Whatever Happens

bonzobanana

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Just had a good laugh this morning. On the Currys site they seem to have given up on normal extended warranties at least on the panasonic plasma I was looking at. Instead they have what they call 'Whatever Happens'. Its £7.99 a month and therefore over 5 years adds about £480 to the price. I only went to the currys site to see how much I'm saving my brother on the TH42PX80 compared to Currys and it works out at about £750 saved!! In comparision with Comet its £500 saved. Thats because I'm getting a price match with john lewis for £653.90 (sound and vision). Whats worse is the Techguys are the biggest bunch of amateur repair men out there so your paying £750 extra for the worst possible service. Its absolutely frightening how bad a deal Currys are offering.
 
Quite frankly Currys and Comet can have no complaints that they are losing sales hand over fist
There prices are laughable --they both are selling the PX80 37 Inch for 800 quid
Given there are a multitude of dealers online doing it for in the region of 200 pound less I find it hard to believe anyone buys from them --their warranties are a joke -as a store they only appeal to the gullible and uneducated
Rant over:D
 
There's a huge market of the uneducated in the UK.
 
Me too. Does anyone else think 'The Tech Guys' is the most cheesiest and mis-leading name imaginable? They should be called the 'The Completely And Absolutely Useless Guys' with the exception of the odd person who works for them that know what they're doing. :rolleyes:
 
Ok Ok so I'm one of the ignorant and uneducated or whatever you call it...

I purchased one from Curry's yesterday because they assured me the model I was recieving for £650 was the px80 as they had on display however they gave me a px8. They have agreed to do a pm though so today I will be getting the px80 for £650 from Curry's. The 5 yr guarantee is no good for me as I'm moving abroad next year and wouldn't be able to use it...so I did go for the 7.99 a month deal as I don't know when I'm going and have 3 mental kids who will do their utmost to destroy the tv. The reason I haven't gone to JL? Do they offer 12 months interest free credit as well on the pm deal? Most places I know don't and I have been assured if I pay it off within 12 months I will be charged no interest and just have to pay a £25 arrangement fee.

Does JLs guarantee offer accidental damage? I was told at Currys no matter what happens I will be covered not just for manufacturer faults so with 3 kids and a maximum of 10 months as they have given 2 months free I thought it was ok? All in all it will cost me £754 but I can pay in installments.

If you can get the same with JL then please let me know and I'll go back this evening and cancel everything as I was mis-sold in the first place.

Gemma
 
I'm pretty sure the john lewis guarantee won't offer accidental damage but many will have that on their home insurance anyway plus you could add it to your existing policy for only a few tenners if you wanted to. My policy does but then I have an excess of about £400 so not really beneficial but then my contents policy was only £52.50 for the year anyway. Generally Currys are best avoided as a general rule for any major items as you would have to deal with currys own repair people who are generally terrible.

I'd just like to say my own wisdom came from only recent experience of buying a plasma from dixons and experiencing the techguys. Don't think we are all arrogently all knowing about this stuff. Most of us have currys/dixons horror stories to tell and now know better. There is no shame from buying from Currys if you didn't know the only shame comes if you read all the warnings and still bought from them and it all goes tits up then you only have yourself to blame.
 
Right but can anyone answer whether JL offer any interest free options? I would prefer to buy from them but don't have £650 lying around...

Also, seeing as I'm only in the country for max. a year if I'm getting the tv for £650, picking it up myself so can inspect it, covered by manufacturers faults for first year and covered accidental damage by insurance does it matter where I buy it? If there are dead pixels or any other issue it would be dealt with by Panasonic...and I'd have no involvement with the Tech Guys? Am I missing something?
 
Right but can anyone answer whether JL offer any interest free options? I would prefer to buy from them but don't have £650 lying around...

Also, seeing as I'm only in the country for max. a year if I'm getting the tv for £650, picking it up myself so can inspect it, covered by manufacturers faults for first year and covered accidental damage by insurance does it matter where I buy it? If there are dead pixels or any other issue it would be dealt with by Panasonic...and I'd have no involvement with the Tech Guys? Am I missing something?

If you open a JL Partnership card you get 6 months interest free. Generally all manufacturers have a tolerance for dead / stuck pixels and so the TV would only be replaced if over this threshold.
 
If you open a JL Partnership card you get 6 months interest free. Generally all manufacturers have a tolerance for dead / stuck pixels and so the TV would only be replaced if over this threshold.

Thanks for this, I have just put in 2 price match requests with my local JL, one for S&V in Bolton and the other with Direct Tvs in Huddersfield so hopefully one of them should get approved.

Let's just hope that Curry's will now cancel my credit/guarantee etc as it is all with model no. TH42PX8B which they mis-sold me so I guess I have every right to cancel it.

Gemma
 
In the first year of warranty it would be repaired by Panasonic anyway I think (it's certainly the case for laptops).

The problem with whateverhappens is when you claim for something on accidental damage and the report comes back that your story doesn't match up with the damage.

