**Not to be confused with The Monkies (famous 60's pop group!).

 

way to block out the sun logiclee!!

(didn't mention the interior decor)

-DV

 

I used to work in dickons for about a year over 12 years ago...

Seem to remember having a league table running with other staff on who could sell extended warranty with the lowest price ratio compared to the goods being sold..

I can easily remember someone seling a personal stereo for something like £50 and an extended warranty of £49.99 - this proves that idiots buy from idiots..

By the way at the time extended warranties were something like 95% pure profit - doubt it's changed much..

cheerio

 

Having worked for Tempo for 10 agonising months many years ago, I am so happy to hear that they have gone bust. I just hope that the Kraftman family (or however you spell it) will personally suffer from this (though I doubt it), as you would not believe the underhanded (in my opinion ) way they ran that business with a (in my opinion ) total lack of morals or a thought for their staff [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img][img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img]

It was (in my opinion ), a total sweat shop, extremely badly paid and they flouted most of the laws of the land as a matter of course!!!! [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img][img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img][img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] They treated their staff like animals, and the customers not much better.

On the subject of Cover Plans (Extended Warrantees), the store had a target to reach of something like 20% of the daily takings which must be made up of CP sales - if you didn't hit this target then Mr Gerald Kraftman, CEO, (or his little Hitler son, Paul) would often come down to the store and in front of the staff (and sometimes customers), tear a strip off the manager of the store, (and I'm not talking polite language, I'm talking screaming and shouting with many an expletive!!!!).

That did wonders for staff morale I can tell you I couldn't get out of there fast enough......

Good riddance!!!!!

Matt!

P.S. On the Dixons/Currys/PC World front, (you know it's all one company right?), in my opinion ( ), they are so overpriced and full of witless staff that the company is basically saying to you, "if are stupid enough to come in here, you deserve all that you get!!!!!!". I constantly find myself coming back from PC World in the city at lunch time and say to myself, "now why did I go in there again, I should have known better". The answer is, it's local, I can pop in a pick things up in my lunchour which is convenient. Just sometimes, you don't want to wait for stuff to arrive and don't have time to find a "proper shop" (but I do draw the line at paying £120 for an SMC Wireless NIC when everyone else is selling them for £70 )

 

Mutant_Mat,

When I first started out I worked at Bonsai, the then Corporate arm of the Kraftman empire. Run by Paul I think it was. The reputation of the brothers was well known in the company.
I think Mutant has covered most points.

I also had to work in a store for a couple of days in the computer section. Most of the staff just read of the cards and fudged answers to questions. I ended up with people queing to talk to me.

P.

 

Sith,

I did my PC building training @ Bonsai in New Malden. I ran the computer dept for the Chingford store when it was "re-modelled" and helped train and setup the Barking and Staples Corner stores.

I would hasten to add that in the years after I left, the standards of the staff (in the PC dept in particular) would have got them sacked during my time there (so not my fault ).

You're right about the staff though, I too had a queue of people waiting to speak to me which got quite awkward after a while.

I think you're right, Paul was in charge at Bonsai though he didn't visit very often (unlike the stores where we got a visit from one of them at least once a fortnight [img]images/smilies/mad.gif[/img] ).

When were you there, I was there from March '93 to Jan '94 (far too long)

Matt

P.S. When I'm feeling philosophical, I say that I learnt a lot about building PC's there, which got me my last job which got me my current job which has got me where I am today.....then at other times I just think that they were a bunch of Wa***rs (In my opinion )

[Edited by mutant_matt - 12/12/2001 2:42:03 PM]

 

Matt, I will check dates tonight if I remember , I have a feeling that's when I was there aswell.
Fully agree with your philosophical statement. Learnt alot during my time in New Malden. I was based in the config department there.

Do you remember someone called Andy G, the config dept manager?

Will get your email of your profile.

P.

 

Sith,

I remember Andy Griffiths very well but I *may* not have very nice things to say about him either

The guy in charge at a man/day to day level was a guy called Neil but I can't remember his surname. Tall thing guy with glasses (and a nice guy). There was a German lady whose name was something like Udi/Ushi who got the sack whilst training me, for taking home a couple of floppy disks

Matt

P.S. Small world ain't it...

 

It's all very "amusing" you geeks demonstrating your wealth of knowledge over the guys in these retail outlets.

But lets face it, if these guys were bright enough to understand their products thoroughly, they wouldn't be working for minimum wage in some retail park.

I think their idea of "Expert" is someone who knows more than a man in the street, not some tech-geek who's idea of a good time is to post their diatribes on some BBS.

Agree on the whole Warranty thing though, it's a bit of a rip off.

[Edited by DavidBrown - 12/12/2001 6:06:09 PM]

 

Matt,

Yep, thems the people. I have checked and I was there at the time. I probably helped you out. Remember helping to train people for the Chingford store.

Neil Mcarthy was the workshop manager under Andy G. Ushi was the Austrian woman there.

Was that sacking bull.

Small world innit Will send the email....went out last night.

P.

 

Logiclee;

Is it not a bit sad having those plaques on your wall? (See above picture).

 

This Bonsai place seems like a bunch of **** doesnt it ?

Thankfully I've got a gr8 job and have never had the misfortune to work in a place like that but .........

