Currys

We went in here when I was looking to buy a new laptop. We spent time looking and picked the one I wanted, and the asked the salesman if we could buy it. He checked the stock and then sat us down to do the sale. And that’s when things went wrong! He kept trying to sell us extras with the laptop — memory sticks, anti-​virus software, Microsoft Office, and so on. I told him I already had these things and also get Office for free as I attend a night class at college. So I convinced him I didn’t need all these things, but then he started talking about a ‘care plan’ which involves paying money every month in case the laptop breaks. I told him many times that I wasn’t interested and didn’t think it would be worthwhile (after all you don’t expect a new laptop to break down, and even if it does a few years later you would have paid enough every month to save for a new laptop!!). However, he wouldn’t take no for an answer! We probably could have sat there longer and made him remove this from the sale, but to be honest it just put me off. I told him I had to go, and then bought a laptop elsewhere. The hard sales technique that he used meant they lost a sale completely. Not very smart on their part, and a waste of time and energy for us!

Online shopping for stuff is great. You can compare prices, get great deals, but if you want to actually hold before you buy you end up like me in one of these soulless places on a Saturday afternoon.
After lingering about the camera section so long it looked like we were casing the joint, we finally grabbed someone to help us, who told us she’d page a camera specialist now. She didn’t, and 5 minutes later we counted 5 staff chatting happily behind the counter doing nothing. One of them noticed us counting them and finally came over. His knowledge was minimal, giving us nothing more than what we could had read on the label, and in relation to one item he even said ‘I don’t know what that is’. He also showed little understanding of the pricing, which was pretty confusing with real prices, sale prices and cash back. We finally got to the till and here he launched into the most painful sales pitch about insurance and basically said we were stupid. Nice customer service eh.
To conclude, if you need something electrical in Belfast check out Sam’s Your Man. They’ll do you a good deal, know what they are talking about and not treat you like an idiot.