Crawling through the rings of Currys’ customer service

When my son’s laptop recently developed a fault, I knew I had to fix it quickly. Of course, the warranty had just expired, so I also had to face the expense.

The problem was the laptop wasn’t charging. The charger cable was frayed, so the solution appeared simple — a new charger. That afternoon, we jumped on the bus to Currys PC World to see if I was right.

We arrived in the store, we explained the issue, produced the laptop and gave them the model number on the receipt. ‘No problem,’ they said, led us down an aisle and produced a charger. To be extra safe I asked them if we could test it there and then. We plugged the charger into the laptop and the light on the charging port went on. Result! Only fifty quid. We were back home in less than a couple of hours.

That evening I heard a distressed wail from my son’s bedroom. The laptop wasn’t charging! Again! My heart sank. If it wasn’t the charger then it must be a fault with the charging port. Or, God forbid, the motherboard.

Back we went to Currys. The customer service representative told us that in order to diagnose the problem we would have to send it to the repair centre. £50 up front for labour, plus whatever the price of the replacement part if one was needed. The laptop would be away for around a week. I paid the money, prayed for a good result, and tried to console my sad and frustrated son.

Five days later I got a call from a very jovial administrator. The technician had identified the problem. It was the charger – the £50 replacement was apparently the wrong voltage. Could I pay £75 for the correct one please?

I was furious. What a waste of time and money! We had gone out of our way to make sure the customer service representative had the correct information about the laptop. We trusted that they had sold us the correct product, which meant we didn’t think the new charger was the problem when it didn’t work.

It took another two days for the laptop to be delivered back to the store. Armed with the receipts, I explained to a different customer service representative that “If we had been sold the right product in the first place, we would never have had to pay for the labour and my son wouldn’t have been without a laptop for over a week.” They refunded the original wrong charger and after a bit of grimacing, they refunded the labour as well.

I was furious. What a waste of time and money! We had gone out of our way to make sure the customer service representative had the correct information about the laptop. We trusted that they had sold us the correct product, which meant we didn’t think the new charger was the problem when it didn’t work.

It took another two days for the laptop to be delivered back to the store. Armed with the receipts, I explained to a different customer service representative that “If we had been sold the right product in the first place, we would never have had to pay for the repair, labour.– not to mention my son being without a laptop for over a week. They refunded the original wrong charger and after a bit of grimacing, they refunded the labour as well.

This started with the initial salesperson, who, had they paid more attention to detail and perhaps been better trained, would have radically transformed my experience. Subsequently, when the problem arose, the service providers I dealt with were not asking questions, checking the details, or understanding the problem. When I pointed out their mistake they did not demonstrate empathy.

The refunds at the end were just enough to stop me actively discouraging everyone I knew to shop at Currys. Everyone involved, from sales to service support, could have radically transformed my experience and I might have written a blog of praise – and great PR- instead.

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