# PC World



## mike4242 (Nov 27, 2006)

A little over 2 years ago I purchased an Advent computer from PC world. At the same time I brought extra RAM as advised by the shop staff. Just inside the 1 year warranty the hard drive went and contacted tech support who promised too ship me the recovery disks. The somehow mislaid my info and I never got the disks. After many hours on the phone They finally agreed to replace the computer. When in the shop they printed out the specs so that I could get a similar machine. What they forgot to do was to hide the price, in under a year not only had they dropped the price by £600 but they had stopped making that model.
They tried to fob me off with a lesser spec machine but I wouldnt budge ( because of all the time on the premium rate calls to tech support etc ) By the way the RAM sold to me was not compatible with the original fitted RAM. So I now have my new Advent, The first thing to go wrong (just out of warranty ) was again the hard drive, tech support told me to buy another drive both drives are running at 65 Deg C and have burnt the inside of the casing, in the end all I had to do was reformat the drive and it was OK. Now my power supply has gone ! so its back to tech support ( more premium rate calls ) If I take it in they will repair it but they couldnt sell me a power supply to replace the defective one ( its not an off the shelf power supply so any old company one wouldnt do ) Nobody could tell me where to get one, yet they could order one if I took it in to them. So whats the difference in me ordering one and the tech guys ordering one ? ( Other than the mark up )
I am confident enough to plug in a few sockets ! and seem to be doing better at fixing my PC than the tech support guys. At one point they told me to look on Ebay !!!. After that I went to the top and finally got the answer I wanted, they will order me a replacement power supply if I pay up front, why couldnt the guy in the shop tell me that ?

Lessons learnt...dont rely on any helpful information from tech support and that the knowledge of these guys vary from none to basic. What they are good at is fobbing you off into parting with your hard earnt cash in most cases unnecessarily

As soon as a model comes out its almost immediately discontinued

Never buy an Advent

Anybody else had such teriffic suport from PC World ?


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## linskyjack (Aug 28, 2004)

Is this an English firm?


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## mike4242 (Nov 27, 2006)

Yes sorry to say that it is


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## Sempron (Aug 30, 2006)

mike4242 said:


> Yes sorry to say that it is


hmm i also heard bad things about Pc world..I hear their customer support sucks.


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## dotty999 (Feb 3, 2006)

Sempron said:


> hmm i also heard bad things about Pc world..I hear their customer support sucks.


yep they sure have a weary name, I would never buy from a big retailer, I prefer to go to the smaller pc outlets with a good reputation for sales and service


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## ACA529 (Nov 16, 2005)

I've heard a lot of crap about them too... I'm sorry to hear that you've had so many problems with them.


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## Bill101 (Jan 8, 2007)

Hi - new here. I thought the PC world warrenty support from the Tech Guys was pretty good. I had a broken hard drive also and they repaired (and it still works now!!) Was this the people you were dealing with when you had all the problems?


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## bigbear (Apr 27, 2004)

I would not buy from PC world if you payed me to, I use them as a tool.
If there is something special I want to buy, I look first at pc world then buy on the internet
They wont get a penny out me:down:


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## jackdw (Jul 1, 2005)

I bought something from there (shoot me!)
It was when I didn't know anything about SATA so I went in to ask advice and hopefully buy. He showed me a £120 250gb SATA, hmm...
Then me mentioned 'brown box' aka OEM hard drives. Just the drive itself. It was £74.99 ($150) admittedly a bit pricey but at that time it wasn't bad, and I was desperate for the space and I couldn't be bothered to wait a week delivery!

Good experience here just a little pricey.


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## Bill101 (Jan 8, 2007)

Some bad experience then. The Tech Guys who operate under the same umbrella as PC World seem to be the company to go for in this area


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## bigbear (Apr 27, 2004)

jackdw said:


> I bought something from there (shoot me!)
> It was when I didn't know anything about SATA so I went in to ask advice and hopefully buy. He showed me a £120 250gb SATA, hmm...
> Then me mentioned 'brown box' aka OEM hard drives. Just the drive itself. It was £74.99 ($150) admittedly a bit pricey but at that time it wasn't bad, and I was desperate for the space and I couldn't be bothered to wait a week delivery!
> 
> Good experience here just a little pricey.


"Can't be bothered to wait a week" have you never heard of next day delivery? works for me
PC World still sucks:down: 
Recommended online retailers
http://www.microdirect.co.uk/
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/
http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/
http://www.maplin.co.uk/?AID=10297371&PID=1413184&SID=ukmaplin3q


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## Bill101 (Jan 8, 2007)

Personally I'd add The Tech Guys to that list.


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## drawde (Jul 28, 2006)

I have to agree with mike4242, the only reason I ever go to PC world is if they're cheapest, which is rare. Their staff are poorly trained and on occasions I have asked for advice only to be told information that I knew to be incorrect. Make sure you know exactly what you need in advance if you ever need to go there.

Advent machines are equally poor - PC World claim them to be their "own brand" but in fact they're made by many different companies and PC world just stick on a silver plastic fascia to make it look nice. About 7 years ago a bought an Advent laptop, which suffered from numerous problems with the motherboard - which PC World would never recognise as problems. Similarly, a friend had an Advent Desktop and has so far received four visits from a PC World engineer, including a new DVD-RW drive, new motherboard and new front USB panel and it still isn't right.

I will also warn about their "Coverplan" extended warranties - last time I checked it cost around £350 for a three-year warranty on a PC, compare this to sub-£100 manufacturers' extended warranties, which I have found to provide even better customer service.


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## Blackmirror (Dec 5, 2006)

I have had my last 2 pcs from pcworld and have had a different experience altogether .. They bent over backwards to assist me and the customer support i received was superb ..
When my hard drive failed they sent out an engineer with a new one within 2 days 
It goes to show how different the help is depending on where you come from . I live in Norfolk 

The only gripe i have is it took so long for someone to answer the phone


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## Gibbs (Feb 28, 2005)

You'll get more tech support at Mothercare.


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