Which? rounds on Dixons

0 Comments | Sunday Herald, The, Oct 24, 1999 | by Richard Milner

COMBATIVE Sheila McKechnie, the managing director of the Consumers Association, has criticised leading computer makers and retailers over consumer confidence.

Her comments in this month's Which? come after she recently set the cat among the lenders by naming the august Halifax as the top mortgage "offender" and listing a remarkable 20 mortgage "scams".

In the magazine, McKechnie gives a vigorous lambasting to Dixons Group, together with its sister retailers Curry's and PC World.

Which? surveyed 4000 members with computers, quizzing them on their views about the confidence and reliability of computer suppliers. It asked whether they would recommend their computer to a friend and how satisfied they were with its reliability.

It was when the Consumers Association got to retailers that Dixons, Curry's and PC World really took a pasting. "Virtually everyone who had bought from John Lewis said they would buy there again," Which? remarks. "But many of those shopping at PC World weren't so happy."

"They thought the service was poor," it said. "Just over half would buy from there again. Dixons was even worse. Only half said they'd buy there again. But our readers gave the biggest thumbs-down to Curry's."

Fifteen brands of PC featured in the research. Dan did best for reliability (76%). It was followed by Apple (71%), Gateway (67%), Dell (66%), Mesh (65%), Viglen (64%), Fujitsu (63%) and Evesham (60%). And 56% of the owners were very satisfied, up from 46% last year.

"But there are still big differences between the best and worst," Which? added. "Fewer than half of Compaq (48%), Hewlett Packard (44%) and Time (42%) owners were very satisfied." (Packard Bell scored 50%.) Dixons sells Compaq, Hewlett Packard and Packard Bell machines.

And buyers of nine of the 15 computers would, on balance, not advise friends to do the same. Viglen, Fujitsu, Tiny, Mesh and IBM failed this acid test - plus Dixons' threesome of Compaq, Hewlett Packard and Packard Bell. Only Time (26%) was less likely to be recommended.

More than half of those surveyed had problems once their computer was up and running, mostly in the first six months. "Very few people had their (helpline) call answered quickly," the magazine reported.

Dan came out top for technical support as well. Almost nine in 10 owners were fairly or very satisfied. The tail-ender was Packard Bell (26%).