PC World machine cover?

In August last year I bought a laptop from PC World with 512mb cos I couldnt afford a 1gig machine at the time... but the salesman said that if I took out their £7.99 per month "cover-all" insurance the machine would be replaced if I dropped it or damaged it, and I would be covered if ever needed it repairing for as long as I maintained the monthly insurance payments. He also said that whenever I DID decide to get the memory upgrade, all I had to do was bring the cover document into the store with me when I bought the new memory & they would fit it for me there & then!

So, despite me not liking ANY type of extended warranties... I decided that:

a) I'm a clutz & would probably drop it some time in the future

b) I'd get my upgrades done for free & although I've built several desktop systems, I have zero experience with the tiny innards of a laptop so it would probably be better if they did it anyways!

Well... today I just bought my 1gig upgrade from them, I asked if they could fit it there & then and was told "YES!... £14.99 please!"... so I produced my cover certificate... the salesman went into the service dept. returned several seconds later & said I would have to book the laptop in for a "PC Health Check" before they would fit it for free?... "It doesn't need a damn health check!!" I said... and an argument ensued :-S

So basically, I was finally told that despite me paying them almost £100 over the last 12 months... in order to have a 10 minute job done on my laptop... I had to drive 10 miles back home... book my laptop in for a service that it doesnt need... and then drive another 10 miles back into town several days later just to have 2 tiny memory cards installed???

So I took the memory and my laptop back home, together with the laptop-cooler I had just bought from them... grabbed a screw-driver & the entire job took me actually less than 10 minutes!

This has taught me a lesson that I thought I already new... NEVER take out this type of insurance!!!

I've just finished writing to PC World & cancel my cover contract... and asked them if they've ever heard of global warming, and if so how can they explain trying to make me drive 30 miles overall, just to get a 10 minute job done... what could & should have been done on the spot... then I had a moan at them over the trade description act regarding what I was initially told when I took out the cover!.... Grrrrrrrrr!

btw... the laptop cooler works well!... been sat here typing away for 2 hours... and there aint a `roast nut` insight :)... just a pleasant cool breeze between my knees ;) lolol

Just say no to extended warranties :

Upgrading a laptop can be scary.

However, the only difference is, you generally have to take out a lot more screws to get to where you need to be.

I've had my laptop in about 12 pieces to clean the dust out of the CPU fan. I also dismantled a few more bits, just for laughs.

On my laptop, the screws were in a few different sizes, so its best to make a note of where stuff came from, so you can put it back in the right place.

AT PC World they need to get PC Performace (the cover) on things to meet targets. You can probably get a month or two free if you seem reluctant and then cancel it before you paid months come up. At least you then have something in case you do drop it on the way home or something.

Although it would probably be best to check this before you do it as I'm only in the warehouse so I don't have a complete grasp on the sales side.

Never ever buy insurance from PC World. If you want peace of mind, extend your home contents insurance. It will cost you a LOT less and you may find you're already covered anyway.

If you actually mention this to PC World sales people they will use the "what if something just goes wrong with the laptop?" to which I respond "then I'll damn well bring it back here for a free repair, refund or replacement as it's still within warranty and I know the Sale of Goods Act better than you".

Looking back I really only took the cover out for the free upgrades... my home policy covers practically everything else... new-for-old accident replacement... theft both at home & if I take it out with me (items up to £2000 only)... So the cover was a total waste of money looking at it now eh!... I was just scared of buggaring it up if I tried to upgrade it myself lol

Currys used to try to flog me the extended warranties. They are simply not worth it.

Currys are the same company as PC World. PC World are really bad and con a lot of people - my friend has a few stories to tell when he done work experience with them.

Their PC cleaning service costs £25 and is simply just them open the PC and blow some air on the mother board - a job that takes about a minute.

There was another time when my friend took his PC to them because the motherboard was faulty and they charged him £30 to run scan disk and tell him it was probably a virus of some type in the clock memory - a load of cr@p, especially when we knew it was a hardware problem. They had the cheek to charge £30 for providing fake information and running scan disk when it wasn't required... tsch!

Currys and PC World are indeed the same company, and so were Dixons. I remember on several occasions where the assistants in Dixons were running products down telling the customers how they broke in five minutes, were extremely poor quality, anything to get the insurance sold. I'm staggered by the stupidity of the customers who listened to that spiel from the Dixons sales rep and said anything other than "well if it's that crappy. I won't buy one." But I've heard them listen to all that and then either take or refuse ( mostly take ) the insurance. I never saw one offer the sensible reply though.

If the salesman is good, he will have let the customer try out the laptop (that's why so many are on display). Once a customer has used a machine for a minute, the salesman will 'take over' and demonstrate a feature and then lead the customer slightly away to talk about it.

The customer, at this point, really really wants another go on the laptop, even if it means buying it to do so. They will pay for any damn extra in order to get the sale done as quickly as possible.

It's basic psychology and its why these places make a big fat profit. Sad, but true.

The only way to combat it is to walk in knowing precisely what you want to buy, how much it should cost and what extras you might want thrown in (laptop carry case, USB memory stick etc). Let the salesman know the specific laptop you require but let him think the price is too high. Employees of DSG Group (PC World etc) can virtually always knock 10% off without breaking a sweat, even if you're only buying the cheapest laptop. If they refuse the discount, get a freebie. If they refuse the freebie, immediately walk out of the store because you are getting shaftd. Somewhere else will do the same laptop and be happy to do a deal.

I haggle virtually every time I buy anything from an electrical retailer. I've had money knocked off a purchase of a £4.99 audio lead ;) Not the norm, but I was making a point to a friend of mine that day.

ROTFLMAO.... you wouldn't go shopping with my wife would you? lolol

What reasons do you give for getting a discount? You used to be able to haggle a bit by saying you'll pay cash, but shops all prefer you pay by plastic these days, anyway. :/

I just let them know they won't have a sale unless I get some sort of discount. Either I feign disinterest or I'm more blatant about it (depends on the situation).

It's obviously much easier if you're buying more than one item, especially if one of the items has a good mark-up (TV, mp3 player, DAB radio).

I took an extended warranty and chose to pay monthly for my last PC, just because I could not be bothered and did not have the time to build a new machine.

In a funny chain of events this lead to me being able to leave an inhospitable damp-ridden mould covered flat, and move into a house.

lol... do tell! ;)... I bet he/she was selling extended warranties lol... I have a similar story involving buying 40 fags! lolol