I don't want you to think ill of me, but I used to be an electrical salesperson for Dixons. Yes those smiley suited cheese monsters that pounce on you within five seconds of entering the store - well, that was me.
To be fair, I was hardly under-qualified for the role, having done a year's ... Read review
Advantages: decent enough range of products at OK prices Disadvantages: rude, pushy salespeople
...
The attitude within Dixons is far more hard line. It really is sell sell sell 'peak-season' warrenty blah blah blah. I think this comes across to the customers and ultimately I couldn't feel comfortable working for them. However, I will divulge a few tricks of the trade which may be of help to would-be customers.
Targets
Targets in electrical stores run on a week-by-week basis, with the end day almost always ... .../>
Warrenty
Dixons got a pasting from Anne 'Bleedin' Robinson a few years ago on her Watchdog programme, about their warrenties.
Although to my mind she was talking out of her seat and the claims were all but unfounded, Dixons did take a long hard look at their warrenty packages and souped them up a treat.
Basically, at the time of purchase, Dixons will offer you a warrenty on your new product against ... more
I don't want you to think ill of me, but I used to be an electrical salesperson for Dixons. Yes those smiley suited cheese monsters that pounce on you within five seconds of entering the store - well, that was me.
To be fair, I was hardly under-qualified for the role, having done a year's stint with the now-defunct Homepower Stores and a Saturday job at a Co-op department store, I was well versed in electrical sales. However my nerve was tested at Dixon's...
At Homepower, I'd always been successful in sales hitting the targets week in week out. However here I offered advice, rather than hard sell to my mind.
The attitude within Dixons is far more hard line. It really is sell sell sell 'peak-season' warrenty blah blah blah. I think this comes across to the customers and ultimately I couldn't feel comfortable working for them. However, I will divulge a few tricks of the trade which may be of help to would-be customers.
Targets
Targets in electrical stores run on a week-by-week basis, with the end day almost always being Saturday. If you're a cash buyer, try to go in on a Saturday afternoon or Friday evening (Saturday mornings are a bit of a no no, the stores are almost inevitably full of 'towny' browsers, pushchairs and geeky kids). If you offer cash at the end of the week you can knock the salesman down on price. Start with 15% - you may be surprised. If they refuse, ask them to speak to their managers - they may find the manager has a different opinion.
Many stores have a "discount budget" of up to 2% of their weekly turnover. If they fail to meet their target and haven't used their discount budget to try and meet it, their area manager wants to know why. Get a share of this budget.
Warrenty
Dixons got a pasting from Anne 'Bleedin' Robinson a few years ago on her Watchdog programme, about their warrenties.
Although to my mind she was talking out of her seat and the claims were all but unfounded, Dixons did take a long hard look at their warrenty packages and souped them up a treat.
Basically, at the time of purchase, Dixons will offer you a warrenty on your new product against failure within three, four or five years. The warrenty also insures the product against theft.
A few years prior to working for Dixons I bought a warrenty on my new Playstation (this was when they cost £300!). It got stolen three months later when my house got robbed, Dixons replaced it (and restarted my warrenty for a charge of about £2.50). The unit broke down after two years so I took it in for repair. They sent it off for repair and I received a letter: they couldn't fix it, here's a voucher, go in the store and pick up a new one, free.
The service received under warrenty was therefore, for me, fantastic.
Bear in mind that many manufacturers place an offer for warrenty in the box. These may be cheaper. Additionally, with washing machines and other vital kitchen appliances, some insurance companies such as Domestic and General, offer very cheap policies.
Dixons have targets for warrenty sales that have to be met. At Homepower the target was 30% of product sales. If you're interested in buying the warrenty (and you should be: especially if you're buying a washing machine and have a family or a big TV that's expensive to repair) it actually gives you more bargaining power. Tell the salesman you'll buy the warrenty for (say) a £50 discount off the product. You'd be surprised how often this works!
Remember, if you don't take the warrenty there and then you can always come back for it within the first 28 days anyway - although you will have to pay full price then of course. It's often worth declining the offer of warrenty and checking whether the manufacturer has a similar offer in the box that's cheaper, or making seperate enquires with insurance companies.
Lastly, it's worth remembering that you have the right to cancel your insurance within 28 days for a full refund, so long as you've made no claim on it.
RANGE
Dixon's product range is extensive, although they are less inclined than other retailers to order stuff in especially for you. If they do make a special order, don't expect a discount off the list price. You're probably better off getting it online.
Their normal range is relatively up to date. They cover the middle ground well, and have a large number of cheap products (their own brand, Matsui for instance)
They jump on bandwagons well, and publish free guides to product ranges for you to take away, which to my mind are more informative than the sales people themselves!
ADVICE
Dixon's salespeople work with high targets. They seem to be there to sell more than advise. My advice would be to research the products before you buy - go in with a good idea of what you want. There are a lot of good product reviews on this site for instance: make use of them before you go, and avoid expensive mistakes.
PRICE
Though many products are cheaper on the net, their prices are reasonably keen. Consumables (minidiscs, blank CDs, batteries, films etc) are much dearer than elsewhere - avoid.
