CastleCannon already has a couple of Google Mini's and an original Home Hub. Lately, the Hub has started to show its age. It sometimes doesn't hear you or bizarrely does something different to what you asked. It's also started randomly talking out of the blue, "I'm sorry, I don't understand?" Neither do we Google.
With this in mind, I've had my eye on the Google Max, but at £219.00, it was a little bit tasty for my liking. Then yesterday I noticed that Google had dropped the price to £189.00 and Currys/PC World Electrical, a UK electronic goods outlet, was doing it for £179.00 so after I finished work I popped down to our local one. I say, "Popped" I fought my way down the M6, to be more precise.
Ordinairly, I love watching the staff in Currys/PC World selling to the public lots of times I've stood next to them pretending to browse while actually listening to the complete horse dung they are telling the family in front of them and last night was no exception. I went straight to the Google display, rooted around underneath and picked up what looked like the "Chalk" one, although at the time, I couldn't see anything confirming that on the box, so that was question one I needed to ask someone. I also noticed something else that was far more worrying. They had it priced at £219.00! I moved towards one of the assistants dealing with a customer and politely and quietly waited my turn. After a few moments, he turned to me and said:
Assistant: "If you're looking to speak with someone, can you queue over there by that sign."
I moved over to the sign that said "Queue Here" but gave no indication what for? I watched the assistant trying to close the sale, all the while desperately trying to ward off the youth who was ruining his chances of selling an unsuitable piece of tat by saying, "But that's not the latest CPU?" this went on for about ten minutes. By now, a queue was forming behind me.
Family: "Have you been waiting long?"
Me: "About three years! I was 17 when I came in here. I've lost count of the number of birthdays I've had."
The whole queue erupted in laughter, and we continued to wait, and wait, and wait; finally, I lost my temper. I saw a guy over by the TV's (Four or five assistants had secreted themselves at the back of the store desperately trying to avoid dealing with the queue. I make no apologies; I bellowed across the vast store. "YOU! YES, YOU! OVER HERE, COME ON!" a tall guy with a 'caught in the headlights' look on his face sidled over.
Me: "Look, this isn't good enough. I've been stood here 20 minutes, and so has most of the people in this queue."
Manager: (But I didn't know that yet) "There are time slots."
Me: "What? Rubbish! You have staff over there clearly doing nothing. I've watched that guy there for 30 minutes now trying to sell that family a laptop, and they clearly aren't ready to buy. Can you fetch me a Manager, please?"
Manager: "I am a Manager and So is he."
Me: "AND SO AM I! So that makes three Managers then! I'm also an IT sales Manager so that just about makes us equal. Now, as a Manager, don't you think you should rustle up some staff to deal with this ever-increasing queue of disgruntled customers?
Manager: "How can I help you sir?"
Me: "Is this the "Chalk" version?
Manager: "They can tell you that at the till sir"
Me: "What!? OK. The other question is you have it priced at £219.00 but on your website it say £179.00
Manager: "We'll price match that sir"
Me: "Really?
Manager: "Yes sir"
I walked off to the tills leaving about 20 people desperate to talk to someone, anyone!
Me: "Hi there, can you tell me if this is the "Chalk" version?"
The cashier scanned the bar code
Cashier: "Yes it is."
Me: "OK, so if you see here on my phone your website it says it's £179.00 but the display stand says £219.00?"
The cashier scanned it again.
Cashier: "That's right, £219.00"
Me: "No, like I said your website it says it's £179.00"
She turned to her colleague.
1st Cashier "Has Currys got and offer on or PC World?"
Aye? They're one and the same store?
2nd Cashier "Dunno, why?"
1st Cashier "He's got a price comparison that's cheaper than we have."
Me: "It's not a comparison, IT'S YOUR WEBSITE!"
2nd Cashier "If it's the same product we can price match."
1st Cashier "It is."
2nd Cashier "Then we can price match."
I'm still unsure what they are price matching against? Themselves? I left pretty frustrated by the whole experience. So much so that when I got home I just slung the box in the corner for a couple of hours to calm down.
My actual name is Pete. Here is why I have the username dickturpin.
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