I don't normally shop at Curry's but they have a big range and I'm tempted to get a fridge-freezer from there.
I checked their customer ratings and the first two review sites gave utterly different scores.
On Trustpilot, 3,500 customers score Curry's as 2.8 out of 10
On Revoo, 59,000 customers score Curry's as 96%
Other sites suggest Curry's is currently more crap then good, so why did a whopping 59,000 people at Revoo score it so highly?
Possibly because the review is performed just after a delivery and not after a customer has to return goods or contact customer services.
It's much like some Amazon reviews where the customer is satisfied that the goods arrived tied up with a pink bow..
In the past few years I've been reasonably happy with what I've bought at Currys and their customer service, though they wouldn't be my first port of call. And our old Matsui VCR is still working :-). Recently I've bought white goods from ao and John Lewis.
I have been very happy (several purchases) with ao.com.
I had to re-equip and I found they are basically OK these days.
I recommend ao.com. Initial email confirming delivery, on day of delivery an email/text giving a hour time slot and 15/30minutes before delivery a phone call/text saying they are on their way.
Avoid Appliances Direct. Email 10pm on day of delivery saying that the carrier has just picked up the item and it will be delivered some time in the next 3 days (excluding weekends).
Some companies have adequate customer service until you have parted with the money.
My customer experience with Currys.
I purchased a camera at Currys on-line and arranged delivery at the local Currys store - paid for next day delivery. Email confirmation of order and dispatch were received.
With no camera turning up at the store for days the various excuses were "the on line business was a different company and we cannot check their system" and "deliveries between the warehouse and store are handled by a third party and we don't have any tracking details".
On phoning the on-line customer service they just contradicted what staff at the store told me but the tracking information was missing from their system.
With Currys avoid all the peripheral extras which the sales staff will try and push and which can be purchased at a 10th of the price elsewhere. You don't need that £50 gold plated HDMI lead for your new TV! You don't need that security package with your new PC which will act as though it is virus itself and reduce the performance of your high tech PC to that of a PC of a decade ago.
My Samsung fridge freezer from Curry's has been fine for 12 years. I choose a product, then look where I can buy it.
My parents recently bought a fridge-freezer on next day delivery from Currys. The new one duly arrived, was turned on and they stocked it up the following day. Less than a week later, it failed. Now that is not Currys' fault, but their after sales service was rubbish.
It was noticed that it had failed on Saturday afternoon. Their customer service desk was open 7 days a week (I can't remember the hours now) according to their website's contact details, but they could get no answer on Saturday or on Sunday, just a recorded announcement that it was out of office hours!!!!
They finally got in touch on Monday and could not arrange a pick-up/replacement until Friday. Meanwhile they had to keep shopping daily, as they couldn't keep anything - milk was the worst problem.
There's little point in having a next day delivery of urgently needed items, if next day customer services and returns aren't also available.
SteveW
Definitely avoid AD!
Our tumble dryer failed - a big problem with three primary school aged children and a shortage of school jumpers, necessitating washing and drying overnight. Most suppliers were out of stock of the one that we wanted and wouldn't have any for 14 days. AD showed that they had them in stock, so we ordered a replacement for next day delivery.
They called at 10pm to say that they'd just come to load it on the truck and found it damaged and they had no more in stock. I phoned their office the next morning to cancel the order and was told that they actually had plenty more in stock, so they re-arranged for the next day.
They called again at half-past seven the next morning to tell me that they were actually out of stock and wouldn't have any for 14 days and that I should phone back later when the office was open to cancel the order, but was told it would be 5 (working) days before I received the refund - over £300.
When I phoned back, they again said that they had them in stock, but I insisted on cancelling.
I then found the same dryer on the Boots website and ordered one from there. Only for the confirmation to look suspiciously like that from AD. On enquiring, I found that Boots used AD. Once again I cancelled.
I was now (temporarily) nearly £650 down.
I then managed to find one in stock 20 miles away and went to collect it with my trailer. It cost around £40 more, but at least I had it!
On the other hand, when our fridge-freezer failed, we used AO and their delivery was right on time.
