in other places can not be botheed it is a job and thats it.This young man has a passion for his job.well done DION. elsie & john dixon.
Mike Smith
Purchased an HP Laptop about 18 months ago, but because of severe illness didn’t get to use it much until recently. I have now just been supplied with my medical records on 2 discs, but was unable to play them which is not uncommon apparently with the NHS. Went to my local PC World in Salisbury, explained the problem to Paul the manager who then got his Tech. Tom to look at the problem and within half an hour of me browsing the store, the problem was fixed.
Well done, 1st class service, thank you very much. I will be back soon to buy a laptop for my wife’s birthday and look forward to a similar service.
Yours, Mike Smith
Natalie
Horrendous customer service. Have wasted a day and a half waiting for an engineer. The first time we were not given a four hour slot as promised and were not contacted until late afternoon to say they would be with us at 4.30 on a Saturday afternoon. We needed to be out at 5 having waited in all day for them. We tried to rearrange but this was a farce. We specifically requested Saturday but were given a Wednesday so we had to further rearrange. The engineer was due to be here between 7am and 11 this morning and we are still waiting at 2pm with no courtesy call to say they are running late and no apology. Two calls of complaint, no one can get hold of an engineer and two wasted Saturdays waiting for someone. Not happy and unimpressed with the lack of customer care. Would not recommend. A formal written complaint will be submitted.
Dis Gruntled
As a recent employee of this company I can put a few things straight here for you. Due to past problems with customers items and data, Knowhow in-store is limited as to what we can do. Most repairs have to be sent to a central repair centre. Therein lies the problem. There isn’t a daily collection or courier service from the stores to the repair centre so we can wait anything up to 4 days for an item to be transferred from one location to another. Then we are at the mercy of the manufacturers for spares and may have to wait anywhere up to 30 days to obtain these parts. If the customer has purchased the Whatever Happens Premium service plan they will (rightly) expect a maximum turnaround of 7 days for repairs or replacement of the product with new. However, they will have a long fight on their hands to have this promise fulfilled. The other thing about the company is that they have cut their profit margins so fine on the actual products that they are no longer making money selling the actual electrical goods and need to sell the “add ons” like cables, stands, antivirus and cloud and of course the care plans in order to pay their staff the minimum wage and maintain their high street presence. It would be fine if they actually gave the customers a service that was equal or better than the promises made in their advertising or care plans. If they provide a great service and solution to the customer then the customer may be prepared to pay that bit extra for the experience of shopping in-store. If the customer is unwilling to look at the “add on value” then they would be better off buying the product on-line as the staff are assessed purely on their sales of these add-ons and not on the main products themselves.
Margaret McHendry
I have bought many Items from Currys,in the past three years alone a fridge,cooker,freezer,and washing machine and now another cooker and every time I have had a first class service along with the products you could not get a better service anywhere else,and dont forget my Pro-Master bread machine which I bought about seven years ago and is still on the go. Please keep the shop going as I like to brouse rather than the internet. Many thanks to you.
chris rowles
excellent service from my local pc world.bought a blackberry playbook and i damaged the charger pins on the playbook,had to send it back to blackberry who wanted to charge me £77 as its still under the 12 month guarantee they said i would still have to pay the £77.pc world have been fantastic and sorted it for free
Marion pollard
Mohammed Guma was very helpful when I was buying a new phone today.
jim
wash m/c us thu currys store fri coatbridge grate help from Donna new m/c deliverd sat clean shirt sun very well done curryspc world
Miss B Richards
Thank you 61 Louise ( PC World Tottenham Court Road Branch ) for dealing with my printer problem. You changed my terrible day! into a very happy one. God Bless.
KH
Dead hard drive on my refurbished macbook pro (10 months old) and Currys say it will take 28 days to replace it. Or if I bring in my own it will be £20 + £50 to install Lion. If I try to do it myself it will void the warranty…apple won’t fix it as they pass refurb issues to Currys. Wish I had known that, I thought apple would fix anything that went wrong within the year. They could have done it on the spot and nearly did before checking with a manager, damn!