Oh also if you didn't know: If it wasn't for whateverhappens Currys would have gone bust years ago. It's far more profitable than the actual products. They make 15x what the monthly cover costs. So if you take out a £7.99/month policy it will make Currys £120.

Oh and for goodness sake don't take the £7.99 option for 5 years. If you want 5 years cover take the 5 year fixed option, it's normally about 50% cheaper. Plus you can pay that in installments too.
 
In the first year of warranty it would be repaired by Panasonic anyway I think (it's certainly the case for laptops).

The problem with whateverhappens is when you claim for something on accidental damage and the report comes back that your story doesn't match up with the damage.

Oh also if you didn't know: If it wasn't for whateverhappens Currys would have gone bust years ago. It's far more profitable than the actual products. They make 15x what the monthly cover costs. So if you take out a £7.99/month policy it will make Currys £120.

Oh and for goodness sake don't take the £7.99 option for 5 years. If you want 5 years cover take the 5 year fixed option, it's normally about 50% cheaper. Plus you can pay that in installments too.

I may have been a little blinkered but I'm not thick LOL :D

Edited to say sorry I forgot to thank you re the other info, I had no idea Currys were so bad. My Mum informs me loads of their stores are to be closed? She heard it on the radio.
 
Unfortunately even within the first year after the initial swap out period (30days) its techguys all the way. Expect scratched furniture, ******** dialogue and above all repeated and unsatisfactory repairs.
 
Unfortunately even within the first year after the initial swap out period (30days) its techguys all the way. Expect scratched furniture, ******** dialogue and above all repeated and unsatisfactory repairs.

Thanks for this...thanks to you all as I returned the tv today and didn't take the px80 as a replacement. Explained I had been on a website (didn't mention which though) looking for info ref. the different models and had been warned off buying a tv from Currys. The assistant was like 'nah! we're great! that's just one persons opinion!' I went on to explain it was far more than just the one person, he called the manager over, I repeated myself to her and she cancelled the credit agreement without question so I have been saved from a close call! Have 2 pms in with John Lewis...hoping one will get agreed but have just seen that they may start restricting pms to local stores in which case I'll be stuffed as I'm in the south and the stores are in Huddersfield and Bolton :rotfl:. Guess I'll just have to quote a few others who've had theirs approved...and see if that works.

Thanks again all - this is a fab site. Sorry for all those who have been stung.

Gemma
 
Just to say got my call back from JL today (about 24h later) offering a pm of £655. Fantastic service, lovely helpful staff. They seemed concerned that they had to inconvenience me by physically visiting the store as I couldn't apply for a partnership card and subsequently purchase the tv over the phone. LOL

You guys are all right I can already see the difference.
G
 
Well the good news (for customer service) is that DSG plan to close half their Currys store outlets over the next few years. Why anyone would want to buy anything from this appalling company is a complete mystery to me and as pointed out the “Tech Guy” side of the business is a grotesque joke. Pay the highest possible price for the worst possible service. What's really bad is that the business seems to survive by offering cheap and easy no questions asked credit to the UK's increasingly expanding underclass of have not's. They then tie this in to hideously expensive (and often unnecessary) extended warranties with punitive interest rates if you don't repay within the 12 months. DSG/Currys rely on the fact that many of their customers won't pay (or cannot pay) off the credit within the interest free time limit and so get hit again with punitive interest rates as well as the monthly payments for the expensive joke warranty. The current credit squeeze has put the brakes on this little racket hence the recent announcement re store closures. I don't mean any offence to anyone who has recently bought from DSG but the way this company operates does need spelling out to the unwary. At least when you pay a high price at John Lewis you are getting something in return by way of improved customer service. This unfortunate mix up over model numbers seems to be something of a recurrent theme whereby you think your buying one model and getting a bargain but are actually getting something similar but of a lower specification. :nono:
 
DSG/Currys rely on the fact that many of their customers won't pay (or cannot pay) off the credit within the interest free time limit and so get hit again with punitive interest rates as well as the monthly payments for the expensive joke warranty.
Two thirds of customers don't pay it off in time. Though HFC bank profits more out of this than Currys. The bigger money-spinner is Easiplan (24.9%) which until recently made a salesperson £8 if you sold one. You are correct though, I've seen in store days where about 10 people will come in and every single one will get declined where as back in 'the good old days' people with the worst possible credit application would get accepted.

There is supposedly something in the pipeline where Currys might offer the 5 year warranty provided by Panasonic but that still doesn't come close to the JL 5 years on everything by default and the far superior customer service.

Who knows what the future will hold though, if the new chief exec John Browett gets his way I think the company will completely change. He's already laid off about 500 staff from the head office and going to close some Currys.digital stores when their leases expire. They are also going to trial Currys and PCWorld under one roof, really big stores instead of lots of little ones and totally changing the interior of some stores (upstairs bits etc).

Things can only get better, as someone once sang.
 

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