Re: Bad experiences
I've not bought anything from Curry's/Dixons unless I had zero choice and it was just a cable in nearly 30 years.
As a young teen I'd saved my pennies and bought a console (Snes), and ended up returning to the store every other day for a while.
The first one died after 2 days, I then had a succession of "new replacements" that had to be "swapped out the back due to store policy".
IIRC replacement 1, dead (no indication of power).
Replacement 2, obviously been used for a long time, was incredibly grubby (greasy fingerprints, cake crumbs in the cart slot etc) returned as we'd bought a New unit and this replacement wasn't even wiped down so no way it had been even checked for any fault..
Replacement 3 DOA (no power)..
Replacement 4 (or 1 redux) same serial number as the first replacement (a week after I'd returned that), we checked the SN in the car and were back in the store within about 10 minutes..
Replacement 5 DOA.
Replacement 6 some memory issue, in Mario Allstars (the collection of the NES games) it had an issue with the memory controller or something and the initial start of the game where you fall out of the sky just kept happening, I'm fairly sure Mario would still be falling today if it had been left running.
The store employee ended up spending an hour or more running a store copy of the game on their machine then on the faulty one repeatedly as if it was magically going to sort itself out the 5th time he swapped machines. My father had to start talking politely but loudly about how he wasn't going to make yet another trip taking an hour+ and he wanted a replacement that was taken out of the factory packaging in front of him regardless of what the store policy about swapping them round the back. IIRC the manager appeared and wasn't happy but ended up complying, I suspect because by that point several of the customers who'd been browsing had seen at least some of the performance with an obviously faulty device.
That final replacement ~6 was still working ~10 years later and I suspect would still work if I dug it out.
My suspicion is that they had a stack of returned devices in the storeroom and if they hadn't tested them just gave them out as replacements hence the "we'll pull one out of the box round the back" nonsense, this was in what was one of their bigger stores at the time in Milton Keynes.
That little issue has basically meant no one in my family has ever used Curry's etc for any appliances or more expensive than batteries for 30+ years and we've warned many others about it.
IIRC PCworld have proven to friends that the system is still the same, including a friend who dropped a laptop that had failed under warranty off for repair and went back 4 weeks later after multiple calls telling him the supplier was slow in repairing it, he spotted the laptop on the "waiting to be looked at" shelf with a sticker on it that apparently said "do not tell Mr Smith his laptop has not been sent for repair yet". I think at that point he started reminding them of the sales of goods act in a high level of detail, possibly including landmark cases given "Mr Smith" is a lawyer...It was fixed and back in his hand about 3 days later.