Avoid Currys.
ash
Just been back to pc world beeston nr leeds to pick up my laptop after a hard drive failure nad it required a replacement. I was told it would be ready saturday only to find that it wasn’t ready as the guy who was fixing it hadn’t been in for two days. The girl from knowhow tells me it will be ready tomorrow and i’ll received a phone call and that it’s ‘literally on the bench now’. The next day I miss the call from knowhow which was a private number, so no way to call straight back. I called their 0844 number so I could speak to a machine which is always a bonus, only to be told my reference number doesn’t exist. So far so good. It’s at this point I go all the way across leeds to go to the store assuming the job had been done seen as the reference/job number had been closed down (i’m guessing that was the problem). When I get there I wait 15 minutes to be told its not done its just installed windows and the man seeing to me also needed to place some drivers on the computer so it’s usable. I quickly inform him that wont be necessary as I know what i’m doing unlike him who then tells me it hasn’t installed windows but nearly has. So after another 15 minute wait it appears that all the installation of windows has been rolled back and he doesn’t know why and the lad who originally served me will let me know in the morning. Avoid a laptop repair service that can’t change a hard drive and install windows like the plague as they are in a nut shell, s**t
CB
PC World set my 2 laptops up, but did not give me the generic password, I have tried currys123 and other obvious ones but no good, as usual call them and get an answering machine, 2 frusterated kids, any ideas?
Matthew Price
Had a torrid time with Curry’s Belfast recently. Spent £599 on a brand new ultrabook which failed after 3 weeks. Sent it off for repair and what followed was 6 weeks of me having to chase KnowHow for updates on what was going on. Got no firm dates on when the repair would be done, what was wrong with the laptop or anything. After 6 weeks I was eventually told that I could continue to wait, or ask for a replacement.
Obviously I took the replacement option and went to the store ready to get a new ultrabook. Except that they didn’t have any in stock, so I had to wait another week for that to be delivered. So I finally get a new laptop for the value of what I paid for the original device, only to discover that 5 days later they dropped £150 off the price of the bloody thing.
Furious doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Stephen
Stay away from PC world/Currys Trafford Centre Manchester and avoid Know How scheme altogether. I bought my son a new laptop/notebook in October. Price quoted was apparently net after a cash back was claimed from manufacturer.Never told that this must be claimed within a very limited time period. When attempts were made to claim the £150 cash back on line (as told to do so by Pc World) the model was not referred to or available for cash back. Complaints have resulted in simply being referred to the manufacturer who in turn say it is an issue for the retailer not them. Within 7 weeks of purchase both hinges on the notebook snapped/ broke off. When referred to Know How (as Premier Insurance Scheme had been obtained at time of purchase at considerable cost) Notebook taken away with guarantee it would be repaired and returned within 7 days. No temporary stand in computer was provided despite this being part of scheme. Today, 3 weeks after the computer had been taken away, it has not been returned. Telephone enquiries/ complaints have simply resulted in being told a week ago that we would be entitled to receive a new one as they had failed to comply with 7 day guarantee. We have heard nothing since.
Today I (admittedly stupidly!) bought from same branch a new Samsung laptop for my daughter. Once again we were persuaded to buy all the extras( plus top level Know How Insurance scheme) which according to postings above we could have obtained for nothing and paid also for computer to be set up by the store. My daughter took same back with her today to University. She has called me to say that it has been freezing constantly for the last 6 hours! Do we refer the problem to Know How?