........I can well imagine my reaction should a senior staff member start spouting obscenities at me in front of members of the public, namely senior staff with bloody nose and 'Stick your job up your a$$' etched into Senior forehead !

I mean come on, who would put up with that ?

 

Nice Carpet - finishes the small provincial cinema affect a treat Is there a row of purple crushed velvet chairs just behind.

Damn thats a nice TV

 

-- "Is it not a bit sad having those plaques on your wall? (See above picture)"

No, it's ALOT sad.

Besides, it's not even THX

 

Norman,Well, when there is a recession on and you're pretty certain you may have hard time finding another job, you *may* take it at the time, bide your time and find another job as soon as you can.

It's very easy to say "I'd tell them to stick it and walk out", but it's much harder to make yourself un-employed in difficult economic times...

Matt

 

Anyway, let's get back to slgging off f**k wits in to**er retail stores.....

Matt

 

MartinM: I have a D30 - I bought it just before the 10% discount and free flash offer started

I can't bring myself to enter the 'X' shop though, the prospect makes me quite queasy. Congratulations if you did manage to walk out with a genuine bargain, though. I just relied on my credit card's price match guarantee to let me buy the camera from a reputable dealer and price match it with the cheapest I could find on the 'net Got back over £200 on the camera, lens and Microdrive...

Andy.

 

David Brown & rik,

Whats even sadder is the price I paid to import the dts plaque from the states. LOL. Dolby plaque only a few pounds though.

David Brown,

No its not THX spec. Amp will be next upgrade, although the Sony STRB930 is still a nice bit of kit. Next amp will definatly have DD EX and dts ES 6.1 discrete, perhaps with neo6 and pro-logic 2, maybe a little something from Denon. Hard to justify the cost of going full THX Ultra though.

dsmith,

I said no comments about the decour. LOL
I have to let my wife have full choice over internal decouration decisions, but she does let me fill the room with black boxes.

Lee


[Edited by logiclee - 12/13/2001 8:41:29 PM]

 

Damaja... yes and no! it doesn't matter if you've got a cray supercomputer sitting at home, if you are using a 56K modem it's not going to make the internet any quicker! They try and make out that the CPU will somehow magically turn your poxy 56k modem/ISDN/ADSL whatever into some monster firebreathing 155Mb line! does ne work like that

M

 

"Hard to justify the cost of going full THX Ultra though"

True, although the Denon AVC-A10SE it THX EX + Ultra and DTS ES, you can pick one up for ~£700, and as funds allow you can you can add a Denon POA-T10 Power Amp for the full 7.1/9.1 setup and about 1000watts of neighbour annoying power

 

Yeah but David, your nearest neighbours are in the next county!

(he drove them far far away.....)

How's the Egg?

 

-- "Yeah but David, your nearest neighbours are in the next county!"

This is true..

The Egg's waiting to go back on the dyno (Monday coming) then I'll be getting it back.

I've even bought a Land Rover Discovery to tow the thing to track days with.

 

In defence of shop assistants, their pay is utterly derisory so you can't expect much.

Re Extended Warranties:

In Comet the sales t0sser refused to sell me a Miele washing machine without ataking out an extortionate warranty extension this is after he'd been boasting how robust they are and last for 20 years etc. etc. So when I pointed this out to him he couldn 't understand and got shirty. I eventually insisted he consult his maanger and he had to sell it tin the end with no extention. They didn't like it though, and it is clearly not company policy I reckon the sales staff only get commission on the waranties they sell/force on people, NOT the sale of the goods, which explains thier enthusiasm and p1ssed-offness when you don't take it out.

"Payment protection" is another similar scam but that's another story...

 

Remembered this thread when I was wandering around the D shop at lunchtime and overhead a sales "***"istant telling a couple looking at a PS2 that it was state of the art.

Apparantly the "Sega Cube" will be out in a couple of years though

And also, it was worthwhile taking out an extended warranty on their PS2 because Sony don't actually make spare parts for them, you just have to buy an entirely new one if something goes wrong

Oh dear!

 

dharbige

I sent you an email after your request, but I've just got a "Failed Receipt" after 8 days

Here's what I sent:

Within a few pence, these are the standard Dixons prices:

D30 Body £1800
75-300mm USM Lens £160

...which I got, but with their 10% off offer...so 1620 + 144 =
1764.

And I hate to admit it, but I then bought the 5 year warranty (ie 1+4) for 229, which I actually thought was reasonable value (don't believe that, for example, paying £200 to warranty a £350 washing machine is good value though) - and then got 10% off that as well. The extended warranty is £229 for all cameras over about £550 - so at the low end its 41% of the value, but at the high end its 12% - which is why I went for it.

...and all on 14 months interest free (10% down, 14 monthly payments of about 75 and then a ballon payment at the end)

Canon are also doing an offer as well - buy a D30 and get an accessory of value up to £350 (or so) free. I chose the 28-75mm USM lens (RRP 340, but Dixons' shelf price is 249) - sent the form off and the lens was delivered within 4 days!

Bought a 128Mb CF card on the Internet (ebuyer.com) for £38 + VAT - half the high street price - as well, which holds 90 or so 2160*1440 jpg pictures.

Well chuffed with the prices - and the kit is pretty damn good too!

www.dpreview.com was the source of most of my info

Hope this helps