back to article UK etailer calls self 'the last place you want to go'

Dixons, the UK electronics etailer, has a new tagline. "Dixons," its homepage reads, "the last place you want to go." See for yourself: Dixons - the last place you want to go to Countless Reg readers are questioning whether the site has been hacked - or defaced by a disgruntled employee. But the company insists the change …

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  1. Fazal Majid

    Online only?

    I'm pretty sure Dixons still has stores at Heathrow. They had three at Terminal 5 when I returned from London last week, including one under the "PC World" brand.

    1. Fluffykins Silver badge

      Shops @ heathrow

      They do

      And charging "duty free" prices about the same as normal stores.

  2. Jerome 0
    Thumb Up

    Damn straight

    Honesty in advertising - I love it.

  3. 46Bit

    Not the only recent unfortunate slogan

    I've seen another one like this recently - Argos' tv ads that say "helping you live for less" as a slogan at the end.

  4. TimothyB
    FAIL

    this is oooooooold

    Welcome to 2 months ago! They've been running this ad campaign for ages...

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And in that vein...

    ...add used car ads which loudly brag, "This car won't last long!"

    Yeah... I think I'll pass on that one, then.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Challenger brand"

    -- "Dixons.co.uk is a challenger brand..."

    It explodes and kills 7 people?

    "We believe this latest execution will deliver significant cut-through ahead of Christmas."

    Heads will roll...

  7. Haku

    No Shit Sherlock

    With their history of extended warranty ripoffs & prices usually above the average, you'd only want to buy from them if the item in question really is a bargain.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Pint

    So long!

    Sadly for the once proud-to-be-the-only-high-street-electronic-chainstore, that's a fitting epitaph!

    The white-box internet outlets killed them off but they are still fighting on, but I can imagine out there in net-land the margins are smaller than Jordan and Peter's brains combined!

    1. Paul 4

      Sorry...

      You seem to think its a bad thing that they have gone. The were crap, oh and they are not gone they are now currys digital.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    No argument from me...

    Last place I would ever shop? Can't argue with them on that score...

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Online Survey!

    On visiting their site, just to see the amazingly dumb tagline, I was delighted to be faced with the opportunity to participate in a survey. So I did. Just so that I could take the opportunity to tell them how spectacularly dumb that tagline is.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Old news...

    This campaign has been running for a while. It is basically saying go to a shop like John Lewis, find out all the information you need then come to Dixons for the lowest price....

    1. It wasnt me
      Thumb Up

      ...at last..... ( @AC 05:56)

      Thats better. Ive been banging my head against the wall trying to understand what it was all about.. Thanks for clearing it all up, now my headache will be gone in time for christmas.

    2. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
      Coat

      John Lewis?

      didn't they just release results saying they'd had their best month/quarter ever. They must be doing something right whereas DSG is in the inevitable downward spiral into oblivion.

      Mine's the one with a packet of Waitrose Chocolate Biccies in the pocket.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Paris Hilton

      Dixons

      Never knowingly oversold.

      I'd suggest doing it the other way 'round, get the best price from Dixons and then get JOhn Lewis to price match, you get the same prices and also the excellent JL aftersales service.

      Paris, Over sold plenty of times.

      1. Jay 2
        FAIL

        JL never want my money

        Every time I've tried to spend a fair amount of money with JL they manage to get me to shop elsewhere. Like the time they said they don't stock TVs that cost more than £2k, when several meters away was one priced at £3k! Mind you they didn't have the model I wanted for a few months after I purchased elsewhere, and even then it was more expensive. And then another time they wouldn't price match a DVD/HDD recorder against an in-store only offer at a shop about a mile away.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    The last place...

    I want to go is my own funeral... but I'd still go there before ever going to Dixons...

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Last place

    It's like the saying "it'll be in the last place you look" - it's in the last place you looked because you stopped looking after you found it.

    Similar idea? It's the last place you go because you'll buy all your stuff there.

  14. CitizenErazed
    WTF?

    Look...

    'Look, we know fuck-all about it, but if you do your own pissing research, we'll sell it to you cheap. Plus an expensive warranty.'

    And yet, my two minutes of research tells me they're no cheaper than Amazon, or even Argos. Even John Lewis isn't far off.

  15. LuMan
    Stop

    Looks about right to me!

    Just when you thought Dixons could de-skill its workforce no more, they play a blinder and have you communicate directly with a machine. We expect this at places like Argos, where you trawl through a catalogue before handing a chit over to someone who is purly trained to take your money (although, in fairness, I have gleaned useful info from Argos employees), but a company like DSGi who claim to have all the flaming answers? It's laughable!