Both my son and daughter who are University students are unable to do any significant work and are more than frustrated. I am more than angry.
sarah gibbon
ah, Currys…
before they merged with PC world, I used PC World to help me when my first laptop died. They were helpful, competent and set up my new laptop quickly and efficiently. Currys on the other hand…when I dropped and broke the hard drive on my old laptop, I realised I had taken out a policy at PC World and took it in store. They tried to get it going, then informed me it needed to be sent off to recover my photos etc, but my policy covered it. A week later, they rang and informed me my policy did not cover that after all. When I went to collect my computer, the staff were rude and unhelpful, keeping me waiting over 15 minutes, and they somehow managed to loose my charger too. I have to say, the store manager was helpful and supplied me with a free replacement charger, but over all, not impressed. Foolishly, I thought it would just be PC World…so when my oven broke, I ordered on online on December 28th. I ordered installation, as me and electrics do not get on. The first available date was 6th of Jan, which I booked.
On the date, they rang and cancelled due to staff sickness. I am a teacher and could not take the day off, but my boyfriend took a days holiday for them to install the next day. Which they cancelled. I had to ring 3 times before a refund was processed. I had ordered from Currys because I wanted a Bosch oven, and they are the main retailer for Bosch. I rang Bosch and informed them of the awful situation I had been left in. They gave me the details for a local shop who stocked their products (and charged £30 for installation instead of £100) They ordered, delivered and installed my new oven within 4 days and I could not be happier. It was a little more pricey, but for the great service I received, it was more than worth it. The moral of the story? Don’t go to Currys, see if you can shop small and local.
Nevs
I visited Curry’s on January 11, and purchased a dual-fuel range cooker (FLAVEL ML10FRSP). I arranged for delivery and installation on January 14, between 14:30 and 18:30 hrs.
On January 14, the cooker was delivered by two KNOW HOW installers. One, named Andy, entered the property and went to the kitchen. He advised that because I did not have a “junction box” for the electric supply or an “active gas supply”, he could not install my new cooker. He also stated that I must have tiles upto 750mm above my cooker on the wall behind (existing tiles measure a height of 457mm) or have a splashback fitted above my tiles and until I had either, he again could not install the new cooker.
We told Andy that none of this was explained to us at any time in-store, up to the point of sale. He supplied me with his mobile phone number (07540 445891), offering to install the electric junction box and activate the gas pipe for the sum of £150 for the gas or £250 for both gas and electric.
This I found very odd and knew that I could get the council to do the work for free as I live in a council property and therefore shouldn’t be messing with the electrics or gas. He kept telling me that they wouldn’t do it and that he, or someone else with “GAS SAFE” certification, could only do it and he was offering us “a good price.”
He then told us he would deliver the goods and leave and we were to call him back to complete the installation once everything was sorted. He left the new cooker at the bottom of my staircase, blocking my path to the back door and front door, making this terribly dangerous if we had a fire or any reason to exit the house in an emergency. I had to call you to get this returned, as I couldn’t get it up the stairs – I am partially-sighted (Registered: PS111328) and my husband is too ill with weak muscles and therefore unable to carry anything heavy.
Upon doing this I was informed you wouldn’t take the appliance up the stairs. But that’s why we paid £107 for delivery and installation. My husband and I went down to Currys Hemel Hempstead branch to be told they hadn’t heard of anything of needing a junction box nor a splash-back. In addition, there is absolutely nothing in current legislation – British Standards or Building Regulations that demand their use. We were also informed that THEY DO take up no more than 13 steps. Well my house has 13 steps up to my kitchen and living area so why wasn’t this done? We had NOTHING with which to cook dinner for my 8 and 11 year old children, so I had no choice but to buy a combination oven whilst we where there and a splash-back as I didn’t know if I would in fact need this or not, at that time. The combination oven doesn’t cook meat well at all. I’m not use to cooking in a microwave and this has lead to my family having very upset tummies.
That has now cost us a unexpected £94.98 that we couldn’t afford. How else was I to feed my children with no oven to use?
I’m completely disgusted with the service I have received. Yes they gave me a £15 discount on the splash-back and said that would cover my costs down there and back but it didn’t as the taxi there and back cost me a total of £16. I have since been informed by friends who hold the Part P and are Gas Safe that the splash-back isn’t needed and is a matter of customer preference, not legislation. I have since taken the splashback back to the store.