It is possible with a bit of haggling to get the price reduced or to get extras thrown in. Have a price you are prepared to pay in mind and let them know. Don't take no for an answer. If you've cash in your pocket they will more than likely cave in!
Long ago in my dark and distant past I was a Tandy salesman. It came as something of an embarrassment when I took the job as the month before I’d sat on a long coach journey and a bloke from a Birmingham Tandy store. He had spoken at length to me and being an arrogant student at the time I’d been very dismissive of Tandy and the whole thing in general. Humble pie anyone.....
I’m not going to talk about Tandy though, I’m going ... ...chosen anyone of a number, Curry’s, Comet or Tempo spring to mind but I plumped for Dixon’s since it is the biggest and the most guilty in my opinion. The reason I confess to being a Tandy salesman is to put my opinion into perspective, you see in the early days I was amongst the guilty. I do think Tandy appeals to more specialist (read as geeky) market than the standard high street electrical retailer but they might as well go into the ...
DiazX 05.04.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Dixons (Shop)
Advantages: Some goods cheaper than elsewhere Disadvantages: Terrible service...
...have done, blamed it on Dixons (probably because it didn't come from there...). Natural wear and tear I guessed, and so I decided to buy a new one. In my naivety, I thought that I would go to 'Dixons', after all, it had a wide selection, was easy to get to and well, that was it really. It had hardly been recommended to me on the strength of its customer care. I don't think that I had ever made a purchase there before. I haven't done since, and I ... ...items, I settled upon a Sony CD/mini-disc player. This was after being ignored by their staff for quite a large period of time. Actually, this is probably a good thing. Previously I had browsed other items before being pounced upon by staff asking if I would like a personal demonstration (no thanks, I can see where the 'On' button is, thank you very much...). However, on this occassion, I wouldn't have minded a bit of assistance. Eventually, a demonstator ...
stoffy 13.12.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Dixons (Shop)
Advantages: Convenient Disadvantages: Too many to mention!
...£20 cash... so in effect, Dixons stole £20 from me...
Anyway, I paid the extra £30 for the CD player, taking the value up to £159.99... I thought I must have been a valued customer, by buying the upper range of CD player.
It turned out there was an unrecognised problem with this model too... That is, Sony claim there is no problem, unless the problem was just on the batch that my player was made in.
The problem was the shock protection (ESPsquared) ... ...I went back to dixons and relayed the message as curries' range of CD players is not great! but Dixon's didn't even believe that! Eventually, after ringing Curries and disagreeing with the engineer, they replaced my CD player with the display model, which was from the same batch... so it had the same problem.
I have given up with Dixons now, and I can't be bothered to take the CD player back - I just cope with a CD player that doesn't operate properly. ...
owenberg 07.03.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Dixons (Shop)
Advantages: Stops you getting wet, product range Disadvantages: cost, cost, salespeople, everything else, it's rubbish (I could do this all day, lalalalala)
I am at the moment in the process of writing this review on Dixon’s; I haven’t a clue where to start though. You see I have already done a review on PC World the Sister store to Dixon’s that allegedly specialises in PCs. I will plod on however to try to inform you and warn you about Dixon’s:
I will start with the good points:
Product range
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Usually has a very good product range, all manner of electrical items ... ...a wide range of consumables.
Good place to shelter from the rain
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This shop can stop you getting wet – however be prepared to fend off the unwanted advances of the salespeople. They are nothing if not persistent.
I will now move on to the bad points:
Everything is far too expensive
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The typical Dixon’s product is usually well overpriced in my opinion. This applies ...
Del_Boy 09.10.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Dixons (Shop)
Advantages: They are everywhere Disadvantages: They are everywhere
Another Dixons lament. If you can’t face reading all of this, just scroll down to near the end. There is a point to all this and it may benefit you if you ever have problems with Dixons.
First a bit of history : ~ HOW DIXONS GOT SO BIG ~
Dixons started in 1937, when one Charles Kalms opened the Dixons Studio Limited (a photographic studio). He did rather well considering these were the pre-war and war years – but lots of military people ... ...America. I thought Dixons started PC World, but they didn’t. There were 4 PC World stores, owned by a company called Vision Technology, in existence before Dixons noticed them as a possible competitor and swallowed them up.
They didn’t appear in the republic of Ireland until 1996. Then they bought up one of their competitors there. History repeating itself again.
Now here is an interesting piece of information : they had to open a massive ...
MichelleScott 06.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Dixons (Shop)
Price
Value for money
Selection & range
Quality
Staff knowledge
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Advantages: Large selection of goods Disadvantages: Rude staff, expensive cover plan
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Advantages: Concentrated more on cameras Disadvantages: Not in every High St
When you look up any High St these days, trying to find a camera shop, you'll be very lucky to find an independant one, having had their market share snaffled by Dixons and the like. Although Jessops IS a chain store, at least they specialise in cameras and all things related to photography, which bodes well for the expertise of their staff. Local managers do seem to have a degree of autonomy, and my local one recently did me a "deal" not actually priced-up in the shop.
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Great bargains to be had, layby payment system, buyback facillity when selling your goods.
As they are a Franchise stores do vary considerably,Don' t always expect new goods at second hand prices, Don't expect near the new price for your goo (*)