    DSGi were, are, and always will be, nothing more than boxshifters who value their customers and staff lower than their carrier bags!

  16. Barrycudasuck

    Roll it out to all of DSG

    To make it more accurate, would DSG consider rolling it out to all of their sites such as Currys & PC World? Then it really would have some basis in fact :-)

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Coffee/keyboard

    @Fazil

    Where have you been? DSG International owns the Dixons, Currys and PC World brands in the UK, it still has outposts on mainlaind europe include other e-retailers (such as Pixmania) and bricks and mortar stores.

    Dixons left the highstreet and has been replaced by Currys, the out of town retail stores are indeed branded as PC World.

    Some how they remain the biggest electronic retailer in Europe!? How on earth they manage that I dont know.... but then X-factor got 19 Million viewers, so maybe there is a correlation somewhere along the line?

    If you had been reading the 'El Reg' over the last few years you would have kept pace.

    but, as its Christmas and season of goodwill. I do see where your coming from it, it just didnt deliver.

    As for he fact DSG group stores, its amazing they still exist. Overpriced, Shocking customer service typically by 16 years or ex carpet salesmens just peddling which ever over priced product (normally last years model) is top of this weeks marketing campaign. As for any qaulity of aftersales support! ?

    Go to John Lewis, there prices are competitive with most highstreet and a fair raft of the e-tailers. Instore and aftersales customer support is excellent across all product lines. Wether its electronics or household goods.

    It matters not to them that its a PC, TV or Sofa there staff are helpful, respectful and focused on you. Non of this snide surly "init mate" or "wot ever" culture to be found in DSG stores.

    I have almost a big a pathalogical hatred of DSG as I do Jazz! So imagine the inormaty

  18. Nick Mallard
    FAIL

    May be old but someone has to point out how daft it is

    As above. It's probably supposed to be a clever parody of the old joke "it's always in the last place you look" - because you won't keep looking after you've found it. But it doesn't work. Dixons and Saatchi and Saatchi are falling foul of Crap English Syndrome.

    On the positive side : lot's of hits from people wanting to point and laugh at their moronism.

    The the flipside : Ideally Dixon's will want them to go "oooh" at their low prices.

    Low prices? Heh. Couple of "deals" and loss leaders on the front page and the rest is overpriced rubbish.

    All ironic of course, when you bear in mind when they did have stores. Dixons would be the first place you'd go to find a TV or something then go somewhere decent/reasonable/trustworthy to buy it.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    well

    it's accurate anyways - dixons are total twunts tbh.

  20. max allan
    Thumb Up

    Hey it's working

    The idea of marketing is to get press coverage. And this is doing that job quite well.

    If some people visit dixons.co.uk and see their low prices and buys something, they've done their job.

    1. Paul RND*1000
      FAIL

      That only works out if...

      ...their prices really are low.

  21. Gulfie
    WTF?

    100% Right...

    ... for all the wrong reasons. I only go into Currys/PC World to see the hardware in person. I would never buy from that bunch of work-shy undertrained muppets, even online.

    I'm far more likely to do my research and then go into somewhere like John Lewis where the service if there is a problem will be (a) personal and (b) second to none. And the prices are pretty good as well.

  22. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Happy

    Not to mention the famed level of staff knowledge

    "What's a VU meter?"

    "Well sir that' stands for V.U. because it's what you want to view to find out what's going on."

  23. This post has been deleted by its author

    1. Paul RND*1000
      Happy

      Outsourcing?

      So, let me get this straight, they've outsourced their customer service to their competitors?

      John Lewis should price match, undercut or come close to the prices offered by Dixons, then issue every floor employee with an iPod Touch or small tablet PC or similar, and while they're helping the customer pick the right HDTV or whatever, pull up the prices on Dixons site showing that they might as well just buy right now in the store.

      Wouldn't be at all difficult to make that stupid tagline ring very true indeed. :)

  24. Mr Larrington
    WTF?

    @AC

    No, no! You go to a shop like Dixons, Comet, PC World etc. to compare and contrast specifications and then buy it on teh Intarwebs for 2/3 the price of any bricks'n'mortar shop.

  25. JasonW

    Can't fault them on the slogan

    I've been saying this for the last 10 years or more - "<expletive> Dixons! That's the last place I'll go."

    Still won't go there unless it's either a life-threatening emergency (and I honestly can't think when DSGi could ever help in that scenario).

    I'd rather head off to somewhere like John Lewis (other stores are available) and get it for less with a better warranty and staff that have a clue what they're selling (unless there's been a step change in DSGi staff and they now know what they're selling?)

    1. Mark McC

      They're always known

      "...(unless there's been a step change in DSGi staff and they now know what they're selling?)..."