I feel I have been completely ripped off and stung by Curry’s and Know How.
Wednesday 16th Jan, They came out again and delivered the item but refused too take it up the stairs even though we was assured it would be taken up and installed. The guys walked in with a measuring tape and measured a few spots and then walk away refusing to do the job. We offered to take the cooker up ourselves while they waited and then they could install it. They informed us that this wasn’t possible as they couldn’t allow us to take it up as it was against their health and safety regulations. They did leave the cooker and allowed us to take it up the stairs but upon returning less than 10 minutes later they had driven off and wasn’t going to do the job in hand.
I called Know How and Steven Matthews informed me via voice recording that I have on my phone. That this job would be done on friday 18th Jan morning. He couldn’t understand why they hadn’t waited the 10 minutes for us to take it up the stairs. He also confirmed that they are not allowed to take it up but it was down to us. I feel I have been lied too yet again with the delivery people.
Friday 18th Jan. I got a phone call at my home address and I was given the excuse my mate has broken his foot slipping on ice and that the traffic was to bad to come to us. I looked online i have screen shots to prove that there was no traffic issues between Aylebury and Hemel Hempstead. I called Know How again and they told the depo that the weather was to bad to come out to us yet again another lie was told to us and we was unable to get the service we paid for on the 11th Jan. I told them I was concerned as I have now no money to buy more meals and that I really need something done. They refused to sort something out just allowing my children to go hungry.
They have booked for for installing to be done for tomorrow Saturday 19th Jan, but weather permitting. As we know the snow is going to get worse over the weekend so how am I going to feed my children over the weekend and the coming week for every day they don’t do their job. I asked them to pay for our meals or get someone out to install or let me get someone to do the job and they pay the private job to be done but none of this would they agree to leaving my family to go hungry.
I feel as if I have been completely and deliberately misled and lied to. Certainly, Know How’s installation team have been dishonest and deceitful.
I have incurred extra costs through no fault of my own and my family and I have suffered both emotionally and financially as a result. The stress of the last few days has negatively impacted on my Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension and some of the symptoms of my condition have worsened.
The extra costs to my family amount financially to £125.98 Plus with on top meals, breakdown as follows:
£30.00 Splash-back
£16.00 Taxi fares to and from store
£79.98 Combination Microwave
£13.00 and £15 per meal for family as its not been fitted.
KnowHow have told me it’s fine to leave my children to starve as it wasn’t their problem to feed my children. If they did their job this wouldn’t be an issue.
They failed to fulfill and their employee’s conduct was demonstrably less than acceptable.
I have now spent a lot of time phoning round to see if I can get it installed via a gas safe person privately
jen
i took my laptop to currys Fareham with a broken screen. They took £50 from me to diagnose the problem – broken screen – and sent it away for repair. Know How took another £120 from me for repair to the screen but failed to tell me they had also decided to wipe the hard drive. 5 weeks on they have done nothing but tell me to speak to miscrosoft and norton about reinstalling the office suite and anti virus. They said they could try to retrieve the missing data and would even “waive their £80 fee” for the service. Priceless! I don’t feel like handing over the pc to their “experts” again though. Would have been nice to hear a “sorry” at least.
vikki reilly
i have a undergoing claim with knowhow ..my son spilt coke all over a laptop we have cover on called up the know how team who advised me to take it to my local store for pick uop which i did . It then sat in the store for 4 days before being picked up went away and was sent back unrepaired with a note on why stating that due to corrosion they would not fix it …what corrosion it sat in a store for 4 days what do they expect ..i have now sent my second letter and have involved trading standars as i will take this all the way the ammount of money i pay for my cover is disgusting to be told they aint fixing it …solicitor involved is my next move….BEWARE OF THESE IDIOTS
Dan Potter
Lies, Deceit and Incompetence.
The KnowHow team are still the same idiots who worked under the Tech Guys badge.
We had a 6 month old laptop with a faulty hard drive, corrupt sectors to be specific. The drive required direct replacement as determined by both the inbuilt diagnostics software and our local independent computer shop.
