Thursday, October 23, 2008

Dixons' downward spiral

My experience with the Dixons Store Group (DSGi) has rarely been positive. Just last week a clueless PC World manager (from the Tech Guys area) attempted to stop us from returning an unopened Toshiba (which was reasonably priced we admit) we bought online. The reasoning was they do not accept returns of refurbished products because it is company policy. Despite us pointing out that no such policies exists in the first place (you can view their returns policy here, which we printed to wave at his face), he stood by his made-up-on-the-spot excuse.

Unfortunately for him we weren't the clueless idiots he hoped we were and despite time wasting on us we forced him to call PC World online to clarify. Naturally he couldn't get through and he was forced to eventually relented and refunded us (with a facial expression of doom and no apologies offered). The irony of the situation was we were planning on looking at some printers while we were there, but the whole sordid affair was just too much to handle and we left empty handed, happy with the knowledge that none of our money are in their hands.

So it comes as no surprise that they have suffered six months of gloomy trading. Like-for-like sales fell 7 per cent for the 24 weeks ending 18 October 2008 and share has dropped 80% over the year, probably thanks to a combination of an impending UK recession caused by greedy bankers plus customers wising up. The sooner the Dixons group falls into bankcruptcy the better. If you require a walk-in store try John Lewis the next time.

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