      What they've always sold - 3-year super extended warranties that happen to come with a box of electronic stuff ("uhh we don't really know what's in the box, it's just thrown in when you buy the warranty").

  26. The Mole 1
    FAIL

    Want and need

    Maybe the marketing people need to think about want and need. If it were "The last place you need to go" then (while still having some negative connotations" it would make far more sense and get closer to the message they are trying to get across - you don't need to look any further.

  27. Jim 59

    hey nice execution

    May it bring you great cut thorugh.

  28. Shane McCarrick

    And its been reversed.....

    Have a look at the website now- the byline has gone.......

    From my experiences at Curry's with a defective laptop- it certainly is the last place I'd willingly go in future.........

  29. Paranoid Consultant
    Badgers

    And then they see sense.

    They have removed the tagline. It was a good giggle while it lasted.

  30. MinionZero
    Happy

    "Dixons.co.uk is a challenger brand and the campaign reflects this"...

    WTF is a “challenger brand”? ... Sale people terminology is at times, indistinguishable from crazy moron terminology.

    This Turnip is a challenger brand and the campaign of the little people that live under the stairs reflects this.

  31. Atilla the Hun (No relation)
    Go

    Disappears mysteriously into oblivion

    The offending tagline seems to have been removed! It wasn't displaying a few minutes ago but was on the page source, I had to look like I was working (briefly) and upon returning to the source it's gorn.

    What can we mock now?

    1. Paul RND*1000

      What can we mock now?

      Oh really now, it's DSGi, mocking them is hardly rocket science is it?

  32. Gulfie
    Thumb Up

    "That's the highest price I can do it for guv..."

    "... and that's cuttin' me own froat."

    Attribution to the writing god that is Terry Pratchett.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    DSG Staff

    Like other posters, I go to view physical hardware and have to bite my tongue every time one of them asks "Can I help you?" - I have this overriding urge to reply "I sincerely doubt it"

    I tried to buy from their "buy online pick it up in store" because I needed a couple of laptops fast. One was the wrong spec and the other was already sold by the time I got to the shop about an hour later so don't waste your time with that option.

    Shame - Dixons used to be a man-creche while my wife wandered aimlessly round the clothes and shoe shops......

    Not that I'd ever buy anything from them of course.....

  34. Z80

    @ "duty free" prices

    As far as I know, the duty rate on some types of electronics is rather low or in the case of laptops, mobile phones and certain digital cameras, zero. That could be why the prices in those duty free shops in airports aren't that special for many things.

    If you had room in your suitcase for a telly you could perhaps save a reasonable amount but I guess they don't sell stuff like that.

  35. Jamie Kitson

    Quite Good

    I thought it was quite a good tag line, though not obvious taken out of context on their site, the ads in the tube read like an ad for John Lewis or Apple "speak to the sails assistant in the saddles, view the models in spacious hall" blah blah and then ends "and then go to dixons.co.uk, the last place you want to visit."

  36. Andy 70

    dixons.. they do have one thing sown up...

    my olds had lightning strike their TV ariel, and it toasted everything connected to it. digibox, VCR, TV, i think the DVD player and stereo bit the big one too.

    covered by insurance, not a problem. but the insurance company would only give out dixons/currys vouchers. so they were kinda stuffed if they wanted value for money, or decent kit.

  37. Doogs

    Staff knowledge

    My wife was looking for a digital camera in one Dixons and trying to get some info on the various models. She left PDQ when the PFY "assisting" her asked "what's a pixel?".

  38. IR

    Advert

    Advert for a local mattress store use a similar slogan:

    "Shop around and then visit us last to see how you'll save"

  39. Harry
    Unhappy

    What a waist ...

    I seem to remember a company called Total that was into Waste Management.

    Fine, except that I remember seeing it split over two lines.

    That's right ...

    Total Waste

    Management Company

    1. DPWDC

      Leeds Utd

      Don't they also sponsor Eland Road stadium, so as you drive past you have "Total Waste" plastered on the side.

  40. Damien Thorn
    FAIL

    Fair game.

    As dixons is also an "e-tailer" the slogan was apt.

    Although people looking for goods online tend to choose price over store, it would seem looking at like for like products, they may well have been accurate.

    With no disrespect to dixons, the internet is an open market, and there prices simply dont always appear to be the cheapest. So the slogan "the last place you want to go" in that instance would be accurate.

  41. pctechxp

    Let's hope

    Curry's and PC World adopt the same slogan as quite frankly I'd rather pay a bit more than do business with DSGi.

    They really ought to do a Ratner and admit that most of the products they sell are indeed crap along with the staff they employ.

    That has mostly been my experience.

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