We sent it in to PC World’s KnowHow team with photos of the diagnostic errors, proving the problem. The KnowHow team had the laptop for 10 days, then returned it telling us that they had replaced the hard drive and reinstalled windows 7.
True to their word they had indeed reinstalled windows 7, but on the same faulty hard drive they had told us they had replaced.
To make matters worse, our local independent actually marked the hard drive with a UV pen before we sent it to PC World, because our independent said he has so little faith in PC World to do their job. We checked the serial numbers and UV mark when the hard drive was returned, it was without doubt the very same faulty hard drive we sent it to PC World with.
Further, their sales staff are useless and half of the stuff they tell you is either wrong or lies. Worst company I’ve ever dealt with.
suzanne
Where do I get advice about this please. I bought my ipad 3 months ago from PC world in Hove. Without warning half of the screen went black, then into coloured, ever changing lines. It has been so well looked after. Looks immaculate and has never been bumped or damaged in any way whatsoever. PC world told me they could repair it. I said no thanks. It cost £350. and I don’t want a repaired item which is clearly faulty. I want a new ipad that lasts. They told me to go to Apple. I rung Apple who talked me through a re-setting process which took, in total over an hour. No difference. Still half a screen. Why is PC world insisting that they will only repair it so I have to go to the manufacturer if I want it replaced with a non faulty product? Please help.
Adam
Short answer is because they can and it’s cheaper to repair than replace in most cases. As the unit is less than 6 months old it is assumed to be a manufacturing defect unless the manufacturer or retailer can prove otherwise, no one appears to be disputing this though. The retailer has to put the problem (the faulty product) right (repair or replace or refund which may be partial based upon current market value, life expectancy of the product and how long you’ve had it for) but how they do this is the choice of the retailer not the consumer.
By refusing their offer to put the problem right, there is nothing more they have to do. The manufacturer would probably only refer back to the retailer as your contract is with the point of sale and therefore they would not likely replace it. But I can see why they might have pointed you in the manufacturers direction for further advice.
Andrew
I went into PC World in Chester and foolisly purchased an anti-virus package (Kaspersky) on the advice of a young boy who probably hadn’t started shaving. The upshot was that it necessitated a callout to an Engineer (charge £70) to repair the damage that it caused. It turned out that I had been sold a package that was totally unsuitable for the size of my machine. I rang PC World to complain but got absolutely nowhere even though Trading Standards told me that I had a good case as per the Sale of Goods Act. After several letters and phone calls and a complete refusal on the part of PC world to even consider my complaint, I lost the will to live. I will NEVER darken their doors again
M-J
Most of our household electrical items are insured with Coverplan through Curry’s/PC World or so we thought. Our monitor developed a fault and when we phoned to report the problem we were told we had cancelled to policy for the monitor but only the monitor (how convenient) last May and we had had a telephone call and a letter confirming this(we received neither). We pointed out that we had not cancelled and considering they had the wrong details for us you’d think they would admit it was their mistake but no. There apparently is no complaints department and the person we spoke just confirmed it was our fault. Arrogant, unhelpful untrustworthy unprofessional, we will not be using Coverplan again we will be moving all existing policies and strongly advise folks to steer well clear
Joyce Major
Having dropped the handset of my telephone on the floor I was without adequate means of communication. There was snow about so we set off to the Merry Hill branch . Arrived there just after 10 a.m. I accosted an assistant called Mohammed , he left what he was doing to help a little old lady and ,well I was back home before eleven ,happily setting up the new equipment. (not exactly rocket science but I am happy.)What is more it is very loud which si good for people who are getting on a bit
alex
On 28/03/13, I went to a Currys outlet in Sheffield at Heeley and I spent some time in the store talking with the sales assistant to find the best laptop for my wife who is disabled and is her main form of entertainment and communication. That day I purchased a laptop – a SAMSUNG NP3530EC, on a price plan over 10 months (£51).
