DiXONS: Consumer Comment - A Cardiff store member of STAFF response
....26 May 2003

As an employee of Dixons xL in Cardiff, I've a few comments to make regarding all the above comments. Some I agree with, some I must argue.

1. As a result of some incredibly rude staff, we are all given a bad reputation, whether we are given a chance to disprove this or not. When I first joined Dixons a year ago, we were given a huge amount of training, a large proportion of which concentrated on customer interface, and to be polite and help whenever possible. This was hammered into us. I can say without a doubt that 85% of the team that work at Cardiff are incredibly polite people, and are always doing their best to help customers.

In a football match, is every one of those fans deemed to be a hooligan because of news reports of riots from a previous game? Of course not! We're not all bad people, although I would say that when customers complain about the service they have received from other stores, 90% of these seem to originate from stores in England.

Whether we are more polite in Wales I don't know, but I have never heard of an incident, nor could I envisage the scenario of ANY of the team at Dixons xL swear
ing at a customer!!

The first rule I always abide by, is to treat the customer as I would expect to be treated myself. However, I wish that some customers would also remember this, and ask themselves, "Would I stand there and accept this kind of verbal abuse or behaviour?!" It is these occasions when I am laughing inside when the angry customer then says "Fine, I'll go to PC World/Currys instead". I wonder how long it will take them to notice the "Dixons Store Group" on the bottom of their receipt ;)

I find it rather infuriating that because Dixons is such a large corporate company, it is given such a large amount of bad press. Of course it is not ficticious, but so often the bad press is over-exaggerated and given its enhancements to make it media-worthy).

On the other hand, the parking facilities behind Dixons xL leave much to be desired, and there have been many instances of STAFF cars being clamped too (much to the delight of Mark Thomas I'm sure!!) so as you can see, it's not really Dixons' fault in this case. I do hope you receive your full clamping fee though, because as you were parking there to pick up a Dixons product, you got clamped through no fault of your own, and therefore it is for Dixons to foot the bill.

As for the bell ringing and waiting for service, this also leaves much to be desired. When Dixons first opened, we had a large number of employees working in the warehouse (which also takes up a further entire floor on the third level of the building). Many of these people moved on/quit, got jobs elsewhere etc, but they were not replaced. Subsequently, a weekend working day commonly consists of 1 person bringing stock down for all sales people for the entire store, who is also given the task of answering the back door. Then there are either another one or two people working in the warehouse dealing with repairs, stock checks/replenishment/admin etc.

So when you ring that doorbell, if the runner is dealing with stock, then you're going to have to wait until he gets back up to the warehouse to hear you ringing the bell/see you on the monitor. Many a complaint has been made by ourselves, but you know the drill.

On the extended warranty front (aka coverplan). I am NOT a salesperson, therefore I get no commission from any sales I make. Bear that in mind from what I have to say please! This invisible product does generate an infuriatingly large amount of profit for Dixons, it must be agreed. I would not purchase a coverplan on anything bought from Dixons, apart from a couple of items - a laptop, or expensive digital camera for example. In cases like this (and I see a LOT of coverplan claims go past me) should you damage your laptop, the expense can be phenominal, and coverplan even covers accidental damage and theft. THEN and ONLY then would I buy coverplan. Read the leaflets carefully of course, and do your homework, but on a select few products, it IS worth it, I promise! (I even made my mother buy cover, hows that!)

Of course I understand the tales of woe of all of you - I've been given bad customer service in many places, and I understand the frustration. I feel sorry for you people who have been treated badly (especially by the Cardiff branch because I know the people working there) but we do have more happy customers than angry customers!

As for making complaints, I suggest you go straight to the top - I will provide you with email addresses for some of the bigwigs at the very top (next weekend when I'm at work there) so that you can hopefully get some action taken. That's probably the only way you'll get recognised by the looks of things!

MrAnon
email =provided
town = Cardiff, Dixons xL

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