Electrical goods store staff 'lack basic knowledge'

Undercover investigators for Which? visited electrical stores including Comet and Currys and asked specialist questons about televisions and PVRs

Staff in some of the UK's biggest electrical stores lack basic knowledge of the products they are selling, according to an undercover investigation published today by the consumer organisation Which?.

Its representatives visited branches of Comet, Currys, John Lewis and Richer Sounds, as well as independent electrical shops, to assess the help given by staff. The experts found the supposedly specialist sales staff regularly gave bad advice, including confusing HD Ready with full HD TVs.

Many failed to point out that although HD Ready is suitable for broadcast HD programmes and will work with blu-ray, full HD TV is best for watching the higher resolution blu-ray format. Staff knew more about personal video recorders than HD TVs, but misled customers over their storage space, Which? said.

One Currys branch told a researcher that a 500GB hard drive would give 75 to 100 hours of recording, when in reality it would provide around 300 hours. And in 10 cases, staff contradicted the correct information on a product's specifications they handed to Which? researchers.

Several staff also used "hard sell" tactics when promoting LED TVs over LCD models, although LED is generally more expensive and not always better.

Only eight of the 154 stores visited were rated as excellent for knowledge of TVs and PVRs none of which were Currys or Comet.

Which? said shops needed to make sure their staff were properly trained to guarantee they were serving the best interests of their customers.

Which? chief executive Peter Vicary-Smith said: "Electrical stores have to up their game and train their staff properly. We trust them to know about the products they are selling. Unfortunately, big retailers are letting their customers down! , offeri ng wrong or misleading advice that could leave people shelling out more money for features or products they just don't need."

A Currys spokeswoman said: "Our store colleagues are regularly trained on a huge range of products and new technologies so that they can help customers find the right solution for their individual needs.

"It is very disappointing to see the examples selected here and we would like to know which stores were visited so that we can address this appropriately."

However, assistants at Richer Sounds faired well in the survey. Which? said: "Richer Sounds was the chain with the highest number of visits we rated as excellent or good for advice about televisions. In general, it was the most accurate about sound quality and one branch was the best of all the stores we visited at explaining the difference between HD Ready and full HD."


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