This laptop was the best gift I bought my wife, she was very grateful and appreciate. She treasured this item, looked after it well and when not in use, it was stored safely away in a cupboard.
On 03/04/13, the laptop appeared different when we switched it on. A portion of the screen was not showing properly and appeared to have a ‘leaf’ on the left hand side. Thinking this was a system error, I contacted Microsoft that same day through a live chat. During the chat, I sent a photograph from my Ipad to the technician who then phoned me to say that this was a physical fault.
The following day, after work, I went back to the Currys store to show them my problem. I spoke with a Mike who stated that it appears as if the computer was damaged. I explained to the person that the laptop has not been damaged and was properly looked after by my wife, stored safely away in a cupboard.
This person was very unhelpful, stating that I would have to pay a repair fee of £50. I stated that I should not have to foot the bill as I know how it has been looked after. He also stated that I should have got the insurance cover. As they would not repair it, I then asked for a replacement or a refund, to which he and his Manager (who I asked for) declined stating that I had damaged the product and this, would not be possible. I also stated that I would contact Trading Standards with regards to the situation and Mike stated that they would agree with him and his assessment.
I then left the store with the laptop and went home. I then phoned Currys Customer Service department. I retold my story to them and that I wanted to put in a complaint, i was told I would hear from someone within 7 days.
On the 10/04/13 (6 days later), I had no response from Currys so I called them to find out what had happened. Upon speaking to that person, I found out that my complaint had not been looked at. I voiced my frustration and asked for something to be done as this was poor service.
The advisor spoke to the store and it was arranged that I take my laptop to the store and that they would take pictures of the machine (also keeping it in store with them) and send an e-mail to Samsung. I have a paper copy of this e-mail which I requested. The e-mail stated that there is no visible damage to any area of the computer and I will attach a scan of this for you to see. I was told that Samsung could take up to 48 hours to respond.
On 12/04/13, I phoned Currys whilst on a break from work. I stated to them that 48 hours has almost passed and I would like to know what is going on. My wife then received a phone call (within 10 minutes of my initial call) from the store. He stated to my wife that Samsung have just got back to him and that they had seen the photos and they agree with him that there is damage to it (contradictory to the e-mail he had sent on 10/04/13) and they would not be prepared say that this was a fault. My wife found him to be arrogant in his manner and not very understanding.
My wife then phoned Customer Services and spoke with and voiced her frustration at the whole situation. He stated to my wife that the store should have at least, offered to have it sent to Samsung to be looked at and waver the repair fee if they found it to be a fault. He then stated he would be the direct contact and would be the liaison between us and the store.
Customer services contacted my wife again and informed her that the store had told him that Samsung have seen the machine. My wife stated to that all they have seen are photos.
Upon my return home, my wife then received a call from the store (who was not supposed to contact us). He stated to my wife that Samsung are quite happy with the situation and they do not want to see the laptop personally and that is it. My wife found his tone to be sarcastic and seemed overly happy to be giving us the information.
At this point, I was infuriated. I then phoned customer services, who had just received the same news from the store, I told him that he had just phoned and how he spoke to my wife and how she was affected by the situation (including their manner). They responded that he should not have phoned the house.
Customer services stated that he would bring this situation to the attention of his managers. As this was just before closing time, he informed me it would be early the following week before we hear anything.
By 16/04/13, I did not hear any news, so again I contacted Customer Services and left a message for them to contact me. I repeated this on 17/03/13 with no response and then 18/03/13.
I eventually got a call to inform me that I would need a third party to look at the laptop and get an assessment from them. I informed them that this was not possible (due to money constraints) and that I personally should not have to do this. He offered me the other alternative of having the laptop sent to Samsung but I would have to pay the courier fee. I stated to that this was not an option.
I also stated that I am ready to contact Trading Standards (as I held off so I could deal with Currys directly) to which he advised me to phone instead of writing, he also added that he would speak with Samsung and try to help the best he could.
