We decided to purchase a Canon Powershot G2,
a digital camera and called around for prices. As we
were travelling to spain on 20 June, we called Heathrow T1 to
see if they offered the product duty free on 17 June. We were
told no, because it was a low margin product and the company would
never sell it duty free. As a result, we decided to purchase the
camera at Dixons 88 Oxford St store on 19 June, in order to take
the camera with us on our travels the following day. We purchased
the camera from J (Assistant No 009), who confirmed to us that
the camera was not available duty free.
We took the camera home and opened it, only to find that a battery
was missing. We sent an email to customer services that evening
and on Wednesday morning visited the Heathrow T1 store to see
if they could help. H, the store manager, provided us with a new
battery. During the course of our discussions we discovered that
the camera was indeed available for a "duty free" price
of £553 (travel within EU), that they should be ordered
and are home delivered and that they had 160 cameras in stock
for this purpose. We were informed that we might have been able
to return the camera and repurchase under the duty free scheme,
but would not be able to as we had already taken the camera out
of its packaging. Clearly, had we not we would not have discovered
the missing battery.
I then visited the store manager at 88 Oxford St, N B, who quite
simply told me it was not his issue. Rather surprising, since
it was one of his sales assistants who confirmed that the camera
was not available duty free.
I called the Dixons customer service helpline and spoke with
S L on 24 June. She informed me that my complaint had been entered
into the system and that she would call back within an hour. 36
hours later I called back to find that Sally was doing her training
and unavailable and that my complaint had not been entered into
the system.
I spoke with A W on 26 June, who assured me that he would look
into the problem and request Sally to call me back and failing
that he would call to let me know what was happening. I received
no calls.
I spoke with M (no. 28319) and requested to speak to a manager.
She decided that it was inappropriate to speak to the manager
without the original name of the person at Heathrow T1 who failed
to inform me of the duty free availability of the camera. Again,
rather strange considering that the 88 Oxford St store also confirmed
that the camera was unavailable duty free.
During the week, I have been able to assess that no Dixon store
is able to respond correctly to the question "can I buy this
camera duty free at the airport". Furthermore, I have since
called the Heathrow T1 store and spoke with Indy, who failed to
inform me that the camera was available duty free claiming that
they did not stock them. I then explained my situation to him
and he acknowledged that I was indeed correct, that the camera
was available on a home delivery basis.
I believe that Dixons have misrepresented their prices despite
my clear and well intentioned requests for the information and
would like to be reimbursed for the additional £96 that
we spent purchasing the camera.
Link to Other Dixon Group Company
Complaints
