I have just had the worst shopping experience at Currys.All the staff looked so unhappy and unattentive.If I hadn't pre ordered my new tv I would have walked out .On top of everything I got the high pressure sell of extended warranty and the spotty youth tried to sell me a £50 HDMI cable

..I got into a disagreement on cables when I told him I have only used Amazon HDMI'S that cost £2 each as I read in this and many sites of the great HDMI ripoff.At the till I didn't even get a smile or thankyou as I handed over my £399.No wonder high street retail is on it's backside.On the plus side my Panasonic TX-L32E6B tv is superb....I can't see me ever going into Currys again

I think it's bit of a circular argument as, because the high street retail industry is on it's knees, then staff morale is very low.

I was in Currys yesterday (just mooching) and even on a Saturday afternoon there were only a couple of other customers in. There were at least 10 staff members just hanging about.

Trouble is, with technology products, nothing beats seeing the goods in person, and seeing them work.
If we lost all the high street outlets we'd have to rely on online reviews to decide what to buy.

I don't see the point in getting into arguments about over-priced cables etc? Just don't buy them from there.

It wasn't an argument as such just a friendly disagreement on the price of HDMI cables which I'm sure this guy needs to sell to hit his targets , I wonder how many non technical customers get suckered into buying £50 cables when you can get them for a couple of quid.

My advice to anyone is AVOID Curry's like the plague.

By all means go in and get the salesman to give you the speel but buy elsewhere. I did the same and purchased my TV from a local store who price matched anything in the high street.

I concur 100%

I heard a saleswoman in one of the Glasgow branches getting a torrid time off a customer she was trying to sell extended warranty to. The guy was right of course, but I bet the girl was cringing at having to attempt to punt what amounts to daylight robbery.

I had a massive spat with Currys late last year. As a result I'll never use them or their associated companies again. They've already lost out on £1150 worth of sales from me this year, and there's plenty more they won't be getting in future.

Dispicable company.

The trouble is that profit margins are so slim on the electronics (TV, blu ray etc) that they really only make any profit as such on the add ons like stupidly priced cables and extended warranties.

However why they don't at least offer some lower priced more sensible cables is beyond me, they'll either rip off someone for a £50 cable or piss off a customer who knows they're taking the piss, so why not have another choice of a lower priced cable so they at least cater to the more sensible customers? but oh no, Currys seem to prefer to either outright scam you for £50 or just piss you off with their audacity.

I certainly don't miss working in the TV retail trade

I also recently used Currys when I bought a new cooker. Handed over almost £500. The guy taking the money was so miserable. He didn't thank me or acknowledge the sale. Hard earned money and a good sale.

Back in the years (about 4 in fact) I worked as a retail demonstrator for a few companies and my clients were Currys, PC world and Comet.
Luckily I didn't have targets and was sort of my own boss in these stores and not responsible for sales etc or warranties but just there to educate the public on certain products.
The majority of the managers in the stores treated the staff like crap, and had no people or even staff skills. There were some really good ones though - exeter pc world and the manager of staples in truro. Behind the scenes people were being chewed out daily for not hitting certain levels of targets or selling certain things, it was not a very productive atmosphere. Staff constantly had bad managers breathing down their necks, I saw managers shout at staff on shop floors, swear, sack people infront of customers and more. So no wonder customers face staff with low moral because if you have bad bosses who refuse to support staff then a customer will have a bad experience.
Its the old saying give someone a level of power and they go mad, all the management need are yellow high viz jackets and walkie talkies.

Also to be honest a certain large percentage of customers in shops demand to be treated like royalty and are enfact rather rude. I am here to buy this you must give me this and so forth.

So it probably a combination of crap management bad customers all day and no support equals bad sales people.

OP And just to compound your misery the £399 price would have had a free genuine Panasonic 5 year guarantee had you gone to a Pana dealer !!

All this talk of currys is making me hungry


Or John Lewis (maybe not a Panasonic one) but still included in the price.

The Panasonic guarantee is a "will repair come what may " type of guarantee .

Other dealers do not even employ any engineers -- they just send our a local contractor who will not be a specialists !

Once said to me at the daily morning "sales meeting" at PC World in the 90's... "We don't sell boxes, we sell services! The customer is not being served if they only buy the goods. It is YOUR job to upsell on the extended warranties and the peripherals (cables and other junk) in order to meet your targets!!" We had a sales target AND a warranty target, and we would get roasted if we didn't meet them.

Oh and the 8.45am - 9am meeing was compulsory and unpaid... I make that about 5 hours per month...

Nothing will make me gladder than to see DSG fail, for treating customers as cows to be milked, for treating sales staff as commodities to be bullied, and for being a generally dreadful company, managed by some of biggest steaming social animals that have ever walked this earth. I will feel sorry for the lowly sales staff when that happens.

If the staff have permanent contracts at all the contract is probably only for 10hrs per week or something... the rest of their weekly hours will be "overtime" at flat rate. They'll be on minimum wage (£6ish) and also have targets for selling credit and warranties in order to earn a mythical bonus of a few quid. The hours/days they're rostered each week will chop and change so they will find it hard to take a second job.
Basically, being a store assistant in most high street retailers is really really shit. I'm not seeking to make excuses for Currys or whoever but it's difficult to imagine how anyone working in that environment could be remotely chirpy, personable and helpful.

You're right, in that the shifts change every week. Most are on 36 hour weeks... four days on, two days off on a rolling pattern of two shifts - 9am-6pm or 11am - 8pm.. Bank holidays and Boxing Day all staff have compulsory attendance. Any other time off must be "swapped" with another worker.

Well that's how it was some time ago. Can't think its changed much.