I phone my local Trading Standards – the advice line and they informed me to quote the Sales of Goods Act 1979 and write a letter of complaint directly to Currys (send it by recorded delivery). I then phoned Andy again and informed him of the advice they gave me.
Customer services had spoken with Samsung and that they have offered that the laptop be sent to them and they would inspect the machine, wavering the cost of courier and repair if they found the laptop to be faulty and not damaged. However They said that I had to go to the store and set this up, I said that this was not a good idea due to my recent dealings with that store.
However could not get in contact with the store whilst he was dealing with me (I was on hold) so he was sending them an e-mail. I also asked for a Manager to contact me as the entire situation, I felt, had not been dealt with both by Currys and Samsung. They phoned me back to inform me that a Manager will phone me on the 22/04/13.
I had to make three calls on 22/04/13 until I was responded to by a manager, who stated that the other manager (who was supposed to call me), did not get a message. They offered to go and look at the machine personally the next day and call us back.
On 23/04/13, my wife recieved a call to state in fact that there was physical damage to the screen (despite us knowing that there was not). The customer services stated that if this was not the case (instead of a possible manufacturers fault), that they would send it to their team and assess it. If they deemed it accidental damage, that we would have to incur their costs.
We are collecting he computer and intend to sell it as spares as we see no other options.
I have never been treated like this by a company before, the entire situation has been an unnecessary process and mentally straining for both me and my wife. I feel the store has been inconsistent with me and Currys’ own customer service team and I am stuck with a bill with nothing but a fault machine and a heap of grief. I would like to warn people about this and see if anyone else has had issues.
Quentin
I have had nothing but appalling service from this dreadful organisation – I wish I’d seen the reviews here and elsewhere years ago as I would have cancelled the policy a long time ago. We have had a policy for 7 years on our washer dryer which stopped working two weeks ago, since then – what a nightmare, engineer came out quickly and told us the machine was touch and go between repair and replacement but not his decision – repair was then booked for last Sunday, so stayed in despite good weather! Call from stroppy lad in Aylesbury to say parts hadn’t arrived (despite call centre telling us all parts were in). On Tuesday, despite being promised call back on Monday; someone from call centre called to say parts were now in; I asked three times to confirm that they had all the parts, which he confirmed, stayed in all morning this morning no calls, and no time confirmed on website, so at 12:00 I phoned – I love the way that they charge you to call them by the way – to be told that parts had not arrived and that they had tried calling me; an outright lie by the way, and have rebooked for Monday, going this long without a washing machine is not funny, they refuse to allow me to have a new machine, keep quoting their 21 day policy and now try to tell me it is not an insurance policy when I threatened them with ombudsman, if you do speak to them mention their appalling online reviews and watchdog on BBC report – they don’t like that. I await Monday with interest but I’m not holding my breath, the time for using the legal advice service may fast be approaching.
leicester4242
knowhow is a appsalupely useless service!!!! my laptop went in to these idiots to be repaired and they gave me a loan laptop and they brought it wit the wrong charger with it and then they brought my laptop back and it was the wrong one they are an appsalupe joke i cancelled my premier cover with them never again take it t a trustworthy computer shop dont use knowhow highly unreccomended!!!!!!!!!!
charles fennelly
I rang on the 21-5-13 to get a a price for an engineer to find a fault on my electrolux fridge-freezer ,as the temperature in the fridge was not being maintained at the correct temperature.
As the fridge was not insured I tried two diffrent local domestic appliance repair engineers,nether of which resolved the problem.
I then called Curry,s and talked through the problem as it was originally purchased through Curry,s.
I ageed to take out a know how fix and protect agreement ,and an engineer to come and repair the above fault The visit was arranged for friday 24-5-13 between 9-50 and 13-50.
they arrived within that time frame.
I was very impressed with professional manner and competence of the senior engineer and his trainee engineer.
He explained the problem and explained the remedy.
As I am an engineer myself I understood the problem.
The repair was carried out efficiently,and the root cause explained to me.