SteveW
I've only used them once and it wasn't entirely a good experience. I paid extra for a specific delivery slot of 2-4pm but because it was very important that it be delivered by 5pm. At 4:30 I phoned them to try to find out why no delivery - they said "on the way". Fridge-freezer eventually delivered around 5:20. I complained and got a refund of the extra fee for the specific delivery slot, but it didn't entirely compensate for the inconvenience. I might use them again, but wouldn't entirely rely on their delivery slot timings.
Well, I've no quibble with them, but I suppose it very much depends on the staff at such places, and so this will impact the stats. After all they are only shifting boxes made by others, and their returns policies are guided by the consumer law. What exactly might you be buying. I did notice a bit of bias toward Beko or whatever thier name is tha last time i bought a washing machine, but they were quite happy when I went for a panasonic instead as it had tactile controls and felt less flimsy. Brian
I bought a 55" Samsung Smart TV from them a couple of years ago. Price was competitive, and I could pick it up from a local branch there and then. I naturally declined paying extra for the extended warranty.
It totally failed at just outside the 1 year warranty. I contacted them, but they were adamant the maker's warranty was the only one they observed. Regardless of any 'fit for purpose' etc arguments. And I wasn't really interested in taking them to court.
I'd guessed it was a PS fault, but couldn't find an obvious failed cap etc, despite having an ESR meter. I took a risk and bought a spare PS from Ebay for about £40 which sorted it.
I'll now not buy anything like that with such a short warranty. FFS, even Lidl give 3 years on their power tools, etc.
So it will be JL in future if they still include a 5 year warranty.
The laugh is the previous TV, a DLP type, was bought specifically from JL because of their warrenty and the expensive light source, which I was worried would fail. But it didn't. ;-)
That is exactly the sort of hassle I want to avoid. Maybe I wouldn't quite demand the "next day service" you mention but I do want the vendor to own any problems which come up and fix them quickly.
I'm too ill these days to grapple with and continually chase up an indifferent vendor with appalling telephone wait times when I need some after sales service.
Some people (TNP, Michael and Brian) mention Curry's is okay. delivery is one thing but after sales is another. Appliances Direct seems like a box shifting operation.
On balance, I think I'll give Curry's a miss if I can get what I want elsewhere.
AO is getting some good mentions here from people like Bob and Chris. Those review sites I mentioned (which I'm not sure I should trust) agree AO is good.
Amazon is a possibility but whatever goes wrong they will want the appliance back and give a full refund without question (but think of the packing!)
I don't need hassle, so I'm beginning to think maybe I should buy from John Lewis, as Dave mentions about his telly, even though they only supply the bigger model of fridge-freezer than I really want.
I got a panasonic smart TV. A week later it stared switching itself off. More and more.
I took it in and said 'this is a Norwegian blue' The bloke plugged it in and said 'but its working now'
I said 'look sonny, I have driven 20 miles to bring thus back, not because I want a refund, or a different make of telly, but because I want one of these that actually works.'
'Fair point' he said 'I'll mark it as "fault confirmed" and get you another one. By the way its £5 cheaper this week, so there a refund for you.'
That was Currys/PC world. More to the point the guy who helped me choose it actually knew something about tellys. Not something you would have found in Dixons.
So I can say my experience was actually pretty good.
The new telly is still working faultlessly.
Dixons own Currys/PC world
As it happens, I just ordered a coffee machine from them not half an hour ago.
Or its it the other way round?
I know that, my point is they have improved.
or - Currys own Dixons.
No, Dixons Carphone (previously Dixons Retail, previously Dixons Stores Group International, previously Dixons Group plc, etc, etc) owns Currys.
Luckily, because our daughter isn't at uni and has a van , when our washing machine finally died, she popped round our local electrical shop, got them to price match (on a machine we had read good reviews on) against most of the shed prices, bought it for us and brought it home herself (and took the old one away). ;-)
So, tried local yet? The good thing about a real / local shop is you can normally talk to the same person who sold it to you and therefore you stand a better chance of a better outcome.
Cheers, T i m
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