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PC World

Founded	1991
Headquarters	Hemel Hempstead, United Kingdom
Key people	Keith Jones (Group Retail Director)
Industry	Retail
Products	Information technology
Employees	5,528 (2005)
Parent	DSG International plc

PC World is one of the United Kingdom's largest chains of mass-market computer superstores. It is part of DSG International plc ("Dixons Stores Group"). PC World operates under the brand name PC City in Spain, Italy and Sweden.

[edit] History

In November 1991, Vision Technology Group Ltd opened the first PC World store in Croydon. When Dixons Group plc (now DSG International) purchased the chain in 1993, there were four PC World stores in existence. There followed a period of expansion as more stores were opened across the country. This expansion was partly driven by a series of acquisitions beginning with DN Computer Services plc in 1996, followed by Byte Computer Superstores Ltd in 1998 and, more recently, Micro Warehouse in June 2004.

PC World Business was launched in September 1997 in the UK. Since March 2001, PC World Business has been based in Bury, Greater Manchester and has its own management team.

[edit] PC World today

The outside of the Southampton Central PC World store in December 2006, carrying the originally proposed "New" logo (The actual new logo is at the top of this page)

As of 2006^[update], there are 163 PC World stores in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Sales in 2004/2005 (including PC World Business) were £1,695 million.

The stores offer ranges of consumer-oriented PCs, laptops and peripherals, including DSG stores' own-brand Advent and PC Line. Stores also have a "PC Clinic", which offers advice and services. Some stores also have a "Component Centre" area, which contains more basic PC components such as motherboards, hard drives and cases. Most UK stores have a branch of "The Tech Guys", and also offer consultation to business customers.

In September 2006, PC World UK assumed management control of its French subsidiary. PC World in the UK was also due to undergo a style change at the beginning of 2008, including a new logo, staff uniforms and store layouts as part of its image re-branding programme. The changes have been trialled at the Brentford, Colchester, Portsmouth and the brand new Bournemouth, Southampton, Isle of Wight, Enfield, Burnley and relocated North Shields branches. However current advertisements suggest that the proposed logo had been dropped and replaced with another new logo.^[1]

In late 2006, PC World launched "The Connected Home", selling PC based home entertainment systems and installation services.

During Easter 2007, PC World launched a magazine advertising many of its services and products. It is called "Magazine" and published by futureplus. The magazine is free to collect from any PC World store, and comes out every quarter.

On 13 December 2007 it was announced that PC World will be selling Dell PCs in their stores. This one of many moves Dell are making to sell their Desktops and Laptops to a wider market. This also includes Dell selling their XPS systems in many HMV stores across the UK.

PC World was nominated for Best Retailer in the What Laptop Mobile Computing Awards 2008.^[2]

PC World opened their first 2-in-1 megastore with Currys at Wandsworth Bridge, Fulham, on the 29th October 2009.

[edit] Criticisms

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PC World has attracted criticism in a number of areas. Common complaints include:

• Failure to honour statutory responsibilities under the Sale of Goods Act (see controversies below)
• Sales-oriented culture that pressurises staff into promoting more expensive goods, regardless of suitability, occasionally with misleading or incorrect information and the use of bait-and-switch (see false advertising below)
• Promotion of goods with misleading or incorrect information (see false advertising below)
• Promotion of extended warranties (also known as insurance and support packages)^[3]
• Customers are required to use out-sourced, local rate telephone support for hardware issues or premium rate telephone lines (£1/minute, except for set-up which is 75p/minute) for software issues, unless an extended warranty has been purchased ^[4][5]
• Disparity in pricing between PC World stores, the PC World website and other shops owned by the Dixons group (PC World Will match their web price when quoted^{[citation needed]}) ^[6]
• Complaints of repairs not being completed (see controversies section)
• Overcharging for repairs and lack of technical competence among technicians from seven sampled stores ^[7]

Similar criticisms have been aimed at other retailers in the DSG group (including Dixons and Currys).

In 2005, a Which? survey ranked PC World joint last for customer satisfaction.^[8]

In 2006 PC World attempted to get away from its reputation for having sales staff on up to 20% commission who would therefore use high pressure sales tactics with its "One Team" marketing campaign.^[9] This involved adverts in major newspapers claiming staff no longer received commission, however this claim is misleading. Staff now receive a bonus based on the performance of the entire store as a whole (up to £200^{[citation needed]}), meaning that pay is still linked to performance. The bonus is also based on other non-monetary metrics, such as customer satisfaction. To compensate the 275 highest earners under the old scheme for reduced bonuses, their basic pay was raised by 16% from around £11,000 to around £13,000 per year.^[10]

In response to the perception that PC World staff are often young and lacking in knowledge and communications skills, in 2007 a set of e-learning courses called "The Power of Knowledge" were completed by 6,000 staff ^[11] and the results were incorporated into their Christmas bonuses as an incentive for staff to improve their knowledge.

In January 2008 a survey for Which? revealed that PC World was ranked in the bottom ten retailers in the UK.^[12][13]

[edit] Controversies

In 1997 Gary Glitter took his PC into a branch of PC World in Bristol for repair, where child pornography was found by staff. PC World informed the police, and Glitter was subsequently charged and convicted of possession of child pornography.^[14][15] It is unclear whether the repair work that Glitter's machine required would have necessitated access to the hard drive with images being discovered by accident, or whether PC World staff accessed the contents of the hard drive when they had no legitimate reason to do so, either as a routine activity performed on all customers machines, or performed on Glitter's due to his celebrity status.

In 2005, after 56 complaints from TV viewers, PC World was forced to remove an advert that gave misinformation about wireless networking.^[16] There have also been numerous other complaints over ads, particularly regarding goods advertised but not actually available in the stores.^[17][18]

On 26 March 2007, The Register reported^[19] that PC World had repaired a customer's laptop, under the terms of an extended warranty, with a second hand hard drive. The drive contained images of bestiality, which the customer said "popped up" on screen while his 11 year old son was playing a game. PC World spokesman Hamish Thomson admitted that "it is not uncommon" for a second-hand part to be used in a PC World repair.

On 12 September 2007, PC World reportedly refused to repair a customer's laptop with a manufacturing defect under warranty because the operating system had been changed from Windows Vista to Linux.^[20] Such a change could not have resulted in the physical problems that the laptop was suffering from, however the manager of the London store is quoted as having been told to refuse repairs where the operating system had been changed.

[edit] Countries with PC World stores

•  United Kingdom
•  Ireland
•  Italy
•  Spain
•  Sweden

In Italy, Spain and Sweden the retailer is called PC City.^[21]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• PC World (UK)
• PC World (IRL)

[edit] See also

• DSG International plc
• Coverplan
• Currys
• Currys.digital
• Dixons
• The Link
• PC City