The trainee engineer has a good mentor and should do well in his choosen career
I have read customer reviews and Which reports on Curry,s and PC worlds customer service, which were in the main not good, but seemed to be more related to PC World products rather than domestic white goods.
I can only comment on my own experience today which was first class.
You cannot please every one all of the time.
My only comment is that I think it might be usefull to include in your call centre menu another number option to cover a case like mine ,where I could not give the original purchase date at the time of my enquiry,only the type of appliance and model No and serial No .and the call menu will not allow you to proceed without this information.
Another option in the absence of full information would be useful to explain this to your call centre operators.
Manys thanks for my good experience today.
Your reply would be appreciated .
Best regards
Charles Fennelly
Lorraine W
I’m absolutely fed up of the non existent service offered by the Whatever Happens club (Whatever happens we won’t replace your laptop!!),now known as PC Knowhow. We are covered for accidental damage on the service agreement I took out with PC World when I bought the laptop for my son to take to university, the laptop fell from a desk in a lecture theatre onto the corner of a concrete step & fell down several more. The laptop was given to our local PC World in March to be sent off for repair/replacement, only to be told 2 weeks later that it was unrepairable & in essence being told in a letter that it wasn’t ‘accidental’ in their opinion! They have suspended the agreement..whilst still taking the monthly payment I might add! I have contested their decision, as we have a witness to the incident, but Knowhow have washed their hands of the whole thing & three months later I am still trying to get them to honour the agreement & replace the laptop. HELP, what can I do now except to tell everyone not to take out this useless agreement when buying anything from them & I will not be buying anything again from this outfit!!
Shelley
Lorraine
We have the same problem currently. They’ve written to us (& returned our un-repaired laptop) to say
‘the engineer who carried out the inspection ‘believes the damage to the item is both inconsistent and exceeds what you would expect given the circumstances’ = in essence they are accusing us of being liars.
Incidentally, our laptop was returned in a worse condition than it was handed over for repair initally (I have photos of its returned state) – the engineer in this instance seems to be more of a laptop butcher than an Certified Engineer.
We’ve held the policy on this laptop since 2008, have never claimed before & have several policies for other items we’ve purchased.
Short of going back to the store (& it’s not there fault the repair hasn’t taken place) and complaining that the original Knowhow Insurance Policy was mis-sold to us I don’t know what to do. Anyone got any other suggestions?
frankie f
I went to get my laptop fixed as the hinges were coming apart, after only 1 year of use. I still had a couple of days on my year warranty and yet the wanted to charge me £50 to just get it sent off to be looked at. And said that my warranty doesn’t cover what is wrong with my laptop, so I asked what does it cover, they replied, not the problem you have.
I sent it off and paid for it, they didn’t even fix it!!!!!!
PC World and Currys are just scammers and shouldn’t be allowed to even say they repair laptops they sell when they don’t!!!!!!!!! LIES
Tracy P
14th April 2013 I purchased a Samsung monitor from pc world and was very happy with it until the left side went very dark some 8 weeks later.
Anyway, having made a 30 mile trip to my closest store I was told because it was over 21 days since purchased it would have to be returned to Samsung and could take anything from 7 to 28 days to be returned if they decided to fix it.
In light of this I asked if they had one that I could borrow as I had a very serious exam coming up and needed one very urgently to have access to my pc. I was told ‘no we do not lend out anything!’
Anyway I noticed that they put my shiny surround monitor face down on the counter and moved it around without any protection…so again at this stage not impressed.
Anyway, I left some 20 minutes later with a piece of paper with terms and conditions on and no monitor wondering where the hell I was going to be able to borrow one from ….having taken into account I had just move some 300 miles and knew no one!!
So now I await the call….and wonder how long that will be.
Why is it other electrical outlets will replace faulty items for the same or something similar and PC World go through the motions and expense of returning it to the manufacturer?
I just hope it happens sooner rather than later….don’t know why they have techies they are numpties……a waste of time all round.
I certainly will not be purchasing anything from pc world or sister shops again.